From Grey's Anatomy Blog
Topic: Writers in the News
Saturday 10:23pm 27Jan07
I was reading the Grey's anatomy blog because there is a write up about the man, Bob Vernoff who the George O'Malley episode was dedicated to. I continued to read because it is kind of neat to read what the writers have to say about their show. Any how I took this answer from Krista Vernoff who answered some frequently asked questions. I just want to comment that most people don't get the amount of practice that goes into writing.

To all the people that ask you as a writer why you haven't sent your stuff out yet and imply that you are too scared to do anything or that you may be a failure because it's taking you so long, just remember Krista's answer!
No one writes something from scratch and gets it immediately published unless they are writing a blog. And anyone who has read this blog knows that there are some gems and some big ass crap! That's the nature of the game baby.

How do you become a writer for a show like Grey's Anatomy? Because I would love to be one. Love. And I have no idea how to do it.

I have gotten several questions in this vein. So I’m going to attempt to answer this in brief – and then I really should go do work.

There are many ways to become a TV writer. You can go to film school. You can do your undergraduate study in screenwriting. I didn’t. I did take two writing classes – one was playwriting with Prof. Jon Lipsky my senior year at Boston University. It was terrific and inspiring and a big part of what made me want to be a writer. The second was a screenwriting 101 class at the New School in NYC right after I graduated college with a prof whose name ai sadly can’t remember. . Both were helpful. But largely, I self-educated. By that I mean, I read a lot of books on how to write for television. And then I watched a lot of television. And then I practiced writing for television. I practiced a LOT.

You hear a lot of stories about people moving to LA and never making it as writers and oh the misery and all the years it takes… My theory is that – okay, some of those people aren’t talented – but many of them, most of them, just moved here too soon. They didn’t practice enough before they started sending scripts out and trying to find an agent.

Many, many people write ONE script, or maybe two, and then think they’re ready to be seen and read . To me, that’s insane. Because no matter now good you think your first script is, the second one will be better and the third will be better than that. You learn by doing. Write scripts and show them to trusted friends and get notes and TAKE THE NOTES and rewrite and then write more scripts. That’s how you get good. Also, read something good every day – a novel, preferably, something juicy and inspiring. And write every day. Write every day for a good long while. And then, when you’re ready, buy the books that tell you how to get your stuff read in Hollywood. There are a lot of good ones.

All my Best,
Krista

Enough said! Here's the link Greys Writers

No Alarm Saturday
Now Playing: Bobby Valentine
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
Saturday 27Jan07 7:13am
I decided to turn off my alarms before I went to sleep last night. Sometimes it feels too much like I have to go to work and I want to press snooze until the cows come in. I opened my eyes at 4am and promptly closed them again until 5:15am.

I fed the cats, did the dishes, applied warmed Castor oil and rosewood aromatherapy oil to my feet, ate a grapefruit and sent an email. Yup, when I'm good I can get a few things done before most people have even opened their eyes. And when I'm lazy?

Last night, I read over my notes that I've been keeping from the Creating Money book I've been reading a little of each week. My goal is to actually read the whole book. What I like about the book is that it makes sense and I also know that it works really quickly. It makes you state exactly what you want (object or sum of money) and what the essence of having it is. Once you figure out what the essence of having money is to you start to create that essence. For example, for me the essence of having my specific amount is Freedom, Enjoyment and Inner Peace. So I wrote up a list of activities that make me feel free, give me enjoyment and make me feel Inner peace.

The thing is to do those activities and it's like telling the universe that you are ready for what you've asked for by living it now. It also takes your focus away from what you don't have. Life is all about energy and Creating Money focuses on that.

I decided that I wanted to actually listen to my music off CD's today instead of off my lap top. Sometimes I have so many things running off my laptop that it slows it down or causes the dreaded freezes. Plus I have so many songs on itunes that I often just end up listening to the same songs. I had to do a major dig to find my discman this morning. I haven't used it in so long. Finally found it on the top of one of my bookcases and hooked it up to my all powerful external computer speakers that are so tiny and so loud. I can slide my office chair to the desk behind me and change the CD's easily.

