Month: April 2017
[Today’s post is a revised and updated version of a favorite of mine that ran earlier in the blog’s cycle. It’s #1 in a new series starting today.] There’s a story about Elvis: He was about to make his first movie (“Love Me Tender”) and he was getting a little nervous. He phoned the director and asked to speak with him privately. “What is it, Elvis?” the director asked when they got together. “You look upset. Is there anything you want to ask me?” “Yes,” said Elvis. “Am I gonna be asked to smile in this movie?” The director…
Read MoreThere’s a term Shawn uses that I had never heard before: Story nerd. (He claims proudly to be one himself.) A story nerd, as I understand it, is someone who loves to get into the geeky details and “inside baseball” mechanics of storytelling. A story nerd knows what a Value Shift is. She’s intimate with concepts like “beats” and “reveals.” She knows the Five Commandments of Storytelling. A story nerd is kinda like a Trekkie except she doesn’t wear Vulcan ears or appear in public dressed as a Klingon. Me, I’d use a different term: Professional writer. Anyway, there…
Read MoreI flew on Alaska Airlines this week. Before the flight took off, I witnessed a first. The pilot joined the passengers at the gate to announce a flight delay. No microphone. No airline staff at his side. Just him. His voice. His proactive communication.
Read MoreYou were born for adversity. It’s in your DNA as much as it’s in the DNA of a shark or an eagle or a lion. You were made for hard times. The species of Homo sapiens has survived and prevailed not because we are faster or stronger than all the competing creatures. Every one of them is better equipped by nature with fangs and claws and wings and fur. Every one is better adapted to hunt, to kill, to survive drought and heat and cold. Yeah, our race has a better brain. And yes, we figured out the advantages…
Read MoreA few years ago I wrote a book called Killing Rommel. Killing Rommel is a novel set during WWII in the North Africa campaign. Its heroes are the men of the Long Range Desert Group, a true historical British commando unit that fought behind the lines against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the German Afrika Korps. The first time I heard the name Long Range Desert Group, I fell in love with it. I said to myself, “I don’t know what this is, but I gotta write a book about it.” “Long Range.” Way cooler that Short Range. Even…
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