Musings of an actor-turned-writer on the writing life, film & TV, books, music & theatre, anything Detroit-related — or that a teenage girl (or young gay boy) might enjoy :-)
Got a FIVE STAR review for my latest novel Lost in the '90s over on IndieReader, the awesome site that covers the world of independent authors and their books. If you're looking for some great -- and perhaps undiscovered -- new authors, check out the site HERE. Thanks to Amy Edelman, Founder and President!
I actually, this morning, posted a blurb about why I wrote/how I came to publish my first Young Adult (YA in publishing-speak) novel which will soon be added the book's Amazon page, where you can BUY the book for just $11.21 -- Christmas is coming! But I thought I'd share now as part of this post -- "after the jump" as we Bloggers say... (which means: click the "Read More" link below)
One of the things I’ve always envied celebrities for (other
than their fame and, more importantly, fortune) is their ability to influence
other, less-famous folks like the rest of us. My blogger friend, Kenneth, may
not be a household name, but I know that a lot of his “Kenneth in the 212”
readers take his recommendations to heart—and I’ve sold quite a few copies of
my books because of him. (Thanks, K!)
I’ve always prided myself in not being an “average” person.
It took me years before I broke down
and read Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. Yes, I enjoyed both, but I’ve always been a fan of more “indie” artists, if you will. And now
I’d like to tell you about one of my favorite bands, whom you probably have never heard of…
MISSY GIBSON & BREECH
— I had the pleasure of knowing Missy when we were at Wayne State together “back
in the day.” She directed me in my first Hilberry Studio show, The Madness of Lady Bright, a one-actby the late, great Lanford Wilson.
At the
time, Missy was in a band called Strange
Bedfellows. They were the first real-live band that I knew (not just some cover band), and I considered myself a groupie. I still have their debut
album, A Ride on the Swinging Gate, on
cassette somewhere, and I hope to have it transferred to MP3 format somehow. I’ve
been thinking about Missy a lot lately as I’ve based one of the characters in
my new novel The Spirit of Detroit,
in part, on her.
A word of note: Breech’s song “Thistle” appeared on an
episode of Dawson’s Creek. Listen
HERE.
Check out Missy’s website HERE and listen to other clips from
Breech HERE.
Since I’ve yet to cover the teenage girl/young gay boy
aspect of this blog, I thought I’d plug the upcoming Degrassi: Las Vegas movie, coming to TeenNick on Friday December
14, 2012 @ 9PM ET.
I’ve been watching this teen-centric show for the past few
seasons, after deciding that I wanted to try my hand at writing for TV. After
writing 3 novels featuring teen characters I’ve come to realize that I have no
desire to progress beyond high school – though my latest book takes place
during “the college years,” I still consider the characters as being kids.
I
was fortunate enough to befriend a former Degrassi
writer who read a spec script I wrote about Riley’s first trip to a gay bar,
and told me I’d be great for the show. But apparently in Canada, they only hire
Canadian writers – unlike here in the US where all the Canadian actors/writers
are freely allowed to work. Ah, well!
The thing I like about Degrassi
is once a character graduates, they don’t get to stick around and hang out,
slumming. For a brief moment they tried following one class as they went off to
college, but it didn’t work, and they quickly gave up on the idea – unlike Ryan
Murphy who insisted on keeping Rachel, Finn, and Kurt around on Glee, which I’ve since stopped watching.
With each new freshman class that
arrives I worry that I won’t be able to keep watching. But this season, I’m
loving the addition of Maya, Cam, Tori, Zig, and Tristan. Although someone
needs to tell Joey Jeremiah’s daughter, Angela, that she’s got a look-alike
running around the halls of Degrassi Community School.
Maya & Cam
Zig, Tristan, Tori
Check out the trailer for the new Dregrassi: Las Vegas below…
And feel free to chime in with your favorite moments from
this past season in the comments section :-)
So I spent the rest of my holiday weekend “finishing” up the
first draft of my new novel, THE SPIRIT OF DETROIT, as part of NaNoWriMo
(National Novel Writing Month). I put the word “finish” in quotes because the
goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words of a new novel between 11/1-30,
which I’ve done – but the book is only about halfway finished.
I actually went back last night and revised my outline,
cutting out a huge chunk of events that would have put the book at 500 pages, I’m
sure, had I continued writing the entire outline. For some reason this new one
is running long. I usually average chapters around 10-12 pages. In SOD, they
come in between 15-17.
It’s been a great experience just “cranking out” a story. Usually
I will write a chapter, print it out, edit on paper, then type up the revisions.
I usually average about a chapter/week. This time around I was writing an
entire chapter in a day or two. There’s something to be said for
self-censoring.
As expected when I officially started blogging, I didn't get much blogging done this week... Caught a bit of a cold last Saturday (felt it coming on right before seeing The Performers), and despite popping Zycam drops every 3 hours for 2 days straight I'm still not feeling 100%. But I thought I'd give a quick update today as to what's been going on...
I spent Thanksgiving alone. Not a big deal. And since I was sick, I didn't go out in search of any invitations to dinner. If you're reading this you probably know that I've been doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) since 11/1, the goal being to write 50,000 of a new novel during the month of November. I've had an idea for a new book kicking around in my head since round about 2009, so I decided to take this opportunity to hunker down and start writing it.
It's called The Spirit of Detroitand is inspired by my all-time favorite novel The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. With one week to go I've got over 45,000 words written -- and I'm not even halfway through my outline. I've been burning the midnight oil, as they say, and last night I was up until 4am typing away.
