What an exciting time to be an artist, writer, film maker.  Not to mention all those other professions or hobbies where imagination reigns.

This afternoon a friend and I regaled each other with stories about the way our beloved publishing profession has changed.  Even though publishers don’t always acknowledge this, no longer do authors listen and nod when they’re told what to write, how to write it and for what audience.  While most of us continue to respect the publishing houses and professionals we’ve worked with, we know there are other viable ways to publish our work.  Some people even believe “better” ways.  We’re watching closely.

But that’s not the point of this blog.  I want to talk about one of my favorite television shows, Veronica Mars, and an exceptional, powerful new idea called Kickstarter, which is really a symptom of change and an outcome.

Here’s Kickstarter’s own definition of who they are and what they do:

Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects. Everything from films, games, and music to art, design, and technology. Kickstarter is full of ambitious, innovative, and imaginative projects that are brought to life through the direct support of others.  Since our launch on April 28, 2009, over $500 million has been pledged by more than 3 million people, funding more than 35,000 creative projects. If you like stats, there’s lots more.

So what does this mean and where does the money come from?  Well, anybody with a truly wonderful idea can try to raise money to fund it on Kickstarter.  The money?  Well, that comes from you and me.  It’s called crowdfunding.  That’s right.  If you believe in a project and want it to become a living, breathing entity, then you pledge money to see that dream come true.  A little, most likely.  Sometimes a whole lot.

Crazy, right?  Crazy fabulous. (more…)

The Oscars are coming. On Saturday night, in fact. You probably already know that unless you haven’t watched television in months or read the paper or checked the Internet. We’ve already had the Golden Globes and the Screen Actor’s Guild awards. The Oscars may feel anticlimactic about now, but hang in there. This year there are real choices and good ones.

I’ll confess I rarely go to the movies. Or rather I rarely DID. Then in the fall we moved ten minutes away from a wonderful theater with stadium seating, wide aisles, comfy chairs and discounted rates on Tuesday evenings. That coincided nicely with a surprising trend. Suddenly there were movies I actually wanted to see. Not Comic Book 3, Return of the Bad Guy, but original films, with more happening than car chases (in or out of outer space) or heroes with superpowers fighting villains with superpowers.

2012, though, saw a resurgence of beautifully filmed and acted dramas and musicals. I’ve been mesmerized. And now some of my favorite films of the year will be butting heads at the Academy Awards ceremonies. (more…)

Get out your #2 pencils, class. Pop quiz today.

1. What television network began in 1984, envisioning itself as a commercial alternative to PBS?
2. What television network commissioned double Emmy winner Horatio Hornblower and produced outstanding classics such as as Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and The Great Gatsby?
3. What television network claims that last year, their most watched series was a reality show titled Storage Wars, in which teams of bidders attempt to score big in the high stakes world of storage auctions?

If you marked A&E on questions 1-3, you’ve earned a night in front of the television watching classic entertainment like Gene Simmons Family Jewels about rock star Simmons and his Playmate wife and family, or Hoarders, which highlights the inner challenges of people-who-collect-too-much.

Unfortunately that last show hits home for me. This week as I recovered from some bug or other, I began condensing my hoarded four foot stack of quilt magazines into several three ring binders. As I ripped and clipped and suffered accordingly, I surfed a million cable channels, settling on Flip This House. More astonishing than the show were commercials for the other shows now airing on A&E.

A&E is no longer the Arts and Entertainment Network.  These days it’s the Art of Entertainment Network.  In a quest to interest younger viewers, A&E now specializes in “reality” programming.  After all, the world needs more televised screaming matches and fewer Emmy winning classics. 

As an entertainer myself, I’m trying to analyze the appeal of some of the most “colorful” shows in the A&E fall lineup.  After all, this stuff sells, right?  So in no particular order, and with an invitation to add your own analysis under comments:

• American Hoggers: real-life series that follows the Campbell family and their struggle to rescue Texas residents and ranches from the devastating chaos caused by millions of invasive wild boars.  To be followed soon by Lady Hoggers.  From the clip I viewed, the show features lots of squealing and shouting.  At least on the show I was “rooting” for the hogs.

Analysis: These are difficult times, and many of us feel under attack by forces we can’t control.  Watching strong, earthy men and flashy young women take matters into their own hands makes us believe our world can still be set to rights.

• Billy The Exterminator: Billy runs Vexcon, one of Louisiana’s busiest pest removal companies, with the help of his brother Ricky, his father Bill Sr., and his sassy mom Donnie who runs the office.  The ad shows a man face-up with millions of creepy crawlies covering him.

Analysis: See American Hoggers.

• Monster-In-Laws: A&E Network shines a light on married couples dealing with meddling in-laws as they try to make peace with the help of an unconventional, no-nonsense relationship expert. 

