2020

In spite of the chaos of 2020, I managed to get three different projects published this year.

First, my in-depth study of the 1983 film Brainstorm was published in e-book format by Liverpool University Press as part of Auteur's Constellations series. Each book in the series profiles one important science fiction film and puts it into historical context. I researched the ten-year development process behind Brainstorm, analyzing over a dozen unpublished drafts of the screenplay and conducting interviews with all three credited screenwriters (Bruce Joel Rubin, Phil Messina, Robert Stitzel) as well as the film's director Doug Trumbull. I believe the book will change the way people view the film.

My friends at Resurrection Films have included five of my original horror short stories in their new anthology The Dark Side of Acting Up, Vol. II.  I worked with the Resurrection team on the 2019 documentary Millennium After the Millennium, and when I heard about this new project I couldn't resist throwing my hat in the ring. My stories are featured alongside plays by Jason Morris, Carly Street, and Mark Francisco, as well as artwork by Ian Stopforth. I recently pitched the book to some fellow horror geeks as follows: "Psychos, demons, aliens, and killer ducks... trading fours in the seventh circle of Hell."

Finally, Powys Media has re-published my 2018 novella Out the House. The first edition was a limited printing of only twenty-five copies, which were delivered to the cast and crew of the Internet web series The House Between. Author John Kenneth Muir wrote and directed three seasons of that series in 2006 - 2008. Ten years later, I couldn't get the show's characters and ideas out of my head so I wrote this meta-fictional spinoff. It's a very personal and very esoteric book. I have no idea what casual readers will think of it... but I'm curious to find out. The book is available through Lulu.

Now, on to 2021. I have a new book coming from McFarland & Company in the spring... and it's an big one: The first volume in a projected series about screen adaptations of Stephen King's work. Volume 1 covers all seven adaptations of the author's first three novels, focusing on produced and unproduced (and all unpublished) screenplays. It includes new, in-depth interviews with screenwriters Lawrence D. Cohen (the 1976 film CARRIE), Bryan Fuller (the 2002 TV movie CARRIE), Peter Filardi (the 2004 TV miniseries SALEM'S LOT), and Diane Johnson (the 1980 film THE SHINING). I think this will be be an important text in the academic field of Adaptation Studies, and I'm confident it will surprise even the most hardcore Stephen King fans. I'm already working on Volume 2...