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How to Talk About The Life of Chuck Without Spoilers?
I work in marketing. Glad I wasn’t on the marketing team for The Life of Chuck. I mean how do you market a film arguably best viewed knowing nothing going in? A week or so ago, Mark Hamill, who stars in the movie, was on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. They chatted up his role in the film, but then Hamill did the thing that must have frustrated the marketing team. He encouraged movie goers not to watch the trailer. Don’t read reviews. Just go in cold and experience the movie. That’s what my wife and I did on opening night. All I really knew about the movie was…
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The Great Summer Writing Season
Here in the United States, summer officially begins this weekend. It ends 98 days later on Labor Day, 1 September. I know it is a great time to travel, watch summer blockbuster movies–Superman! Fantastic Four. Superman. Mission Impossible (it’s AWEsome!). Jurassic World. Did I mention Superman?–catch up on some TV, sit on the patio or beach or dock and sip something cold, and just enjoy the summer vibe. But it can also be used to write. Think of it: perfect bookends. There is a beginning and an end. There are 98 days of summer. If you were to write up to 1,000 words per day, you’d have a novel. Okay,…
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Drowning by T.J. Newman is the Best Movie You’ll Read This Summer
From the opening, harrowing moments of the first three chapters to the last 30 minutes of the audiobook, this book did not let up. A few weeks ago, I finished T. J. Newman’s debut, FALLING and eagerly jumped into her brand-new book, DROWNING. In the book, a plane suffers mechanical failure two minutes after takeoff from Honolulu and crashes into the ocean. Unlike those famous airplane disaster movies from the 1970s that takes a quarter of the movie to introduce the characters and get the plane in the air, Newman puts you on the plane just after takeoff from the first sentence. By Chapter 3, the plane is down. And…
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The Real Batman Day: June 23 1989
[In light of Michael Keaton’s return as Batman in 2023’s The Flash, I thought I would re-post this piece from 2019 about the the original Batman movie from 1989, now thirty-four summers ago. The original post is here if you want to compare. Ever since 1989, the date of June 23 has been fixed in my mind. It will always be the true Batman Day for me and likely millions more.] Where were you 30 years ago today? Probably standing in line to see Batman. The Date It all began with a symbol and a date. A simple poster considering what it wrought. For months, all you needed to know…
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What Are You Going To Do With the 99 Days of Summer 2023?
Veteran writer Dean Wesley Smith dubs the summer months the Time of the Great Forgetting. It’s that point in the year when the good intentions of New Year’s Resolutions made in the depths of winter fall by the wayside in bright light of hot summer days when the pull to do just about anything other than writing draws writers away from their keyboards. It’s only in later summer and early fall when writers remember their annual goals and either charge full-stream ahead and barrel to the end of the year, desperately hoping to achieve their milestones, or just give up and do something else. He speaks the truth. But I’ve…