Improvisations on Reality

So, because tax deadline kills the sleep and stokes the muse, I started working on the script counterpart to Book 1. Yep, I’m writing a movie. No, not for Script Frenzy – because tax season will eat me if I try that, and I’m actually about to head to work as I’m writing this – but because, frankly, it’s fun, and I want to pitchThe Index as a film series.

And I am slowly getting really, really into it.

I will admit this: when I first started laying down The Index, back in 2006, I had every intention of writing it so that it could translate to the screen easily. I can see this being a great series in film; I wouldn’t put my work on the same scale of potential that Harry Potter had ended up with, but I definitely think that my work has a certain visual appeal. At least to the nerds who ended up loving it so far (yes, I’m looking at you, and you know who you are!!!).

With all the difficulties and travails that I’ve had with the first book of this series – for the details on that, everything with the Book 1 category on this blog that dates back to 2009 will tell you exactly what was going on – I’ve had a surprisingly easy time so far templating out the first few scenes of the book in screen format. While in the first book I had the challenge of layout, conventions, scenery, and the general flow of the book, right now the challenge has shifted to having an effective portrayal of that same text. There is much less focus on the writing details when you’re working in screen form. It becomes all about the visual, all about how the characters will be seen, and all about how to see everything effectively. i.e. soundtrack cues, potential actors, etc.

This also brings an entirely new dimension to the process: I have to actually think of this in visual terms. I will admit shamelessly that I thought of anime noir at the time I was writing the story in the first place, but right now, and especially right now, I”m thinking of it as a live-action endeavor. Yes, might cost more, but it will work better this way. I have to actually consider who will play whom in the film. I can’t cast Shou and Kian, for the life of me, but I’ve earlier mentioned that Arriella would be best played by Serinda Swan (you may know her as Erica Reed if you’re a fan of Breakout Kings). Shourron I, both sides of him, would be best done with Liam Neeson. Rena would have a worthy portrayal in the hands of Annabelle Wallis (Jane Seymour from The Tudors, season 3). Arriella’s scheming mother, Morrhia, would go to Catherine Zeta-Jones. Lord Kirare, the Viceroy of the Underworld, will go to the actor whose presence inspired his creation to begin with: Chris Noth. And Jason Watson, the redheaded, lovable-little-shit bon vivant based on one of my dearest friends, will be played by the most versatile redhead there is….Damian Lewis. Whom you may have seen in Homeland.

Hey, dream big, right?

But in reality, all this is helping me put the movie into motion, so to speak. Now that there are flesh-and-blood people representing the people whom I’ve written into existence, writing the screen form suddenly becomes that much easier. Same for soundtrack: no movie is complete without sound, and now I have to dig at my collection of jazz, rock, Celtic, and everything else to start matching scenes to songs.

In other words, the story hasn’t changed, but the presentation is wildly different. And considering that I spent the past six years heavily entrenched in and perfecting the noveling side of writing, to switch gears like that is quite the lulu. I won’t deny one thing, though: I rather like it.

To note, I will put up Mages on TriggerStreet.com, which is a great hosting site for indie scripts, and I will also make a PDF of it available in e-book format. Print will be entirely too clunky…or not, I don’t know. Still thinking about it.

And, to note, if Mages does get picked up for production? Well…then let’s just say it. My life will be changing very fast.

K.G.

Slight addendum: Book 1 can be found here, and is free for Kindle on April 17th. Yes, a slightly shameless plug. :)

The more I think about what I’m doing lately, the more my logical side is forcing me to ask the crucial question of, “Woman, are you planning to sleep?!”

Uh…not really?

And yeah, the lack of sleep is starting to make my short-term memory go off-kilter, which blows.

However! This year had started with some very exciting things, and I have been delighted to wrap up an edit for a client, do two new graphic designs for another two, and am kicking off the photo sessions with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy at BB King’s tomorrow. Hotdamn, swing in the city! I feel all sorts of glamorous, even though I’m not quite ready… and yes, I’m breaking out the pencil skirt for this one. For those of you who know me, you guys know I’d rather keep my yoga pants on 24-7…but hey, swing music in BB King’s demands it.

