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The Gadget that I had in this blog's sidebar to update with my tweets appears not to be  supported any more by Blogger, alas. But please do follow me on Twitter for musings about The 100, Parish Mail, writing, games, life in Los Angeles, and other randomness.

"Spexism": Gender and Spec Screenplay Sales

It seems that whenever I read about a spec screenplay sale in the trades, in pretty much every case the screenwriter is male. Turns out it's not confirmation bias, it's true.

Susana Orozco dug through the stats for Go Into the Story, and their cool if sobering infographic starkly lays out gender disparity in the spec market, a worse gap than in TV writing, which is saying something. Spec script sales for women hit a new low in 2012, with 12 scripts sold by women out of 127 total.

Entertainment website The Wrap picked up the story, which it names "Spexism."

I'd be interested to see the genre breakdown of those 12 sales: I wonder if they're the more typically "female" types of movies such as family dramas and romantic comedies. Of course, there are female screenwriters who work in traditionally male genres such as science fiction, action, and comedy (including The Heat's Katie Dippold), but we've got a long way to go for parity for women and writers of color. The diversity of movies we watch can only be helped by diversity all along the line, in front of and behind the camera.

Seasonal Defective Disorder

Chalk it up to school or years working as a writer, but my psychological sense of the seasons is all screwed up. And and that's leaving aside living in Los Angeles, where the weather is consistent (and pleasant) enough to more or less obliterate your sense of time passing.

For example, spring makes me sad. Usually a season that means that the world is blooming and starting anew, spring to me feels like things are ending: the school year, the theater season, the writers' room for many TV shows.

But fall, on the other hand... even as the world starts turning to winter, it's fall that feels like excitement and anticipation, not spring, because things are kicking off. Students go back to school. Theater companies start rehearsals for their new plays. And in cable TV, where I've worked for the last several years, fall is when a number of writers' rooms get going.

This year, for the first time since working on MOONLIGHT for CBS, I have reason to feel that autumnal giddy sense of new beginnings in the summertime. I've just started working on a new TV show coming to the CW for midseason called THE 100, based on the upcoming YA novel by Kass Morgan. If you like the CW's unique blend of sexy and edgy combined with cool genre/sci fi elements (think BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, THE WALKING DEAD, and LOST) you're going to love THE 100.

Check out this awesome trailer:

I can't wait for you all to see more -- it's going to be fantastic.

And as if that's not enough, I have another new project to announce: I've just broken ground on the next Parish Mail! I'll be sharing more about it soon, but this episode is something I talked to the Coliloquy folks about right when we discussed my coming on board as an author. It's got a special angle both in terms of format and content that we're all excited about. It's scrambling my brain a little bit (in a fun way), and I'll explain why soon.

So, lots of new stuff starting. Summer is the new spring! (or fall. See, I told you I was screwed up...)

What about you? Do you adore blustery, cozy wintertime? Hate hot, hazy summer? Discuss in the comments.

Parish Mail Comes to iBooks and Kobo

I'm excited to announce that Dead Letter Office and Post Mortem are now available in yet more places:

Dead Letter Office on iBooks
Post Mortem on iBooks
Both Parish Mail books on Kobo

And DLO is still on sale for 99 cents across all platforms, but not for long...

Easter Eggs, Post Mortem-Style

Not many writers can resist slipping in-jokes and homages into what they write-- I certainly can't. In honor of Sunday's holiday, here are a few of the Easter Eggs you can find in Parish Mail #2, Post Mortem.

