First Word

I own the box set of Generation Kill , and it's one of my favorite all-time war series/movies. I'm not girly in that I have always been interested in history and war films. I watched with great interest the HBO mini-series The Pacific and Band of Brothers . In fact, if I were to compile a list of my all-time favorite shows, Band of Brothers and Generation Kill would probably make the list. The other day, I happened to catch an old favorite I watched many years ago, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket . I remember when I watched it for the first time how intense and enthralling it was. I remember the scene where they photographed the dead body sitting in the chair just how upsetting that was to watch. Then at the end when Matthew Modine's Joker performs an act of mercy and kills the sniper how absolutely unsettling it was to watch such violence. Now fast forward to the 21st century. I was re-watching Full Metal Jacket and it hit me. After watching all of the gore and...

If you are a screenwriter or even a writer, have you ever listened to the DVD commentaries? If you have not done so, I highly recommend you start. You can rent the series or movie with commentaries or you can buy your favorites. I like to invest in my favorite movies and shows, because I am honestly very obsessive in how I study what they did behind-the-scenes. I especially gain value from listening to the writer's commentaries, which are more rare. Actor's or director's commentaries are useful too. Directors tend to explain scene setups and special effects, which can still give writers invaluable insights. Here are the commentaries I have found the most useful and taught me a lot. True Blood -- All Three Released Seasons True Blood includes the writers, directors and actors in their commentaries. Since I think the show's writing is stellar, I really enjoy the writer's perspective. Remember, any show about supernaturals that gets you to emotionally invest in its ...

Fantastic quotes stick in your head. My greatest goal as a writer is to write a quote that resonates so strongly with people they continue to say and repeat it for years to come. Can't say I've achieved that success yet but someday I might come up with that unforgettable line. I thought it would be fun to share a list of my favorite lines that I've never forgotten that touched me or just made me smile or laugh. Get busy living , or get busy dying. ~ Shawshank Redemption And I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life . ~ American Beauty What we do in this life echoes in eternity. ~ Gladiator I will see you again... but not yet... not yet... ~ Gladiator Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies tha...

When you fall in love with a fictional character, they become your friend. I have been thinking about this since my character Brea in California Girl Chronicles now gets talked about like she's a real person. I had a "fan" start to argue with me about her the other day. I actually dropped the argument. It was silly. She's not an actual person, and I know what motivates her better than anyone else. When readers are this invested in a character then the author has done his or her job and created a well-developed character people love to love. I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite fictional characters both on screen and on paper and why. Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House on the Prairie) -- you're perhaps puzzled about a choice from juvenile fiction. Laura was, of course, a real person but her prairie stories were mostly fictional accounts of her young life on the Great Plains as a pioneer girl. I fell in love with her when I was 10 years old. I ...

We all have our favorite characters we love to root for whether in fiction or on TV or film. So, I thought I would share my short list of my favorites and see if you agree. P.S., there is no particular order here. I couldn't say if I had a no. #1 or not. And for all of you writers out there, pay attention. Your favorite characters are so, because they are well-developed and given so much "life" that you suspend your disbelief and root for imaginary friends. The "imaginary" part is what makes the story telling process so unbelievably powerful -- that we would cry, laugh, scream and cheer them on (and they're not real people). Sookie Stackhouse (Charlaine Harris' version not Alan Ball's version on True Blood ) -- in the books Sookie is real, fierce, brave, outspoken, funny and independent. While the book Sookie would never give herself over to the idea that one should ask forgiveness after really doing nothing wrong (like Sookie did in the season 4 ...

I always check my statistics on Blogger. I like to know what my readers want to read as opposed to what I assume they want to read. To my chagrin, yesterday's blog about Alexander Skarsgård's facial hair soared up the statistical chart. No! No! No! Really people! Do you have to constantly blow me away with what you want to know or read about? No wonder the tabloids are making a bundle. I have such high aspirations for the reading public's taste. I blog about important topics like books, writing, public relations, business marketing, and I get a luke warm response. Heck! I even blog about Brea's abundant sex life in my book California Girl Chronicles and yet you all would much rather read about Skarsgård's new beard!! I am in awe! I bet I could post a picture of a naked girl -- and this blog about facial hair would still outperform even a naked picture. Well, all right then. For you Skarsgård fans, I get your interest (sort of), but I've even blogged about his p...

