NEW NOVEL IN WORKS

I'm in the throes of finishing the first draft of the MOONBEAM RIDER novel. Then there will be a couple of months of back and forth with my editor before it goes off to publishers (yes, I'm going to try and go the traditional route with this one first because I think it is very mainstream).

Then I will begin work on my fourth novel TEENAGE WASTELAND. This is based off a screenplay I wrote that Cutting Edge originally wanted to make. Executive Benedict Carver ("Resident Evil," "Underworld") had brought the project into EOne, where it was in development, but they never pulled the trigger. They saw it as a PG-13 Dance movie. I see it as a gritty R-rated Drama with bone-breaking Martial Arts action. It's set in a world where everyone over the age of 30 has died and tribes of teen Free-runners, Breakers and Martial Arts Trickers fight it out for control of all that's left... the city.

I'm very excited.

The novel will be NA (New Adult) and as I release the novel, I will simultaneously go out to Studios and investors with a screenplay adaptation. 

I think in wake of the success of "STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON," the climate in Hollywood will be right for this type of film. 

WRITING EVERYDAY COUNTS

PUBLISHING UPDATE

The first draft of my upcoming novel THE MOONBEAM RIDER should be going to my editor in early July. My working tagline (because I don't want to give too much away) is THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK meets WAR OF THE WORLDS (hence the flying saucers below). I'm excited because it's my first Young Adult novel and part of a trilogy. My release date will most likely be Halloween 2015.

Next up I will be diving right into TEENAGE WASTELAND, which is a New Adult novel and will also be a trilogy.

After that will be MIDNITE REVIEW OF THE FREAK KING (a hip little NA series), then the sequel to SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY.

BTW - I will be taking the screenplay adaptation of SPOOK (both as a feature film and as a miniseries) out to Studio companies (as well as other entertainment platforms).

Thanks for reading. I wish I could write faster (I'm only good for about 1,500 words a day). 

CREATING THE MYTHOLOGY FOR YOUR NOVEL

I see plenty of blogs about writing novels. Most of them deal with story and character. However, what a lot of people who haven't yet written their first screenplay or novel don't realize is there is a certain amount of research involved in creating. Fortunately for me, I have a journalistic background and love doing research.

When I wrote my novel about backward Satanic lyrics in Rock music, I had to do a lot of research about Rock bands who had 'allegedly' put hidden lyrics in their songs. Then from there, I had to come up with the rules of the game, or what I call the mythology, for my story: if you play the record backwards, a demon will be summoned from Hell who will have one night to trick you into killing in his name. If the demon succeeds, your soul goes to hell and he gets to take your place, here on earth, in your body.

Take for example writers who write vampire novels. Each one of these writers has to put their own spin on the mythology of the vampire. In "TWILIGHT," the vampires' skin sparkled when exposed to sunlight (a very different take than traditionally catching on fire and exploding).

When I wrote my novel about psychic spies during the Cold War, I not only had to research the time period, but also how the CIA operated in Europe back then and how remote viewing worked, as well as current events of the era. From there, I created the rules for my novel (i.e. world).

For the Young Adult novel I'm writing now THE MOONBEAM RIDER, I had to research Ufology. Fortunately for me, because of my bizarre fascination with the subject, I already knew a lot about it.

It was very important to me to use CLASSIC UFO folklore. The alien ships are SAUCER SHAPED, although they are huge flying cities. These crafts are called MOTHERSHIPS (once again a term straight out of UFO culture). The aliens are called the GRAYS. There are SMALL GRAYS with large bulbous heads and TALL GRAYS - the shot callers. Once again, this is straight out of common UFO mythology. 

The prologue for my story is based on the well known conspiracy theory that the NAZIS HAD SHOT DOWN A UFO DURING WORLD WAR II AND REVERSE-ENGINEERED THE ALIEN TECHNOLOGY. It is a fact that during WWII, German propulsion systems were more advanced than anything in the world. The Nazi scientists were so good that at the end of the world war, there was a race between America and the Soviet Union to find and acquire Nazi scientists. One Nazi scientist who was recruited by America, helped the U.S. win the space race. 

