Playwright | Joshua James

Julie Gray’s Silver Screenwriting Competition will be happening this spring … if you’re a screenwriter on the verge, I’d recommend it as a good contest to enter - the winner gets:

The Grand Prize Includes:
# MacBook Air
# Round trip flight to Los Angeles
# 3 nights accommodations
# A day of meetings with 3 managers
# Lunch at the Ivy with a TBA A-List screenwriter
# $1000 in cash

And she just announced that the TBA screenwriter you get to have lunch with is none other than Shane Black (I hope I don’t have to explain who that is … if I do, you haven’t done this long enough).

It’s for non-pros (I think if you’ve made more than 8,000 bucks you’re not eligible) but it’s a contest I’d recommend, Julie runs The Script Department, a company that evaluates scripts, and I’ve exchanged emails with her on other subjects and read her blog, she’s good people … so if you’re eligible, polish up that script and send it in … contest opens on March 1st …

Break a leg, folks.

A new story up at Popcorn Fiction … if you’re not adding it to your weekly habit, you should.

Posting the tale What’s An Old Screenwriter To Do? … I do love me many a story from Unk, though the particulars of this one are maddening for all screenwriters, but Unk shares his tale in such an enjoyable way … Go and read, young Jedi.

Via my friend Billy … this kills me:

LANNA AT THE WEDDING

Lanna stands next to a MAN watching the ceremony. She whispers to him.

LANNA
You know, it’s always right about now that it hits me, right at this point here, when I see the bride coming down the aisle, all dressed in white satin and silk, with the wedding march playing and all the Aunts and Grandmothers crying, it’s always RIGHT at this moment that it’s all I can do NOT to fall to the ground screaming in maniacal laughter.

From this point on up until the “I do’s” it takes all the strength I have not to break into hysterics. Look at this, my lip is bleeding, it’s bleeding because I have to bite it just to keep quiet.

Wait, wait. Listen to that preacher. “We are gathered here together to unite these two souls in holy matrimony.”

What a pompous ASS.

You know, I think that’s why they do this whole thing up like this, with the dress and the tuxes, the pomp and the ceremony, they dress it up to disguise what a big JOKE the whole thing is.

Seriously. The whole idea is one big fat hairy lie. Read the rest of this entry »

Via Script Shadow, the 20 Greatest Movies About Writers!

It’s been a couple days since this happened, and I meant to bring it up but got swamped … but evidently Chris Matthews was shocked, shocked that President Obama managed to make it through a whole SOTU speech without once breaking into an ad hoc version of “Camptown Races” … I’d thought about writing something scathing, but The Daily Show pretty much covered the territory.

Funny … rarely do I forget, whenever I catch Matthews or Robertson or Blitzer doing their thing, that I’m watching rich douchebags who have no idea what the rest of America has to deal with in terms of living, breathing and surviving. We really do need new political pundits on TV, verse them in fact-checking and journalism … and maybe they should live somewhere other than DC.

Don’t even know how I’m gonna process this ‘Catcher in the Rye’ author J.D. Salinger dies … losing lit heroes left and right … I need a moment.

“You know that song ‘If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye’? I’d like — ”
“It’s ‘If a body meet a body coming through the rye’!” old Phoebe said. “It’s a poem. By Robert Burns.”
“I know it’s a poem by Robert Burns.”
She was right, though. It is “If a body meet a body coming through the rye.” I didn’t know it then, though.
“I thought it was ‘If a body catch a body,’” I said. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around — nobody big, I mean — except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be. I know it’s crazy.”

Some quick links to my Rapping On Writing articles … the newest added additions:

Options, We Got Options!
What The Tide Brings … On The Writing Biz & Patience
Responding to Negative Critical Feedback, Rule Number One
Dunning–Kruger Effect

And the rest of ‘em, all lined up for you … Rapping On Writing:

Secrets of Success in 8 Words

Hope you dig ‘em, and pass it on if you do!

Sad news … famed historian and author Howard Zinn has passed away … if you’ve not read THE PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES … you’ve not really read history (and he makes it enthralling and captivating, unlike most history books) and I recommend you do so now. A more complete bio of Howard HERE.

Rest In Peace, Howard.