…Now that the good stuff is out of the way…

I find myself gravitating more and more towards photography. In fact, I’m finding that a lot of my writing had become more visual, so to speak, and having been previously described as cinematic in my writing, I’m wondering if that’s the direction that I need to pursue in further endeavors. I briefly mentioned wanting to screenplay The Index Series, and I think I am going to get brave and do it. The only problem is, of course, is that I have no idea how the film industry works. A lot to learn and dig into, and if there’s a producer in this world who’s willing to take a shot and make this series something awesome…well, if it’ll help me finally have my own apartment, I’m game for it.

There’s a lot on the menu travel-wise, and what better way to start the year than DC? Yes, the capital. I’m going to see Cheikh N’Doye, a bassist, whose special guests include Lao Tizer, Karen Briggs, and Chieli Minucci. My camera and I are ready, and I’ll get into town early enough to do some sightseeing, and get out of there midday Sunday.

However, all that being what it is, I will be keeping my money very close to the vest for the time being. I’m not in good shape, and I know it. Tax time will be kind, but just enough to fill the stopgap; the real rescue will be coming to me in the form of overtime. By then, though, I will have the coveted Newport Beach tickets.

This is the thing with Newport: I will buy out the room, if I can handle it. If people want to share with me, fabulous – just reimburse me the costs. I will also get to CA early, rent a car, and hit the road…why? Because there are people and places to visit. I can’t wait to see San Diego.

My traveling will likely be limited, and I want to make sure that I will save up enough to not make CapJazz a misadventure any more than what it has been financially in the past. This time, I want to actually finish this year at zero revolving debt, if possible, while doing all the traveling I can.

But I will see to getting out of town often. NY is great, but life outside of NY is even better.

K.G.

First of all, a delightfully happy New Year to everyone! It is now 2012, which means…if you’re reading this, the world didn’t end.

Ahem. Sorry. Couldn’t help myself. :)

Anyway, let’s dive right in with the news du jour.

For my fellow self-published authors, A.B.N.A (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards) are coming up. If you’re unfamiliar with this, you can click the ABNA tag on my blog for past ramblings on the subject, or this link that explains it nicely.

For those who don’t feel like clicking, Penguin Publishing sponsors this shindig every year. If you’re unpublished or self-published, you submit your pitch, an excerpt, and your manuscript, and it gets vetted through multiple rounds of the contest (pitch, excerpt review, manuscript review) towards a $15,000 advance from Penguin and a publication contract.

Sounds awesome, doesn’t it?

This contest is something I’ve done before. I entered for the first time in 2010, and got through to the second round, only to be booted at the review stage. Second time was in 2011, and I didn’t make it. I kind of expected both of those outcomes, really, but I won’t lie that I was surprised when the reviews had come in. The reviewers, who I might point out are paid for this gig, are not matched by genre at all. So my urban fantasy/sci-fi series went to two people who don’t read it at all, and made it clear in the reviews.

Bummer. But them’s the breaks, and you can’t please them all.

The thing also is, I’ve entered the books of my series in sequence on this one. So this will be Book 3′s chance to prove its chops, and I’m feeling good. Book 3 has been an absolute hit in the e-circles, and for those who have glanced at the hard-copy books, the front cover alone had drawn them in, and Marion Meadows gets props for designing that one. (small spoiler: he’s helping out on Cover 4 as well). It’s also a lot funnier than the other books in the series, even though it takes a lot of what happens in Books 1 and 2 and begins to paint the picture of what’s really happening. And if you are a reader and you’re still wondering what the hell was going on in Book 1? Well…your patience with me is about to pay off. Together, though, all of these factors make for a really great possibility for Book 3 getting, hopefully, to the full-manuscript review stage, and that is when it will shine.

