This entry first appeared, in a slightly different form, in my e-newsletter I WAS BIGFOOT'S SHEMP which you can subscribe to in the sidebar.
I have been on a crazy reading binge lately, having knocked out a dozen books this month, reading one about every other day or so. Either it's winter, and I'm in burrowing mode, or I am getting ready to have a big chunk of creativity, or maybe both.
I had a crazy fall, and turned down some screenwriting work, but it may be time to get back in the saddle. I have had an idea for a dystopian sci-fi screenplay since last summer, but let's be honest, is this really the right time to write a dystopian story? And whether it is or isn't, I suspect a lot of people are cranking on them right now anyway.
I have been reading a lot of pulp paperbacks again; spaghetti-flavored westerns and hard-boiled mid-century noir and other fast reads. There is something about these authors from this time period, somewhere in that span of time from the 1950s to the 1970s, writing for the spinner racks, many of them borderline alcoholics or chasing other demons, churning out a book a month sometimes under a handful of names, often not their own. I have an affinity for them the way I do following the peculiar rhythms of VHS horror movies, and threadbare spaghetti westerns on broken-down sets, and DIY backyard epics. To be reminded that putting your butt in the seat and working is just as valuable or perhaps more so than being an artistic genius.
Speaking of spaghettis, my homage to those movies, CALAMITY JANE'S REVENGE, is free on Amazon Prime right now, if you still have missed it. I named most of the villains after bad guys played by Klaus Kinski--memorably the guy that gets a match lit off of his face in A FEW DOLLARS MORE, but I love him as "Hot Dead" in I AM SARTANA YOUR ANGEL OF DEATH--if you wondered how much I really love Italian oaters.
I have been on a crazy reading binge lately, having knocked out a dozen books this month, reading one about every other day or so. Either it's winter, and I'm in burrowing mode, or I am getting ready to have a big chunk of creativity, or maybe both.
I had a crazy fall, and turned down some screenwriting work, but it may be time to get back in the saddle. I have had an idea for a dystopian sci-fi screenplay since last summer, but let's be honest, is this really the right time to write a dystopian story? And whether it is or isn't, I suspect a lot of people are cranking on them right now anyway.
I have been reading a lot of pulp paperbacks again; spaghetti-flavored westerns and hard-boiled mid-century noir and other fast reads. There is something about these authors from this time period, somewhere in that span of time from the 1950s to the 1970s, writing for the spinner racks, many of them borderline alcoholics or chasing other demons, churning out a book a month sometimes under a handful of names, often not their own. I have an affinity for them the way I do following the peculiar rhythms of VHS horror movies, and threadbare spaghetti westerns on broken-down sets, and DIY backyard epics. To be reminded that putting your butt in the seat and working is just as valuable or perhaps more so than being an artistic genius.
Speaking of spaghettis, my homage to those movies, CALAMITY JANE'S REVENGE, is free on Amazon Prime right now, if you still have missed it. I named most of the villains after bad guys played by Klaus Kinski--memorably the guy that gets a match lit off of his face in A FEW DOLLARS MORE, but I love him as "Hot Dead" in I AM SARTANA YOUR ANGEL OF DEATH--if you wondered how much I really love Italian oaters.
No comments:
Post a Comment