Gimme Shelter

Everybody loves a funny cat video, am I right or am I right?!???

Nigel Trilogy: Part 1

Nigel Trilogy: Part 2

Nigel Trilogy: Part 3

Done laughing your asses off? Special thanks to D. and J. for letting me take care of their cat while they were away. Their cat is honestly one of the unfriendliest cats I've ever encountered, but he really does come from the streets so it makes sense that he's a bit "bitey"...

I've gently set aside procrastination projects like this and have been surrounding myself with horror. I think I've done an admirable job of creeping MYSELF out so far. I just need to make sure I can translate that to the page. Good horror gets under your skin so I've been analyzing all the things that scare me, and why and how they scare me...

Paramount's got a first draft of a "Butcherhouse" outline I've submitted. Monday, I should find out if it's "on the right track" or if it's "what the hell is all this?!" For now, I feel relatively good about it. It's just an outline, and there's a lot yet to figure out and discover through the writing process. I just hope the outline shows that I know what I'm doing and where I'm going with everything.

Despite what some people may think, I don't think horror is easy. The world is filled with too much information that is easily accessible. Even false claims of a movie being "based on a true story" can be swiftly dispelled with a cursory Internet search. You might be able to compile a list of "great horror movies", but it's tougher to assemble a list of horror movies that are considered "great movies".

We'll see if this can't be remedied...

I Never Told You What I Do For A Living...

The boys and girls in the clique!
The awful names that they stick!
You’re never gonna fit in much, kid...!
But if you’re troubled and hurt
What you got under your shirt
Will make them pay for the things that they did!!!

They say the teenagers scare
The living shit out of me!
They could care less
As long as someone’ll bleed!
So darken your clothes!
Or strike a violent pose!
Maybe they’ll leave you alone -- but not me!!

I write. Professionally.

This afternoon, I finally signed the contract with Paramount Pictures.

Deal's done. Advantage: Malice. Game on. Give me a little volume on this.

I've got a rough outline completed for The Butcherhouse Chronicles: The Movie. Based on executive notes. It's a bit crap at the mo, but I'll have it sharpened up by Thursday.

Quite a trip it's been. From before I started this blog, but to think about what's happened since I started this blog earlier this year, it's been a trip. I'm certainly the dark horse. A grateful one.

No time for fuck-ups. No time for fucking up. (Well, okay, maybe a little time.) I've still got everything in the world to prove. I'm through playing hopscotch. I know I'm good, but I know what I can be. It's time to realize that.

It feels oddly lonely, but I'm okay with that for now. I'm young and ready for war.

Everybody Knows

Finally had my face-to-face meeting with my Paramount connection this morning. We batted around story ideas. We'll meet again tomorrow, in Soho, to keep going with it. This has been postponed for forever, it seems, so it felt good.

Productive day that it was, I also got an update from my lawyer. Contract is very nearly there now, at long last. Final sticking point seems to be some wording about potential "stage play sequels" I may choose to write eventually.

I'll re-clarify, my idea to do a trilogy of plays that starts with "The Butcherhouse Chronicles" was never meant to be a continuation of the story on the stage. No common characters or setting. The idea would be to have a trilogy of horror plays that fit together thematically, each operating as a stand-alone piece.

Naturally, this is all extremely theoretical. Who knows if I'd even be able to get these plays produced. And I certainly haven't done any work on them beyond sketching a few loose ideas down.

But the important thing is, "The Butcherhouse Chronicles" as a stage play is still very young, and it will definitely be produced again, and retooled and upscaled and etceteras elipsis. And I've got other plays that aren't horror-themed, and I'd like for them to get a chance to see the light of day. I want to be known as an active playwright, as much as I also want to be an active screenwriter. Hell, I'd even like to get back to prose at some point. (But who gives a shit about that?)

I forget if I've written about it here, but I'm also working on the book for a musical adaptation of Fahrenheit 451. It's being developed through BMI's Musical Theater Workshop. I'm working with a very talented lyricist and composer. I know it sounds like a questionable property for a musical, but we received a very enthusiastic response to our first assignment and it's a good side-project for me. As "librettist", I'm just responsible for the non-singing bits. These are the sorts of jobs I need: ones with less responsibility. (i.e., librettist, Duane Reade stock boy, etc...)