• The street where Beauchamp's House of Voodoo is located is named after the city where I wrote both Post Mortem and Dead Letter Office.
• The look of the mailbox tree in the series is an homage to the special trees in the Song of Ice and Fire books (and the Game of Thrones HBO series) by George R. R. Martin.
• Celia's description of the Fleur-de-Lis Sisterhood in the dinner scene with her grandparents and Tilly contains a shout-out to Alphas, a TV show I worked on. It's one of Gary's signature lines.
• If you choose the incorrect path in Chapter 8 for Celia and Tilly to investigate, they'll end up at a location that's an homage to an infamous spot in the TV show Breaking Bad, one of my favorite shows.
• Depending on the choices you make, you might meet a ferocious Rottweiler who's named after the childhood pet of a good friend. The name's the only thing the two dogs have in common -- the real version was a fairly dim Cocker Spaniel and in no way ferocious, I'm told.
• Celia's wry words to Tilly in Chapter 11 just as they're about to head into danger include a subtle Eureka reference, another TV show I worked on. Sheriff Carter uses this phrase to describe a terrifying robot. (I didn't write the line, by the way: Co-Executive Producers Terri Hughes Burton and Ron Milbauer did)
• The name of Celia's mom's band is the name of my band in the videogame Rock Band (and is also another Alphas/Eureka in-joke, one that's too hard to explain...).

Happy hunting, and Happy Easter!

Goodreads Giveaway: DLO Hard Copy

From March 25 through April 26, you can enter on Goodreads to win a limited edition print copy of Dead Letter Office! How is that? I don't even have one of those! (Hmm, maybe I should enter myself...)

Enter today and good luck!

Dead Letter Office Gets an "A"!

A big thank you to Verb Vixen for her review of Dead Letter Office.

Do you like:
New Orleans? Ghost stories? History? Mysteries? Choose your own adventures? Stories set in high school? Magic? Swoon worthy boys? Girls with gumption?
If you replied yes to ANY of the above then you’re going to love Dead Letter Office!

Kate also calls out the book's NOLA setting and interactivity for a positive mention, and I just love this description of Celia:

[Celia] is recklessly brave, endearingly hopeful and most of shines with an inner strength and resolve that we often don’t see in heroines in contemporary YA these days.

Check out the full review!

 

FREE Coliloquy Ebooks for Women's History Month

I'm honored to have Dead Letter Office included in a wonderful giveaway my publisher Coliloquy is holding in honor of Women's History Month and International Women's Day. Just email them for a copy of DLO or several other terrific interactive titles.

Check out all the details on Coliloquy's blog!

Post Mortem Interview and Giveaway

I'm thrilled to return to the I Am a Reader Not a Writer blog for a brand-new interview, in which I confess my secret personal kryptonite, share some writing tips, and reveal the weirdest thing I ever ate (trust me, it's about a 9 on the weirdometer).

And that's not all: you can register for a chance to win a copy of Post Mortem!

Parish Mail Kindle Giveaway on Goodreads

From now through March 4, if you write a review for Dead Letter Office on Amazon or Goodreads, you'll be entered to win a Kindle from my publisher, Coliloquy!

Check out all the details on Goodreads here.

And stay tuned for more promos, giveaways, and other goodies when Post Mortem -- available now for download -- officially launches on Feb. 26.

Post Mortem Now Available!

Get ready for Homecoming and mayhem! Post Mortem, Book 2 of my interactive young adult mystery series Parish Mail, is now available for your Kindle, Nook, Android device, and -- for the first time -- the Kindle app, which means you can read the book on your iPad or iPhone. Nifty, huh?

Download the book now to dive into Celia's New Orleans, a city full of magic and ghosts. When a friend vanishes just before Homecoming, Celia's convinced that a letter about a Civil War-era murder is the key to solving the mystery. Decide who will investigate with Celia -- roguish Donovan or enigmatic Luc -- and help her and BFF witch Tilly follow the clues to solve an unspeakable crime. The choices you make will determine if the killer is caught or escapes.

Hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

(Did you miss Book 1, Dead Letter Office? No worries, you can download it here. And check out the Goodreads pages for Dead Letter Office and Post Mortem to join the Parish Mail community! )

Tagged: The Next Big Thing

I was recently tagged by my friend, the talented Clark Perry, in a viral blog thread for writers called The Next Big Thing. Below are my answers to TNBT's ten questions -- I'll follow up soon with links to other participating writers' answers, so you can read about their cool upcoming projects.

1) What is the working title of your next book?

 Post Mortem: Parish Mail 2. 

It's the second book in my Parish Mail series. Dead Letter Office is the first book, and is available now on Kindle, Nook, and Android devices.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

Parish Mail is a series about a contemporary teenager in New Orleans who discovers a cache of centuries-old letters containing clues to crimes happening in the present day.