It's a great treat when you get with a clever or dead-on one-liner. Here are some of my favorites: "I am so over Sookie and her precious fairy vagina and her stupid name!" ~ Pam, True Blood " You know I love you more when you're cold and heartless ." ~ Eric, True Blood "I'm Bozo the bush !" ~ Samantha, Sex in the City “You've got funky -tasting spunk." ~ Samantha, Sex in the City   "Turn and we're money." ~ Sergeant Brad Colbert, Generation Kill “ Gentlemen , from now on, we ' re gonna have to earn our stories .” ~ Sergeant Brad Colbert, Generation Kill "This ain't no bath mat, man. It's micro fibers." ~ Bo, Beauty School "Any girl who says size doesn't matter has a small boyfriend." ~ Brea, California Girl Chronicles

I LOVE great dialog. The wittier and more clever, the better. So, for the sake of imparting great wisdom on amazing dialog, I'm going to post some segments of dialog that just, in my less than humble opinion, rocked! This little bit comes from the amazing HBO mini series, Generation Kill. Enjoy! Lance Cpl. Harold James Trombley : Sergeant, I didn't get to shoot! Cpl. Josh Ray Person : That fucking sucks, Trombley. Did your recruiting officer tell you you'd get to shoot people? Lance Cpl. Harold James Trombley : Fucking A he did! Cpl. Josh Ray Person : See, Trombley asked about shooting people. I asked about pussy. The guy told me I'd get to go to Thailand, get all kinds of strange. What'd you ask about, Brad? Brad probably saw that T.V. commercial, the one with the knight that fucks up the dragon then turns into the Marine. Cpl. Walt Hasser : Woo woo! Dress blues with a sword! Cpl. Josh Ray Person : Fucking dress blues commercial man. That got so many fucking guys...

Time to myself always means I'm writing. I love to write (can't you tell), so I thought it would be fun since I'm also a complete movie and TV series lover (almost always when it's an HBO show) to share my top five shows and why they made the list. See if you agree or if you're just intrigued by what I'm sharing. It's pretty tough to pick my all-time favorite mostly because it changes with each obsession. I get so into these shows that I watch them until I have often memorized some of the greatest lines in them. I also listen attentively to commentaries to learn from them since I also screen write. I enjoy cast interviews too and love it when you can tell an actor is completely committed to the role. I get it. I treat my characters in my fiction works the same way. They become trusted friends -- and believe it or not they kind of take on minds of their own. If you don't understand that, just ask another writer. So, I think you'll have to read this ...

I know The Secret is passé. Fad over, right? Wrong. The Laws of Attraction are always at work and when you learn to use them, you will be nothing short of amazed at the results. Sonja Fisher, my friend and actress, and I are working on several different angles to move two critical projects forward -- Beauty School , my comedic script, and California Girl Chronicles , my new book series about the romantic misadventures of young woman trying to break into Hollywood as a screenwriter. Both projects are moving forward very nicely. Remember, your goals are a part of a journey, and it's a process to achieve your goals, as I have been taught be the amazing and great Wayne Kurtz, author of Beyond the Iron . Hey, if the man can participate in an ultra-deca triathlon, he knows what he's talking about. Well, Sonja and I have been pursuing some key avenues to get the film and book produced. We're making some amazing strides each and every day. One of our goals is to attach my favorite...

If you're a writer interested in writing screenplays, a great exercise to really learn the medium of film is to invest in the DVD of Blu-Ray discs and listen to the commentary. I've learned a lot about film and specifically the intent of the writing by doing this on a regular basis. The directors, writers and producers (and sometimes actors) will lend their insight into the scene-by-scene action. I recently purchased Generation Kill, an HBO series I really enjoyed, and watched it with the commentary on. The screenwriter was on discussing working with the book's author and how he wrote the series; how they filmed it; where they filmed it. It's also fun because the commentary often answers nagging questions you might have that you weren't clear about. For example, I kept wondering, "Where the heck did they film this series -- it looks just like Iraq but it couldn't be filmed in such an unstable country." I found out by listening to the commentary it was ...