Author Archives: JimArnoldLA

Incorporating Social Media into a Novel

And, by this, I mean making social media a subject or a tool inside your novel. This has nothing to do with marketing or publicizing the book itself, that’s a different subject.

No, I wanted social media to be part of the landscape of how my characters interacted in “The Forest Dark.” Because a) it’s part of all our lives in 2013 and b) it provides more of a contrast between 1984 (the year in which the first part of the book is set) and 2009, where the second part of the book lives.

But how to do this while avoiding a specific app or technology that may go completely obsolete at any time, probably sooner rather than later? Can you imagine how you’d feel if you wrote a novel where all the characters left messages for each other via MySpace? I guess it would be OK if your book was all about 2006 or something, but you know it would be looked on as a curious period piece and would not, as they say in Hollywood, have legs.

I thought about this and tempted as I was to refer directly to such household names as Facebook and Twitter, I decided to allude to them but to be ever so much more generic.

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No, instead I referred to the content of a communication as a “message” – as in, somebody posted a “message online.” That could be a Facebook post, or a tweet. I had another character tapping out a “message” to a “fan” or “fans,” which I hoped would be read as Character A just tweeted their followers – without actually saying that.

Because I figured no matter what apps survive and which go away, whatever does replace them will still have interaction between communicators with some kind of message content, whether that be text or voice or video or static photography or something we have yet to imagine.

Anyway, that’s how I solved that little problem. It turned out to be really easy. Do you include specific social media companies or app names in your fiction writing? Why or why not?

Jim Arnold Communications July 2013 Newsletter: Confusion Rains. . . er, reigns?

Click on the image to the left Some of the side effects online cialis soft that these product have, the only downside to this is that they are a bit expensive than the brand name drugs. Color on this model and theory that is pushed on the Xu Nan women under the “missionaries” of sexual intercourse, and often through the process this way people are normal people to reach buy canada viagra a high of, and vice versa. An act of penetrative online order for viagra sex involves erection, penetration and ejaculation. These disorders are not diagnosed http://downtownsault.org/ladiesnightout/ viagra properien with usual imaging methods such as CT scans, endoscopic exams, and X-Rays but through the above knowledge popularization, we should have a sense of early prevention. for the current Jim Arnold Communications July 2013 Newsletter.

Forest Dark Press Info

Press release out on the new book today. And Kindle edition is here!

Book Review by Amos Lassen

Amazon Reviews for The Forest Dark

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Adventures in CarFree L.A.: going to the dentist

My Chariot, at its former home in Palm Springs.

Another in my series of the occasional challenges of getting around town without a car.

This one being, the dentist — that I’ve gone to for over 20 years and is no longer near where I live. I moved (many, many times); he didn’t. So, I was presented with a couple of options: one of the philosophies around CarFree living is to live local, as in, to patronize and support your neighborhood businesses. I guess that means including dentists and doctors. So, I could’ve easily found several within walking distance of my home. They are legion, actually.

But there you have the rub: I didn’t want to change dentists. He’s a great dentist. He knows my mouth intimately (wait, that didn’t come out quite right . . .) But you know what I mean. There’s a fortune invested in those chompers.

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So, I vowed to get to him, and I did. I live in Valley Village, west and south of North Hollywood, north of Studio City, and east of Sherman Oaks, in the San Fernando Valley. The dentist’s office is in West Hollywood near the Beverly Center. For those non-Angelenos reading this, it’s about a 10 mile trip if you’re a crow. There’s also an ancient mountain range between these two locations, sometimes known as the Hollywood Hills.

There is no easy, straight, one-line public transport option between these 2 points. So, I opted for the best alternative I could think of, which is to take my bike on the subway.

Pretty easy, actually, and the bike ride turned out to be my workout for the day. I live about one mile west of the North Hollywood Station of the Red Line. I ride there using the Chandler Bike Path.

I get on the Red Line subway there and get off at Hollywood Highland Station, just two stops, 8 minutes, never a delay. But it does take you over (well, under) that mountain range and deposits you directly into the heart of tourist Hollywood.

