2011: The Year That Was (Part Three)

The middle of the year was one of quiet transition.  I was uncertain of just about everything.  The novel took a backseat to my health, and the release date of Stage One was only a minor concern.  It was at this point that I began to doubt my need to get Monarch published.  I had been writing it for over a year, but who would miss the story if I were to stop writing it?

No one but myself.

Thankfully, by August the horizon came back into view.  The world became tolerable once more.  I was ready to begin the final push of Egg out into the world.  First, I had to deal with the pesky November writer's conference.  

My experience with the November conference can best be described as a helpful distraction.  I had to change the release date of  Egg.  I should have done so earlier when I was in the midst of physical therapy, but I was distracted.  It was changed from 11/11/11 to 12/22/11.  I didn't change the date until October and felt horrible for having to do so.  The last thing I wanted to do was get people's hopes up and dash them.  I heard some grumbling but I made the change out of respect to the agents I was to meet at the conference.

Once the conference was over, I was actually feeling pretty good.  Healthier than I had been in almost a year. I had just finished a massive rewrite and was geared up for the homestretch.  In truth, the story benefited from  running the gauntlet in the lead up to the conference.  It had been a shinning beacon for months and my preparation for it had me ready for anything.  Hearing the news from eight respected agents that self-publishing eBooks is a viable way to break into publishing was validation for the last year and a half of work.  I was ready to roll.

After one last polish, I was ready to begin the roll out of Monarch: Egg.  First was the Chapter Preview, which was an opportunity for me to not only say thank you  to those who purchased during the pre-sale, but also to get feedback and test the Amazon KDP system for the December release.

Thanksgiving was a nervous time for me in Savannah.  The KDP system was slow to update because of the holidays, yet ultimately did update a week later.  Lesson learned as December came into sight.

I must thank SaraBeth Huntley and Scott Padgett for their efforts.  It is with their help, and Amazon, that the rest of the year has unfolded beautifully.

The release of Monarch: Egg went as smoothly as I could have hoped.  Except for having to give technical advice to people trying to get the Kindle App on their electronic device.  If it was perfect it wouldn't be real, right?  Nothing has been perfect this year, so why end it that way.  I can joke about it today on the last day of the year, but I wasn't laughing in May.  Time is slipping away and I am aware how fragile we all are.  I am thankful for the lessons learned this year and look forward to next year.  Long live 2011!

Tomorrow is the first day of 2012.  This should be interesting.  Let's see what it brings.

Happy New Year!!

-Aaron Pitters

2011: The Year That Was (Part Two)

January 2011 arrived with snow and ice.  It was downright frigid.  January seems to be the time of year I go into assessment and betterment mode.  I take account of what is going on around me and then make adjustments where I see fit. It's like righting the course by the North Star while at sea .  I take classes, do extensive research and read, read , read.  This past January began like others until I sustained an injury.

It happened in late January.  A pinch in my neck.  Numbness in my fingers.  It was painful but I pushed on without treatment.  Stupid!

For the next few months, I labored through typing as I made gradual progress on the rewrite.  Periods of Ice and Heat became my daily routine.  Ibuprofen my fiendish friend.  The pace was slow but I was making progress.  My confidence was coming back and I set a release date for Stage One:  July 1st.

February became March, which quickly became April, and then May arrived.  It was in May that I suffered another setback.  I woke up in agony as thunderbolts of pain shot through the back of my neck.  I couldn't work to support myself and the rewrite ground to a halt.

To be continued tomorrow... 

2011: The Year That Was (Part One)

Hard to believe 2012 is almost here.  I have mixed feelings looking back over the year of 2011.  As I get older, I try and stay optimistic because people have always seemed to think I'm a pessimist or a cynic.

I prefer to call myself a realist.  Just like an avid football enthusiast might question the effective return of Peyton Manning, I question the durasticity (duration of elasticity) of the "norm" in society and personal human interactions due to a myriad of possible opposing influences that can drastically affect the life of an individual, their family, as well as a society.  Some things shake but can not destroy our normal way of living.  Other times things are changed so dramatically that a new "norm" is created and the way things were is cast to memory.

What does that all have to do with 2011?  

Everything!

At the start of 2011 I was just beginning the rewrite of my four-staged novel Monarch.  I was feeling good.  I had finished the first draft in November 2010, four months after I began in early July.  My pride was showing and my confidence was high.  With how easy it had been to finish the 1st draft, I figured the rewrite would go just as smoothly.

I was wrong.

To be continued tomorrow...

The Two-Day Load up your Electronic Device for Free Sale

Beginning tomorrow, I would like to give everyone with an interest a chance to take part in the Four Stage procession of Monarch through out 2012.  For two days, 12/27 and 12/28, anyone who wants to ride the fright train with Ginger Reed and her family as 12/21/2012 quickly draws near can do so for FREE.

This will be all four stages of the novel!

Stage One is available now and Stage Two is due for release in Spring.  You will receive an e-mail from Amazon at the time of Stage Two, Three and Four's release.

The story of survival in literature is tried and true, but the uncertain foreboding of 12/21/2012 and how it relates to us on a human level, with our deficiencies and strengths, is what makes Monarch unique.  Ginger has her ways of dealing with an uncertain future.  How will you? 

This is a unique offer only through Amazon and can not be found anywhere else.

Load your new Kindle Fire with this Apocalyptic Butterfly.

Monarch available for Free on Amazon!

Read the Preview  

Happy Holidays!


-Aaron Pitters

Monarch: Egg is now Available

The wait is over.  It's zero hour for Monarch: Egg.  For those of you who were waiting for it's release, your wait is over.  You may purchase the story now.

For those who have already purchased their copy I have good and not so good news.  The not so good news is that Amazon has yet to send out email notifications to those who have purchased prior to today.

Those who have purchased since I last did an update will have to wait for Amazon to contact you.  My apologies.  Hopefully those e-mails will be forthcoming over the next 24 hours.

The Good news is that if you (my loyal readers) received an update from Amazon for the preview back at the first of the month, you should be able to read Egg within minutes.  Simply reply "yes" once again to the same email message you received in early December and all one hundred plus pages of Egg should soon be on your Kindle or Kindle application. I tried this today just to see if it worked.  Sure enough, it did.  It felt like I was hacking my own book, but it replaced it almost instantaneously.

What I did was log on to Amazon and then go to my Kindle Application on my computer.  I "right-clicked" on my copy of Monarch in my Kindle Library and then clicked on "Remove From Device."  By doing this it removes the current version.  At the same time, at the bottom of the page a transparent version of the book reappears.  Only this time it has the symbol of an "arrow descending from a cloud."  This is the version stored online.  If things have been updated, once you click on the transparent book cover you should then have Stage One in your Kindle.

Hopefully by the release of Stage Two the bugs will be worked out of the system. Again my apologies if you have to wait.

Regardless of the kinks in this process, Monarch: Egg is ready for consumption just in time for Christmas.   I hope you enjoy it.  There are only 365 days left until 12/21/2012.

Thanks for reading.

-aap

 Monarch: Egg (Only $0.99)
Monarch  (Also available for $0.99 only through the Holidays)

One Week Until The Release Of Monarch: Egg

Seven days and counting until the first of four stages in my novel Monarch is released upon the world.  Holy Christmas! am I excited about this.  This is hardly a finish line, but it is a first step.

For those of you who read this and have not purchased either Monarch: Egg or Monarch (all four stages, which will be updated upon the release of each subsequent stage), no sweat.  Amazon is running them both at discounted prices.  Egg is available for FREE through tomorrow, and all four stages are available for only $0.99 for a limited time.

Believe it or not I have had my fair share of doubts along the way. As an actor out in Los Angeles that "choice" role eluded me.  As a screenwriter I wrote stories that contained the type of roles I had always dreamed of portraying, and finally had the opportunity to do so in the handful of short films I wrote, produced, directed, edited and starred in.  Talk about stress, try wearing all those hats.  That was all GREAT experience, but proved too time consuming and fruitless to continue.

