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With nearly no warning, the Eagle Times, which covered Claremont, New Hampshire and Springfield, Vermont, closed its doors today. The move takes three weeklies with it.

I feel bad for the friends and colleagues who have lost their jobs. If I could get a print edition of the Tribune off the ground, I could help some of them.

This leaves us with only the Vermont Journal, which carries no real news, as our remaining competition. All we need now is an angel. There is a huge market here, and the sharks are circling already.

Things are going to get pretty interesting over the next couple of months.

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Current Location: Back porch
Current Mood: sad
Current Music: Birdsong

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I am currently putting a list of agents together to promote "Secrets Can't Be Kept Forever," which is a mystery set in contemporary Vermont. It should be sufficiently R-rated to attract a solid audience, or so I'm hoping.

Of course, if anyone knows of an agent looking for a new client, I'd appreciate knowing.

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Current Location: Home office
Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: Something unpronouncable in Japanese

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There has been much discussion of late on the Sherlock Holmes boards concerning the upcoming Guy Ritchie film, starring Robert Downey, Jr. Included in these discussions are many lamentations about fidelity to the source material, a position on which I've changed my mind over the years. My reasoning is below.

***

I’d like to weigh in on cinematic adaptations, if I may. I speak not only as a novelist and screenwriter myself, but as a journalist who has interviewed a few authors whose work has been adapted to film: most notably Dennis Lehane and Jodi Picoult.

Lehane told me that the novel and the movie have as much in common as apples and giraffes, and should not be considered together. He was quite pleased with “Mystic River,” including the surprise casting of Lawrence Fishbourne as Det. Whitey Powers. Lehane felt that the racial switch added a dimension he never considered. (For that matter, Stephen King has said he wished he’d thought of the ending Brian DePalma used for “Carrie.”)

Jodi generally supports the movie; I've never heard her express disappointment. She has told me on several occasions that she is usually pleased with results, and she recognizes that changes often need to be made to accommodate the differences between the two media. Although she initially disapproved of Nick Cassavetes’ decision to change the ending of “My Sister’s Keeper,” since seeing the film she seems to have come around.

Film is very much a collaborative art, while writing is a solitary and individual artistic endeavor. Legions of decisions must be made to bring a film to life. A screenplay is simply the floor plan. A single casting decision can determine a film’s fate: suppose, for instance, that Warner Bros. cast Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan in “Casablanca,” or that MGM had gotten its first choice of Shirley Temple for “The Wizard of Oz”? Would the James Bond films have been as successful had someone other than John Barry written the music for most of them? (Considering how the Bond title tunes have fared without him, I would say not.)

Retaining the tone and spirit of a novel in a screenplay is extremely difficult even when screenwriters and producers care, which most don’t. (We all know that making money for everyone but the writer is the primary purpose of most commercial films.) Alfred Hitchcock concerned himself primarily with the visual aspects of his films far more than he did with fidelity to the source; anyone reading Robert Bloch’s “Psycho” would be surprised to discover that Norman Bates is described as fat, blonde and forty. But casting Anthony Perkins against that proved unforgettable. You wouldn’t recognize “The Birds” from reading Daphne DuMaurier’s story, but did that matter as you gripped the arms of your seat in the dark? Hitchcock was right.

Another example: there have been two adaptations of Patricia Highsmith’s “Ripley’s Game,” one starring Dennis Hopper and one starring John Malkovich as sociopath Tom Ripley. Their two interpretations of the character could not be more different; each actor sees Ripley in a unique light. Hopper’s version is an urban street hustler, which contrasts sharply with the refined and elegant Ripley given us by Malkovich. But both are smooth, remorseless killers. Who is to say which one is right?

Even when the novel’s author is closely involved, the film frequently comes out differently. Take John Irving’s “The Cider House Rules,” which took 15 years to bring to the screen. While Irving himself maintained control over much of the film, most of the book had to be excised because otherwise he would have had a five-hour movie on his hands. (Irving quoted my review in his Oscar acceptance speech, which was quite flattering.) The story had to be stripped to its essentials in order to be filmed.