I’ve always been interested in urban history, cities where the very new and the very old exist side by side. In America we don’t have many of these places, but New Orleans is one, and is unique also in its cultural evolution and everyday acceptance of the supernatural.

I also love the related notion of history repeating itself: the ghosts of not just people but events tracking through time. In the Parish Mail series, when Celia, a thoroughly modern girl, finds these letters – or when they find her – she learns how the past and present can collide and gets a better appreciation for both.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

Young Adult; a mashup of urban fantasy, mystery, and Southern Gothic.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Hmm, good question... Post Mortem's characters are mostly teenagers so I'd have to do a little time-traveling to get some of the actors at the right age for a TV or movie version. But here goes:

Celia - Confession time. I actually never describe what Celia looks like, and this is intentional. Because the book is written in the first person, I like giving the reader the chance to see whomever they like, or themselves, as Celia. But imagine someone like Kristen Bell, Rosario Dawson, or Moon Bloodgood. Smart, resourceful, kind, a little tough.

Tilly - Naomie Harris

Donovan - Tom Hardy (Inception not Dark Knight Rises!)

Luc - Alexander Skarsgard

Sloan - Joel Kinnaman

Peyton - Anna Kendrick

Deanna, Celia's mom - Connie Britton, Jada Pinkett-Smith

Jane, Celia's grandmother - Jessica Lange, Phylicia Rashad

Robert, Celia's grandfather - Donald Sutherland, Denzel Washington

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When a new friend goes missing right before Homecoming, Celia must battle a vengeful spirit and her own self-doubt to solve the mystery and its bizarre ties to a Civil War-era murder.

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

My publisher is the digital company Coliloquy

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

It's hard to say, since a lot of the writing was done on nights and weekends. About 4 months?

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

There's a whole host of other paranormal YA books out there, of course, too many to list here. But Post Mortem and Parish Mail have even more in common with the TV shows Veronica Mars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

For Post Mortem, I wanted to follow up DLO by taking what Celia thinks she knows -- about herself, her place in the world, even her family -- and throw it all into question.

In DLO, Celia discovers the world of magic and spirits that exists alongside our own. In Post Mortem, I wanted to explore how Celia adjusts both to that world and her new home of New Orleans. Relationships with the boys in her life evolve, animosities at school grow, and Celia suddenly is struggling with self-doubt. She’s successfully solved one murder through a mysterious letter from the past, but her second case ends up being messier in pretty much every way.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

It's interactive: I use Coliloquy's technology platform to give the reader the opportunity to play detective along with Celia and to make emotional choices with her. At a few key points in the book you'll have a decision to make. Which clue should Celia follow as she investigates the mystery? Will she partner with Donovan or Luc to solve the case? Which suspect will she chase, knowing that the other one will get away? 

Think of it as the next generation of those Choose Your Own Adventure books. Every choice has consequences, both for the mystery and for the characters. It's challenging and exciting stuff to write, and I hope you'll check out and enjoy Post Mortem when it's released in January.

A Wake

The spatter in the doctor's basin
Casts a pall across the room;
A fevered thought transforms their faces:
Perhaps they sealed the tomb too soon?

(Happy Halloween!)

Victorian Tomb by Slopjockey from Deviantart.com

Happy Halloween!

It's the perfect time of year for spooky reading. If you're in the mood to read about murder, magic, and ghosts, check out book one of the Parish Mail series of interactive e-books, Dead Letter Office.

Do you want to go to a swank costume party with the popular clique, or hang out in the raucous French Quarter with a quirky (and witchy) new friend? It's your choice...

Happy Halloween!

Orange County Children's Book Festival

This Sunday, September 30, I'll be at the Orange County Children's Book Festival with my amazing Coliloquy colleagues Heidi Kling and Jessica Koosed Etting.

We'll be on at panel at 2pm on the Teen/YA Stage: "Ebooks: Keeping it Interactive."

There'll be a Q&A and sneak peek readings from our upcoming books, plus signings and giveaways afterwards at the Coliloquy booth. Hope to see you there!