Coz I'm Always on the Run...

Got my laptop yesterday, way ahead of schedule. I wonder if they give you over-inflated "estimated ship dates" on purpose, to make the hoople-heads like me beam.

Gettin acclimated to the keyboard. Trying to make it a new home. I haven't actually taken it OUTSIDE the apartment yet coz I'm like a nervous mother, terrified the new arrival's gonna get its soft skull cracked open somehow.

My first real computer was a laptop. Got it the summer after my freshman year in college. It had 4 megs of RAM and a battery that would last about 60 seconds: not quite long enough for Windows to load completely. Since I retired that computer, I've had a succession of desktops because they're cheaper and I just figured most of my writing would be at home anyway.

But there's something neat about the flexibility of a laptop. Something as silly as being able to write while sitting my on bed. I mean, my bed is approximately 1 step away from my desktop. But a desktop is big and bulky and a series of boxes connected by thick black cords. A laptop's much more like a notebook. A lot easier to retrieve and get something going. Beyond the obvious portability factor, I'm hoping it'll get me writing more.

Blogging is a nice warm-up... always.

Girl Shake That Laffy Taffy!

It was all a dream...!
I used to read Word Up magazine!
Salt'n'Pepa and Heavy D up in the limousine!
Hangin' pictures on my wall...
Every Saturday, Rap Attack, Mr. Magic, Marley Marl...
I let my tape rock 'til my tape popped...!

Stupid laptop won't ship till the 23rd. Guess I'm stuck using a notebook and pen on the go for a while longer. I am the embodiment of impatience.

For all the years I worked for it, for all the years I dreamed of it, now that it's upon me... I think it's such a strange thing to get paid to do. Writing stories, that is. I did it growing up, I went to school for it, I spent years writing the speculatives.

And now... what's it mean?

What's it all for, Malice? What's it all for?

Now I just keep going, I guess. I'm not equipped to do anything else with my life. I don't think I'd want to do anything else. At the same time, I wonder if I'll be able to contribute anything meaningful to the world or whether I'm just about to contribute a few samples to the pop culture cacophany that is out there.

Money Changes Everything

Deal oughta be done... mmm... in a week or so? But I went ahead and bought a laptop already. Because I've been needing to, and I figure it's a basic tool I should have, and I honestly think it'll help me write. This decision involved significant hemming and hawing, and I thought about waiting till the money actually came through but I'd like to have the thing already and set it up proper in advance and begin to use it before I dive into the heavy work.

Cyndi Lauper was right: money does change everything. I've struggled with day jobs for a good decade now, barely making ends meet, amassing debt... and this one silly story of mine is going to sort me out.

Eventually. Can't repair the ruins in a day.

Can't wait to pay off my fucking credit card debt, though. May not be able to x it all off right up front, but I *should* be able to take care of it within a year which is way sooner than expected.

But first things come first. A decent laptop. A writer writes... everywhere.

Terry Gilliam Promotes TIDELAND

Read this report that Terry Gilliam was gonna crash the line for THE DAILY SHOW, and since I ain't got no life I ran down there with my video camera in hand.

You can viddy the footage hereabouts.

He made time to chat with everybody who wanted to chat and people were slipping him business cards, but I didn't. Didn't introduce myself as a writer, didn't plug BUTCHERHOUSE, didn't slip him a card though I had them in my bag. I just figured whatever I said would go in one ear and out the other. If I end up working with him professionally one day, I'll just meet him again in another scenario where he'll be more inclined to take me seriously.

He'd be a cool choice to direct THE BUTCHERHOUSE MOVIE -- perhaps -- but I feel like he's more excited about telling his own stories right now. And more power to him. I find it sad that a filmmaker of his caliber has so much trouble getting films made at this stage in his career. He's got it worse than Scorsese, and it's unconscionable that Scorsese has any trouble. But don't get me started...!