The dawn of the eBook opened my eyes, and the inevitable next step was writing Fiction. All of my previous experience has helped shape the way I work in crafting short stories and now with Monarch.  But it was undoubtedly the writing of screenplays with multiple stories around a central story that best prepared me for writing this novel.

Last night, over a cup of coffee, I was taking account of all my written work over the past twenty years.  I realized that over half of the screenplays that I have written are multi-storied like Pulp Fiction or Crash.  Ironically enough, it was the writing of all those stories that best prepared me for releasing Monarch in four stages.  While there are those who are diehard paper-bound book readers, I love eBooks.   It is because of the eBook format that I wrote Monarch.

My next book will also start off as an eBook.  I don't want to talk about it too much before Monarch is even out, but I will say that it is my favorite screenplay I have ever written and it has multiple stories that will be released in several parts.  But first things first.  In seven days you can start the journey with Ginger Reed and the rest of humanity as we count down the hours to 12/21/2012.

-aap

A Holiday Gift

Happy Holidays Everyone!

To help you get into the spirit of the season, I am giving away
Monarch: Egg for FREE.  That's right, for absolutely no money.  In addition, I have also lowered the price on all four stages to just $0.99.  Though hurry over to Amazon, because these deals will only last until Friday.

Merry Christmas!

-Aaron Pitters

A Year's Worth of Entertainment

Two weeks until the release of Monarch.  Huzzah!

Yes, this is me pimping my book... again.  Hey, if I don't, who will?  No one.  So if you’re curious to know more, I’ll try and make this shameless self-promotion as brief and painless as possible.

Who else is going to offer you a year's worth of Entertainment for $2.99?  Well, what about $.99?  

True, there may be others.  But, how many of them will scare you out of your wits and tug on your heartstrings? 

A few, you say.  I suppose that may be true as well. 

Will any other story parallel what you, me and 7 billion others will be going through as we all countdown to 12/21/2012 not knowing what, if anything might happen? 

Maybe.

Will any of them release in four stages over the next twelve months, and will each stage be patterned after the lifecycle of the Monarch Butterfly? 

Not likely.        

Will you be transformed by the end?

Anything is possible. 

Will all of the aforementioned happen in one story—other than Monarch—over the next twelve months?

No.

However, it will if you decide to take the journey with Ginger Reed and her family. 

For $2.99 (no, make that$.99), you will have all four stages delivered to your Kindle or Kindle Application on the release dates listed below.   

  

December 22, 2011 – Stage One

March 20, 2012 (Tentative Date) – Stage Two

June 20, 2012 (Tentative Date) – Stage Three

September 22, 2012 (Tentative Date) – Stage Four   

Interested or want to know more?

-aap

Finally!

Finally!  All those who purchased a copy of Monarch before Thanksgiving should have now received an email from Amazon.  Just respond "yes" and within two hours all of your Kindle devices or applications should have the "Chapter Preview" update.  Sorry for the delay. I hope you enjoy it.

For those of you who are curious to read the "Chapter Preview," but unsure whether or not you want to shell out any cheese to do so, I got your back.  Click the link below and get a sneak peak at Monarch:Egg.    Only three more weeks until its release.  If you like what you read, I hope you'll consider purchasing a year’s worth of entertainment for just $2.99 and join Ginger Reed in anticipation of December 21, 2012.

-aap

Monarch Preview

I have news.  Good News.  The Monarch Preview is now available!

Those of you who have purchased, or plan to purchase, Monarch through Amazon can now read the Chapter One Preview.  It is entitled "Enter the Cipher" -- the opening chapter of the book!!!

If you have already purchased Monarch or Monarch:Egg, you should be receiving an email from Amazon shortly.  The message will ask you to replace your current version.  Click it and enjoy.  Thank you for your patience.

If you enjoy what you read, please "like" the story or "rate" it on Amazon.

Feel free to send any comments or questions to aaronpitters@monarchthenovel.com

Thank you for reading.  Happy Thanksgiving!

-Aaron Pitters

Atlanta Writers Conference (Nov. 2011)

The Conference has come and gone. It was on a much smaller scale than the Screenwriter's Expo I went to back in 2009. The Expo had a thousand people milling about, while the AWC Conference had maybe a hundred. Good information. If I do one of these again, I will have to attend the "Social" they have the day prior to the conference.

I liked how much access we were given to Chuck Sambuchino.  He is a well of information.  Unfortunately, other than the agent panel at the beginning of the day, he was the only one giving seminars all day long. I almost felt bad that he had to be up there for so long. Granted he covered a wide variety of topics, but the guy is only human.

It seems the view of agents towards self-publishing has begun to change.  The panel of six agents at the Conference now consider self-publishing a viable option for authors.  They weren't suggesting that everyone do it.  In fact, they advised everyone to try the conventional route to publishing first, but if a particular set of circumstances warrant it, then they felt self-publishing could be a good thing.  (One can always take their work down from Amazon if need be.)  This is a vast shift from what I had heard over the past year at AWC meetings.  With more and more success stories coming out of the self-publishing realm, everyone (from the readers and the writers all the way to the publishers) is attempting to adapt with the change. The book world is in flux due to e-Books. There is no solid ground and, for the moment, writers don't have to take the circuitous route to being published.  This is wonderful news for someone like myself.

Overall, the conference was informative and helpful, if not a little too intimate.  They could have used more than the one microphone for the Agent Panel.  Some of what was said went unheard.  Poor marks for that.  However, my agent pitch session went well and my chance meeting on the shuttle back to the airport with another agent put a shine on the whole experience.  

-aap

Take Shelter Review

Now that the AWC Conference is over I can write about the movie I saw last week Wednesday.

Take Shelter is a well made Psychological Drama that focuses on an everyday American family man, Curtis (played by Michael Shannon), who begins having unsettling nightmares.

The dreams become more intense and Curtis begins to fear that he may be becoming like his mother, who abandoned him as a child due to her paranoid schizophrenia and has been hospitalized ever since. He does not want that to happen to his family, so he lies to all those in his life about why he is updating the storm shelter in the back yard.

Curtis sees doctor after doctor, who prescribe medications to help him maintain his way of life, but the nightmares persist and his world begins to unravel, much like the destruction wrought by the horrific storms in his dreams.

I won't give away the ending in this one, though I will say it did make one gentleman grumble behind me.  I hate when people do that.  My opinion is that the ending tied it all together nicely.  It had me walking out of the theater reflecting on the simply told story and the complex issues it raised about the human mind.

This movie, as the groaning man in the theater might attest, is not for everyone.  Kids won't like it.  People looking for action and adventure or comedy won't like it.  But those who like to walk out of a theater reflecting on what they just saw will enjoy this movie.  I did.

-aap

A Halloween Treat

I am posting today to wish you all a Happy and Safe Halloween.  Also, I want to inform you about the Sneak Preview of Monarch:Egg.  Several months ago, I contemplated giving people who purchased Monarch early a collectible item.  My choosing to publish through Amazon seemed to eliminate that option.  I thought about giving away t-shirts with the Monarch logo and had several other ideas in mind.  Oh well.

While I can no longer give away t-shirts or other gifts of appreciation, I can reward those who purchase my book early in one way through Amazon.  For anyone who purchases either Monarch: Egg or Monarch before 11/13/11...ish, I will give you a Sneak Peek at Monarch.

How will I do this?

Well, the Sneak Peek will not be available immediately.  First, I have to attend the 11/11-11/12 Atlanta Writers Conference and see what comes of that.  At some point after that weekend, and before the 12/22/2011 release date, I will make the preview available.  Amazon will send an email informing you that an update has been made to the book.  By clicking on a link in the email it will allow you to replace the message with the Sneak Preview of the book on your Kindle or Kindle application.

