The End of the F**king World is fantastic. Not the concept of Earth imploding, the show based on a graphic novel by Charles Forsman. I’m not claiming foreknowledge like I did with The Walking Dead (hey, I had the comics!) I was browsing Netflix a while ago and watching anything I came across.

Usually teen dramas (or anything) that screams “coming of age” is bollocks to me. This show was none of those things, so if you see the trailer or a picture of the main actors and you’re turned off thinking it’s for teens – no. Just watch it. It’s dramatic in parts, intense, funny and all round entertaining.
I binged it, first season and then I pined until I binged the second. Fuck, it’s good.

I’m yet to read the graphic novel, apart from a few frames online, but really liked the show and I assume it can’t be too different because essentially a comic plays like a storyboard for a filmed production. Right? I guess I’m about to find out. *orders a copy*

The positive side of having written work made into a series or movies (even if it isn’t exact) is that whole fictional worlds that only lived in the author’s head are now being experienced by people who might not have ever discovered the written work otherwise.

Another example I think of is when I met AJ BETTS (author of Zac and Mia – now a television show) at a writer’s event. This woman has walked red carpets at premieres and is celebrated in the Australian YA genre. Zac and Mia is for a younger audience but the themes can be enjoyed by older people. Being diagnosed with a life-threatening/ life-changing illness and how that effects the individual as well as people in their lives is something most of us can relate to.

She seemed to be the most successful one out of the people on the authors/creators panel (in my opinion) that day and also the most down to earth. She was very polite and easy to chat to. Her advice to me was, “go to everything.” Eg: writer’s groups, events, talks from your favourite authors etc. and learn the industry and see how things work. Everything is an experience.”

THEN…
She even shot me a like on instagram. (and you can too! *ahem)

*fangirls out just a little!!!!*

In her talk, AJ BETTS said that when Zac and Mia was garnering interest to be made into a show, she was contacted to give permission/rights for a production and she was offered a choice:

1. Be hands-on involved with the production.

2. Be a little involved and consulted for directorial stuff sometimes.

or 3. No involvement.

She explained that, at the time, it was common knowledge these types of offers didn’t eventuate, so she said she didn’t mind if she wasn’t involved.

((Then the show was picked up by the AwesomenessTV network.

The choice AJ BETTS was given burned in my brain. Apparently she met the actors later and was more involved, which must have been a lot of fun but she said she was initially a little disappointed she hadn’t said yes to being more involved earlier. BTW, the series was nominated for 6 Daytime Emmy awards and won 2!

So, onto the books which transformed to screen and flopped; Whose fault is it?! Some examples that apparently didn’t quite make the cut. (See if you agree with the list I found here.)

Image by Arek Socha

Do the directors and producers allow the author to be consulted too much and thus mess up the marketing because they chose to spotlight the wrong scenes?

OR is it the opposite? The original author wasn’t consulted enough and the execs included out-of-place dialogue that is cringe-ly “girl power” or some other concept to meet a particular agenda currently present in the mainstream (it happens.)

Did they think that cutting that scene the author felt was pivotal was a good idea? Did they cast a character that looks nothing like she does in the book simply because the actor has star power? To be a fly on the wall!

Regardless, I guess you have to be content with having written something that now has potential to reach a lot more people through a different medium…

I discussed reasons why some stories lose their charm when moved to a screen here, when I wrote about Ready Player One. Not that I thought the book and movie version were bad, just that I noticed they were different to each other due to time constraints, age ratings, audience appeal etc.

But remakes are not immune either…

The latest one I have avoided and therefore shouldn’t judge, but totally will…

The new Lion King movie (the one with Queen B.) I was mock-annoyed with CC for seeing JOKER without me and said, “Fine! I’m going to see Lion King then!”

I was already iffy about wasting fuel, the time and the makeup to go to the cinema but he basically helped crush my dreams further and I saved $20, so I guess that’s good.

The conversation with Mr CC Movie Connoisseur who has seen everything;

“But you’ve seen it.” –

“What? No, I haven’t.”

“You saw the cartoon movie when you were younger?”