I only recently caved in and bought CD envelopes and took all of my CD's out of their cases and slapped them all into the envelopes. I'm of the old generation that likes music in it's original case but CD cases have always been a pain in the ass and after you own so much music, where the hell do you put it all? None of the CD holders I've ever owned have ever been that great. I would need a CD library and considering I'm over run with books I'd need some futuristic rotating bookshelves that would turn around when I pushed a button. Hmm! That's not a half bad idea. Ha ha!

Anyway today's music case is all about the music I burned from other people's collections. My ex boyfriend Jeff, who brought me music when we had our mourning the death of Luther Vandross' death, back when Luther died. Plus the music I got from my best friend J in Montreal when I spent all of my time both times that I was home importing his whole CD collection into my lap top. I had to buy 200 blank discs to burn everything as back up. Yeah I'd have to hurt myself if I'd lost all that and hadn't backed it up.

He was cracking me up when I brought about 80 of my CD's that I knew he didn't have. How to motivate a brother to get up early? Bring him 80 CD's that he doesn't have and give him a deadline to burn them all. "Yeah, ahh J? My train leaves in 3 days, GO!"

I still need to visit my friend who has worked for different music companies for close to 20 years to import all her stuff onto my lovely laptop. I need to start that soon actually. She has stuff like the Beatles and a whole whack of white artists that I don't have. Yeah she's got a crazy music collection after all those years of working in the music industry. My one year of working at Sam the Record Man back in the day is when I got a good foot hold on my CD collection. I worked there just when Cd's became the main choice and records were being phased out. I started buying Cd's before I even had anything to play them on.

Truth be known, I still miss vinyl but the space those suckers took up... talk about a library! I still have all my vinyl but it's not out of control, maybe about 500 albums. Hmm and I still have my cassette tapes. No 8 tracks or 78's although I do know a couple people that still have 8 tracks! The only thing I can remember having on 78 when I was a kid was Elvis. Man, I played teddy bear over and over. Hmm I wonder if my music collection holding girlfriend has any Elvis? I'll have to ask her tomorrow at our weekly breakfast get together.

Yeah, Listening to music is one of my inner peace activities. Funny, watching television doesn't fall under any of my lists of activities. I never used to be a television person. I think it was during my depression that I started watching more and more television. I didn't want my horrible feelings linked to any music I loved, like when you break up with someone and you can't listen to the music you both loved because it breaks your heart. I can still hear music from the 1970's and remember how depressed or sad I was feeling back then about my messed up childhood situation. That's a long time ago, hmm, I have some friends that weren't even born then, eh Lolo?

Speaking of time passing, Can you believe that it's 2007? We're almost done a whole decade after worrying about Y2K. That's amazing.

Well, I've got a few assignments for today: make soup, beet juice, work out, write, and get some Salmon at Fresh obsessed.

Anyway, I've lit a candle, am burning some incense and playing some (new to me) music. I'm off to focus on freedom, enjoyment and inner peace.

That's my thang!

EY

Philip Roth
Topic: Writers in the News
Okay, Philip Roth is 73 years old and writes 10 hours a day!
Got this article from the Toronto Star...

Roth gets local publisher

One of America's greatest living writers has had no publisher here
January 26, 2007
Judy Stoffman
entertainment reporter

The Penguin Group (Canada) has announced that it will bring out Exit Ghost, the next novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. author Philip Roth, in September. Penguin's move ends a bizarre situation in which the man considered America's greatest living writer has been without a Canadian publisher.

In May 2006, when the New York Times Book Review asked several hundred prominent critics, writers and editors to name the single best work of American fiction of the past 25 years, they came up with 22 titles, of which six were by Roth. More prolific than ever, the 73-year-old author reportedly writes 10 hours each day and brings out a new book every two years.

"It seemed very odd that Roth had not been published in Canada because Canadian publishers are pretty good at picking up important international writers," said David Davidar, Penguin's publisher, in a phone interview. "We approached Andrew Wylie (Roth's New York agent) and expressed an interest in Roth. This was then the first book up for grabs and we got in on it right away. Most writers benefit from being published separately. At this point we have no idea what will happen to his backlist."

Roth's hardcover books, published in the U.S. by Houghton Mifflin, have been distributed here for the past decade by Thomas Allen and Son Ltd., while paperbacks under the Vintage imprint of his 24 novels and two non-fiction works are imported by Random House Canada. But this is not the same as having a Canadian publisher committed to creating a local market for his books.