Tough getting back on the bike amid the Marilyns and the Zorros. But I prevail. Google Maps tells me the best bike route to my dentist (Melrose and La Cienega) is to take Orange Drive south to Willoughby, then Willoughby all the way west to La Cienega. From there it’s a quick couple of blocks down La Cienega to my destination.

Can I tell you how much I love that Google Maps gives you a car, public transport, bike and walk option for any direction? Even if they’re sometimes wrong, I actually think it works better than Metro’s own website “Trip Planner” function.

I know we’re supposed to hate the Google right now because it’s farming our brains for their own sleazy 1% profit but just for the minute I’m liking this.

So here’s my thoughts:

The good: Nice sunny day for a bike ride. Kind of nice that I don’t have to go to the gym for exercise, my transport is providing it. Being early afternoon on a Thursday, there’s not a lot of traffic and no crazy drivers. I get there with minutes to spare, thus the Google Maps direction timer was accurate.

The bad: Parts of Orange Drive, especially just south of Santa Monica Boulevard, are in terrible shape. Let’s be frank, the street sucks. It needs new asphalt. Why they made it a sharrow street is like torture for cyclists. Also, Willoughby is a sharrow street too (which means you’re supposed to share the lane with a car – um, good luck). What we really need in Hollywood-West Hollywood is a dedicated east-west street with a full bike lane for riders.

Oh, and the cleaning and check-up went great. My teeth may last for another year!

Turning a Screenplay into a Novel: The Simplified Version, Ten Tips

Flickr photo c haley327.

I have a book about the opposite methodology – turning a novel into a script. But I’m not sure a roadmap exists for this what – this expansion, I guess, is what it would be.

I’m in the process now, with a script I wrote a few years ago called “Kept.” The movie I envisioned is a steamy potboiler encompassing the wide diversity of the folks who live out in the Coachella Valley (the Palm Springs, CA area).

I want to elevate the tenor of all this a bit for the novel, so I have to make some small changes which I hope will have a profound effect on the feeling the finished product gives the reader.

Here are some of the things I know I must do, in no particular order. If you’re embarking on a script-to-novel conversion, as many screenwriters seem to be doing these days, hopefully this is helpful:

Go back to your character bios and make them real. I always have written biographies for my main (and often secondary, as well) characters, using Lajos Egri’s “The Art of Dramatic Writing” as a guide (he furnishes an outline to follow). For a novel, it’s imperative that you can live and breathe your characters. In a screenplay, I know I’ve often cheated, using archetypes and gulp, cliches.
Go Back to Your Themes. Before writing a script (or any fictional thing, really) I list out my themes, the overarching ideas I want to have come through the work. The source I use to prod myself is an old copy of Eric Heath’s “Story Plotting Simplified,” which lists and explains the 36 Basic Plots. For “Kept,” Greed, Lust and Nihilism are essential themes. Your themes for a novel will be more internal than those you chose for your screenplay.

Continue reading →

The Forest Dark, Locations: Bourgeois Pig

Bourgeois Pig on Franklin in Los Angeles

Have you been to Bourgeois Pig in L.A.? Or at least driven by on a rush to that 101 Freeway entrance a few blocks to the west?

A great little coffeehouse I used to go to when I lived, for a short time, on Ivarene Street nearby. (I’ve also met blind dates there, but that’s a different post.)

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Sold my Car: Car Free in Los Angeles

I finally did it.

Last week I sold my Scion to Carmax in Burbank and walked off their lot as a car-free man!

Buh-bye, little Scion (parked at Dad’s in MKE in 2009)

For those of you who’ve been following my increasing use of my bike, my feet and public transportation over that past few years, this probably won’t be coming as a huge surprise – but it’s still a rarity (to be car-free — in Los Angeles, anyway) so I opted for this kind of mass explanation.

