My Birthday Gift... To You!

This is my birthday week, so I am in Las Vegas getting a sunburn and giving the casinos all of my money.

So this week (beginning 7/17), all of my fiction (the the exception of FAMILY'S JEWEL) will be FREE!!! (I think in the USA only - sorry! Amazon's rules.)

FICTION

FOLLOWED HOME: A CRIME TIME THRILLER. Bowden knew the best place to find a victim is somewhere they feel safe. Diane Taylor would be his next victim... Could she survive? Short story.
FOLLOWED HOME

PRIME RATE: A CRIME TIME THRILLER. Chuck Skinner brought his father's failing butcher shop back into the black with the help of modern day cattle rustlers. Nice story if it ends there...
PRIME RATE

THROUGH THE RINGER (MITCH ROBERTSON #1) - Screenwriter Mitch Robertson just wants to sell a script, but ends up solving the mystery of a whiz kid writer whose new script stinks. Then read #2!
THROUGH THE RINGER

Coming Soon (worked on it Friday!) THE SHOTGUN APPROACH: A CRIME TIME THRILLER. Burn-out Homicide Detective Shelly Steele investigates the murder of the most popular half of a Simon & Garfunkle music team in a luxurious San Francisco Hotel. Guess who was staying on the same VIP floor?

VINTAGE SCREENWRITING

VINTAGE SCREENWRITING #1: HOW TO WRITE PHOTOPLAYS by Anita Loos & John Emerson. Screenwriting in the 1920s! The complete 1920 book, a screenplay by Loos, and a look at the history of women in film.
VINTAGE SCREENWRITING #1 - FREE!

STORY IN ACTION

Since July 20, is my birthday, I am giving YOU a gift! All three of the STORY IN ACTION books are 99 cents each on my Birthday! They are on Kindle Countdown Deals - so the price goes up a buck every couple of days until it they get back to $3.99. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, TERMINATOR, BOURNE. All 99 cents on Wednesday! (USA Only, Sorry!) Tell your friends, your family, your enemies, the person sitting next to you on the bus, because....

I want to get all three into the TOP 100 on Amazon!

ALL STORY IN ACTION BOOKS ON SALE!

THE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE MOVIES

All Six Movies analyzed! All of the mission tapes, all of the “that’s impossible!” set pieces and stunts, the cons and capers - and how these scenes work, the twists and double crosses, the tension and suspense (and how to generate it), the concept of each film as a stand alone with a different director calling the shots (broken in the sixth film), the gadgets, the masks, the stories, the co-stars and team members (one team member has been in every film), the stunts Tom Cruise actually did (and the ones he didn’t), and so much more! Over 120,000 words of fun info!

THE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE MOVIES - Only 99 cents!

THE TERMINATOR MOVIES

TERMINATOR: Story In Action - every film analysed! (except DARK FATE.) All of the epic action scenes, all of the amazing effects, the pacing, the characters, and what it means to be human. 366 pages of of information!

THE TERMINATOR MOVIES - Only 99 cents!

THE BOURNE MOVIES

All 5 Films Analyzed! Buy the BOURNE book today! Great for fans, writers, directors! How Thrillers work, elevated thrillers, Arrogance Of Sequels, American vs European car chases: 276 pages, under $4!

THE BOURNE MOVIES - Only 99 cents!

3 FREE, 3 ONLY 99 Cents on July 20th!
Happy Birthday!

The French Hitchcock?

If you've seen INGLORIOUS BASTERDS, the movie playing at Shoshana's cinema that gets bumped for the Hitler Assassination Plan is called LE CORBEAU (THE RAVEN) - she has to take the letters off the marqee. The film was directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, who is often called the French Hitchcock. Clouzot also directed a couple of my favorite films, WAGES OF FEAR and DIABOLIQUE. He is a great director - knows how to build tension to the breaking point. LE CORBEAU was only his second film, but it still works decades later.

LE CORBEAU is about an alof handsome young doctor in a village hospital who begins to get threatening letters signed by "The Raven". The letters accuse him of having an affair with an older doctor's pretty young wife... and of being an abortionist, who may even have been the one who knocked up all of the women he's accused of aborting. Because he wasn't born in the village, he's seen as an outsider... and when word gets out people believe these rumors.

The old doctor's wife also gets a letter from The Raven... and soon half the village are getting threatening letters accusing them of some rumored activity. The Raven knows *everyone's* secrets! Who can it be? The old cuckold doctor and young doctor basically must work together to find out who is The Raven. And there are some *great* suspects and a really shocking twist end. Actually, a double twist.



Though this is an early film of Clouzot's - not as suspenseful as DIABOLIQUE, it still packs a punch and has some very well drawn characters and it will keep you guessing until the end. The alof doctor is an interesting protagonist because he has a deep dark secret - and we think we know what it is and we are completely wrong. The character is a twist.

If you're curious about French films made during WW2 and during the Nazi Occupation, check this one out. Oh, and look between the lines for a message about living and working in Nazi Occupied France.

- Bill

Of course, I have my own books on Hitchcock...

HITCHCOCK: MASTERING SUSPENSE

LEARN SUSPENSE FROM THE MASTER!

Alfred Hitchcock, who directed 52 movies, was known as the “Master Of Suspense”; but what exactly is suspense and how can *we* master it? How does suspense work? How can *we* create “Hitchcockian” suspense scenes in our screenplays, novels, stories and films?

