"The world is overstocked with people who are ready and eager to teach other people to write. It seems astonishing that so much bad writing should find its way into print when so much good advice is to be had."
--Robertson Davies
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Horror Movie of the Year
Far and away the best horror movie I've seen this year - in fact, in many years, is The Orphanage. I don't want to say anything about it for fear of giving away anything. But it is a staggering psychological study. There are virtually no cheap thrills, just a slow, mounting terror. It is amazing.
And while I'm on movies, I should list my favorites of the past year (since, for the first time, I'm not on any best-film or -script panels, so I'm not sworn to secrecy).
Best Drama: Michael Clayton.
Best Comedy: Juno.
What were your favorite movies of 2007?
Oh, and here's a great little real-life amateur detective story you might enjoy.
And while I'm on movies, I should list my favorites of the past year (since, for the first time, I'm not on any best-film or -script panels, so I'm not sworn to secrecy).
Best Drama: Michael Clayton.
Best Comedy: Juno.
What were your favorite movies of 2007?
Oh, and here's a great little real-life amateur detective story you might enjoy.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Monday, January 14, 2008
On Art and Editing....and Editing....and Editing
"Art is never finished, only abandoned."
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Guess the Country...
...and the book.
This is one of my favorite foreign covers for one of my novels.
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
A Word on the Strike
I attended a Writer’s Guild Meeting last night, where members heard from the negotiating committee and Guild leadership. One of the tactics of the AMPTP has been to portray our leadership as crazy, power-drunk, and out of touch with the demands of the business and the interests of our membership.
Like many writers, I am not a joiner nor a big fan of groups. I wasn’t a boy scout; I’ve never been a member of a church or temple; I didn’t join a frat in college. Clubs and allegiances make me slightly nervous, and I’ve never had a taste for chants and slogans. Usually when large groups unite behind a cause, I can’t stomach the dogma that inevitably emerges. So you can imagine that the “brotherhood” aspect of the strike is not one that I cotton to naturally, nor am I inclined to believe that leadership—of any kind—will adequately represent my interests or viewpoint.
Add to that the fact that it is always more fun and seemingly more sophisticated to be cynical. It’s always easier to cast a jaundiced eye, to be the one who sees through the bullshit, who knows a better angle, who has the caustic aside that breaks up the lockstep of the zoned-out masses.
Like everyone else who works in Hollywood, I have followed this strike closely because of what’s at stake. And in last night’s meeting, as in the previous guild meeting, I can report that there was not a single strategy, proposal, or explanation presented to me by WGA leadership and the negotiating committee that I disagreed with.
Not one.
Our leadership, our negotiating committee, our positions are eminently reasonable, considered, and, yes, sane. These are complicated issues, and most people don’t have a clear grasp of them. What is at stake is New Media. The internet. How films and TV shows will be distributed. What is at stake is the future and how—indeed if—writers will be compensated in it.
Coming to Hollywood as an author, I was amazed at the benefits and infrastructure provided to me as a screenwriter. Health care. Pension. Residuals. Minimums. There’s not a day I’ve worked in L.A. that I’m not grateful for these benefits—benefits that provide for my family and that allow me to continue to do my job. These benefits were won by the sweat and courage of men and women who had much more to lose and who took greater risks than those before us now. These benefits were won by the sacrifices others made for future generations, for me.
This membership, this year, cannot dissipate those gains. We cannot cave in to an unfair deal that writers decades from now will be saddled with. This is a watershed contract. Future writers will look back to this year, to this contract, to us, every day as they live with what our resolve and respect for writing yielded. They can look back on us with the same gratitude we look back on those who came before us. Or they can look back with disappointment.
We’d be well served to remember that this contract isn’t just for us.
In full support,
Gregg Hurwitz
Like many writers, I am not a joiner nor a big fan of groups. I wasn’t a boy scout; I’ve never been a member of a church or temple; I didn’t join a frat in college. Clubs and allegiances make me slightly nervous, and I’ve never had a taste for chants and slogans. Usually when large groups unite behind a cause, I can’t stomach the dogma that inevitably emerges. So you can imagine that the “brotherhood” aspect of the strike is not one that I cotton to naturally, nor am I inclined to believe that leadership—of any kind—will adequately represent my interests or viewpoint.
Add to that the fact that it is always more fun and seemingly more sophisticated to be cynical. It’s always easier to cast a jaundiced eye, to be the one who sees through the bullshit, who knows a better angle, who has the caustic aside that breaks up the lockstep of the zoned-out masses.