Analysis: Family life is messy, but no matter how bad yours gets, watching shows like this help you see that things could be worse.  These hateful, rotten people could be your in-laws.  And if they can be set on the road to recovery, then maybe your own family’s not hopeless.  OTOH, if they look good to you and their unhappy home looks like an oasis, then it’s clear you need immediate Intervention. (There’s a show for that on A&E, too.)

• Parking Wars: In the trenches with the men and women of the Philadelphia Parking Authority and Detroit Municipal Parking Department as they ticket, boot, tow and impound the cars of problem parkers, with unexpected and outrageous results.

Analysis: This one’s the toughest to understand.  On one hand, Parking Wars is about the law prevailing, despite total disregard by citizens who believe they’re too good to obey it.  Haven’t we all wished a cop would pull over a crazy driver?  On the other hand, we’ve all probably parked illegally.  So I think this show’s about ambivalence.  We want the bad guys to get caught and the not-so-bad guys to get away. And we want to decide who’s who. Kind of  like watching politicians debate.

If you love these shows or others like them, please don’t feel belittled.  Remember, this week I was riveted in front of Flip This House while Armando Montelongo shouted at contractors and a family’s dream disintegrated into foreclosure.  There’s something about other people’s problems that make us feel better about our own.  It’s human and perplexing. 

And that puts the ”reality” in “reality television.”

Two weeks ago I asked my Facebook “fans” to suggest topics they’d like me to blog about here.  Then I sweetened the pot by doing a giveaway in conjunction.  Three commenters were chosen at random and received autographed copies of my novels.  See what you miss if you’re not hanging out with us on the page?  We’re a wild and crazy bunch.

Now the winners have their books and I have twenty-nine good suggestions.  While I probably don’t have enough  to say about every subject submitted, some of them leaped right out at me.  Today’s idea was proposed by Audrey Bonnell, who asked:  ”How do you know when a book you write is going to be a series?  Do the people just keep shouting in your head wanting to get out? Or is there just too much about each one to make it into just one book?”

This suggestion comes at such a good time.  Last night I finished the rough draft of Sunset Bridge, the third and final Happiness Key novel.  Usually at the end of a rough draft I’m writing so fast and furiously I’m shocked when I finish, taken by surprise and instantly deflated.  This time, not so much.  Because Sunset Bridge was the final book of three, I had a slew of plot threads to tie up in that final chapter.  What I’d expected to be a brief epilogue turned into a twenty page extravaganza.  I truly began to think this was the book that would never end.  At 9:30PM it finally did, although I’m already making lists of the things I must rewrite and change before I even begin my normal edits. (more…)

Our TiVo died.  Not without fanfare, and certainly not without warning.  For the past four months, in the  most interesting part of any program, the picture was nearly guaranteed to break up, the progress of the story halted as we rooted for TiVo to heal itself and continue until we discovered who had killed whom.  Foolishly I hoped that TiVo’s lapses were signs of a passing illness, best addressed by watching some of the many shows we had saved and freeing the hard drive for a little R&R.  But not to be.  Even the good folks at telephone support agreed that TiVo, who had served us so well for so many years, had succumbed for all time.

We have two televisions, an ancient big screen with the potential for high definition cable–once we figure out how to hook it up without TiVo as the mediator.  And a small (?) 27″ with minimal cable access.  Our evenings have changed drastically.  What, watch what’s actually ON?  I think not.  Or pull the big TV away from the wall and try to figure out how to get it working again?  Horrors!  (more…)

If you hang out with me on my Facebook reader page, then you know that yesterday I was in New York filming a promotional video with the delightful authorKatie Fforde, who writes romantic comedies and lives in–gasp–the Cotswolds of England.  In my next life I plan to live in the Cotswolds, too.  I’ve already put in my order.

The video was for German television channel ZDF, and Katie and I are the two authors whose novels have been chosen for Sunday night movies for that station.  Five of mine are now a reality, and two of Katie’s.  Ironically, Katie who lives in the UK is having her novels filmed in upstate NY.  I, who live in the US and have a summer cottage in NY, am having my novels filmed in New Zealand.  Katie and I assume this is because ZDF wants us to have the pleasures of visiting faraway places when we are invited to visit the sets.

I visited New Zealand this past winter and blogged extensively about the trip.  Katie is in the states now watching her movie being made, and so the sharp minds at ZDF saw a great promo opportunity.  Katie and I would meet in Manhattan and discuss our books on camera for the ZDF website.  What fun.  Once it’s posted, I’ll let you know. (more…)

In my ten days in New Zealand watching Sweet Georgia Gal, one of my first novels, being turned into a movie for German television, I answered a lot of questions.  I asked a lot, too, since that’s a hazard of my profession, plus I drew a lot of comparisons between New Zealand, Germany and the United States, which probably drove everybody nuts.  But that, too, is part of the “novelist thing.”  Understanding is the first requirement for writing.  The more we understand, the more we have to say.