Penguin Canada is not the first Canadian publisher to go around the dance floor with Roth. In 1995, McClelland & Stewart brought out Sabbath's Theatre, possibly Roth's most obscene book, which went on to win a National Book Award that year. Mickey Sabbath, its title character, is an aging puppeteer who rages against the death of his mistress and life in general by engaging in transgressive sexual behaviours.

"It was a great book, but risky," recalls fiction editor Ellen Seligman, who bought the book for M&S. "It's hard to sell U.S. writers unless they are Danielle Steel. A major hurdle was that Roth would not do any publicity. It did not do very well at all. When it came time for (signing up) his next book, we felt it was not going to work."

How well does the best American writer sell? A profile of Roth by David Remnick in the New Yorker in 2000 called his U.S. sales "modest," between 30,000 and 45,000 in hardcover. Since then Roth has published The Plot Against America, which turned into a surprise bestseller. However, Seligman recalls that Sabbath's Theatre sold only about 1,000 copies in Canada.

Michael Tamblyn, who heads BookNet Canada, a sales tracking service for books in Canada, says he cannot give out an actual number, but Roth's last book, Everyman, was among the top 100 on the fiction list in the weeks after its release.

Says Davidar, "Whatever he sold in Canada in the past, I'm confident that we can do better."

The acquiring editor was Nicole Winstanley; she would not disclose the amount paid for rights to Exit Ghost.

It will be the last of Roth's Nathan Zuckerman stories, Zuckerman being Roth's alter ego whom he first introduced in 1979 in his novel The Ghost Writer. Zuckerman was then a young writer with only a few short stories to his credit.

The new book is a portrait of Zuckerman as an old man, his powers waning, his desires still ungratified. Zuckerman leaves his home in rural Massachusetts, where he lives alone, to return to New York to visit a dying friend whose revelations unsettle him. "It's an astonishingly insightful study of loss, grief (and) aging," Davidar said.

In between The Ghost Writer and Exit Ghost, Zuckerman has appeared in seven other novels, including the trilogy of critical novels about postwar America that may be Roth's greatest achievement: American Pastoral (1997), about the cataclysm of the '60s; I Married a Communist (1998), about the 1950s McCarthy period; and The Human Stain (2000), set in the Clinton era.

Where's Nip/Tuck?
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
Friday 5:59pm 26Jan07

I'm trying to be good tonight and not go straight into veg mode. It's so easy to do on a Friday night after a week of work. Mind you, I did take a personal day earlier this week after feeling so upset that I was sure that I would quit if I went it. I rarely get that upset that it carries over into the next day. Oh well, the storm has calmed.
It did also help that I had a night out, changed up my routine. Human contact does have it's benefits.

Zelda is tapping the television, the only cat that watches it. I keep telling her it's not good for her eyes to sit so close. She may need glasses if she doesn't watch out. Imagine little cat glasses.

Speaking of television, where the heck is season four of Nip/tuck? I think they've shown the full season in the states and still nothing to be seen here in Canada! Appalling. What a great, sick, demented show. Last year when Christian had sex with a client and put a bag over her head was absolutely brutal. That, I have to admit, was the extreme that made me question whether I could continue watching it but I continued. CTV hasn't even given us a clue as to when it might be shown, the bastards!

Back to Zelda and her cat glasses, there's a commercial on the radio that has these cats screaming like their fighting or getting hurt or something and every time the commercial plays Zelda runs around to see where the other two cats are and when she sees that they are fine, she goes into hiding. Too funny that she's perturbed by a commercial. Of course it sounds a lot like her screams when she gets herself into some strange predicament it's any wonder she gets freaked out.

I don't get people who aren't silly ever. I know a couple of people like that and I wonder how they cope without silly. Most of my best laughs are because of being silly. Luckily for me Ado also worships at the altar of silly. He's also one of those kind of people that can laugh at the same thing over and over if it hits him funny. So like children that say, "do it again, do it again," we spent the last couple days cracking up at the way I pretended to call my boss. For 45 minutes I said his name over and over while Ado got into a fit of hysterics. It makes no sense but as long as it makes us laugh.
My thing that makes me laugh every single day is to ask Jojay, "Is it nap time yet?" and he responds, "Is it retirement time yet?"

Jojay likes to say that this really isn't his life. He's really in a coma and when he comes out of it he'll be able to go back to his real life where he's really rich. Yeah sure coma boy, hopefully you'll come out of your coma before you retire.