In my story, The Nazis force a captured African scientist - who has an IQ on par with Einstein's - to decipher the alien tech. The scientist turns the tables on the Nazis and escapes with his research.

In the present day of my novel, the aliens return. They wage war on our world and begin OCCUPYING different countries. They use human traitors known as COLLABORATORS - lured by the gift of shiny new bodies that do not wear out - to do most of the fighting for them. I wanted a modern day setting that had the look and feel of OCCUPIED EUROPE during its takeover by the Nazis. There are even detainment centers on the outskirts of the city, where people are sent and never return.

I also wanted the Grays to be a seldom seen presence, content to remain on their motherships and wreck havoc from above.

The Grays want our world for themselves. If they win, they will exterminate eighty percent of the human race and use the remaining twenty percent as slave labor, ruled over by the human collaborators who will serve as magistrates and sheriffs. 

That's the mythological basis for my upcoming novel. What will the basic be for yours? Will you find something from out of history, or create something entirely new?

Have fun creating your world.  

A Nazi built UFO.

The Fuhrer having a greet and meet with a Gray.

NOVEL SOUNDTRACK

I don't know if this is strange or what. But while I've been writing my new science fiction novel THE MOONBEAM RIDER (ANNE FRANK'S DIARY meets WAR OF THE WORLDS), I've been listening to an amazing amount of Reggae music. Since I also plan on adapting MBR into a screenplay, I'm now picturing the movie with a Reggae soundtrack. 

Sounds weird, I know. But it feels right. In the story, Allied earth is fighting occupation by the Grays. And Reggae is the music of oppression and resistance!

That being said... DON'T GIVE UP THE FIGHT!

THE FORMLESS FORM OF NOVEL WRITING

You might be asking yourself what the title of this post means. The formless form of novel writing? To that I respond in the words of one of my favorite childhood icons Bruce Lee, "Be water, my friend."

In other words, adapt or perish.

By now I thought I would be 50,000 words into my new novel "THE MOONBEAM RIDER," a multicultural Young Adult novel geared towards the female "HUNGER GAMES" audience. My tagline is: THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK meets WAR OF THE WORLDS.

However I'm only half that far along in my book.

What's going on? For one, time management (I've got a crazy schedule). Two, I've hit some sticky points story-wise that I have to work through. Three, I've, for some reason, become a little stale on the material (even though I'm watching tons of UFO documentaries and loving it).

Now many writers at this point, would probably shelve their project or put it on the back burner.

Not me. I have a schedule of novels I'm writing and I plan to stick to it. Plus, I love the projects that I'm working on. The subject matters of all the novels I'm writing and will be writing are very close to my heart. It is a true labor of love. 

So what do I do to get over this bump in the road?

CHANGE THE PACE! Since I planned on adapting MBR into a screenplay as soon as I had the novel finished like I did with my last novel, I figured why not shake up the process.

So I began the screenplay adaptation NOW and all of a sudden I'm looking at the material through fresh eyes. Writing a screenplay is way different than writing a novel and has to approached in an entirely different manner. By doing this, I'm even having new ideas for the novel.

I have one third of the book written (about 70 pages). In screenwriting format, that should equate to the first act. Feature film scripts are composed of three acts.  

My plan is to write the first act of my screenplay, then go back to the novel. Probably, I'll jump back to the screenplay after I finish the next 70 pages of the book and write the second act of my screenplay.

This may seem unorthodox, but I say whatever gets the job done. Plus it solves a couple of other problems for me. My literary manager, who is currently shopping the screenplay adaptation of my last book in Hollywood, is asking me when I'm going to have another project for him to sell. This speeds up my timetable of delivering another script to him. Also, when I finished my last novel, I held on to it for four months while I marketed it.

So, this time around, by the time I finish my first rough draft of the MBR novel, I should have a pretty polished screenplay adaptation. Then, while I'm dealing with my editor and going back and forth with changes and rewrites of the book, I can begin my marketing campaign as well. 

So I'm actually using my writing block to get even more done. 

You see, there is no one way to write a novel. Whenever you have a problem, there is a solution. You just have to think of it. 

ALLIED EARTH needs you... to fight the Grays.

