July: Summer Heat
"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer." —F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby"
NOTES:
I hope you are enjoying summer and catching a cool breeze and a cold drink when you need it. The first half of baseball season has been fun for me. What a great game.
My reading is still bouncing back and forth from the frothy to the profound. I am savoring my Chekhov collection even as I finished a newly released comedy crime novel.
Still working hard to get four short A. A. Aritz's crime stories out this month and working on a new long Domench short story that I hope will become a short novel out by fall. Time runs away from me, but I stumble close behind.
Love and Light, always, and please stay in touch.
NOVELS: The Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich
Janet Evanovich's writing career is wide. She has four novel series ongoing and other stand-alone novels in her growing catalog. I'm focusing on her Stephanie Plum series which numbers thirty novels in print, four holiday novellas, one short story, and the thirty-first novel, "Now or Never," available to pre-order. I just finished "Dirty Thirty."
Evanovich began as a romance writer. Her first love novel sold for $2000 and was published in 1987. Her experience churning out twelve sexy adventure stories led her to a place where she decided she would engineer her way into a career writing what she called "comic adventure" or "comedy mystery" novels.
I love the way that Wikipedia, and I assume her publicist(s), summarize how she went about designing her approach. Here I paraphrase Wiki like a good undergraduate: Evanovich wanted to include humor, romance, and adventure, and fit it into a mystery novel using first-person narrative. Her new writing would contain heroes and heroines, as well as a sense of family and community. She intended her writing to be based on the TV sitcom model revolving around a central character.
She also wanted to bring her current romance readers along with her on this new ride and she did. Her first Plum novel "One For The Money" was published in 1994 and named a New York Times notable book, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 1994 and a USA Today Best Bet. The movie rights sold for a million dollars, but who knows what the real number was. Movie right sales numbers are a special kind of vaporware. In any case, Evanovich had her formula, listened to her readers, took their suggestions for upcoming titles, and toured bookstores extensively for promotion.
Her books read fast, have comic moments, and do, in my opinion, read like a TV movie of the week. Nothing too sordid. Some unreal violence. Family moments. Romance. All in the mix. All meant to be fun. Fun. Fun. And like the pastries often mentioned in the books, the experience is like eating a glazed donut. Kind of tasty at first. Kind of leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
Do I recommend reading "Dirty Thirty?" Yep, I do. It is a masterclass on structure, movement, and dialogue. And a shining example of an author reaching her chosen audience and holding them close.
There is one other thing about this series that is very interesting to note. The movie made from "One For The Money" was destroyed by critics, earned the leading lady a raspberry award, and bombed at the box office. Evanovich loved the movie and toured to promote it.
One of the repeated criticisms was that it was like a TV movie of the week for the big screen. Think about that as you roll forward. Some works are better left as text.
SCREEN: "American Fiction" directed by Cord Jefferson
This movie was budgeted at ten million dollars with a shooting schedule of approximately 30 days. The result is a well-done movie for grown-ups that addresses important cultural issues within the structure of a family drama. Or is it the other way around?
Jeffery Wright is wonderful in the lead role. It fits him well. The writing is good. The directing is also good, and most importantly, not distracting. Cord Jefferson lets his actors work their craft.
This is an adaptation of a much more complex book "Erasure" by Percival Everett. I've included an interview with him and he says the important stuff. He understands the novel has to be streamlined for the film and he gets it.
I recommend this film.
SCREEN: "BlackBerry" directed by Matt Johnson
Released May 2023. You blinked and you missed it.
This Canadian film is loosely based on the 2016 book "Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry" by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff.
I have not read the book, but other reviews indicate that is a straightforward telling of the rise and fall of the BlackBerry corporation. This film tells that story, but on steroids. It is an edge-of-your-seat ride and a stunning debut for the director Matt Johnson.
This film works for me in so many ways. First, I love that Matt Johnson has been building a small team around his writing and performing for the last decade. In this way, he reminds me of Gus Van Sant who, when he was directing "Drugstore Cowboy" with his own small team and a crew of eighty sent by his new Hollywood producer showed up, he called his agent and asked, "Who are all these people?" The crux of that story is that he kept his small team, used the larger crew and together they found a way to create the small look and feel of an independent film.
In both cases, these directors starting out used their own people to design the look and feel of their movies, and that is why they feel unique and impactful. The opening sequence of "BlackBerry" amazed me. All done with camera movement and minimal editing. All perfect. Don't miss this film.
And the man himself. Take heart. It can still be done.
MUSIC: "One Upon a Time in Shaolin" by the Wu-Tang Clan: a substack update by Chris Norris
Chris Norris never disappoints. Always funny and always spot on. Take a few minutes to read this Wu-Tang Clan update on substack and subscribe to his weekly posts.
MUSIC: The Philharmonik on Listen Up! Sacramento
As some of you may know, The Philharmonik is now touring, drawing large crowds, and being asked to produce major acts. His brand of funk is exciting and refreshing. He is a Sly Stone for our times. Here he is performing on "Listen Up, Sacramento!" an Access Sacramento-produced studio TV show that profiles local musicians and bands that create music in Sacramento County. All heart and soul.
It's not about watching him, it's about hearing the truth and emotion delivered by this young guy. Bold and encouraging.
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