The question before the Wise Guys daily contest on CHFI the other day was, "How come no one was ever the Village Idiot in a past life?"

There's at least three of us at work who admit to it...

Peace and quiet for the weekend and a movie viewing. Not too much left to ramble about.

EY

The Coldest and Most Depressing
Topic: WC - Daily Practice
Thursday 5:53pm 25Jan07

We had two of the most days this week. Apparently so say the media, Monday was the most depressing day of the new year because people have realized that they've failed in their resolutions and that they spent too much at Christmas and some other reason. Nice to be given permission by the media that you should be depressed. ha ha.

And today was apparently the day that is always the coldest historically so there was no need to complain about how cold it was outside. But it was mighty cold. Luckily for me, I was feeling too ragged so the cold air was somewhat refreshing. Not something I say too often, mind you.

Today we said our formal good byes to our property manager at work as she moves on to another job and a new team still within the company. I don't know why I get so weepy about these things now. I used to be so good at not crying over these things but that has changed. Does getting older really make you more weepy, I wonder?

We've been lucky with our property managers. We've had two wonderful ladies that were fun and funny and easy to work with. Let's hope that third time is a charm.

I ordered my reading series tickets last week so I'm all hooked up for that for the next couple months which is good. I'm in need of some outings to stimulate my brain. It's good to have the writing discipline but I really do need to add a little variety to my life. With that in mind, I went to the bar last night for a couple beer and to write. It was nice to be able to concentrate on my stuff and still be around people. I really do spend far too much time alone and get used to be without people that I often wonder if I'm losing my social skills. Once I was done my writing I chatted with a few regulars and met some new people.

Kimiko who is into numerology and was thrilled when I rattled off that I was a 6 which is focused around responsibility. That my personal year this year is a 4 which means work, plain and simple. Where as last years 3 year was about fun. And that the universal number for 2007 is 9 which is about completion.

She told me that her dad is Japanese and her mother Canadian and that they met while dad was gigging at a bar. He kept sending her mother drinks and in less than two months they were married and are still married today. How neat is that? That's not something that could ever happen to me. I think I choose/attract freaks so could you imagine me jumping into marriage in less than two months only to discover that I'd married a freak? All the I told you so's from my friends.
"What were you thinking? You didn't even know the guy! Sleep with him, move in with him, but marry him?"
Yeah that would be my luck.

I mentioned the Canadian comedian Shaun Majumder - his mom is a newfie and dad is Indian (India). And we both chatted about how much we love him. Of course his mom and dad didn't stay together long.

I watched a biography of Tommy Lee the other day. Why? I don't know. But his parents got married to each other and his Greek mother didn't speak English and his English father didn't speak Greek! They did a lot of signing and drawing to get their point across to each other. Tommy Lee said that some woman, maybe therapist, told him that that was why he had so many tattoos. Because he had the childhood memory of being a toddler and his parents were drawing and signing their communication. Interesting thought. He found he resonated with that idea.

Kimiko was brought to the bar by Lynne because Lynne thought that she'd be perfect for the single bartender that works there. They are now dating and are adorable together. Ah the beginnings when everything smells better and tastes better and you can go on very little sleep because you're living off love's sweet adrenaline. I love that part.

I am a romantic at heart so I always love to hear those kind of stories. I said that I wish that someone would set me up, that no one ever sets me up. But that was a bit of a lie. My high school girlfriend who also moved to Toronto used to try to set me up with guys. Mostly her cast offs. And worse yet some strange addicted brothers. One guy that she only bothered to tell me after I'd met him that he was a coke head. Hello, when did I ever say I was desperate? I'm just curious. I had to tell her to stop looking for me. If I wanted to date a murderer I'd become a pen pal with a prisoner.

My guys at work are always trying to fix me up with people who aren't even close to my type and a little ridiculous. They do it jokingly but sometimes it's a little rough. I had to say to Ado, "you must not like me very much if you'd set me up with him."
He gave me the shocked look surprised that I would link the two together. But it makes you wonder what people think about you or how they see you based on the people that they would set you up with. That seems to be part of my theme this week, given the taxi chit incident ... how people see you and what they believe you would do and what type of character they think would be your match. Definitely something to write about.

EY