One More Detour on the Writing Road

I keep meaning to come back here and post more often, but then I don't. Given how much I miss the old LJ, I really should make more of an effort. The-place-formerly-designated-by-a-blue-bird is trash and while its clones have their strong points, I'm finding the same issues that made TPFDBABB a pit are bubbling up more frequently. Better to spend more time in a quiet tidal pool instead of storm seas.

I'm also trying to center my website more, for all it needs a revamp. WIP snippets (wippets?) will be posted there instead of FB etc because ownership, AI training, etc. I found out that a couple of my books were used to train at least one AI engine and while it may be way too late to close that barn door, oh well. Gonna try to do it anyway.

Anyway, it's a grey, cold day here in NE Illinois. After having gone walkabout for most of the year, Winter has decided it wants to hang around a bit. Of course, the daffs have formed big buds, the crocuses and hellebore are blooming, and the pussy willow catkins are opening, so nights in the 20s (F) are just what we need right now. I'm especially concerned about the pussy willows because they usually bloom a few weeks later and are the first thing the bees and butterflies have to feed on. But now it's too cold.

Oh well, time to wrap up tax prep. Other things to do. Off I go...

One of the books on my Amazon wishlist is Schmucks with Underwoods: Conversations with America's Classic Screenwriters. The title, according to the blurb, was Jack L Warner's term for the "chumps who cranked out scripts on his lot."

I don't know why writers have never received any respect. I remember reading about life on the set of the 80s nighttime soap Dynasty, where assistants for Joan Collins and Linda Evans examined the scripts and one camp raised a stink if the other actress had more lines of dialogue. It became less about story and more about balancing divas. Words became a way of keeping score.

Would have loved to see Collins and Evans try improv.

Very much with the writers on this--do I need to say that? Because if the studios didn't believe that online content was valuable, they wouldn't argue so vehemently that it isn't.

Read this if you want to know more. Thanks to Doris Egan for taking the time to write it.