Like everyone else who works in Hollywood, I have followed this strike closely because of what’s at stake. And in last night’s meeting, as in the previous guild meeting, I can report that there was not a single strategy, proposal, or explanation presented to me by WGA leadership and the negotiating committee that I disagreed with.
Not one.
Our leadership, our negotiating committee, our positions are eminently reasonable, considered, and, yes, sane. These are complicated issues, and most people don’t have a clear grasp of them. What is at stake is New Media. The internet. How films and TV shows will be distributed. What is at stake is the future and how—indeed if—writers will be compensated in it.
Coming to Hollywood as an author, I was amazed at the benefits and infrastructure provided to me as a screenwriter. Health care. Pension. Residuals. Minimums. There’s not a day I’ve worked in L.A. that I’m not grateful for these benefits—benefits that provide for my family and that allow me to continue to do my job. These benefits were won by the sweat and courage of men and women who had much more to lose and who took greater risks than those before us now. These benefits were won by the sacrifices others made for future generations, for me.
This membership, this year, cannot dissipate those gains. We cannot cave in to an unfair deal that writers decades from now will be saddled with. This is a watershed contract. Future writers will look back to this year, to this contract, to us, every day as they live with what our resolve and respect for writing yielded. They can look back on us with the same gratitude we look back on those who came before us. Or they can look back with disappointment.
We’d be well served to remember that this contract isn’t just for us.
In full support,
Gregg Hurwitz
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Foolkiller #2
Now that Foolkiller #2 is out, some of you might recognize these comics that young Mike Trace tries to steal from the pawnshop. Does anyone know their significance?
Friday, November 30, 2007
More Mailer
I seem to be missing Norman Mailer today. So here's another favorite quotation.
“Being a man is the continuing battle of one’s life, and one loses a bit of manhood with every stale compromise to the authority of any power in which one does not believe.”
-N.M.
“Being a man is the continuing battle of one’s life, and one loses a bit of manhood with every stale compromise to the authority of any power in which one does not believe.”
-N.M.
Monday, November 19, 2007
The Squeeze
This article, from Yahoo news, seems like bad news all around.
Here's the opening....
Here's the opening....
NEW YORK - The latest National Endowment for the Arts report draws on a variety of sources, public and private, and essentially reaches one conclusion: Americans are reading less.
The 99-page study, "To Read or Not to Read," is being released Monday as a follow-up to a 2004 NEA survey, "Reading at Risk," that found an increasing number of adult Americans were not even reading one book a year (bold mine).
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Friday, November 02, 2007
The Crime Writer/I See You Charts Update
The Crime Writer debuted in the US as an LA Times Top 10 bestseller.
As I See You, it spent 11 weeks on the Ireland bestseller list, 5 of those in the top ten.
4 weeks on the bestseller list in the UK.
4 weeks on the bestseller list in Australia.
So a great start for the English territories. Still to come: France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Spain, Japan, Israel, Poland, and more.
I feel fortunate to have such a great group of readers, librarians, sales reps, and editors.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Everybody Plays The Fool
And, alas, me too. My editor, Axel Alonso, sent me this jpeg some time back, telling me that it would be the first Foolkiller cover. I opened it with great excitement....
Oh well, can't win 'em all.
There's a fun - and unusual - interview with me up at Silver Bullet Comics in anticipation of the first Foolkiller's launch, which is tomorrow!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Lan Medina Art
Here's a peek at some art from the first Foolkiller, coming out Oct 23. Lan Medina strikes again!
For a cool new montage of comic art, put together by my MySpace guy, Eric Thoma, check this out.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Dispatches from the Front
The Crime Writer (I SEE YOU) has now launched in Australia, where it debuted on the bestseller list.
Stay tuned for comic news soon. Wolverine and the Foolkiller slashing into stores next month.
And a new cover -- guess the book, guess the country.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Honest Abe with the Quotation of the Week
Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
--Abraham Lincoln
--Abraham Lincoln
Friday, September 14, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Audio
The Crime Writer is now out in audio format from BBC Audiobooks America, read by
Scott Brick (who does an excellent job). It'll be available soon also in download format from amazon, audible.com, and iTunes.
Friday, September 07, 2007
Why All Writers Should Read Jung
"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."
- C.G. Jung
- C.G. Jung
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