Hollywood Kills

Filling in for me today is Alan Orloff, an award-winning author, skilled editor, and generous supporter of the writing community. I am deeply honored to be a contributor to his newest project.

— Stacy

Here's more on HOLLYWOOD KILLS.

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Thanks, Stacy, for inviting me to guest blog today about an anthology that Adam Meyer and I co-edited called HOLLYWOOD KILLS (Level Best Books). And thanks, Stacy, for the terrific story you wrote for it!

— Alan Orloff

The Idea

Adam and I were at the Malice Domestic convention, chatting in the lobby. (FWIW, the lobby and the bar at writers conventions are where most great ideas are hatched.) We talked about putting together an anthology with a theme based around a movie. That morphed into a more general Hollywood theme, and after a few minutes batting around possibilities, we came up with the killer twist: All the stories would be written by industry insiders (show biz people!) featuring protagonists in roles that the contributors themselves had experience in. In other words, a screenwriter would write about a screenwriter, an actor would write about an actor, a stuntman would write about a stuntman, and so on.

The twist was uber cool, but it presented some challenges as we put together our list of invitees. We knew a lot of crime fiction writers, and we could have assembled a list thirty people long in ten minutes flat. But we needed people who had worked in the business. Immediately, I thought of Tom Hanks, but I was pretty sure he wasn’t available.

The Pitch

We wanted our stories to have a certain theme/tone: desperate people willing to go to extreme lengths to make it big in Hollywood. Here’s the spiel we used to solicit our invitees:

Over the years, the technology of entertainment has changed, but one thing has stayed the same: Hollywood is a place full of dreamers—from the wide-eyed actor hoping to land the role of a lifetime to the hard-working writer trying to sell that breakout script.

Whoever they are, these people have one thing in common—they are desperate to bring their dreams to fruition, hustling for opportunity, and willing to do anything to get to the next rung on the ladder. Legal or not.

These strivers are at the center of a collection of short stories by Hollywood insiders, who use their wealth of experience to turn fact into fiction. They offer a closeup look at the dark side of ambition with an all-star cast of schemers, dreamers, killers and con artists … and their stories will stick with you long after the credits roll.

L➙R Jon Lindstrom, Matt Goldman, Stacy Woodson,
Alan Orloff, Adam Meyer, Ellen Byron, Eric Beetner, John Shepphird

The Lineup

We knew a few writers with show biz experience (a number of whom were screenwriters, natch), so they were no-brainers to invite. Beyond that, we needed help, so we put out the word we were looking for potential contributors that met our narrow criteria. We were determined to have as wide an array of show biz jobs represented as possible.

Some of the more specialized roles were tricky. Did anyone know a Hollywood hairdresser who wanted to write a story? Makeup professional to the stars with an itch to pen a tale? What about a stunt driver who could write like Elmore Leonard? We tried to get creative—we even contacted several professional societies looking for recommendations (Did you know there was a Stuntwoman’s Association? There is!). Not all of our out-of-the-box ideas were fruitful, alas.

Slowly, we suckered enticed people to contribute. Now, while many of these people had great Hollywood experience, some did not have much (if any) short story writing experience. Adam and I realized that for these folks, we might have to wield a slightly heavier editorial pen.

And it was true: we got commitments from several industry veterans who didn’t have writing experience. Unfortunately, though, when it came time to actually put the proverbial pen to paper, some of these people ended up “decommitting.” Which left us scrambling a bit to fill their slots.

Best laid plans, and all that.

With some persistence, we finally assembled a killer lineup of contributors, whose roles ran the gamut: a producer, sitcom writer, character actor, entertainment lawyer, sound mixer, background actor, aspiring actor, stuntman, casting director, soap opera star, true crime writer, editor, director, production assistant, set caterer, and screenwriting team.

We ended up with three first-time short story writers, and they gave us some great work. Two of our stories were co-written, one of which was a story I co-wrote with my actor son (roles: young actor and desperate father). A definite highlight of my writing career!

We were thrilled (and mightily impressed) that our contributors had worked on such notable productions as Cheers, Seinfeld, Wings, General Hospital, Bosch, The Amazing Race, Boston Legal, Homeland, Just Shoot Me, Fairly Odd Parents, Snowfall, Spenser For Hire, True Detective, Ellen, America’s Most Wanted, Evil Kin, A Savage Nature, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, The Invasion, Young Guns, and more.

You’ll recognize many of the contributors from their screen credits: Jon Lindstrom, Gary Phillips, Phoef Sutton, Ellen Byron, Matt Goldman, Robert Rotstein, Wendall Thomas, Stacy Woodson, Tiffany Borders Plunkett, Kathryn O’Sullivan, Paul Awad, Teel James Glenn, Shawn Reilly Simmons, John Shepphird, Eric Beetner, Adam Meyer, Alan Orloff, and Stuart Orloff.

The Fires

Although this blog post dealt primarily with how the contributors were selected, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the California fires. More than half of our contributors currently live in the LA area, and they, along with everybody else, were affected by the wildfires, directly and indirectly. So, we decided that all contributor proceeds would be donated to the California Community Foundation Wildfire Recovery Fund. For a deeply personal take, I encourage you to read Ellen Byron’s moving introduction to the anthology.