“Yeah, but-“

“Then you’ve seen it.”

Then we laughed and he pulled out the “Honest Trailer” for it…

My soul hurts.

I’m sorry Disney.

(I watched this part about 4 times and tried not to die laughing. Damn Honest Trailer content creators! Why they have to put it like that?) : “Their animal faces can’t…you know, act.”

BUT I am actually sad! I’m open to seeing someone else’s interpretation of something/a piece of art/culture, and a remake is different from a film of a book adaptation…but it’s a similar concept. The writers/directors had to have made the choices I listed earlier and in my post “The Book was Better.”

The only thing different about making this movie from another movie was that the original movie was the bomb! They literally just had to copy it and not ruin it…!

I wonder why they made some creative choices they did and if they were that excited to get THE Bey and THE James Earl Jones onboard that they just figured the star power would blind people from seeing the kind of weird CGI faces and any mistakes?

Apologies if it’s your favourite movie…but…uh, I think I am going to save that $20 for the ridiculously overpriced icecream at the cinema next time.

My years on this Earth as an adult have taught me many things. Unfortunately, being wary of adaptations and remakes is ingrained now. There is no turning back until I am proved wrong!

😉

 

 

TLDR: *The End of the Fucking World is awesome. See it.

*AJ BETTS is a nice lady, I’m inspired and I’m glad she is repping for Perth and Australia to the U.S market.

*A lot of the time film adaptations of books don’t seem to cut it. (Once again, Ready Player One is still RAD.)

*I’m not going to see The Lion King because Disney has already hurt me. Right in the childhood.

All content is no copyright infringement intended. All posts are opinion only and are subject to change due to experience, kicking ass and learning how to adult more effectively. If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Elements of original content may be reproduced with expressed permission from Ever Eden.

 

 

You’ve heard it before, some of the best selling books in the world were rejected by numerous publishers. This includes the Harry Potter series, (rumoured to have been turned down 12-22 times) which is probably one of the highest selling franchises in history. So, what makes your manuscript so un…reject…able, huh? :\

I’ve been writing for a long time (since I was a nerdy tween.) However, it wasn’t until over a decade ago that someone slurred me a drunken ply of knowledge standing in someone else’s backyard with music blaring in the background. They told me I should actually try to publish my work because, “Why the fuck not, mate?”

Why hadn’t I tried? Tried tried? Hadn’t I had the confidence to present the project I’d worked on for so long? I’d sent a couple of letters/emails regarding publishing and representation when I was younger but they probably could have been constructed better and planned more effectively. Hey, I was a kid!

The internet wasn’t so helpful for me at the time either. If people knew the secret formula, they weren’t sharing it in any forums I was frequenting. TBH, I barely knew where to start in the first place and, like the effect it has on many people, sometimes things seem too overwhelming to get yourself motivated enough to try.

I’ve learned to word things in a better way over the years through having to adult, and I’ve learned to create a decent proposition for agents, job interviews, plays, song pitches (and the list goes on.) All those super fun, anxiety-inducing types of letters and correspondence with adults who are more adulty than me.

But rejections are many, no matter how great your cover letters/queries and story is. Sorry about that.

Again, look at JK Rowling’s experience with Harry Potter, (an example I’m mentioning again because everyone knows it.) Submitting work is like a job interview, and also not. (ha!) Convince the agent/publisher that you are the person who should be writing this story and that only you can tell it in this way…then hope the next guy doesn’t do it better.

Rejection rule that I follow: Sometimes your art/expression just doesn’t fit what someone is looking for.

It could be that you actually do need to revise or present it in a different way…BUT sometimes your writing or painting, or your audition just doesn’t hit home for someone…and that is the beauty of ART and creation. It’s subjective and individual interpretations and opinions are based on countless factors the person reading, viewing or hearing has experienced through their own life.

Another thought I’ve experienced before is that…maybe some publishing houses merely reject you based on some internal procedure none of us mortals are privvy to. This isn’t sour grapes or something, I’ve proven I DGAF when I published my own stuff, but it’s a thought I’ve had occasionally after receiving some rejection emails. And I’ll tell you why. (*please Lord, let me find the screenshot so I can prove my case! It has been on my mind the past few years.)

