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I hope you all had a truly wonderful holiday – mine was very nice indeed. It was an official “white” Christmas around here with several inches of the flaky stuff sitting on the ground to add to the festive mood. With the lights on at night, things looked quite nice. Christmas Eve was spent in Lowell at my sister’s house for the traditional Italian feast. This year it was gnocchi and homemade meatballs with the family’s secret sauce recipe. Great stuff. The smell of homemade pasta and sauce is one I never get tired of, since growing up it was omnipresent at my grandmother’s house whenever we would visit. Christmas Day, the family and I flew to Zurich and then drove to our chalet in the Swiss Alps where we overindulged in goose and lots of other goodies. You can see the pictures over on my Facebook Page.
Actually we weren’t in Switzerland; we were in Marshfield, but my sister-in-law’s house looks like a chalet and the backdrop really added to the vibe, lol…
We did have a very nice time, however, and I got to spent more time with my god-daughter Kiley, who is pretty much the most preciously adorable bundle of joy on the planet.
2009 is winding down now, and in its wake the remnants of an up-and-down year disappear slowly under the waves. I don’t ever spend much time looking back and wishing that certain things were different. To me, that’s a bit of a waste of time. I prefer to focus ahead at the prow cutting through the waves, figure out what it is that I want to accomplish in the new year and then steer the ship so that I meet the challenges head-on. I don’t usually indulge in any “best of” lists or spend time thinking of the “top ten things I wish my genitalia had done in 2009” because I’m too busy looking toward the future I want to create and figuring out how to implement steps necessary NOW to make it happen. So I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t digress and waste your time with yet another list. 🙂
So what IS on the horizon for 2010? Lots, baby. Lots.
January kicks off with a bang. The Madagascar Matter, a new serialized Lawson Vampire adventure, debuts in the first week of the new year and delivers a chapter each week over the course of 2010. It’s by subscription only, however, which means you’ll have to sign up in order to travel back in time with Lawson and his former mentor Zero to the early 1980s in Africa. You can do so by clicking the order form below:
Otherwise, there will be much more Lawson Vampire news. THE FIXER is coming, of course, and with it, a lot of other Lawson goodness. HELLstalkers is also finally getting ready to launch, so Joe Nassise and I will have mucho news on that front as well. As usual, I’m extremely optimistic about the coming twelve months. Life is exciting, unpredictable, and glorious. I hope you all take the time to revel in the fact that we’re all hurtling through the universe together and that each of us has the power to make our own lives an example of goodness, generosity, compassion, and bold action. The world has too many lazy, cheap, selfish, negative “people” only out for themselves, forsaking family and stranger alike as they trundle through life never truly experiencing joy, only the illusion of supposed personal gain acquired at the expense of those who used to love them.
Don’t be like that.
Take this time to reflect and imagine how you can turn 2010 into a year of adventure, action, and unbridled enthusiasm for everything that life has to offer. Banish complacency and laziness from your world.
Who Dares Wins.
in casting / ebooks / film/TV / general / Hollywood / martial arts / self protection / ninjutsu / novels / short stories / THE FIXER TV series / writing
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New Ronin Entertainment is pleased to release the very first teaser for THE FIXER television series in full 1080p HD. We’ll be releasing a number of teaser/trailers – each one designed to reveal a little bit more of the story and universe that Lawson inhabits. Look for hidden clues, info tidbits, and hints about character arcs and more. Please share this with your friends and family- the more exposure we have, the better! Thank you! (Here’s the direct link: http://vimeo.com/7768282)
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Been a while since I last posted anything hereabouts, so let’s catch up, shall we? And just to go easy on my somewhat addled brain, we’ll work backward…
1. I had a nice rendezvous with the H1N1 flu and we battled mightily. It came in hard and took me down for about 48 hours before I was able to mount a counter-offensive that has lasted ever since. Nasty wanker of a virus, this thing. Not to be trifled with. Finally got back into some push-ups today and then spent the afternoon raking leaves. Felt good to be active again after two weeks of pretty much doing diddly-squat.
2. HELLstalkers has gotten some nice media mentions of late. While Vodafone will shepherd the launch across most of Europe, Verizon customers will be able to enjoy the adventures in the US & UK (Vodafone owns Verizon, so that works out pretty nicely.) Additionally, both networks are planning a nice bit of publicity and supposedly, co-author Joe Nassise and I will enjoy some exposure to approximately 250-350 million cell phone customers. Pretty nice, indeed.
