Heat and work

Hot weather finally hit L.A. It's been around 106F in the valley for the last 6 days and expected to stay that for the week. Not really uncommon and not as bad as the rest of the country.

I'm pushing through my book on screenwriting, should have a finished version in a  week or so. I'm finding new ways to use my lectures as well as my experience, I'm combining instruction with stories of the business and some of the people I've worked with. I discovered a lecture that I didn't remember on the subject of the Christmas movie, The Town That Christmas Forgot, for Hallmark 2010. 

The lecture went back to 2002 when I pitched it to a producer I knew. He liked it and we took it to CBS.  I really didn't remember it at all and called the producer yesterday. He didn't remember either and then I re-read it to him and we began to piece it all together.

The central theme of the book is the Christmas movie, I choose it as an example rather than picking the usual suspects like Chinatown, Titanic and others. I feel that seeing every aspect of the writing is much more instructional than quoting scenes from The Godfather.

When I began the book I wasn't sure that I could find anything that would be different than the hundred or so books on screenwriting, but I think I am different. One of the things my former students and friends said is that I actually had movies made. Most of the screenwriting books are written by people who have never sold a screenplay while I have 19 produced credits. I'm not using graphs and equations either, just solid writing examples.

But we'll see. This is a short blog mostly because it's so damn hot and I didn't have a topic I liked today.

And who's the two kids? That's me on the left and my buddy Lefty. I was show business from the beginning!!!