You are here
Back to topSmall Business Saturday and Indies First Day in Redondo Beach
Come joun us from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM on Saturday November 24th. Authors in store, and everything will be 20% off!
It's no secret that authors have a love-hate relationship with Hollywood. The oft-repeated cliché that "the book was better than the movie" holds true for more reasons than the average reader will ever know. When asked about selling their book rights to Hollywood authors like to joke that they drive their manuscripts to the border of Arizona and California and toss them over the fence, driving back the way they came at breakneck speed. This is probably because Hollywood just doesn't "get it." Its vision for the film or TV series rarely seems to match the vision of the author. And for those rare individuals who've had the fortune of sitting across the desk from one of the myriad, interchangeable development execs praising the brilliance of their work while ticking off a never-ending list of notes for the rewrite, the pros of pitching their work to Hollywood rarely outweigh the cons.
Stephen Jay Schwartz has sat on both sides of that desk--first as the Director of Development for film director Wolfgang Petersen, then as a screenwriter and author pitching his work to the film and television industry. He's seen all sides of what is known in this small community as "Development Hell." The process is both amusing and heartbreaking. Most authors whose work contains a modicum of commercial potential eventually find themselves in "the room" taking a shot at seeing their creations re-visualized by agents, producers or development executives. What they often discover is that their audience is younger and less worldly as themselves. What passes for "story notes" is often a mishmash of vaguely connected ideas intended to put the producer's personal stamp on the project.
Hollywood Versus The Author is a collection of non-fiction anecdotes by authors who've had the pleasure of experiencing the development room firsthand--some who have successfully managed to straddle the two worlds, seeing their works morph into the kinds of feature films and TV shows that make them proud, and others who stepped blindsided into that room after selling their first or second novels. All the stories in this collection illustrate the great divide between the world of literature and the big or small screen. They underscore the insanity of every crazy thing you've ever heard about Hollywood. For insiders and outsiders alike, Hollywood Versus The Author delivers the goods.
m Kempton has spent his life traveling and surfing the world, along the way learning to cook the world's best beach-loving dishes. Now he's sharing his vividly colorful, richly flavorful, and vibrantly healthful collection of more than 90 recipes, along with stories of the best waves, markets, restaurants, adventures, and misadventures that he's experienced, from Australia to Hawaii, the Basque Country to Indonesia, California to Mexico. First We Surf, Then We Eat features a foreword by The Surfer's Journal publisher Steve Pezman, a preface by famed surfer/chef Raphael Lunetta, and photography by Bill Schildge, Jeff Divine, Tom Servais, and Art Brewer.
One of life's biggest clichés becomes a horrific reality when Douglas Segal's wife and daughter are hit head-on by a Los Angeles city bus. Following the accident, Segal began sending regular email updates to their circle of friends and family, a list that continued to grow as others heard of the event and were moved by the many emotional and spiritual issues it raised. Alternatingly harrowing, humorous, heartbreaking, and hopeful, Segal's memoir is an intimate and honest chronicle built around these email updates, and is a profound example of how people show up for one another in times of crisis. It is ultimately uplifting--a tribute to how love, determination, and the compassion of community all hold the power to heal, while also serving as an inspiring testament to the resilience of the human spirit when faced with pain and adversity.
Q: When trusting your baser instincts threatens to strip your hold on sanity, who do you turn to? A: A turkey in the woods. A primal force awakens in Tommy after learning of his mother's impending death. She's all right, not in the hospital on life support or anything, but her days are numbered. Returning to Buffalo made all kinds of sense, but Tommy's efforts to "take care of" his mom faceplant when she refuses to let him help around the house. He teeters on the cusp of crashing into old patterns - but this canine has learned a few tricks since leaving for LA. Tommy engages his writer-brain in passing the time concocting elaborate plots, second-guessing his cousin's livelihood - certain something more nefarious is brewing. And yet, who is he to point fingers when waking up covered in dirt with no memory becomes a regular "thing." Amidst a neurotic, potentially psychotic, break Tommy is forced to face a past ready to plow right into his future. Reminiscent of Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, I Animal immerses you in the head space of a Xennial neuroses.