Finally, the process of writing has to be organic if your fiction, whether on page or screen, is to be any good. Characters have an annoying tendency to blow the author’s wishes off and go in their own directions. A vital discovery in my own pastiche came about when Watson asserted himself during a key bit of exposition – doctors make deductions, too, based on their training and experience. Similarly, I would be willing to bet that Nick Cassavetes changed the ending to “My Sister’s Keeper” because of the way the script evolved during the writing.

In the end, I would say that if you really want to see the book you read on the screen, the best way is to produce the film yourself. Otherwise, a film should be judged on its own merits, regardless of the source material.

 


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Current Location: Home office
Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: Jim Dooley, "Pushing Daisies"

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There will be many of you (I hope), eager to take advantage of the fact that "Sherlock Holmes and the Plague of Dracula" has now been posted on Kindle for less than half the retail cover price. Here's the Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Plague-Dracula/dp/B002AKJYMI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1243180374&sr=1-1

As some of you know, I have damaged my leg somehow and have difficulty getting around. But the positive aspect of that is that I can't do much other than write. Yesterday I finished typing my next novel, "Secrets Can't Be Kept Forever" into the computer and am in the process of editing the copy now. I'll need a couple of mystery fans to look it over for comments before I start trying to charm agents into peddling it. If you'd like to, and can turn it around in two weeks or less, please let me know.

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Current Location: home office
Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: Ennio Morricone, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"

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This coming Thursday, May 7, the U.S. Postal Service is launching a line of stamps featuring the Simpsons. Because the official home of the Simpsons is Springfield, Vt., for that one day, we get a special stamp cancellation. Here's the link to the Rutland Herald story to see what it looks like:

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20090430/NEWS04/904300372/1003/NEWS02

If you don't live anywhere near Springfield and would like one, here's what you'll need:

1) PayPal

2) Willingness to buy a personalized copy of "Sherlock Holmes and the Plague of Dracula" from me for $21.

All you need to do to send an e-mail request to me at stephen@seitzbooks.com. I then send you a PayPal request. Once the money is in my account, I will personalize a copy of my book for you (or whoever you intend to give it to, given that birthdays, weddings and graduations are in the air), and mail it to you on the 7th. If you want a message other than the ones I normally use, please let me know in your e-mail.

If you want to take a chance on snail mail, the address is:

P.O. Box 426
Springfield, VT 05156

Be sure to send a check or postal money order, obviously. This is very much a pay as you go operation. If your check comes too late, I'll contact you to see if you still want the book anyway.

Deadline for this offer is 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

This will only last from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 7th, so the window is very tight.

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Current Location: Home office
Current Mood: hopeful
Current Music: The Simpsons Movie soundtrack, "Spider Pig"

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It should come as no surprise to anyone that the vitueration and ignorance below comes from someone living in a bunker in Idaho. I was recently drawn into a flame war over on Facebook, where a certain right-wing idiot started slandering my profession -- to wit, the "biased liberal media" bullshit spouted by those with no journalistic training of any sort and who have never been anywhere near a newsroom. As usual, I was the only professional who took part in the discussion. Years of practical experience in the field doesn't count with the right wing, as you can tell.

As the page's host asked us to take it outside, I, of course, obliged. It doesn't seem to matter to this person that I spent six years at the New Hampshire Union Leader, one of the most conservative papers in the country, which, despite its conservative editorial page, is a solid professional publication that sticks to the highest principles of journalism and has never asked me to slant my coverage or re-edited a story to fit a particular point of view. It apparently doesn't matter that every week, Vermont's Republican governor comes on my show to discuss the issues.

Below is the single message I sent this person, followed by her reply.

***

Go to Google and type in my name plus "Union Leader". I worked for one od the most conservative papers in the country for six years, and my coverage played no small role in winning a Senate seat for John Sununu. Ask yourself how they could keep me on the payroll for so long if my coverage is so biased against conservatives.

The plain fact is, you don't know what you are talking about. Please refrain from spouting these vicious and untrue slanders against me or my profession.