I am choosing to do the Sneak Preview for two reasons.  1) It is a way for me to apologize for having to change the Release Date because of the Conference.  2) It is a way for me to thank you for purchasing Monarch before it is even available.  And I appreciate that very much.

Happy Halloween!
Aaron Pitters

The Eve of November

There are only a handful of days before Halloween and November.  That is important for me to note for two reasons.

First, two movies I have been wanting to see release this weekend:  In Time, the futuristic thriller starring Justin Timberlake, and Take Shelter, the psychological everyman movie starring Michael Shannon.  The later of the two is in the same vein as Monarch, with Curtis (Michael Shannon) and Ginger both negatively affecting their families by obsessing over his and her beliefs in the possible End of the World. 

The negative reviews In Time is receiving may cause me to postpone viewing it until it comes out on DVD or On Demand.  We'll see.  But Take Shelter has been sitting on a shelf since last year.  I had hoped they would release it then, yet that didn't happen.  The producers of the movie likely felt going up against The King's Speech was a bad idea and pushed it to now.  Just a guess.  Still, I can't wait to see it. 
 
Second, there are only two weeks until the Atlanta Writers Conference.  I recently received the last of three rounds of notes from my editor for Egg (the first stage of Monarch).  Over the past month, I have been tweaking and tinkering with her suggestions.  By the 11th of November, the story will be polished and ready to go to the conference.  

This month did not start out on a positive note; I had to move the release of Egg until December.  I felt horrible for having to make the change, but it was the right thing to do.  I'm a SPA (self-publishing author).  My goal from the time I started writing this story was to self-publish an e-Book through Amazon.  If nothing comes out of the conference, no worries.  I will continue per the plan.  However, there is a minute chance to make an impact at the conference.

The month and a half after the conference should allow for one more round of editing by an outside source.  Depending on how the conference goes, the editor either will be of my choosing or suggested to me.  This "not knowing" what will happen next is just part of the ride of being an unknown SPA.  Like being on a roller coaster, you cheer when it's up and hang on when it comes roaring down.

Here comes November... wheeeee!!!

-aap

When words are not necessary (Poem)

When words are not necessary, an ending has either long since passed or is close at hand.  You find yourself speechless due to exhaustion of the mind or physical condition.

The King of Sighs rules this realm.  He has seen an epiphany in the eyes of billions, marveled as all worries ease into gladness.  Long it has been since he has smiled back.

The bond between one and another, when words are not needed, is as close to a psychic connection as the masses can achieve.  At these moments, new archetypes are forged in our swelling collective conscious.  Monuments of the mind or cloud figurines?

Be you a seeker or lost finder, your path shall lead you there.  And words won’t be necessary.

-----------------      --------------------       -----------------------


This marks the first of several Cipher inspired poems that I hope to post over the next year.  They will be grouped together in Ted's Poetry Page.

-aap

The Autumnal Harvest

This is my favorite time of year, October.  Spring is a close second.  And the two change in favor depending on what time of year it is. The leaves falling off the trees.  The pleasant drop in temperature.  A change in wardrobe.  Change.  The past, present and future can be perceived simultaneously during Autumn. 

I missed the progression of seasons while in Los Angeles.   Visually it stays the same most of the year.  Growing up in the south, the change of seasons became part of who I am.  Fall is a reminder that all things must change.  It is also a time to harvest.  It is a reflective period, similar to January, except that there are still two and a half months left in the year.  What has been achieved must be accounted for and put to use.  For me, that harvest is Monarch, my first novel, due to be released in four stages over the next year. 

Egg is now in the "The Spit and Polish" stage of the rewrite process.   At this point, I am no longer making wholesale revisions -- the time for that was yesterday.  The next thirty days shall be geared towards refining and making subtle modifications before the November Atlanta Writers Club Conference. 

While I look forward to meeting with all of those at the Conference, the release of Egg is not reliant upon what transpires over that weekend.  I'm a former theater guy, and the show must go on.  The stage is set.  Part one of Monarch will be available to read with a Kindle App by the end of the year.

Time to open the windows and get back to work.

-aap

Release Date Change for Monarch: Egg

In my last post, I wrote about how an SPA (Self-Publishing Author) must listen and adapt.  Well, I have been listening and must make a change.  The reason for this change is something I regret not having taken into account earlier this year. 

In late May, it became evident that non-writing issues would prevent me from meeting my then July deadline, so I moved the release date to November 11th.  All was a little more chaotic then and I was not as focused as I needed to be.  I did not take into full account the November 11-12 Atlanta Writers Club Conference I signed up for in mid-June. 

I justified the close proximity of these two big events, choosing to believe that it would actually help to have my book out on the market one day before I meet with agents and publishers.  One day?  I should have changed the release date again then. Did I?  No.

Yes, meeting and talking with fellow writers about my newly released book at the conference might help short-term sales, though it would likely ruin any chance I might have at securing an agent.  I tried to hide the fact that an agent or publisher might lose interest in my story, if I were to self-publish it the day before meeting them. I believed that it could somehow bolster their interest.  I was wrong.  The days are too close.  

I had in mind three possible release dates at the beginning of the year.  The first was early July, which was changed because of issues beyond my control.  The second was November, and I don't see it happening because of the conference.  The third was December, with one year to go to the end of the Mayan Calendar on 12/21/2012.  I cannot release any later than the winter solstice on 12/22/2011. That will still allow readers one full year, with leap day included, to read Monarch.  A solar year.    

Now that I have the end in sight, I see that my egregious error is not that I must change the release date.  No.  I am an unknown author.  The people I have wanting to read my book right now, I probably know.  My error is that I may have disappointed some of them. 

To you, I apologize. I appreciate your support and I apologize for having to alter the release date of Monarch: Egg to December 22nd.  It means a great deal to me that you would purchase my book before it was available.  If I do release it earlier than 12/22/11 or give a possible sneak peek, those of you who have bought your copy before 11/11/11 will be the first to know.

E n t e r

 t h e 

C i p h e r

-aap 

Self-Publishing Ebook Update

I began work on Monarch back in March 2010.  Since then I have made changes at almost every step along the way.  The story has been tweaked.  The release date moved back.  But the idea behind it all has stayed the same: A woman struggles with her perception of time and her place in the world.  Her battle to accept change is similar to my rewriting process.  Discovering what need be altered is the central aspect of rewriting—along with making the necessary changes.

Being a Self-Publishing Author (SPA) requires a sense of focus and drive.  One must be more than an author.  There is no publicist or publishing house to assist along the way.  Family, friends, fellow writers and the internet, with their combined knowledge and insight, are invaluable to an SPA.  An ability to listen and adapt are as important as that first spark of inspiration.

An SPA must be able to listen and adapt during this fluid time in publishing.  eBooks have started a revolution. Smart phones, eReaders, tablets and the other new electronic devices hitting the market are changing the landscape of society and publishing simultaneously.

If the known world had not begun making these technological advancements over the past couple of years, I would not have tried to tackle the 12/21/2012 themed Monarch.  The lack of time would have been an issue with the traditional paper-based publishing model.  And self-publishing to print would have been too expensive. 

My writing of anthologies in the past helped me realize that I could release Monarch in four stages over the span of a year.  Writing them as four separate eBooks allows me more time with each stage in the story. The first stage, Monarch: Egg, is due to be released on 11/11/11.  Since I am self-publishing, if I needed to, I could change the release date.  One year prior to the end of the Mayan Calendar, on the December 22, 2011 Winter Solstice, would be the most logical alternative date for release. We'll see.
-aap

Contagion (Spoilers!)

I went to my local theater yesterday and ate copious amounts of popcorn while watching Contagion.  Gesundheit!

Thanks to IMDB I have been watching the trailer for this movie for months now.  I can see why all the people in the CDC were so anxious to see how Soderbergh visualized the pandemic described in the trailer.  The movie is a very clinical approach to dealing with the outbreak of a deadly swine flu disease that kills its host within days.