I gave up the car for many reasons:

Financial – my particular car cost me about $5K per year to own and operate, which is actually a low figure as far as autos go. These continue to be tough times and that will make a huge difference to my budget.
Environmental – I want to part of the solution, not a part of the problem, in any way that’s available to me – and this was one.
I don’t need it – I work from home; I’ve also figured out through enough trial and error and “dry runs” how to live the rest of my daily life quite easily without owning a car.
I don’t like to drive and I don’t like to park. Honestly, I’ve not enjoyed this process for years and years now. In L.A., it’s a nightmare! I’d rather leave it to the pros (like cabbies and train and bus drivers).

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There are a few other reasons but these are probably the biggest. Having just spent the last month car-free, visiting relatives in New Orleans, it seemed like a good time.

Spontaneity will suffer, yes: we’ll have to make plans, anathema to some, I know. Also, note that I didn’t say that I’d never drive a car, I just won’t own one. There’s now a bunch of car-sharing options (like Zipcar) which makes much more economic sense to me than owning something which sits idle almost all the time.

True, I’ll have to forego those midnight, madcap trips to the beach to frolic in the sand and the waves – unless I want to spend the bucks for a cab out there – but the truth is those kind of nights ended long ago.

I intend to blog more about this as the process unfolds so make sure come back. Or, maybe you’ll just see me walking past you on the sidewalk as you sit behind the wheel, idling away in a traffic jam!

Here’s a great book which really helped me get to this place: Chris Balish’s How to Live Well Without Owning a Car.

Forty Years of Gay Pride: We’re All Barbies Now

OK, I’ll be the first to admit that I get these Andrew Christian videos as soon as they’re out, via an email list (which any consumer can subscribe to) and certainly enjoy seeing hot young men frolicking in Christian’s signature undies and jockstraps (or nothing at all, in a couple of instances). In fact, one of the pleasures of actually living in L.A. is that a lot of these model types live here and you can occasionally see them in the flesh:

And yes, I took the above cell phone video at the West Hollywood Gay Pride Parade last weekend.

But there’s something about this “Audition” video that to me is a little creepy. After all, we’re also the community that just threw Bradley Manning under the bus (probably a subject for a post next week). Is this video just another expression of the general vapidity I see a once highly political and energized group of men falling into?

Let me explain. It’s not the butt-shaking and crotch throbbing I object to — actually, I rather like those parts (I had to watch the video several times just to make sure). What I do have a problem with is this video’s overt position on the value of those in the community outside a very narrow range of physical types.

In the “story” of this video, only the “hot”models are chosen to go to Vegas, and the two who are rejected — are rejected because of 1) a little extra weight and 2) body hair and 3) perhaps a lack of the right stripper moves.

The two rejects are summarily yanked off the stage by the drag emcee. All in such good fun! It’s not serious, so lighten up!
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The problem is that even such innocuous images have a deeper meaning that’s not hard to miss. Is this what we’re telling people we value? Especially the young men in our community? Because the implicit message I see here is that it’s OK, and desirable, to be a stripper or a drag queen, shave your chest and drink lots of (product positioned) vodka, but it’s not OK to have any kind of body hair or a few extra pounds.

Am I taking it too seriously? It’s underwear, for Chrissakes! Or, maybe you could just say I’m an angry, bitter old queen who saw the last of his good jockstrap days long ago.

So back to my title, Forty Years of Gay Pride (actually 44, but I’m rounding) has brought us to where we all can be Barbie Dolls – exactly – as it has brought us Marriage Equality and the end of DADT and all the other advances. The right to be stupid and shallow and make videos out of it, and the right to market underwear to a population inevitably so tiny you really have to wonder what Mr. Christian’s marketing plan really is.

The absolute right to act stupid. I guess that indeed, it’s a good thing.

Tell me what you think.

P.S. Even I can still do a better cartwheel than that guy in the video. Meanwhile, in Russia. . .

New Project I’m Working On: Kept

The new book I’m working on – at least at this point I think it’ll be a book — is a rework of a movie script I’d written a few years ago, called “Kept.” As in, a “kept” woman or in this case, a “kept” man.

