From Book to Screenplay?

This is my Edgar Allen Poe action figure. He sits on my desk to inspire me.
He's not doing so good this week. Inspiration is flagging. Even the WIP that I'm lovin' isn't moving along. :(

Now, someone close to me has asked me to turn a 400 page manuscript I wrote a few years ago into a screenplay for an up and coming film company and I'm at a loss. 400 pages are nice and fluffy and all encompassing but a screenplay is more stripped down to the bones. Leaving things out won't give the full effect of the story, putting too much in won't leave time for the whole story.

Help! Edgar isn't too inspiring right now....

More good sites for Writers

This is Elvis. He's an African Grey. He's very talkative, playful and has the mentality of a 4 year old. My evil children taught him to cluck like a chicken. I tell him he's an eagle and should make eagle sounds but I don't know any eagle sounds to teach him. I'm going to have to look that up.

Isn't that what writers do best? Look things up? Here is a great site for looking things up: http://www.howstuffworks.com/

You can find out how everything works from the witness protection program to witchcraft. I could spend hours there!

Want to use some real Brittish words in your work? Go here: http://www.effingpot.com/

I have a story about a jury and the repercussions of serving. So I went here: Courts and jury selection- http://www.abanet.org/publiced/courts/juryselect.html

So, what else you got?

NAMING YOUR BABIES

Sometimes a character's name comes to me easily. The name just falls out of my head and poof! The character is born. Other times I have to search for the name that will fit the people in my head. They start as a person with all the quirks and habits a good character needs. They have everything but a name...so I have to send them to the fitting room and let them try on the names until I find the perfect fit.

These are a few fitting rooms that point me in the right direction:

1. This one will match the person's likes to the name-

http://www.babynamesetc.com/generate.htm

2. Got a bad guy? Someone a little out there? Go to the Seventh Sanctum: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/index-name.php

My fav from the Seventh Sanctum is here: http://www.seventhsanctum.com/gens/heroicname.html

3. Do it by the alphabet: http://www.thinkbabynames.com/ or here: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/chyams/Names/boys.html

4. I once knew a woman who named her children after state capitals. If that rings your bell go here: http://www.townsoftheusa.com/states.htm

5. And when you want to finish up with a last name, you can used the great big last name catolog (otherwise known as the phone book) or go here: http://www.last-names.net/letter.asp?s=K

That's where I get some ideas. How about you?

God bless them all...

Not a bad pass time this guys got. I'm not an advocate of the war or of Bush either, but I do support the troops. They are way braver then me. I'm not sure I'd ever have the guts to go into a country like Iraq and walk around even if they did give me a gun. (I'm afraid of guns anyway.) I think the guys who go off to create peace in all parts of the world are heros. Maybe more of us should go to the airports and give these guys a hug?

I love my country even if I don't like my president.

Book Review- More Than Fiends by Maureen Child

If you are looking for a fun read pick up this book. It a light hearted story with some dark and dangerous demons.

Cassidy Burke is a single mom with her own cleaning business. When she finds out the women in her family are destine to be Demon Dusters and save the world she really has her hands full. Add a sexy new client who has more than business on his mind with a hunk of an ex lover who happens to be the father she never told her daughter about and all hell is about to break loose in the sleepy little town of La Sombra.

Loved this book but even better I just checked out Maureen Child's site and found out there's a sequel. Whooo Hoooo!

If you are looking for a good laugh pick up this book and read how Cassidy maintains her cleaning biz, reels in the sexy new client (in more ways then one) and handles her hunky ex lover while she dusts demons on the side.

Research: what would you do?

Reading over my WIP I have a scene where someone hands the heroine a glass that she thinks has water in it. It's really vodka. She takes a gulp and....

What? I've never gulped vodka? (I only mix it with coke) So, what do I say besides she gagged? Does it get hot? Burn? What does vodka taste like besides..um..vodka? And what does it taste like without coke mixed it?

When I broached this subject with my college kid (age 21) she had just the thing: tiny, airplane sized, bottles of vodka left over from her vacation last week. (I chose not to ask) My other daughter (age 24)grabbed some shotglasses and we started our research.

Since the first shocking gulp was what I needed we lined up the shot glasses and ....

"Rubbing alcohol." Everyone nodded. Yeah, flat and broad when it hits your tongue then hot and burning as it makes its way down before an explosion of heat across your chest.

Just in case you ever need to know.

So, what would you do/or have you done for research?

WIP

The man trembled. He was in a car, lots of black leather and dark wood. Expensive, he thought bringing one shaky hand up to his head to try and clear it. A woman was driving, but he had no knowledge of who she was or how he got there. He couldn’t even remember where he was before he was here, in this car.
“W-Where am I?” he asked, his deep voice trembling almost as bad as his hands.
The woman stared straight ahead, one hand on the wheel, the other elbow resting on the console with her hand wrapped around a latte. She seemed bored. Her dark hair was pulled back at the base of her neck and she wore no makeup. Attractive in a raw kind of way with large brown eyes, pale skin, flat, lean cheeks and full lips that formed a perfect pink bow. Her eyes were tired and she blinked several times as if trying to stay awake. Shifting in the seat, she sat up a little straighter and took a sip from her cup. She didn’t even look at him.
“Please,” the man asked again, louder this time, a quiver of panic in his voice. “Where am I?”
The woman kept driving.
“I don’t know what happened. How did I get in this car? Where are we going?”
Her eyes drifted to the driver’s side mirror and then to the passenger side. She lifted the lever for the turn signal, then switched lanes.
“Who are you?” The man turned in his seat and leaned toward the woman, trying to move into her line of vision. “Ma’am? Who are you and where are we going? You have to tell me.”
Again, no answer.
“STOP IGNORING ME AND STOP THIS CAR!”

Not getting a reaction the man brought his hand up and tried to grab the woman’s arm. His hand passed right through her as if it were moving through a pea soup fog.