With such a talented cast and director, I was expecting more of an emotional connection with the characters.  There were moments, don't get me wrong, and some of them were quite powerful; though for the most part, this is a plot driven story that really only grabbed me in the very middle of the film, when the epidemic had reached its peek and chaos ensued.  People become like animals and we see mankind at its worst.  To that regard it delivered, be it ever so briefly. 

After that, there is a cure and a sappy sweet ending.

That was my biggest problem with the movie: there were no repercussions, except for the least developed part of the story in Asia when a village takes a WHO employee hostage for the cure and receives a placebo instead.

Jude Law's character was an intriguing one, especially those teeth -- they too should get a credit in the movie.  I would have liked to see the film focus more on Matt Damon's struggle in dealing with his wife's infidelity; it's acknowledged in the end almost as an afterthought.  Granted, he is focused on his and his daughter's survival.  When he steals the shotgun, I thought he would have to use it, but I don't remember him ever having to fire it.

My writer instincts are always looking to find things that I might have done differently.  In this film, with the particular characters given, I would have written a version where friends and neighbors turn on Damon and his daughter, after finding out from Law's blog it was Damon’s wife who brought this hell to America.  That would have allowed the film to toil in the animal nature of desperation for a longer spell and forced him to use that gun.         

This is a good movie, not a great one.  It was much better than Outbreak, yet also too similar in some regards.

While the popcorn was buttery and delicious, the break from writing was worth the price of admission alone.

-aap   

Stage One Update

Yesterday, Stage One reached a deadline.  If you can't keep to them, then don't make them, right?  Some people are averse to having to work on a deadline.  I'll admit there are times that they can be a nuisance, when so many things can pop up any given day.  Yet, for me, at least right now, deadlines serve a very important purpose.  This has been a tumultuous year; I have been put to the test on many fronts, and to still be able to meet my writing deadlines, to this point, despite all the tribulations, is a frickin' awesome feeling.  I'll have to write another book just to describe the gauntlet I've had to run just to reach this point in Monarch.  And what point is that?

Yesterday, I sent Stage One to my editor.  By doing this I have reached a point of no return.  From here on out it's self-published e-book or bust.  While I am anxious to get Stage One back in my hands, I am also glad for the opportunity to momentarily step back.  It will afford me a few days to focus on Stage Two.  Then, once I have received my notes on Stage One, I can make the necessary changes and polish it all up before the biggest deadline of this year, the release date for Egg.

Until I get those notes back, I shall reward myself for reaching this deadline by going to see a movie.  For those of you who are interested, I shall be seeing Contagion this afternoon and consuming copious amounts of buttered popcorn.

-aap

Monarch‏ available for Preorder

Today begins the Preorder for my first novel.  Two months and eleven days from today I will not only be releasing Stage One: Egg, but I will also be meeting with a literary agent.  That is one of the reasons I have decided to do a Presale.  If I have crafted a good enough story to go along with good sales over the next couple of months, they may be more open to representing Monarch; thus, increasing the chances that there will be a paperback and hardcover version next summer.  My second reason for doing an early sale is to give my friends, family and those who are keen on the story a break on the pricing of the book(s) before I raise them in November.

It has been over a year since I started on Monarch.  Actually, work began over a decade ago when I wrote a screenplay called Cipher.  Some of you have likely seen the movie trailer that I and others made years ago.  I did little to promote the story and soon moved on to other endeavors, chalking it up to experience, but I never forgot it.  Ten years later, in January of 2010, I was contemplating what artistic undertakings to try to tackle for the year, as I do every year around that time.  That was when it occurred to me: I might attempt something new, while incorporating something over a decade old. 

The much-maligned day of December 21, 2012 was right around the corner; and having witnessed the hysteria back in 1999 over Y2K, I began to construct a plan.  The plan was to bring back the decade-old story of Cipher, and incorporate it into another story.  So, after a year and a half of work, Monarch is almost ready.  She's warming up in the wings, nervously awaiting her chance upon the stage. 

My plan for Monarch is to release it in four separate stages - named after the four stages of the Monarch Butterfly life cycle.  This allows me to do the story like the old serials of yesteryear, a perfect fit for the eBook format that I shall be using with Amazon.  Now I know some of you may be saying, "Well, I don't have a Kindle."  Neither do I, but the beautiful thing is the Kindle is also a FREE downloadable application for multiple devices: Windows PC, MAC, Blackberry, iphone, ipad, Android, Windows Phone 7.  Once you have downloaded the App you must then register it.  As long as you have an account with Amazon, you can now go ahead and purchase kindle e-books.  

If you have the Kindle App on several devices, you can also switch between them.  You can start reading on your PC and then get in a few minutes at lunch with your smart phone.  Pretty Awesome!  We truly are living in a digital age.  Oh, almost forgot Amazon's newest gizmo, you can even use the Amazon Cloud Reader, which allows you to read a book while online.  And then on November 11th you can start reading Monarch. 


This is very important.  Just so you know, when you purchase Monarch online there will be a document sent to your device.  It is not the story.  THAT DOCUMENT WILL NOT AUTOMATICALLY BE REPLACED ON NOVEMBER 11th.  You will receive an email from Amazon, probably a few days prior to the eleventh, which will ask you to click a link to replace files.  Click it and Monarch: Egg will supplant the other document.  I will keep you posted on my blog. 

To find out more about the story or to place an order you can either go through my website at monarchthenovel.com, which will send you to Amazon, or go to my Amazon page. 

Thank you for the support.

-aap

AWC Prep Workshop

Well, the day I had been waiting to arrive for two months finally got here today.  I had an opportunity to meet with Author Joshua Corin and discuss the first twenty pages of my novel Monarch.  Nice guy.  We have a few things in common that attracted me to seek advice from him as opposed to one of the other fine writers made available to us through the Atlanta Writers Club.  The fact that he too has written a number of screenplays was a nice commonality.  That two of his novels were from a female's perspective was another point of interest.  The twenty minutes flew by.

Mr. Corin was kind enough to make notes upon the pages I had submitted earlier in the month.  In addition to his notes, he also relayed what he liked about those first few pages and expressed what he felt may need possible tweaking before publication.  I look forward to reviewing the notes from our conversation over the next couple of days. 

The folks at AWC, as always, did a real nice job in putting this all together.  I want to thank them and Mr. Corin for taking the time to do the Prep Workshop.  The November conference is just around the corner, can't wait.

-aap

The Vacuum of Time (A brief rant against the flaws in society that drag good people down.)

Each day drifts 24 hours closer to yet another deadline.  And each deadline exacts at least a modest toll as you reach it.  Sometimes that toll has no monetary value, but instead an emotional or physical taxation upon an individual, which often does not register in the big picture until later.  In the big picture things change because of the subtle, or not so subtle, nudges one must endure while paying the old bills. 

Paying the bills is one example of a deadline that strips you of not only your money but also your time.  Think of all that you could do if you still had some of that money.  The truth is, it's gone forever, much like the time it took to earn it.  And as soon as you pay one bill off, you have to start the time drain on your life to pay the next one.  It's a horrible cycle for most people.  A battle.  The list of bills the older you get just seems to get longer and longer and the time left in life just withers away. 

The capacity to slow the cycle is one that any person not of privilege must strive towards, however futile an endeavor may be.  Whether one reaches the point where the time=money cycle is in their favor requires effort, skill &/or chance.  Being prepared often isn't enough in the short-term, but usually wins out in the long run.  And dumb luck can work in the opposite way for those who have put in no preparations. For most people, we just have to keep pounding our heads against the walls until it gives or we eventually bleed out.