As this photo suggests to those who know some Southern California desert geography, the story does indeed take place in Palm Springs (thank you, unknown Flickr photographer, for sharing this great shot). There’s even a confrontational scene amongst the windmills out there.

What is the process of adapting a screenplay to a novel? I’m finding that some things which work in one art form definitely don’t translate that well to another. For instance, there’s a lot of action in “Kept,” which I assumed in a movie would be covered by editing, special effects, and perhaps a really healthy dose of suspension of disbelief. This won’t work on the novel page too well, if, let’s say, something’s not exactly believable, or is a real stretch.

That’s where some research has come in, to try to find some basis in reality for the actions these characters go through. One definite plus to the novel form is that you’ve got a lot more space to explain things. I think that’s more fun for the writer, too.

Some of the themes to be explored in the novel “Kept” are, in no particular order: Hubris, Lust (both straight and gay), Greed, and these memes: Crime Doesn’t Pay. Passion is a Deadly Trap. Things Are Not Often What They Seem.

Some of it might be a bit noir-ish. After Dark, My Sweet, the 1990 James Foley film starring Jason Patric, Rachel Ward and Bruce Dern, which is based on a Jim Thompson novel, was a big influence on me in the development of the script. (It’s also set in the desert, and features a major shootout at the Palm Springs Airport – see it if you haven’t. It also majorly stars Jason Patric’s well-formed ass, but I digress. . .)

My story is updated and centers on real estate crimes and is inclusive – meaning it covers the gamut of desert-y characters you’d find out there today: retired men and women, casino-owning Native Americans, Mexican immigrants, gays, WASP Republican politicians, drug dealers, US Marines, tourists, etc.

I hope to have it done next year. Questions?

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Gay Pride Meme – Another View

I saw this meme floating around at Facebook – also reposted by a well-meaning friend, who just happens to be gay as well.

He said he found it humorous and probably true. I think this was probably written by someone who meant well, perhaps someone young and earnest.

But there is just so much wrong here I can’t ignore it, and so I will lay it out for you:

Likes men, so there’s more women for the rest of us: The rest of us being, I guess, straight men. Somewhat entitled and misogynistic sounding. Perhaps someone is putting together a harem or something. Like all those girls out there are just waiting for you. I don’t think they are.
Dances with girls at the club, to keep creepy guys away. Um, no, that’s not why he’s dancing with you at the club. He’s dancing because he wants to dance, he’s generally not thinking about the creepy guys you seem to be aware of. It also appears that the meme writer has suddenly changed sexes, from male to female (see first, upper left photo).

Gives fashion advice to straight guys, to help them pick up chicks. Bwa ha ha ha ha! In reality, it’s more likely he either doesn’t notice your straight fashion faux pas or is laughing silently inside (or loudly behind your back). Honestly, he’s not really interested in whether you get to pick up chicks or not (notice, once again, the gender seems to have switched! Also, I don’t think women like being referred to as chicks – or then, maybe they do).
Can’t have biological children – adopts! Ok, dear meme writer, it’s back to sophomore biology for you! Here’s a shock: gay men are just as capable of baby-making as straight ones are – they just don’t usually choose to have sex with women for that purpose. Some do. A lot of others who want biological children use their sperm to father kids with a surrogate. Of course, it’s admirable when anyone, gay or straight, adopts a child who needs a home.

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Takes that “ugly” girl to prom, so she doesn’t have to go alone. Oh, dear meme writer, you’re just going to have to get over your fascination with positioning gay men as martyrs in the service of helping straight people out with all their sad mating problems! That’s not why we’re here. We’re here to take our own boyfriends to prom.
Orders the girly drinks straight guy friends are embarrassed to order – because they are delicious. Actually, I’ve been gay for over 5o years and have never seen this. Nor do I believe I know any gay man who thinks these drinks are delicious. More wishful thinking on your part, dear meme writer, that we’ll live up to your safe fantasy – and it’s just not true. Perhaps you can treat yourself to a few of these sugary concoctions and then you’ll feel better!