This is the reason I first considered going Indie.

It happened during a crazy time in my life. I sent a few query letters out which garnered responses, but it was a small part of what was going on for me at the time so it wasn’t terribly disappointing to receive a “no thanks” weeks after I had sent my initial submission. The rejection email above made me laugh out loud before I headed off for another few hours of medical treatment.

The fact that even the canned response was so unimportant that they didn’t ADDRESS the email to me made me think that it wasn’t totally about my work not being suitable for their business model. It made me consider if most of what gets sent to agents is just deleted, ignored or is sent to the Spam Folder before anyone actually has the choice of spending a few minutes looking over it.

When I first began to reach out to publishers some of the advice was;

1. Don’t make it clear you intend on writing a series. You need to show that the book is standalone, then send them a query letter again for the second book and so on.
2. Base it on Australian culture.
3. Reconsider the protagonist/anti-hero being female.

There are a few more points of advice I was given and/or that I discovered from publisher rejections that maybe I will a post another time and do a pros and cons list for people that have the dilemma.

For me, going indie was mostly that I hadn’t the time to solicit multiple publishers anymore. Rules some of them had didn’t fit with what I needed either. Most would state that you couldn’t approach another publisher/agent while your work was POSSIBLY being read by their agency…and they reserved the right (perhaps understandably due to the volume of submissions they might receive) to not reply to you before a three month period or not at all if they weren’t interested.

Well, I ain’t getting any younger, MF!

Two other reasons (of many) included the fact that my work may be toned down to suit pallets of the agency I wanted to be represented by (fair, it’s a business decision,) and I was also disliking my lack of input into any cover art/marketing they would do.

Another thing that was worth thinking about: the writing advice I was given in the early days has done a complete 180 now. EG. People are falling all over themselves to have female leads in television shows and movies as well as books. Advice for writers tends to say that pitching a book and mentioning there is potential for a series (or that it is already part of one) is good because it means potential earnings over a period of time for the company and therefore, may attract an agent to the work.

So do yo thang. Choose traditional or indie, but get your work out there. Someone wants to read your story, and even if you only get a few people reading it, you deserve to see it in the flesh after all the hours/days/weeks/years(for some of us) you spent slaving over it.

 

 

 

TLDR:

*Traditional vs Indie publishing has pros and cons

*It’s hard but try not to take the rejection too personally. There are sometimes reasons for it that have nothing to do with you.

*Sometimes you DO need to revise. Be open to modifying a little if you want an agency to represent you.

*Indie has been far more fun for me.

*The traditional publishing game has changed a lot.

*The “Ain’t nobody got time fo dat” lady is my spirit animal.

 

All content is no copyright infringement intended. All posts are opinion only and are subject to change due to experience, kicking ass and learning how to adult more effectively. If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Elements of original content may be reproduced with expressed permission from Ever Eden.

 

 

 

Film adaptation; two words that strike fear into the hearts of bookworms.

 

When Hollywood is in a slump, apparently the best idea is to get a well-selling/best selling book and turn it into a movie. Am I complaining? No…I think it’s probably nearly every author’s fantasy to have their imaginary world on the big screen. BUT I’ve been an unsatisfied movie-goer many a time because of this.

Movies generally have a run-time to stick to. There are also epic 3hr movies too where the story is complicated or mind-bending, a classic piece of pop culture, or where a director feels the story can only be told if they force you to sit in a dark room with strangers for that long…This is going to be about the former.

Usually producers/screenwriters need to change narratives enough that they still follow the book but fit time constraints or age ratings. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (and the movie) is an example I think of a lot because it was one of the only ones where I understood why they changed the things they did in the translation from book to big screen.

I thought the book was excellent; pop culture and game references… but there was a part where I found myself wanting to turn the pages a little faster towards the end where Wade is trying to track down Art3mis and modify what is happening with IOI.