If you want to risk it all to chance, good luck.  But the only sure way to hold the tides of time at bay, without taking advantage of others, and break the monotony is with skill and forward thinking.  Sure there are those with money who believe they are ahead of the curve and live pampered lives with little responsibility, but most have very little intrinsic worth.  They may give to charities, for tax purposes, but that does not make them productive.  What do they do on a day to day basis that keeps things moving forward in a positive direction?  Shopping? (Now, I do not mean all people with money are this way.  This is a generalization of course.)

There are people at both ends of the wealth scale, and even in between, who burden us all by being lazy, good for nothings or lying cheats.  They cost us time by wasting theirs.  Some breed babies for welfare, while eating Doritos and watching Springer. On the other end, you have the trust fund retards who lounge about after plastic surgery, talking about the suffering they must endure to be beautiful.  If we could figure out a way to motivate these soulless loads, we would all be better off - themselves included, for they would have their souls back and would actually be serving a purpose on this rock.

But we can't just ask of others.  We too must be better, must continue to learn, must work smarter, and not allow ourselves to be willfully deceived or always carry the burden.  Make people shape up or ship out and actually enforce some sense of accountability.  Seems simple, it's not!  If we can achieve that, then the rest of us, who carry the weakest in society (the rich do nothings, the cheats and habitual liars and the welfare loads) on our backs, might be able to slow the vacuum of time just enough to release the strain of our burden of responsibility and enjoy our lives for just a little while. 

-aap

Monarch Preorder Update

For about two months, I have been consternating how I might effectively do a Presale of my first Novel.  I am by no means a well-known writer; so, I thought Amazon might be out of the picture, because they don't allow unknown writers to do "official" preorders.  Then I thought about Paypal, which would have given me a chance to send out a collectible item via the web or through the mail.  If I were to go with Paypal, I would have to figure out a way to get a digital version of the book to customers.  No biggie, right?  Except, I intended to release the book through Amazon Kindle.  This creates a potential messy financial situation that might very well throw a wrench into the whole process.   

Earlier this week, I did a test on Amazon to see whether I could do an "unofficial" Preorder for Monarch through their site; low and behold, the results seem promising.  One problem solved.  The only bad part is I will be unable to provide a collectible with the purchase of an electronic copy of my book.  Time is running short and I am afraid that the collectible may have to wait.  If my sales are good enough, I would like to release a hardcover version.  That may be the point to do a collectible.  If any of you have any ideas how I might still go about providing the collectible with the e-book, please let me know.  I am open to ideas.

monarchthenovel.com

-aap

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Review (Possible Spoilers)

It has been awhile since I have seen a movie in the theater -- the most recent was X-men.  Thirty dollars isn't as easy to part with as it use to be.  Something really has to appeal to me for me to part with my hard-earned money these days.  I thought I might be willing to shell out for a number of films that preceded Apes this summer, but my interest quickly cooled.  Yet, after seeing the ads for this movie, I realized it was going to be a revenge flick, and I love revenge flicks.  The fact that the buzz surrounding this film was so positive only piqued my interest more.  So, after watching all the trailers online about a dozen times I decided to go check it out.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes unfurls with an actual story to tell.  It does not rehash like the Tim Burton film, which had its merits, but fell well short of being considered a good movie.  There are nods to the other movies  in this film, but this is an origin story.

It's funny that as a writer, I have been told over and over again "never start at the beginning" and "always start at some point later on."  The reason was to start with action and reflect later.   It's obvious that there has been a change in this philosophy over the past ten years, with so many stories going back to their origins.   Why?  Well, as a rule of thumb, I think opening a story later on is still a good way of doing things, but so many movies these days have no where to go but back to the beginning, and that is why we are seeing more films start from scratch.

Anyway, back to the movie. It opens with the capture of a number of chimpanzees from the wild, immediately making the viewer sympathize with them.  This is needed in a revenge flick.  For most of the movie the humans are made into the bad guys, except for Franco's character, Will, and those close to him.   Will is doing research on a possible cure for Alzheimers; one he hopes might cure his father, John Lithgow.

There are so many touching moments through out this movie between father and son, and then also with Caesar - the infant chimpanzee he secretly took home from the lab and raised, played masterfully by Andy Serkis - and his perceived father, Will.

In fact, much of the film is dedicated to the building of relationships.  Even when an adolescent Caesar is placed inside a Primate Facility after a misunderstanding with Will's neighbor, he must, for the first time in his life, create relationships with his kind.  But they are not like him, for he is so much smarter than them, and comes from a happy home.  Only a circus orangutang, who also speaks sign language, can, at first, appreciate and understand Caesar.

But Caesar learns quickly how the Facility works and soon becomes their leader.  Once that happens, the movie really gets going, and it is time for some comeuppance mankind.

Even though there were a few plot holes, and some of the CGI was suspect, this was a really good film.  It touched on almost all the right notes, except for the love relationship between Will and Caroline, Freida Pinto, which never seemed all that genuine.  The fact that Caesar never got all hot and bothered by any of the females at the facility was probably due to how silly it would seem on film, as it did in other Ape films.

Rupert Wyatt, the director, has successfully crafted a story worth re-watching (hopefully with added or extended scenes for the dvd), and I can't say that about too many of the recent films I have seen.  Except for those diehard ILM (Industrial Light and Magic) fans, most people, young and old, should be able to take something positive away from this movie.       

-aap

August Update

Happy 100 days till the Monarch: Egg e-book release!

Now that we are through July and into August that means not only are the dog days of summer here, but also there is only one month until Monarch is available for preorder.


Keep an eye on the monarchthenovel.com website for updates.

Be safe and enjoy the rest of your summer.

Thanks for reading.

-Aaron Pitters

Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman: Is there a Sixth Sense?

I am a fan of mystery in all forms.  The unknown and, as yet, unexplained keep my interest like nothing else.  It's just how I tick.  And I think I have finally found a TV show worth recording.   For years I have been fascinated with physics and psychology and many of the new findings that are discovered through those particular fields.  In the new episode of Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman they delved into to yet another subject that correlates to my current writing project, Monarch, and more importantly the story within my novel, Cipher, that my main character is reading in the lead up to the big mystery of 12/21/2012.   Let me explain.

The title of last night's episode was "Is there a Sixth Sense?"  Sounds ridiculous to most people.  A sixth sense in humans has been the subject of many a science fiction or horror story for well over a hundred years, but now science is attempting to confirm that this "sixth sense" may actually exist.  The reason it has gone undiscovered, or unaccepted, until now was that a) it is not as strong as our other five senses; and b) we haven't been able to properly measure it until now.  But last night they interviewed several scientists who have been conducting experiments into the possibility that this sixth sense actually exists in all of us.  One experiment that has been going on for over a decade now - The Global Consciousness Project at Princeton University - seemed most promising in proving that indeed a sixth sense does exist, and that we are all connected.  Very heady stuff!

Another interviewed scientist attributed this to a morphic field, tied to the Earth's magnetic field, that unifies us all - much like migratory birds.  And when they mentioned a collective consciousness, or cosmic consciousness, I felt a tingle go up the back of my spine.  I don't want to give too much away, but in Cipher, the story within the story of my novel,  the main character ventures to a parallel world that is our Collective Conscious.  My story is a work of fiction, and what happens in my story has little to do with what they are talking about in this show,  but I tried to base it upon what I thought was a collective reflection of what we, as humans, believe in.  At the time of my writing Cipher my father was very sick, and my thoughts were on eternity.  But I had actually begun work on this before I even knew he was ill.  My moving back East was planned to do research on this project before he had informed me.  I have tried to dismiss it as coincidence for the better part of twelve years, but after watching last night's show I am not so sure.

They put forth the theory that people can indeed sense the future.  I thought I was just contemplating my navel at the time and trying to make sense of eternity.  Could it be that I was actually somehow aware that something was about to happen, and that my choice of subject matter for my screenplay was somehow tied to my sixth sense telling me that my father would soon be passing away?  Last night's show suggested that might possibly be the case.

