End of Summer--New Beginnings

Ah...Summer has flown by, and this weekend marks the un-official "end of summer" though school has been back in session for weeks, for most teachers and students. The end of summer brings me back to San Diego, which is always a pleasant place to be--and where summer lingers far longer than in most other cities.
I'm looking forward--as always--to the Southern California Writers Conference at the end of the month. The Los Angeles Conference is held up in Newport Beach, Sept 23-25th; for those who haven't heard me on the subject yet, check out previous posts, and see their great site (full of book, agent, and author news, videos, and info) here. Of course, you can also find them on Facebook, "meet" some of their staff there, and follow their fearless leader's always-entertaining blog.
I'll be doing a couple of "pitch" talks at SCWC with my good friend, writer and editor Marla Miller, of "Marketing the Muse." Check out her site here.
My reading last month was mostly non-fiction--a history of the "Mexican War" and quite a few essays and articles written about the current immigration situation.

A great friend who lives in Tucson gave me Crossing With the Virgin: Stories from the Migrant Trail which was hard to put down. The true stories are full of interest to me, since it sheds light on the subject our film, "El Camino" deals with. No reading on this sad subject can be anything but depressing, but it is heartening to read how many people are working to help the thousands of unfortunate souls forced to cross borders illegally.
I just found a used copy of Wolf Solent by John Cowper Pwys, a book I've wanted to read for years; the author is often compared to Austen and Hardy, both favorites of mine. (No one who's read this blog can be in doubt of my favorite of those two being Austen, but Hardy has his gifts--description and character--that offset his bleak outlook). I'll start the book today, and will comment on it soon.
Hasta pronto!

An award-winning anthology and more

Turns out I've been too busy to keep up with all my "children" (not the soap opera)...
The anthology for which I was prose editor, A Year in Ink vol 3

has won a San Diego Book Award in June.
It really is a fine collection of writers and their writing, both poetry and prose, and I'm so proud to have it selected for this honor. I see that my friends Judy Reeves, Laurel Corona, Nelson Copp, Ken Kuhlken, and John Woods also won awards, and "Best of the Best" winner was Drusilla Campbell, who I met at SCWC. I sure know a lot of good writers! See the list of winners here.
And for those who wonder what I've been up to that has kept me too busy for awards news, check out this video link to my new Kickstarter film project.
hasta pronto,

Hollywood Top Five Reading List

Received a copy of a new Hollywood classic for my birthday: The Healthy Edit, by my friend John Rosenberg. The subtitle is Creative Editing Techniques for Perfecting Your Movie...
Since we're currently staying in a house "high in the Hollywood Hills" while developing some film projects, I dove straight into it. I've been reading it carefully and making notes, so I'm only a little ways into it, but I can already say with confidence that this is a book every filmmaker and film student should read. (That film editors and aspiring film editors should own it probably goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway.)
John is a brilliant film editor and has a real gift for explaining complicated ideas and theories in a way that's entertaining, clear, and concise. (He's also a fine fiction writer and I'll alert you when his upcoming novel "Tincture of Time" comes out.)
Here are four other Hollywood books I recommend--the last one, "Haywire," I also got as a gift last week. They are all memoirs, and all feature great writing and some sort of historic importance.
Harpo Speaks by Harpo Marx and a co-writer...
Julia Phillips' You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again
Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman
And last but not least, Haywire by Brooke Hayward. This is a new paperback edition (2010) of a book I had remembered loving long ago, and yes, it is as good as I remembered. Of course, the subject matter is once again, angst and the sins of our fathers (and mothers) and how drugs and drink were one's only allies in the war to keep from screaming aloud every minute of every day.
However, she is a fine writer, and the times and the bizarre cast of characters, both known and unknown, are truly fascinating.
hasta pronto!