Understanding seemed to be a given on both sides, and those involved in filming this movie and those to follow wanted to be certain we were on the same page–or frame.  The production company was most concerned that I might be unhappy about changes that were being made to my story.  Lots of changes, beginning with setting. 

You might ask how a novel set in rural Georgia came to be filmed in New Zealand.  This was never a serious question for me.  New Zealand has a spectacular, varied landscape and a flourishing film industry.  In fact if you look at the original cover–yesterday’s blog–you could mistake that background for New Zealand.  Except for my novels in which setting is almost a character itself (Iron Lace and Rising Tides, for instance) the “flavor” of almost any setting can be met on either the North or South Islands. Sweet Georgia Gal is not about Georgia. It’s about love and the way it sometimes surprises us. It’s a traditional romance with a marriage of convenience plot. 

But not anymore.  At least not on film.

We’ve all read marriage of convenience novels, even if we didn’t peg them that way.  The plotline isn’t limited to romances.  It can be a catalyst in literary novels, in mysteries, in fantasy and more.  In a marriage of convenience, a couple is “forced” into marriage by some outside event.  Then slowly, despite a boatload of problems, they fall in love.  Reasons for the marriage tend to revolve around inheritances, safety, deportation, or cultural expectations–like Janya and Rishi’s marriage in Happiness Key. 

The marriage of convenience in Sweet Georgia Gal is based on a child custody issue, also a popular device.  In this case, Ryan, the hero, has temporary custody of his nieces and nephews after their parents’ death, but he’s afraid he’ll lose them to a scheming relative unless he presents a more traditional lifestyle to the courts.  So Stacey, the children’s temporary nanny, agrees to marry him.  She has her reasons, of course, and not all of them are because he’s incredibly attractive and she’s incredibly innocent–which she is.

The film touches on this, but in a completely different way.  There IS no actual marriage of convenience in the film version.  This surprised me at first, since marriage of convenience plots are still popular and that seemed to be the point of the story.  But after reacquainting myself with the novel, I tried to imagine how to make what I had written work on the screen.  I couldn’t.

You’ve seen some of your favorite novels made into films, haven’t you, and wondered at the changes, even been angered by them?  Film and novels are different mediums.  In this case there’s a “fantasy” quotient in a traditional romance novel, an assurance that our readers will suspend disbelief and give us leeway to make our magic work for them.  Not so in film.  Stacey as I’d written her, was far too good to be true, too innocent to survive in the real world, too–sorry as I am to say so–lacking in backbone.  Stacey as portrayed in the film is stronger and more realistic.  The story is more realistic, too.

Will it keep the magic?  The actors–to the right in the above photo–are wonderfully attractive, perfect for their roles, and the air sizzles when they’re on camera together.  John, the director–on the left–is a creative taskmaster working hard to get the best out of everybody on set.  And the screenwriters worked hard to keep essential parts of the novel in place.  Could I ask for more?

Novelists learn very early that if they are lucky enough to have their books filmed, they should stand back quietly and watch. I learned my lesson well.  This is no longer MY story.  It’s OUR story, a lesson in collaboration.  It’s a lesson I’m enjoying immensely.

A movie set is a village, complete with solutions to all life’s pressing problems.  Places to eat, rest, clothe yourself, and, of course, a place where that most primal of needs, the telling of stories, comes to life in a very special way.

We arrived in New Zealand in the morning, rested and showered then headed to the set where my novel . . . but wait, I can’t tell you which one yet, can I?  See two blogs ago to find out why and enter my giveaway.

“The film being produced for German television” is based on one of my earliest novels, what publishers called a “sweet” romance, meaning there’s an absence of steamy love scenes and the heroine is often young and innocent.  Fascinated by family life, I often, even then, wrote about domestic issues, a habit that served me well in this novel.  The moment we arrived on set we watched a scene with the movie’s male lead and three young children. 
And watched.  And watched.  Because if I learned anything in the hours while I stood in the rain as two different scenes were filmed and refilmed, I learned movie making is an exacting and exhausting business that requires an enormous number of people from the inception (where I came in) to the conclusion, when the film makes its debut.

On any number of levels, I’ve been so impressed with the film people I’ve met.  They have been, to a person, warm, interested and interesting.  They are cosmopolitan, creative and in the case of the German production team, flawlessly bilingual.

And did I mention great with children?  The kids in the production are having such fun, and the adults clearly enjoy having them around.

Even in the moments when nothing was going right, rain was falling, closeups revealed problems with continuity, there were none of the much publicized personal theatrics we’re told to expect on film sets.  Just hard work, attention to detail and creative solutions. I am left with a new respect for a medium I, as a viewer. often take for granted.

Which reminds me of another group of films made here in New Zealand that no one will ever take for granted.  But we just pulled up to the Shire, so that story will have to wait for the next blog.

Stay tuned for photos.

 Yes, I made it!  This is me, after 24 hours in an airplane, watching the fourth book I ever wrote being made into a film for German television.  Stay tuned for updates from down under this week.