Breaking News on Parish Mail Book 2: Title, Release Date, and More

This week I turned in my completed manuscript for the second in the Parish Mail series of interactive YA ebooks, which makes this the perfect time to answer a few questions I've been getting about it.

Enough of this Book 2 vagueness! What's it called?

The official title of my new book is Post Mortem - Parish Mail 2. You read it here first!

I got way too excited when I told Lisa and Waynn from Coliloquy the title at brunch a few months ago: "Post Mortem. See?" I crowed. "It's a pun!" "Yeah, yeah, we got it," they replied with smiles of great patience. I'm such a dork.

In addition to being a mail pun, the title does relate to the central mystery of the book, which contains some of the creepiest scenes I've ever written.

When is it coming out?

Post Mortem is scheduled for release mid-January 2013! Just in time to try out that spiffy new Kindle, Nook, or Android device you may be getting for the holidays. Of course, publishing schedules are flexible things, especially for digital books, and the release date is subject to change. I'll keep you posted.

Do I need to have read Parish Mail Book 1 first?

Post Mortem picks up right where Dead Letter Office ends, but the first chapters contain all you need to get up to speed with Celia, Tilly, Donovan, Luc, and the rest of the Parish Mail characters and world.

That being said, because Parish Mail is a series, there are story threads that carry over between books and the experience will be much richer if you're along for the whole ride. There also are plenty of hints and teases in DLO that pay off in Post Mortem, so if you haven't downloaded a copy yet, I suggest you grab one and check it out.

Did you learn anything from Dead Letter Office that influenced Post Mortem?

Oh boy, did I. I wrote a whole post on what I discovered about the choices readers made in DLO, and how I'm using that learning in PM.

Any chance of a sneak peek?

I'll see if Coliloquy's down with posting an excerpt in advance of the release. If you're a reviewer, ARCs should be available toward the end of this year, and you can contact Coliloquy directly about that.

In the meantime, if you're in Southern California, come to the Orange County Children's Book Festival on Sunday, September 30. Coliloquy's holding a panel at 2pm on the Teen/YA Stage about interactive fiction, and I'll be there with several of my fellow Coliloquy authors. We'll all be reading from our upcoming books, plus doing signings and giveaways. It should be a lot of fun -- hope to see you there!

Parish Mail Book 2 News Coming Soon!

I've got some exciting news to share shortly about the second book in the Parish Mail series, including when it's coming out and how you can get a sneak peek! Stay tuned...

ALPHAS Tonight!

I wrote the episode of ALPHAS, "Gods and Monsters" that airs tonight on Syfy! It'll be on at 8pm/7c, with an encore at 10pm.

Every episode of TV takes a village. My sincere thanks to the cast and crew, including the ep's fantastic director Mairzee Almas, Steve Welke and the rest of our post-production team, Co-Executive Producer Matt Hastings, Executive Producers Todd Sharp and Bruce Miller, and especially my wonderful colleagues on the writing staff. Y'all rock my socks.

How Your Reading Helps My Writing

Hi Dead Letter Office readers! Thanks so much for checking out the book. Haven't read it yet? You can download a copy for your Kindle, Nook, or Android device right off the interwebs.

Y'all know a fair bit about me. There's that little bio over there in the sidebar, and my longer bio at the end of DLO, and my Twitter feed, and whatnot. Turns out, I know a few things about you too. And they're helping me write the second book of the Parish Mail series.

As described in a number of recent articles, my publisher Coliloquy gathers information (anonymously and in the aggregate. Your privacy is safe.) on how readers select paths through their books, including mine.  Below are a few things I've learned about you, dear DLO readers, and -- sneak peek alert! -- how I'm using that knowledge in PM2.

You Are Surprisingly Polite to Mean Girls

The first decision point of Dead Letter Office gives you the choice of sending the heroine Celia to a swanky Halloween party that queen bee Peyton has invited her to, or having her spend Halloween in the French Quarter with quirky witch Tilly. While both options are fun, and both introduce you to mysterious, moody Luc, I assumed that most readers would want to hang with Tilly in the Quarter and blow off the party. But fully half of you, 50%, elect to go to the party! You are so courteous; Celia's grandmother Jane would most definitely approve.