F-ing bizarre, right?  I try not to lend myself to all these theories on a daily basis, because I have a life to live, and thinking that we are all connected in some way or can sense the future would keep one wondering if something horrible might be happening anytime you have indigestion.  So until there is definitive proof, we should probably go under the assumption that these things are just coincidence.  But who knows, maybe one day we will all be able to tap into a sixth sense that will help us all in some way.

If you have any interest in knowing more about the world around you, as well as within, then I HIGHLY recommend this show - you will not be disappointed.

-aap

When time is more important than money

I know that is hardly ever the case in this money obsessed country.  And I too have to eat and keep a roof over my head.  Yet ever since my days as an actor I have tried to keep to deadlines.  Back in the summer of 1996, during the Olympics here in Atlanta, I was given an opportunity in a two-performance production by a local playwright.  The catch was that I had just over a week to prepare.  It was a challenge, and I was brimming with confidence at the time, so I accepted.  The experience was probably one of my proudest moments as an actor.  It proved to me and to others that I was serious about the craft and capable of creating something of value with a limited amount of time.

Since transitioning to writing I have tried to keep the same mindset as I had back then: Establishing deadlines and abiding by them.  I am a firm believer that if you do not hold yourself accountable then you're not only letting yourself down, which is the worst thing you can do, but also others.  My screenplay 4-way, I wrote with Charles Thomas, was another example of abiding by a set amount of time and then delivering.  We knocked that first draft out in under two weeks.

These are only two examples.  Neither of which were done for any promised money.  But they were both experiences that helped shape my approach to my chosen art form of the moment.  In both instances the conditions surrounding each were perfect.  Unfortunately this is not always the case, as we all know.

My self-imposed July deadline for Monarch was one that I had every intention of keeping, and if I hadn't been held up by my aging body I would likely have achieved it, too.  (To those of you who were hoping to read Stage One this month I apologize.)  I actually chose to write this story because of its time constraints and the fact that I had been able to deliver in the past.  I knew going in that this story may have an expiration date for a potential readers interest, because it deals with 12/21/2012.  The fact that any possible money that might be made from this project will likely be made prior to 2013 might have dissuaded another writer from tackling the story.  That does not bother me; because, to me, it is just another time challenge to create something of value on a deadline.  I consider it a part of my continuous training as a writer.

Should someone take interest in my work and choose to pay me for it, great!  But then they may actually want something else after that.  Thus I would be on another deadline to deliver, and I would be prepared to fulfill that want.  So, yes, for now, time is more important than money.

-aap

Review of X-men: First Class (Spoilers)

In a recent post I commented that, after hearing the reviews, this movie must have slipped by my radar.  People were gushing with such zeal about this movie, claiming that it had been overlooked because it was yet another X-men movie, I felt I just had to go check it out.  So, after attending the store closing of my neighborhood Starbucks (yeah, they do actually close them), I went to check this film out.

After all the positive word of mouth I'd heard about X-Men: First Class, my expectations were pretty high.  Things open as the first X-men movie did with Erik ripping open the gate at a concentration camp as the Nazis take his mother from him.  This version continues on in that time period just long enough to get Erik angry and reveal his potential to an evil German officer played by Kevin Bacon.  Kevin Bacon?  Yes, and he's great as a maniacal mutant bent on the destruction of the world.

Other than Erik's revenge, the rest of this story revolves around the loyalties of the angry and single-minded Erik,  a flawed, more human Dr. Xavier and the conflicted Mystique.  The other story lines are weak compared to those of these three.  Some of it is even silly and ridiculous.  The Beast just looked plain silly.  I'm sorry.  The Muppets look better than this powder blue Ewok.  The poor makeup, or whatever they did, totally destroyed the mood.  I had to keep from laughing every time his ridiculous image popped up on screen.  The worst part about it is his role is so integral to the storyline and Mystique's inner struggle.

The other mutants are totally disposable, adding only a pretty face or an overused power with no real purpose to the story.  Eric and Xavier are the key to this movie,and neither disappoints.  While I would liked to have seen this story revolve only around those two, there is still enough between them to make this a decent watch.  It is not as good as the first X-men movie, but there is enough quality storytelling and impressive acting to make this movie more enjoyable than the other three films that followed the original.

Was my radar right about this movie?  I wish they would stop rebooting every comic book and start them all at the beginning.  Everyone knows what's going to happen already.  Although, Kevin Bacon as a German speaking villain was a major plus.  Was it worth going to see in the theater?  In honesty, I wish I had waited to watch this at home with friends for the first time. I'm sorry, I just can't forgive them for the powder-blue teddy bear they made Beast into.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

-aap

And on a lighter note

And on a lighter note... after seeing Super 8 a little over a week ago, I am now contemplating what to see next in the theater.  The one other summer, blockbuster movie that has struck me this year, beyond the awesome special effects of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, is Captain America: The First Avenger.

Ol' Cap was never a childhood favorite of mine - I much preferred Batman and Spiderman to World War II Superheroes at the time.  But there is something about those decades in the American psyche that has endured.  It was, in our brief history as a country, the Golden Age in America.  A time of Myth and Legend bore out of the horrors of a just war, when heroes opposed villains and victory was the only objective.  (The music from those years is some of my favorite, too.)  

Thus, that Era has also been a virtual goldmine for movie making as well.  I could list off a couple dozen, if not a hundred, remarkable films that are set between 1930-1950, but I won't.  I'm sure you could do the same, and have thought of a few while just reading these past few sentences.  It just works well for us.  And likely always will.

This film has one thing going against it for me.  I do not like seeing actors play more than one superhero, for ridiculously obvious reasons.  (Ryan Reynolds second turn as a superhero in Green Lantern being a good example.)  Though don't get me wrong, I think Captain America: The First Avenger looks great, and Chris Evans appears to have made the role his own.  He should make for a Good Hero.  But Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull?  You could not have cast the role better.  He is going to be so over-the-top intense - I can't wait!  I’ve seen some stills of him from the film.  And you are telling me that Hugo will have that maniacal glean in his eyes, like a younger Gary Oldman or Jack Nicholson before him, while staring out of that crazy looking red skull?  Forget about it.  Great Villain!  I'm there opening night.

I must also mention the movie which slipped by me without garnering my attention at the time.  When I first started to see trailers for X-Men:First Class, it seemed to me  just another X-men movie.  (Is it me, or is this the Year of the Colon?)  Then, after it came out, people started talking... and word spread that it was better than expected.  The director,  and I hadn't paid attention to this film at all, so I had no idea he was the director of Layer Cake, is Matthew Vaughn.  But wait, I thought to myself as I began adding it all up, I really liked Layer Cake.  It was a good movie.  And he had directed the new X-men?  I had missed it.  Let it slip by.  Change of plans folks.  It seems I have made an error.  This movie, and its World War II backdrop, may very well deserve viewing after all.

Thanks for reading.


 -aap

Where December 21, 2012 meets eternity

I was watching an interesting show last night that was hosted by Morgan Freeman.  I believe it was called "Through the Wormhole."  It touched on issues that I have always found of interest, like life after death and consciousness.  Back in 1999 I began doing research for one of my first screenplays, Cipher.  Those of you who have kept up with my blog here (and I thank you for doing so) will be aware of that story to some extent; and any of you who read my novel, Monarch, when it is released in December, will also become aware of my fascination with consciousness and the possibility of some trace of ourselves continuing on after we, our physical selves, have expired.

In the show they interviewed a doctor, I believe he was a neurologist, who suffered from meningitis and fell into a coma for a period of time.  After he came out of a coma and recovered he vividly remembered experiencing things that he, as a neurologist, would have otherwise found hard to believe; but remember he did.  He described crawling around through the dirt and leaves for an extended period of time, saying that it was awful.  But then he emerged from the dirt and was taken to flight, as if on the wings of a butterfly.  Now he had my attention.  He described effortlessly fluttering through valleys along with a large group of other butterflies.  He went on to describe being drawn towards space and a source, possibly the source of all existence.  Heady stuff for a guy who is not suppose to have the capacity to remember anything after being in the diseased state that he was in.    