However – and you knew that there was a however involved in this – this is a Penguin contest.

Who remembers the Book Country issues?

Penguin’s credibility had been sliding for a while. Some of the worst-edited manuscripts that I have seen recently were Penguin books, and to release a vanity-press subsidiary is a nice sneer of contempt at authors, both at the self-pubs who are trying to get to the market,and the published authors, who had seen a steady decline in how much Penguin manages for them. More and more do I see authors – trad-pubs! – running their own marketing. This is with a Big-Six publishing house. Um, what the hell? I thought that the reason that people would go trad-pub would be to avoid having to do their own deal.

So if the prize is a publication contract with them, I’m hesitating. The $15K advance would be fantastic, considering that it would solve a good bit of my financial issues, but it’s the contract itself. On one hand, it’s great publicity for the series. On the other hand, how long would it take me to wrestle back my copyright if the book doesn’t do as well as Penguin wants it to?

Food for thought, that.

Now. recently, I’ve wrapped up the manuscript for Book 6. It’s an interesting story, in the sense that the plot had started to evolve – and I mean really evolve – closer towards the end. This, of course, means that I will have a nice time in retroactive editing next year, but the fact is, I wrapped everything up in time. This is only the second time that I had finished a NaNo manuscript in the same calendar year as starting one (the first time being with Book 1), and this actually leaves me quite a bit of room time-wise to play around with my writing.

Of course, this is keeping in mind with the fact that I want to take KG Creative Enterprises and make it a real money-maker…but I digress.

I have been thinking, and the more I think about it, the more I feel that I ought to shop the books around in film form. While Book 4 is getting put together and prepped for publication, it’s time for me to start researching and learning how to write a screenplay and actually putting together Mages as a movie. I’m not, however, too sure how to shop this around, which means that I will have to do a metric ton of research once again.

A lot of you who had read the books would likely be saying, “ABOUT TIME!!!” right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, been a while coming, but I got where I’m going. :p

Musically speaking, let me be the first to say that the jazz scene, which I had adopted as my home away from home, is pulling me in different directions. I’ve done the write-ups. I’ve done the graphic design. Now I’m getting into the photography, and I’m still keen on doing all of the above. Will it pay off? Possibly. Will it replace my day job, somehow? Hopefully. But one thing is for sure, this was a year of change so far, and I am finding it extremely important to keep focus on what’s coming up, and how to keep a close eye on what’s happening.

There’s a book I’m about to start up, before my fellow self-pubs, and it’s one written by Bob Baldwin, who took his knowledge and organized it into a music-business survival guide. As someone on the sidelines, and kind of sort of peripherally involved in the music world – at least in the imaging/writing capacity – I am keen on acquiring and applying this knowledge to the best of my ability. It can, and one of these days will, save my skin, I think.

I can’t even tell you how much I’m looking forward to doing all of these things. Of course, this means that this would very well be another year in which my personal life is nil, but I am confident that this will be for a good cause. Besides, if The Index will become a title that you will one of these days see on the silver screen, then I am sure that my efforts now will be worthwhile.

All of this, from screenwriting, to jazz writing, to photo, to graphic, to noveling – my stylistic flexibility is getting quite a workout. I will be the first to admit that I have never written a full-length movie script. I’ve read them plenty, and I think I will be able to figure it out if given enough time. It’s been some years since I’ve written poetry, and there’s a pretty good chance that I will be writing nonfiction in due time. I need to work out my style muscle very frequently, and very often.

Not that I make New Year’s Resolutions, I want to be able to write a vignette, a short story, or a prompt, once a week. If I manage to release an anthology, much like my editor had, then awesome. If not, then at least I will be able to say that I have had practice in multiple avenues of writing.

Happy first day of 2012, everyone, and at the risk of outing myself as a total nerd…may the Force be with you. :)

K.G.

ETA: WordPress was having issues in regards to the scheduling. I apparently had an auto-save that overwrote the entire second half of this post. Big no-no. Fixed. Sorry.