3. Along those lines, I’ve signed a similar deal with Blackbetty to release Parallax and Vicarious for cell phone users as well. The deal and parameters are the same as the deal for HELLstalkers and you’ll be able to find both books (y’know, in case you haven’t read ’em yet >gasp!<) on both the Vodafone and Verizon networks.
4. Been working the ol' buttocks off on THE FIXER. We'd initially been slated to shoot the pilot starting November 1st, but due to some legal issues, we've pushed the production back to January 2010 now. No worries – we're still on-track for a 2010 debut of the series. And it's going to be incredible. The principals that have been lined up are stellar – all of them perfectly suited to the roles they'll play. It's incredible to see actual talented professionals playing the characters that I created on the printed page starting to come to life. Can't wait to get them all in front of the camera.
5. We're working right now on bringing out a brand new trailer for the series. This will be the first of several that we release to help build buzz and anticipation for the series. It was shot on our glorious new cameras (3 of 'em) in full 1080p high definition. The footage is absolutely amazing. The days of bloated production budgets and enormous crews may be coming to an end. The equipment and technology have gotten to the point where a tight group of visionaries can get everything done. We expect to release the first trailer next week sometime, the post production crew is tweaking things right now.
6. Speaking of which, if you haven't been over to the Facebook Fan Page for THE FIXER, then you’ve missed a glimpse of the new logo for the show. Or you could just head over to THE FIXER website and see it there. And yes, the website is currently being re-designed. The new design is breathtaking. Just wait…
7. I turned 40 on October 24th and got an iPhone, which is the monkey’s balls as far as I am concerned. How the hell did I function without this thing for so long?
I’m probably forgetting a few other things, but that will do for now. Anyway, I’m stoked to be almost 100% healthy again. Time to get back to training!
in casting / ebooks / film/TV / general / Hollywood / martial arts / self protection / ninjutsu / novels / production crew / THE FIXER TV series / writing
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So about a month ago, I got an email from a guy saying that he’d just come across PARALLAX on Amazon, loved the concept, and wanted to know if the film rights were available. Now I get these types of emails a few times a year; Hollywood and I have flirted a lot over the years, but no one’s ever scored a home run. As a result, I was a bit cynical – especially since someone else had written within the hour to ask the same thing. But I wrote back and we started a dialogue. The guy was going on a cruise and intended to read the book while he was. I prepared to wait.
About a week later, I got an email from Mexico from this same guy saying, “It’s good, Jon. Real good.” He went on to say he wanted to pretty much reach everything I’d written, did I have any scripts I could send him, that sort of thing. He also sent along a bio sheet about himself and the company he helped found in Los Angeles. Being the sometimes cynic that I am, I was still finding this all a bit much, but what the hell, it could turn out to be something…
I sent him 30 pages of a script I’ve been tinkering with over the years. It’s not finished by any means, and to be completely honest, it sort of meanders, because I didn’t really have a clear grasp on the story itself. But it’s fun and I like it.
This past Monday, I get a phone call. It’s him.
Without going into too many details, it is exactly the type of phone call a lot of writers dream of getting. And for someone like me, with all sorts of ambitions beyond writing books, it was rather an amazing conversation. Last night, we spoke again – this time he was in Las Vegas where he lives part time due to the fact that he produces one of the most successful shows out there – and finalized things.
I am very happy to announce that I now have myself a manager. Christopher Pratt of Elements Entertainment will be handling my Hollywood career. Christopher and Elements are a young, aggressive talent management agency and I couldn’t be happier. First up is for me to send over an overview of what I’m working on, what I’ve already done, and what I’d like to do. I have a conference call next week with Christopher and another partner as we lay out a game plan for how they’re going to “introduce” me to Hollywood. This not going to be like what happens with 99.99% of authors who get their stuff optioned and then their work lingers in development Hell for years (no offense to those authors, it’s just that I don’t want to earn a few measly grand every so often from options.) Christopher and Elements have a plan and I’m damned excited about the future.
Apparently, I’ll also probably have more “staff” in the near future – including a Hollywood agent and an entertainment attorney to navigate the vast complexity of film & TV contracts (been needing one of those anyway re: THE FIXER). So things are getting interesting, to say the very least. I’m going to be getting a fantastic education and I can’t wait.
Come along on the ride!