The show continued on, talking about other near-death experiences, but I was fixed on the doctor's butterfly memory.  Can you blame me?  I too have an interest in butterflies, especially since my soon-to-be-released novel is titled and patterned after North America's most spectacular butterfly of them all, the Monarch. 

Where does 2012 come in to all of this?  My story does most definitely deal with that looming date in the not so distant future, and life and death do play an integral part of the story.  The story my main character reads, Cipher, also deals with life and death and a parallel existence to ours here, as well as what it postulates for 12/21/2012.  Her reading of that particular story as time winds down to 12/21/2012, for her, and all of those in her life, is the crux of the story.

The number four plays a big role in my telling of Monarch.  There are not only four stages to my novel, much like there are four stages to the life cycle of the Monarch butterflies life cycle, but also, if I am successful, there are four layers of experience.  Allow me to explain.  The first layer is of my main character, Ginger,  and her life; the second is of the main character in Cipher, Ted Parker, and his struggles; the third is the parallel world that Ted becomes all too aware of; and the fourth is, hopefully, that of the reader of Monarch and the effect the reading of the story might have on the reader.  All four of the layers converge on 12/21/2012.  Ginger must finish Cipher before that date.  Ted's life is all but controlled by the date.  The parallel world in Cipher is tied to this one, so it too is controlled by the date.  And any reader who I hope will read my Novel will be compelled to read it, much like Ginger is compelled to read Cipher, before 12/21/2012 arrives in one year, six months and four days.


The writing of this story, which I consider beginning way back in 1999 with the first ideas for Cipher,  has been the most magnificent journey of my life.  The experiences over the past twelve years have been good, bad and somewhere in between.  I wouldn't trade them for anything, even if there are days that I wish I could.  I can't wait to share it all with you.

Thanks for reading.

-aap

MY E-BOOK PROGRESS REPORT FOR JUNE

Back in January was when I began work on the rewrite of my first novel, Monarch.  The past five and a half months have been filled with ups and downs, most of which I will not bother to discuss.  I will say that it has been one of the most memorable rewrites I've ever undertaken.  I figure I am about a month or so behind my original goals I made back in December; though, thankfully, I am right on schedule for my backup plan.  In that backup plan I had November tenth as the other possible release date for Stage One.  I am very happy to report that I am on track to being able to release it then.

The rewrite of  Monarch: Egg is progressing.  My illustrator, Scott Padgett, has some great ideas for the artwork that will be incorporated into the novel.  You may have seen the logo he's working on in a previous post.  I think it conveys Ginger's inner-self - a reflective, unique individual whose inner light is leading her through the darkness towards an uncertain future.  I have also been fortunate enough to move on to the rewrite of Stage Two this week.  Hooray! for progress.

While I will not be able to make my July deadline for release of Stage One, I am planning to give people an opportunity in July to go ahead and make their purchase of Monarch.  Not quite sure of the day the Presale will begin, but I am busy coming up with package plans that will benefit those who do make a purchase prior to November.  By mid-July you'll be able to go to monarchthenovel.com and purchase your copy and take advantage of the Presale and its perks for buying early.

Further Updates to follow.  Thanks for reading.

-aap

Review of Super 8 (Spoilers!)

First, this is a very well made movie and I enjoyed it.  The special effects are first rate. When the train from the trailer comes off the tracks the movie really gets going.  Fans of  the TV series Lost and of Spielberg's older films should really enjoy this.  The pacing is relatively quick, and the young actors are up to the task - especially newcomer Joel Courtney and his love interest Elle Fanning, who is stepping out from her big sister's shadow with this performance.  And yes, the creature was worth waiting to see.  But when all is said and done Super 8 is at its core the tale of two families dealing with past tragedy, while a monster just so happens to be running amuck in their hometown.  A town that in one shot reminded me of the village in The Goonies. 

Scott, and anyone else who wants to see this movie without knowing specifics, please stop reading now.  Spoilers!!!   You have been warned.

The main story works extremely well, but there are finer points that worked better in Spielberg directed versions of this film.  So much of this movie had such visible brushstrokes from Steven's older films as to be a distraction at times.

The run time was just under two hours, and the film did seem rushed on occasion.  JJ could have kept some of what I am sure wound up on the cutting room floor, and the film might very well have been a little better than it already is.  It just seemed like something was missing.

The creature is not seen until the last twenty or thirty minutes of the film and we are left with questions, big questions.  (I understand not showing it till later, worked for Jaws, but, like I said in my previous post, we don't know much of anything about the creature, though we do get it's motivation.)  The main question I had was: Why transport the monster along with the cubes? Or in that case, why would you move him at all?  Maybe they explained it in the movie, but it didn't make sense to me.

In one regard this movie is like the last movie I reviewed, Source Code; they both have similarities to films that came before them - same but different. To put things in perspective, Super 8 is an amalgamate of E.T, Goonies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the TV series Lost, plus a number of other films.  But it works.  I just have two wishes, of which only one has the chance of coming true: first, I wish I had never seen those other films; second, please release the DVD with extra footage about our rowdy, spider-like visitor from outer space.

In conclusion, this is a blockbuster children's movie that those of us who saw E.T. as a child are likely to get a nostalgic thrill out of.  Will the creature come back and visit us again?  We'll see.   

-aap

Super 8

I had been planning to see my next movie on a Wednesday night, but I just couldn't pull the trigger with the selections from Memorial Day Weekend - they didn't hold a real interest for me.  Even the new X-men movie barely made a blip on my radar.  Although, I have heard both X-Men: First Class and Kung Fu Panda 2 are actually pretty good films.  If I had tons of money, I might have been more willing to take a chance on one or both of those films, but since I, like so many people these days, am not a gazillionaire, I try and choose wisely what I spend thirty dollars to go see in a theater.   This is the week I have been waiting for all year - a movie worth my shelling out the equivalent of half a tank of gas for is finally upon us.

Super 8 will open this Thursday Night/ Friday Morning and you can bet that I will be there in line, even if the NBA finals are still going on.  But hopefully they will finish before I make the short trip to my local theater to check out this summer blockbuster.

The buzz around this movie is weird.  Anyone who knows me has heard me talk about the awesome potential of this film for months, but I get a mixed reaction from others.  Most people see it as I do: A throwback to Spielberg of the 70s and 80s.  Which, in my book of hit and miss assessments, is a great thing. But there are others who don't see it that way, and I can understand their concerns. An over-18 crowd might not be interested because of the age of the lead actors.  They may assume it is only a children's movie.  And child actors can be hit or miss as far as performances, too.  Spielberg has a knack for getting great performances out of his young actors, but he is not directing this.  This is JJ's first real crack at directing a film that relies so heavily on youngsters.  The fact that people have been held in suspense about the creature, much like Cloverfield, could also get under their collective craw.  A frustration with the trailers and not knowing what they are going to see, much like the town folk who repeatedly ran when the boy cried wolf, might dissuade a percentage of people from the theaters.

I think the producers are right not to show the creature until they have to.  Industrial Light and Magic is doing the effects after all, so naysayers can rest assured that the creature won't suck.  Many trailers for films these days show so much of the film that you know what happens before even going to the theater.  That is not entirely the case with this movie. We know there is a train wreck as kids are filming a super 8 movie, and that chaos breaks out afterwards as the creature escapes.  But we don't know what the creature looks like, its motivations or history.  It worked for Spielberg with Jaws.  And it has me counting down the hours till 12:01 Friday morning to see this movie.

-aap

Pre-sale of Monarch?

Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

The process of writing the first draft of Monarch could not have gone much smoother than it did.  (Take a look back at a  previous post for details.)  I finished more than a week ahead of my self-imposed deadline in November.