I expect the final story to come in around 100,000 words. Once NaNoWriMo ends, I'll probably keep on writing to the end, then go back and edit the entire thing. Hopefully it will be ready for self-publication by June or July 2013. Unless of course I can find a real publisher who takes an interest...
UPDATE: I spent the last couple hours (why does it always take sooo long?) tinkering around with the cover. Wasn't digging the boldness of the font compared to the Chabon -- or the way the words were separated between letters. I also made the word "spirit" a little larger and tweaked the color to give it a more peachy hue. Here's a look at the new and improved:
... to go and see A Christmas Story: The
Musical. (Why does every new musical have to be called [blank] The Musical?)I
know I won’t be – not with tickets listed at something like $162.50.Even the “discount” price is a whopping $49. To quote one of my
favorite quotes that I’ve been quoting for so long I can’t remember what it’s
from: “Too rich for my blood.” [throws poker cards down on table] (Anyone?) More and more each day, Broadway -- much like
New York City itself -- becomes a “playground for the rich.” :-(
See below for some nice reviews from the new-to-Broadway production,
produced by the original Ralphie himself, Peter Billingsley. Hopefully he’ll
make up for some of the royalties he doesn’t receive from the annual marathon
showings on TBS – so I’ve heard. I could have sworn that a stage version
already existed, and was produced at my local community theatre back in
Detroit, The Stagecrafters of Royal Oak – though maybe that was a “straight”
play, sans music, as opposed to a “gay” play like my very own Band Fags! -- now on sale from
Amazon.com, by the way – makes a great Christmas gift for the Band Fag in your
life :-)
Got word this morning that legendary Detroit weather man, Sonny Eliot, has passed away at age 91. Growing up I remember laughing my head off to Sonny's reports of "SNOG" (snow + fog) and the like. He was a real Detroit classic, along with Sir Graves Ghastly and Oopsy the Clown.
If memory serves, back in high school our Choir teacher, Mr. Al Fisk, took us to see a touring production of Little Shop of Horrors at the now-defunct Birmingham Theatre, and good old Sonny was there also seeing the show. Al rushed right over to say hello and introduce himself. At the time, us kids were totally embarrassed. Looking back I wish I wouldn't have been so shy.
Read (and watch) more about the life and times of Sonny Eliot HERE.
I've been feeling a little under the weather, so please forgive my delay in posting my review of The Performers,which I had the pleasure of seeing on Saturday night with my friend Jason. Yes, I said "pleasure." I truly enjoyed the show, particularly the performers in The Performers, despite whatever Ben Brantley had to say about it in his New York Times review.
Unfortunately, the play has since CLOSED after I don't how many performances -- a week's worth, maybe plus previews. I won't blame Mr. Brantley entirely for the show's demise. I was told by a friend in "the biz" that advance ticket sales were lacking. And I've since gone back and re-read Mr. Brantley's review, and I agree with practically everything he said. But...
I, personally, had a good time during the 90 minutes I'd spent at the theatre. I got to see Cheyenne Jackson in different states of undress, along with "Cher Horowitz" from Clueless -- who, on stage, reminded me of the "evil" Sadie Saxton from MTV's Awkward (the show you should be watching if you're not already) -- and an F bomb-dropping Arthur Fonzarelli.
I also laughed out loud, particularly during a moment when Cheyenne’s onstage wife – the brilliant Ari Graynor – got such a huge reaction from the crowd that she and Cheyenne broke down laughing themselves, had to hold for several moments, then “rewind” the scene and start all over.
I'd actually never heard of Ms. Graynor before, though she's actually been in a few films I've seen (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Youth in Revolt). Here she is below in a trailer from a (relatively) new movie she's starring in, For a Good Time, Call...
Based on her performance in The Performers I'd like to see Ari Graynor tackle the role of "Olive" aka Jennifer Tilley, if the rumored musical version of Bullet's Over Broadway ever makes it to the Great White Way... Hopefully Ben Brantley will approve of that one!
So I was reading the other day how, that as an author, I must have a website. For years I've owned my own domain (www.frankanthonypolito.com), but the "site" was always linked to either a page about one of my books, or my Facebook page, or my Amazon.com author page.
According to the blog entry I was reading, written by a New York literary agent, the website can not be a Facebook page or Twitter account, but a blog is perfectly acceptable -- the point being that with Facebook and Twitter, a person/potential reader isn't granted automatic access to you, the writer, unless they already have an account.
Who in this day and age isn't at least on Facebook, if not also tweeting on Twitter? And who am I to question the opinion of this NY lit agent, who could potentially be representing me one day as a writer?
I've been an official contributor to my good friend Kenneth's popular NYC lifestyle blog, "Kenneth in the (212)" for a few years now, serving as a weekly Project Runway recapper, fill-in for Kenneth when he's been away on vacation. But my personal opinion on having my own blog has always been A) who's going to want to read it?, and B) when will I have time to write it?
Since I started writing my first novel, Band Fags!, in 2006, I've spent all of my so-called "free" time working on my novel writing (or play/screenplay writing). How am I supposed to write a book (or play/screenplay) if I'm spending my time blogging? As it is I haven't written a single word on the novel I'm currently writing for NaNoWriMo because I've been too busy designing the lay out for this blog.
But... As per my daily horoscope by Sally Brompton, as read in the New York PostI've decided to not get annoyed if something unexpected stops me from doing what I want to be doing this weekend. "In the long-term it may actually work in your favor. As one door closes several more will open."
So... Welcome to Confessions of a Former Band Fag. Or... I was a Teenage Drama Queer.
The question now is: what am I going to confess -- every single day?