My takeaway from this: equally attractive options = good. I try to make every decision non-obvious and enjoyable, and I believe that if I see nearly equal percentages in the data, as with this choice point, then I've achieved that goal. Lopsided percentages, as I'm about to explain, could be an indication that something's not working quite as well as it could.

You Dig the Paranormal

Okay, this really should have been obvious to me. Parish Mail is a supernatural mystery series, after all. But I included a decision early in DLO that gives you the choice of having Celia investigate forensically with Donovan, a cop's son, or magically with Tilly. Almost 70% of you choose the paranormal sleuthing.

Me to myself, after seeing this: "Oh. Duh."

What I was trying to to with this choice point was to let the reader decide what kind of book they want to read, conventional mystery or paranormal. But, of course, the reader's already made that choice in buying this book.

Tilly is Celia's BFF, and I love that she has as many fans among you as she does. So she'll be working her magic alongside Celia from here on out. I still like the idea of giving the reader the power to shape their reading experience, though, so in Parish Mail Book 2, you'll get to decide whether it's Luc or Donovan who joins Celia in her investigation. Sparks will fly, trust me, no matter which you choose. Good news: you can always go back and read the other version!

You Are Not Fooled by Clunky Misdirection

The main mystery of Dead Letter Office, the "mission" or "case" of the book, is one area where I feel like I didn't do as good a job as I wanted. In particular there's one investigative choice point that is not well designed: the "right" path is far too obvious despite my trying to tart up the "wrong" option to make it more appealing. You guys aren't falling for it. An overwhelming majority of you choose the the "right" path.

In PM2, I put a lot of effort into not only making the mystery more relevant to Celia personally, but also giving you the reader more compelling investigative choices. It should be harder in PM2 (and thus more fun) to tell what the "right" and "wrong" clues are.  You'll be rewarded with hints to the overall series mystery if you think through the facts and evidence like Celia does.

You Laugh in the Face of Danger

Similar to the above example, there's another choice point where you can charge in after the bad guy or wait for the police. Even though I tried to make this a character choice, having you side with either Luc or Donovan, 66% of you said "Who needs the police? I'm taking this perp down myself!"

Mind you, the waiting-for-the-police route ends up being no less dangerous -- Magic! Machetes! Alligators! -- but of course you can't possibly know that when you make the decision. So in PM2 I'm paying more attention to what the choice point implies.

You Are Intrigued by Bad Boys

There's an opportunity near the end of Dead Letter Office for the reader to choose, literally, the boy of Celia's dreams. While both Luc and Donovan each get a healthy share of the vote, 38% and 48% respectively, Sloan pulls in a respectable 14%.

Entitled and snarky with a good side that he rarely shows, Sloan appears in only a few scenes of DLO. The vote results show me that a fair number of you are interested in the guy, and so he's playing a larger role in PM2 than I was originally planning.

So there you have it -- a snapshot of what I've learned from the DLO data and how you're helping me write Parish Mail Book 2. Hey, mind if you bang out these next few chapters for me while I go to Hawaii? Fantastic!

Coliloquy in the Wall Street Journal

Illustration by John Cuneo, via WSJ.com

The Wall Street Journal has published an article about how "big data" from ebooks is informing the way those books are published, sold, and in my case, written.

I'm disappointed that the article led with the alarmist angle, including the title and graphic -- don't you love Scary Eyes Kindle? -- but I'm not surprised. Fear is always a juicy hook, as those teases for your local TV news prove ("What are the four things under your kitchen sink that could kill you? Channel 6 investigates!"). I would've preferred a greater emphasis on the intriguing positives about this technology, including my publisher Coliloquy's goals of allowing readers to shape their own experiences through interactivity, establishing feedback loops between readers and author, and turning reading into a more social experience.

But Coliloquy does get a nice long profile at the end of the article, including a brief mention of my Parish Mail series and a nifty example from my Coliloquy slate-mate Tawna Fenske on the kind of impact reader data can have on our writing.

What did you think of the article? Is data gathering from ebooks good? Bad? Or is it just data-- until someone uses it for good or bad?