This year has not been quite as effortless as last year.  My hope was to roll out the first stage in July.  Things were going along just fine until late January, when father time caught up with me.  He's faster than you'd think.  Anyway, it happens to all of us and I'm now back on track.

That brings me to my reason for writing this post.  Even though I will not be able to deliver my first e-book to you all in July, I can still begin selling them via pre-sale. Although, I cannot do so through Amazon - you must be a  bestselling author to pre-sale through them.  This ultimately will be better for the reader, because it allows me to add perks to the pre-sale that I could not through Amazon, and I want everyone to feel as if they are apart of something special.  These perks will be "collectors items" that will not be available once the roll out begins in just a few short months.   (Details on perks coming soon.)

Even though the rewrite of Stage One will be completed before July, it would not be wise of me to publish it before addressing the other stages first.  That will take just a little more time.

Hopefully there are those of you who are interested in not only buying your copy or copies before their release, but are also interested in the collectible items available only through the pre-sale.  My goal is to make the experience of releasing my first e-book as positive and beneficial to my readers as possible.

Thank you for reading.

-aap

Wednesday Opening finally here?

I might have surmised with the original Hangover opening on a Wednesday Night, and having such good fortune, that they would release The Hangover Part II in the same manner.  And they are intending to do just that.  Yet, there is also another film releasing tonight at 12:01:  Kung Fu Panda 2.

Not a big fan of most sequels, reboots and remakes, I had hoped some other film(s) might have grabbed the mantle for first film(s) released on a Wednesday this year. First, I thought it might be Sucker Punch, which turned out to be a dud.  Then there was Thor, which was apparently too soft to take the throne.  Both fell short.

Kung Fu Panda 2 is the surprise here.  Its original was a kid flick that adults also liked, while The Hangover was an adult film that kids had to sneak in to see.  These two films will duke it out this weekend for top spot at the box office, likely raking in 100s of millions of dollars each.

I may even go see one of them tonight, probably The Hangover II; but neither of these films are what I am truly waiting to see.  That would be Super 8.  Abrams and Spielberg = GOLD. Think about it: Spielberg is starting to get up there in years, and who better to take his place as best American director than J.J.?  I know some people will argue about me calling Spielberg the best American director, but who else comes to mind when you think of the overall face of American Cinema for the past forty years.  Their career paths are very similar too.  Both started out in Television and then moved on to Film with great success.

So, until Super8 finally gets here, I guess I'll have to settle for some gut-busting hilarity from Zach, Ed and Brad.  While neither film is a bad choice for the first Wednesday Night release this year, I just wish it wasn't so painfully obvious that sequels and franchises are held in higher regard than original works.  I mean... I've already seen these films - I've moved on,  and these sequels are not likely to be better than the originals.  Just saying.


-aap

New Logo and Possible Book Cover

After spending a nice evening over at the Padgett Manor last night, I came home to find something in my email.  Scott, a long-time friend and amazing graphic artist, graciously spent some of the time during my visit crafting a logo and possible book cover for Monarch.  It may change slightly over the next few months, but this is pretty close to the original idea he had a few months ago when we first talked about it.

Tell me what you think.  Do you like it?

Scott will be working on a number of illustrations throughout Monarch.   Check out more of his work at http://www.scottpadgettart.com/

 -aap

CIPHER

Back in 1999 I was still living in Los Angeles.  I had originally gone out west to pursue my passion for acting.  After several years of going to auditions and working on whatever I could the allure began to lose its tarnish.  Trying to carve myself a niche was a tough slog.  I was making inroads and had some connections, but was growing more and more frustrated with the whole process and all the downtime between gigs.  And I was not getting any offers on the roles I actually wanted.  Such is life.  If I had stuck with it I might have eventually landed that choice role.  But I was restless.  In those downtimes between gigs I was writing - something I had been doing even before I moved West.  I started on my first screenplay back in Atlanta in 1996 but never did anything with it, and once I moved to LA all but forgot about it.

In '98, while in LA, I was asked to adapt a project.  Unfortunately the company went under before I had a chance to do so, but it was that project, along with the lack of juicy roles, that led me towards writing.  By '99 I was split in my devotions.  Part of me still loved acting, but the other part wanted to actually be working on something of interest.  I never wanted to be some famous person with no life.  No.  I wanted to create something memorable and then disappear into the next project.  That was the point when I began taking notes for Cipher.

In Hollywood there is a lot of  talk of spirituality and living in tune with one another.  It's almost like the leftovers of the hippie culture of the late '60s.  That, of course, is only one side of the coin.  The other side is much darker and just as prevalent.  It was this duality that sent my mind spinning into motion with Y2K fast approaching. The actor side of me decided I needed to begin doing research.  I no longer felt that LA was where I needed to be.  My story was to be set back East, and my suitcase simply followed. 

The tie to 2012 was partly motivated by the world's fear over Y2K, and also by the research I did into the Maya civilization.  The world's belief in duality and the effective use of parallel worlds in works like Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz helped me to envision another parallel world for my story.  Yet my parallel world was darker, and certainly not meant for a children's audience. 

By the summer of 2000 I had completed the first draft of part one of Cipher and was beginning on part two and three.  I had envisioned this massive trilogy like Lord of the Rings.  It's funny, when I was still in LA preparing to move back East I heard about LTR going into production.  It was a moment I'll never forget.  It was like a punch in the gut.  The look I had in mind for my parallel world was similar to that of Tolkien, with bizarre creatures like Orcs and Elves.  I immediately had to rethink things, which was probably for the best, even if it meant changes.  These little hiccups, these unexpected exterior influences, I came to find out, are as much a part of the process as everything else.  Embracing the unexpected, and using it for one's own benefit, has become a rule for me when writing.  Because if you want to finish, you just can't stop.   

In the summer of 2001 I completed filming the trailer for Cipher.  Apparently I now wanted to be a director, writer and actor.  No, not really.  I was a director out of necessity, as it is obvious to see in the trailer.

Once I finished the trailer September 11th happened, and my story and my trailer immediately lost importance.  I had hoped to have Cipher made into a movie by 2012, but other things became more important.  Family and friends came first.  Time continued to pass by and one year turned into decade.  I continued to write, cranking out almost twenty screenplays during that period.  Yet something was missing.  Cipher had been my life for the better part of two turbulent and memorable years, and 2012 was just over two and a half years away.  If I were to just forget about Cipher and let 2012 come and go without doing anything with it, well, it seemed a tremendous waste.

Thus I began work on Monarch and the implementation of Cipher as an apocalyptic tome that my main character reads as the clock ticks down to 12/21/2012.

-aap

Other Tweaks to "The Plan"

Since I seem to be altering things with the novel, I need also take my other writings into consideration.  My so-called plan at the beginning of the year had me hoping to release all sorts of things: a novel, screenplays and short-stories.  Heck, I'm surprised I didn't say I was going to have two novels ready to go by year's end.

I was eager around the new year.  Can you blame me? The prospect of e-publishing at the time was intoxicating. How easy it all sounded. All you have to do is fill out a few online forms and "Poof!" you're published.

Who knows, maybe by December I'll have a short story or screenplay ready to go.  I'd like to be able to do that, but my main focus is Monarch.  Time and quality are the two biggest issues I face with the novel, and they affect the prospect of me working on anything else. The need to publish with enough time for a reader to read Monarch before 12/21/2012 is vital.  But to rush it because I also want to release a short story, or because of the ever-dwindling amount of time before 2012 would likely affect the overall quality.  Even though a part of me knows I've been a writer for awhile now, I must remember that I am still new to publishing.  To scribble on a sheet of paper is nothing.  To rework it into something people will actually want to read is something.

I'll eventually get around to the other projects.  Believe me, I can't wait.  But for now, let us be content with the progress on Monarch.

-aap