The movie was fast. ‘Real’ characters behind the gamer handles/aliases were introduced to Wade/Pazival quickly. There’s obviously more time to build up friendships and the meetings between Wade and the others in the book. Their reveals on the page weren’t shocking but they were more fun because the build up made the reader excited to meet them for the first time too. In the movie, they come out of nowhere individually, throw a few lines of informative dialogue around so Wade knows who they are and then they team up and get on with it.

I wasn’t disappointed but I didn’t care as much when I saw them.

Some of the book references may also have alienated younger gamers/viewers because the games and characters were from the 1980s/really early 90s. The movie, directed by Spielberg, changed some of that with the cameos by more recent game characters and themes to suit the current time.

Ratings at PG 13. Some things were changed or modified to keep with the rating.

They say “fuck” once in the movie and I can’t remember if they do in the book. I assume this is to do with the audience it was aimed at drawing to the cinema. There are dramatic car races, characters from well-loved games and a bunch of cool tech that younger people are looking forward to because that stuff is coming in the near future…(games are going to be amazingggggg.)

The other big thing that changed enough for me to be disappointed was (SPOILER COMING UP,) when Sho is murdered in the book and not the movie. I remember standing on a train platform as it pulled in, book in my hand, dangling at my side and just staring deadpan at my reflection for a few seconds.

He doesn’t die in the movie because I guess(?) there is something wrong with killing off a cute little kid in front of millions of other kids viewing. I was kind of looking forward to it, wanting to see how it would be depicted and…they never did it. : (

Dialogue is another thing I look out for. It’s so nice to fangirl out when the onscreen character says your favourite line from the book. As far as I remember, they did this a lot in Ready Player One but there was also the understandable measure that some dialogue would change or contain more hint to backstories etc. that would otherwise take half a dozen pages in a book.

“Hey Ever,”

“Yes, Mr Big Hollywood Exec?”

“We want to turn KOS and the Darkrose Novels into a movie or a series.”

Cool, I wrote the way I did so that it wouldn’t be hard to make KOS or the other books into a screenplay in the way of runtime or dialogue. I didn’t expect that to happen or to get a Hollywood deal or something but I have a background in theatre and performance, and writing those types of productions while keeping those constraints in mind, so I’m used to conveying the unseen through dialogue alone if I have to.

I also started a comic strip for Cleo Darkrose way back in the day too so when reading King of Spades, it plays like a movie (hopefully) in people’s heads. There are specific scenes in the book that I’d love to find the time to panel and draw as well as some clothes/costumes featured in the story (the Bridle and Number One’s array of expensive outfits mostly.) These are probably for a future post…

The language/swearing in the Darkrose Novels is something I would be prepared to negotiate if KOS or any Darkrose Novel made it to a screen. Why? Because military or those who have bonded with others in hardship or strange circumstances (like Cleo) seem to use FUCK like a comma…but I understand not everyone knows this.

Okay, Hollywood, I would be prepared to lose some fucks.

But I’m not losing any of the Original Truther concepts. 😛

TLDR:

*See Ready Player One if you haven’t. It’s written in a a way that its entertaining for newcomers AND (if you have read the book) also mostly satisfying.

*Rating levels, time constraints and demographics usually dictate how a book translates to a screen.

*I believe KOS is written in a way where moving it to a screen would be easier than some other books.

*My field of fucks lies barren.

 

All content is no copyright infringement intended. All posts are opinion only and are subject to change due to experience, kicking ass and learning how to adult more effectively. If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Elements of original content may be reproduced with expressed permission from Ever Eden.

I met Miesha Tate while the current premier of our state was greasing wheels trying to get people to vote for him. There was a ban on “cage-fighting” by the former premier and it seemed to coincide with the first UFC events in this city and this guy’s campaign. He turned out to be a douche, like they all do when they actually get into power, but that’s another story.

Miesha Tate is taller than me and at the time, way thinner. Why this matters is because on television she looks real tall sometimes and when she’s scrapping and taking names in the octagon, she just seems…bigger. In real life she looked like a regular girl. She seemed like an old friend, waiting at the table for me to get there and start drinking. There were so many thirsty males lining up to hug her, but it was okay. I was lucky and went with a group of friends and we made it an adventure.
Meeting Miesha was a reminder that you never know. You don’t know what someone’s going to bring if you start shit with them. She was still pretty, cute and super nice, she was like anyone else, in jeans and a t-shirt just hanging around next to a pint of beer. But she can destroy you.

