From Bloomington to Tijuana to bevelry Hills...

I recently returned from Bloomington. I did my thing for the Gordon Lish project early than I anticipated, and it was a good trip for research and studying the Midwestern lifestyle. The information I gathered is invaluable for my book.

http://www.routledge.com/books/Gordon-Lish-and-his-Influence-on-Twentieth-Century-American-Literature-isbn9780415991773

I came home and headed for Tijuana to work on a feature story on the violence down there, which will probbaly make an appendix for Norte Norte, which I am still working on rewrites to return to SDDU Press.

Today, my cover story of street kids appeared in the Reader. Worked 7 weeks on that one, had a hard time kidding street kids to talk to me. An expanded version of it will wind up being a chapter on my auto/ethnographic project on homelessnehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.italic.gif
insert italic tagsss, Now I Know What Happened to Me.

Next, off to Beverly Hills Film Festival this weekend. Third year in a row -- maybe I'll win a troply this time. The screenplay I did with Will, Antacrtica, that was short listed for Sundance/Sloan Screenwriter's Lab. It's the one that this certain kind fellow is interetsed in being his directoral debut, but I am also thinking he may like Because better, when I finish it, which I hope to do this month. Either would be fine with me -- I mean, it's another movie.

Speaking of movies...Stations still has ts set backs but I am working on getting it shot by years's end, and Mommy vs. the Evil Bank Robbers is inching along in pre-production. The who wanted to do my short, "asa and Andi," vanished on me, no surprise -- looking back in this blog, he's the third producer/director to flake on me. I suppose one of these days an unflake will take it on.

Working on an artcle about shooting The Watermelon and the state on indie films in San Diego. Had some good talks with the people at the SD Film Commission and SD Film Festival.

Ah, The Watermelon. I tremble, waiting to hear the original score. After seeing it so many times with the drop in music, it may be akin to seeing a whole new movie -- which I hope it is, and I hope the music is damn good. It is time for that film to get out of post-prod. and start heading for the festivals and buyers. LightSong Films says they want this to change all our lives, and that would be nice -- why do we do this stuff, this art stuff, if not for changing our lives...

My first published novel changed my life. My first full length play production chnaged my life. Hollywood thus far has changed my life -- sometimes for the worst, sometimes for the best, a mixed-blessing as I knew it would be. I have met some great people, I have met some insane people; I have been happy and hurt; I have been disillusioned and felt like I was on the right track; I have been helped and I have been lied to.

Meanwhile, I would like to get back to writing a novel soon, after all these non-fiction projects.

Of which, I am doing a study of blogging for Hampton Press and just signed the contract with McFarland for Women in the Work of Raymond Carver. I am waiting to hear from Indiana Univ. Press about my proposed biography of Carver, and son Borgo Press will release my dirty realist monograph on Carver and Bukowski. I am all Carvered out.