If you’d like your very own copy of HOLLYWOOD KILLS, you can check it out here.

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Alan Orloff (www.alanorloff.com) has published fourteen novels and more than sixty short stories. His work has won an Anthony, an Agatha, a Derringer, and two ITW Thriller Awards. He’s also been a finalist for the Shamus Award and has had a story selected for Best American Mystery Stories 2018. He’s adapted two of his novels into screenplays, and, man, is he desperate to make it big in Hollywood.

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I Have a Few Questions

Our guest columnist today is my friend Adam Meyer, a screenwriter and fiction writer. His TV credits include several Lifetime movies and true-crime series for Investigation Discovery; he recently finished his first thriller, Missing Rachel; and he is the author of the YA novel The Last Domino. Adam's short fiction has been nominated for the Shamus Award and has appeared in Crime Travel, The Beat of Black Wings, Malice Domestic: Murder Most Theatrical, and other anthologies. He also has stories upcoming in Malice Domestic: Mystery Most Diabolical, Groovy Gumshoes, Mickey Finn 3, and more. Please join me in welcoming Adam to SleuthSayers!

— John Floyd

I Have a Few Questions

by Adam Meyer

I've often wondered: why am I usually so wiped out after a long day of writing?

I'm just typing words, after all. My father was a construction worker, who spent his days climbing skyscrapers. When he "rested his eyes" during TV show reruns at night, he'd clearly earned the rest. After a long day of work, I haven't done anything more physically taxing than dash to the kitchen for a handful of trail mix. So why am I so wiped out?

Over the years, I've come to realize that while the physical component of writing may be minimal, the mental piece of it can be intense. And what is it that's so tiring, so draining, so utterly exhausting?

Simple--it's the questions.

My daughter is eight now, but I can still remember when she was just a toddler. Back then, everything was a question: Why do we have to pay for the food before we leave the grocery store? Why are there traffic lights? Why can't I have ice cream every single day? (Come to think of it, that last one still comes up.)

As writers, we are perpetually living in this question phase of our lives. I can remember as a teenager, the very first time I started trying to draft a short story. Staring at the screen of my primitive Atari computer, I asked the question: what's the first line going to be?

After several minutes of puzzling this out, I went with the tried and true, "It was a dark and stormy night." Phew. At last, I was on my way!

Alas, more questions lay ahead, ready to ambush me. What was the story going to be about? A man and his cat, I decided. Great, now I was ready. But wait, what was I going to call this man and his cat?

It didn't take long to realize that the questions were not going to stop. In fact, they were built into the process. And experience has not made this go away. In fact, the more I've learned about writing, the more questions I seem to have.

From the very moment a new idea pops into my head, the questions begin: who is this piece going to be about? Why would the character do this or that? What is the conflict they're facing? And how am I going to resolve it?

Another question I find myself asking is how much space I'll need to tell this story. Have I come up with an idea that will sustain six or eight thousand words? In that case, it's a short story. But if the idea feels bigger and more complex, then maybe I have a novel or a screenplay. So which is it?

Over time, if the idea really starts to gather momentum, I have to consider the biggest question of all: is this something that I really want to write?

When I was younger, the answer almost always seemed to be a resounding yes. These days, it can depend on a variety of factors. What's the potential market? How long will it take me? What other deadlines do I have that I need to consider? 

If those answers satisfy me, I find myself asking one more question: have I written something like this before? I hate being bored. Then again, taking on a new challenge makes the writing more fun. But is this project too far out of my comfort zone?

Of course, I've learned that at some point I need to put the pre-writing questions aside and sit at my laptop. But that only invites a new series of questions: What's the first line going to be? That depends. Do I want to start at the beginning of the story, or somewhere in the middle?

Even if I've outlined a piece, the questions continue to come up, because what seems like a better idea always pops up. But is that idea really better? And which choice is most consistent with my characters?

As every writer knows, there's nothing better than finishing a draft. It's not just the sense of accomplishment, but also the feeling of utter relief. It's like dropping your toddler off at pre-school. For a few too-short moments, you actually get a break from the questions. But then … revision.

What is revision if not a series of questions one needs to ask about the manuscript? Yes, I've narrowed the choices considerably by this point. I've decided to focus on this character instead of that one. I've laid down the track of the story and followed it to what I hope is its natural conclusion. 

However, I still go through line by line and scene by scene and make sure that everything adds to the story. I also ask myself (again) if there is a better choice to be made. Sometimes it can be as simple as changing a word, other times it may mean adding a new character to a scene or shifting the point of view.

Of course, that leads to the final question, the one my eight-year-old is still likely to ask on long car rides: are we there yet? In other words, is this project done? At this point, I may bring in writer friends that I trust for feedback. OR I may just decide that I've had enough and move on. 

After all, I've been hard at work. And I'm tired, so very tired, of asking questions.

Adam and daughter Leah, writing away

That said, I have some questions for you--what do you tend to think about most before you write or while you're writing? Which questions are the easiest and hardest for you to answer about your work?