PERSEVERANCE: THE SECRET TO WRITING

When I first moved to Los Angeles with the idea of being a stuntman, I made money by teaching Gymnastics. Having been a gymnast, this came quite easy to me and it wasn't long before I was teaching an adult tumbling class. Here in Los Angeles, most of the people who attend an adult tumbling class are actors, stunt people, dancers and martial artists.

One of the actors in my class told me he was writing a screenplay. This fascinated me intensely. I had been a literary major and journalism minor in college and the thought of writing a screenplay had never ever occurred to me. I had written short stories. 

But the more I thought of it, the more I wanted to write a screenplay. To do this right, I reasoned I must read books on screenplay writing and actual screenplays as well. I read a couple of books. One was by Syd Field of course. 

Back then - in those dark ages before the Internet - the only way to get ahold of screenplays was to go to this store in Hollywood and buy them. I picked up a bunch from films that I loved. After reading four or five. I started writing my  own screenplay.

A few weeks later, I saw my actor friend at the gym. I asked him if he had finished his screenplay. His reply was, 'not yet.'

I had worked out my outline, fleshed out my major characters and dove into Act One. 

After about six weeks, I again asked my actor friend if he had finished his script. He once more replied, 'not yet.'  

I had just finished my first screenplay. Then I wrote a second one. My actor friend who had given me the idea to write a script in the first place, still hadn't completed his first screenplay.

I don't know if he ever finished that screenplay.

To date, I've written at least forty screenplays. Many were for hire by small independent producers. At least ten of them were made into films. Not many of them were very good, for various reasons that were out of my control.

The point is, writing takes perseverance. Of which, gymnasts have plenty. In the sport of gymnastics, when attempting a new high level, high risk skill you have to fail over and over again for months, before mastering it. That means falling on your face over and over again.  

After ten years as a stuntman, I decided to go at the writing thing full time. I went from always having money to always being broke. Most of my stunt friends deserted me once I could no longer hire them for jobs. I found out who my true friends in Hollywood were: my dog. At a low point, I slept in my car with my dog. 

Now after years of people telling me how to rewrite my scripts to satisfy their own over-inflated egos, I've started my own independent publishing company. And I don't take notes anymore. Well, I still have an editor and she gives me her opinion. If I think she's right, I make the changes. But I'm the owner of my company and, if I don't agree, I don't make the changes. I'm writing the books I want to write, exactly the way I want to write them. Which is the way I think it ought to be.

Or in the immortal words of actor Vincent D'Onofrio  in "THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD" (where he played Robert E. Howard the pulp fiction writer who created Conan the Barbarian), "I'm the boss. The typewriter is the employee." 

I've written two novels and am currently writing my third. And at the beginning of each novel, I felt like I was at the bottom of a mountain, looking up at the top in the clouds. And everyday, I clawed at this mountain. 

Some days I wrote a little, some days I wrote a lot. 

But I know the process. The first sign of progress is the halfway point. I pretty much know how long my novels are going to be. My first novel was a little over 60,000 words. My second one was approximately 62,000. This latest one should be about 70,000. 

I'm at almost 20,000 words (way behind schedule). So, when I reach 35,000 words (the halfway point), I'll begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. When I reach 50,000 words it will be easy sailing. My first pass should come in around 63,000 words. Then when I go back and start to rewrite and add scenes that I realize are missing, it should pad out to 70,000 without me consciously trying to break 70,0000. If it comes in a little less that's no problem either (like I said, I'm the boss). 

I remember something I read once, I think Syd Field had said it. It was: as you near the completion of your project, you may find yourself holding back, not wanting to finish this labor of love. He said that was natural, but that you must finish it. You must finally give birth to your creation. 

I remember when I read that I thought it was a bunch of bologna. Until I experienced it myself. I was dwelling on my work. Reluctantly to finally type: THE END, until I did. No matter how torturous it is, writing is also a labor of love (if you're writing for the right reasons). 

I don't write for money. I don't write for fame. Although I want all those things, I write because I love writing. 

It's art. 

It's therapy.

It's chicken soup for the tortured soul. 

D'Onofiro as pulp fiction writer Robert E. Howard 

Describing his creation CONAN THE BARBARIAN