This book uses seventeen of Hitchcock’s films to show the difference between suspense and surprise, how to use “focus objects” to create suspense, the 20 iconic suspense scenes and situations, how plot twists work, using secrets for suspense, how to use Dread (the cousin of suspense) in horror stories, and dozens of other amazing storytelling lessons. From classics like “Strangers On A Train” and “The Birds” and “Vertigo” and “To Catch A Thief” to older films from the British period like “The 39 Steps” and “The Man Who Knew Too Much” to his hits from the silent era like “The Lodger” (about Jack The Ripper), we’ll look at all of the techniques to create suspense!

Films Included: NOTORIOUS, SABOTAGE, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, THE 39 STEPS, REBECCA, TO CATCH A THIEF, FRENZY, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, THE LODGER, THE BIRDS, TORN CURTAIN, SABOTEUR, VERTIGO, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934), THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1955), SUSPICION, and NUMBER SEVENTEEN. 17 Great Films!

Only 125,000 words!

Price: $5.99



Click here for more info!

HITCHCOCK DID IT FIRST!

We all know that Alfred Hitchcock was the Master Of Suspense, but did you know he was the most *experimental* filmmaker in history?

Contained Thrillers like “Buried”? Serial Protagonists like “Place Beyond The Pines”? Multiple Connecting Stories like “Pulp Fiction”? Same Story Multiple Times like “Run, Lola, Run”? This book focuses on 18 of Hitchcock’s 53 films with wild cinema and story experiments which paved the way for modern films. Almost one hundred different experiments that you may think are recent cinema or story inventions... but some date back to Hitchcock’s *silent* films! We’ll examine these experiments and how they work. Great for film makers, screenwriters, film fans, producers and directors.

Films Examined: “Rear Window”, “Psycho”, “Family Plot”, “Topaz”, “Rope”, “The Wrong Man”, “Easy Virtue”, “Lifeboat”, “Bon Voyage”, “Aventure Malgache”, “Elstree Calling”, “Dial M for Murder”, “Stage Fright”, “Champagne”, “Spellbound”, “I Confess”, and “The Trouble with Harry”, with glances at “Vertigo” and several others.

Professional screenwriter William C. Martell takes you into the world of The Master Of Suspense and shows you the daring experiments that changed cinema. Over 77,000 words.

Click here for more info!

Bill

Movie Premiere Goes Wrong - Homer Simpson

Most fans of THE SIMPSONS don't know that APU starred in a trilogy of films by Satyajit Ray or that many of the other names and gags in the show are in-jokes. Since the show has been on so long, many of the in-jokes seem to have lost their meanings. If I said the name "Homer Simpson" you wouldn't instantly think about that character in Nathanael Wests's brilliant novel about Hollywood, DAY OF THE LOCUST. The joke is gone, because Homer is now more famous that the character he was named after.

Nathanael West was the screenwriter of one of my favorite movies, FIVE CAME BACK, which may have been the first Disaster Movie, and certainly inspired the film PITCH BLACK. He wrote a bunch of films in the 1930s, worked as a Hotel Manager in between writing gigs and got to know a bunch of young writers on their way up who stayed there, and wrote 4 amazing novels, two you may have heard of, two you probably have not heard of.

MISS LONELYHEARTS is the book that got him noticed - a really dark story of a male newspaper reporter who becomes the advice to the lovelorn columnist... and learns more than he wants to about people. That one's been made into a film at least 4 times, probably more... and the great comedy-mystery writer Greg McDonald even did a riff novel on it called LOVE AMONGST THE MASHED POTATOES.

DREAM LIFE OF BALSO SNELL is like David Lynch on acid - which is why you've never heard of it.

A COOL MILLION is one of my favorite novels no one has ever heard of - it's a parody of Horatio Alger jr stories (about hard working young men who overcome all kinds of problems and set backs to become very successful). Imagine the ultra-pessimistic version of those stories, and that's this book. By the end of the story, our hero is dancing on stage and several of his body parts fall off... and he's been screwed in ways you can not imagine.

Last and best is DAY OF THE LOCUST - and if you haven't read it, it's probably one of the best novels every written about Hollywood. It's up there with WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN and the Pat Hobby stories. It's so brutal that you can't believe it was written in the 30s. The book was made into a movie in the mid-70s by John Schlesinger (MIDNIGHT COWBOY) with a script by Waldo Salt (MIDNIGHT COWBOY and SERPICO and 2 Oscars and a screenwriting award named after him) - which was an amazing 70s film... that you have never heard of. While MIDNIGHT COWBOY keeps getting special anniversary editions, DAY OF THE LOCUST was unavailable on DVD until a few years ago and is now out of print. Part of that is probably because of the stars - everybody knows who Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are... but William Atherton's career just didn't take off... he's best known now as that obnoxious reporter that Bruce Willis punches in DIE HARD... and "Dickless" from GHOSTBUSTERS. Not a movie star like Hoffman or Voight... though he was in the 70s. And the film is a major downer. That played in the 70s, but not so much now.

So, just to spoil the whole story for you, here is the *end* - a big movie premiere where all of the characters lives intersect... that is completely ruined by Homer Simpson (played by Donald Sutherland). Homer has had very bad luck throughout the novel/film, and finally reaches his breaking point in this scene...



- Bill

JULY MP3 DEALS!

JULY AUDIO CLASS MP3 SALE!

It's my birthday month, so why not put a bunch of Audio Classes on sale? How does a quarter of the regular price sound?

HORROR CLASS: Around 80 Minutes - SALE: $5

THRILLER CLASS: Around 160 Minutes - SALE: $10

NAKED SCREENWRITING CLASS: Over 9 housr of Classes - SALE: $25

ENDS JULY 31!