SS

I've said nothing about your person, Steve--but your profession is filled to brimming with lying, perverted, misological hacks. You, Love, haven't got the foggiet clue who I am or what and who I know--if I were you, I'd lay off....or I can show you just what I do know.

STOP HARRASSING ME!!!

You have yet to say anything worthwhile, Steve, but only continue to whine ad nauseum about how unfair we've allegedly been to you. Unless you are actually going to discuss issues, instead of your thin-skinned, bruised ego, then shut the hell up. No one is interested in your personal indignation. What people are interested in is ending the biased meida stranglehold on information to the masses.

NOW, GO AWAY SNIVELLING LITTLE MAN....

By the by: I'll google you NEVER--you've already told me everything I need to know about you, Love....(read above).

***

Let's start with the bad grammar and numerous spelling mistakes that characterize the right-wing idiot diatribe. "foggiet clue"; "harrassing" (something I never did); "meida"; and what the hell is "misological"?

Another typical item: refusing to do even the most basic research. Between the Internet and NewsBank, damn near everything I've written since 1997 is easily available for all to see. The only complaints I've ever had come from people like this, or their equally ravenous and ignorant counterparts on the left. This cow believes what she believes, and damn the facts.

Oh, and let's not forget this: "if I were you, I'd lay off....or I can show you just what I do know." Threats, too: another sign of an unstable mind. Probably she's porking Randy Weaver.

Well, as St. Thomas More once said, silence implies agreement. If I stand by and allow people like this to slander my profession, then the implication is that I agree with them. Not me, brother.

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Current Location: Home office
Current Mood: cranky
Current Music: London Symphony Orchestra, "You Only Live Twice"

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A note to the Bond fans out there: this Sunday's Magical Music Museum features the scores from the James Bond films over the years. For those of you in the Springfield, Vt. area, the show can be caught on 106.5 FM and 1480 AM at 10 p.m. Eastern time USA on Sunday nights. On the Web, you can catch us at http://springfieldsvariety.com.

The first hour is sort of an overview, featuring variations on the Theme, different interpretations of "Goldfinger," and even unusual treatments of some John Barry pieces you wouldn't expect to be covered by other artists.

The second hour, my filmmaker son Dan (thetathx1138 to most of you) joins me for a scene-by-scene walk through "The Living Daylights," John Barry's last Bond score. It'll be a good time.

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Current Location: Newsroom
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: John Barry, "Ice Chase"

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This time at Amazon.com.uk, where it continues as a presence on the "Dracula" bestseller list. They're down to their last copy.

Now if only we could get someone to actually promote the book ...

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Current Location: Home office
Current Mood: jubilant
Current Music: Yo-Yo Ma, "Malena"

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Since I'm back in the sales game, I thought I'd go whole hog.

We've worked most of the bugs out of "The Magical Music Museum," which airs on Sunday nights between 10 p.m. and midnight on 106.5 FM, WCFR in Springfield, Vermont. It's also online at http://springfieldsvariety.com. (Yes, we changed formats and Web address as well.)

As I've been on Twitter for all of ten minutes, I haven't seen a lot of action.

Also, I can't let today go by without wishing a happy birthday to my son Dan, who's coming to visit and may find himself co-hosting the Museum if we can fit the time in.

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Current Location: WCFR
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: No idea.

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The eternal conspiracy to make me look bad reached a peak last week, when somebody failed to tell the station computer about the new daylight savings time. That meant a bunch of programs conflicted over time, and the system responded by kicking out a lot of the weekend's programming  -- including the "Magical Music Museum." We try again tonight. If it actually flies, I'll send out real notification next week. I also hope the promise of podcasts turns out to be true.

I am also selling ads again. I have no choice. The news biz is moribund and we haven't been able to get the Tribune off the ground, though it will continue in a somewhat diminished form. I will continue to cover what news I can, but the most productive hours of my day will have to be spent pushing advertising. If I can't make that fly, I'm out of options. Age and sex discrimination are completely legal when it comes to men.

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Current Location: home office
Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: Wall-E

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