There is a scene in the Darkrose Novels, which I took out, involving a random man hitting on Cleo. Standing next to Miesha, it got me thinking about how many times she’d probably been in a seedy bar and had unwanted attention from both sexes and how that played out. Did she think about going into beast-mode or did she think about the setting, the reality that she might not be able to take someone on where there are no rules or Herb Dean?  If she was a game character (which she kind of is lol) or in a fictional book/movie, would the author make her 100% realistic and flawed, a superhero who has powers and can’t lose, or a mixture of both – reality and something just a little our of the regular/normal realm?

If you don’t know Cleo Darkrose, I would tell you these things about her…

She is tough, she is usually fair, she is skilled, she is ambitious, she is beautiful and she is afraid to feel like shit again. This post is going to be about her skills in the grand scheme.

Cleo can kick your ass. Probably.

Female leads in action/sci-fi/fantasy books usually fight and take care of themselves. Cleo can kick ass, within reason. I’ve read a few books and watched enough movies to know that it’s difficult (apparently) to create a respectable female lead without her being able to display some sort of martial arts skill or magic power that lets her dominate others.

Cleo was always going to be a character on the edge of being naturally gifted and have some sort of hint to preternatural ability. She wasn’t the usual type of character I saw frequently when I started writing her, and it wasn’t that she had magical powers or was essentially ‘special.’ It was about being raised in an environment where advanced medical enhancements and good old fashioned regimented brutal training was a part of her life.

I’ve seen female characters in a realistic setting stand at about 5 ft tall, weigh 115 pounds and be able to bring down a 300 pound man who was trying to grab her goodies.

It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility, look at the strawweight or bantamweight divisions in the UFC, those women will fuck a regular dude up…but it’s unlikely. (Unless the character has supernatural abilities etc.)

I’m not anything like those amazing athletes, but I can tell you that even just sparring with a full grown man a foot and a half taller than you and weighing near double, you get to thinking it probably wouldn’t end well if things turned serious.

Artistic license etc is one of the most amazing things about fiction…but sometimes it’s hard to stay engrossed when you can tell that the author didn’t really think the scene through or doesn’t know the way certain things work then kind of dwells on them a lot so you notice.

Cleo does some Matrix bullshit too though!

King of Spades has a scene in which Cleo has breached a home in order to extract two civilians. While she is there, she is confronted by two armed men who are there to kill the civilians. She. Kicks. Their. Asses.

And…she runs up a wall.

Can someone do this in real life? Apparently.

Can I run up a wall? Nope.

Can you? I dunno, maybe.

But the Darkrose Novels tend to be mostly(?) reality-based until you get into the things a lot of people consider advanced tech/ sci-fi. It seems to work for this type of story. Everything that happens in the novels is a life that you don’t live, but one that is probably going on somewhere in a classified installation in an undisclosed location you will never know about…!

 

TLDR:

*Make characters possess qualities that aren’t completely unbelievable or unsuited to your chosen genre.

*I met Miesha Tate and stuff once. I fangirled out HARD and only regret it 97% 

KING OF SPADES is available at these places and more: https://www.bookdepository.com/King-of-Spades-Ever-Eden/9780648052401

https://books.apple.com/us/book/king-of-spades/id1273946073

https://www.booktopia.com.au/king-of-spades-ever-eden/ebook/9780648052432.html

RED COWBOYS STUFF:

The **RED COWBOYS Title Trailer is a simple lil thang, just to whet the appetite of those hanging on and missing Agent Cleo Darkrose and Agent Trent Starr. Red Cowboys picks up where King of Spades left off.

All content is no copyright infringement intended. All posts are opinion only and are subject to change due to experience, kicking ass and learning how to adult more effectively. If you don’t like it, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya. Elements of original content may be reproduced with expressed permission from Ever Eden.