Mockingbird Lane ~ Really?

As a member of what is known as television generation, I cringe at the thought of classic television shows being toyed with or remade. Friday night saw the return of The Munsters to primetime network television. Nearly 45 years after they were cancelled.  Only this time it's called Mockingbird Lane and our dear lovable family of ghouls aren't so lovable.  Nor laughable.







                                                                                     

 This show is being labeled as a drama. Heading up the family this time seems to be focused on Grandpa and not Herman. Grandpa is played by actor Eddie Izzard. While this could be a good thing as I am a fan of Eddie Izzard. He's brilliantly funny and a fine actor. I just can't get past the fact that he's, well—Eddie Izzard. I never see Grandpa, I see Eddie Izzard doing an impression of Grandpa and sounding like James Mason.

Of course If this were 1974, I think audiences would be thinking Grandpa was being played by Paul Williams.

I think part of the success of the original Munsters was that it had charm and was genuinely funny. Fred Gwynn always did a remarkable job of making Herman so silly and at times the biggest doofus on the block. He was like a big kid. So far the true actors I believe in their roles are little Eddie and Marilyn.














One thing I could't believe they did in the opening sequence where a werewolf attacks a troupe of boy scouts, a moment is completely stolen from a b-rated horror film in the late 70's called. "Prophecy" starring Robert Foxworth and Talia Shire.  The kid hopping around in his yellow sleeping bag and the monster hits him and of course the bag hit the tree and feathers everywhere. The moment I saw the kid in the yellow sleeping bag...I turned to my wife and said..the kid in the bag....about to be smacked into the tree. Bingo! Thank you...major steal. Shame you guys!

As for the rest of the cast, I'm not too keen on Jerry O'Connell, Portia De Rossi as Lily I saw at times she actually looked like Yvonne De Carlo. I was pleased to hear the original theme played in the underscore throughout the show. I will cross my fingers for something interesting to happen, since I love the set and Eddie Izzard. However I fear, it will be back to the coffin by end of season one.

YA Book Season: Giveaway of Forever Me by Thomas Amo! (Int.)

Want a chance to win a FREE copy of "Forever ME" on your choice of Kindle or NOOK? YA Book Season is offering a chance to win your own copy!

YA Book Season: Giveaway of Forever Me by Thomas Amo! (Int.): Hey Everyone! I've got another surprise today! Thomas Amo is offering a Nook or Kindle copy of his new release Forever Me! Here's some...

HOT BOOKS DAILY: A Warm Welcome to Thomas Amo!

HOT BOOKS DAILY: A Warm Welcome to Thomas Amo!: Please tell me about your book. “Forever Me” is a YA novel about sixteen-year-old, Hannah Richards. A plain Jane type of girl who lives a...

Forever Me Launch Day.

Hannah Richards isn't your typical 16 year-old at Wichita Falls High. Fashions, trends, cosmetics and style are unimportant to her. An avid reader, guitar player, classic movie and television buff, Hannah marches to the beat of her own drum. Visible only to her Father the town Sheriff, and her two best friends. Hannah lives a simple, un-pampered life as an "Eastie."

After coming to the aide of Taylor Monroe, a popular member of the ultra snobby "Stilettos" at school, Hannah's life beings spiraling out of control. As she starts spending more time with Taylor, her best friends abandon her, after a series of misunderstandings, causing Hannah to re-invent herself.

Hannah quickly gets caught up in a life much different than the one she knows, where status, glamour, makeup, appearance and acceptance become her masters.

Can Hannah survive the lies, deceit, jealousy and rage that are now waiting for her behind every corner? Will she succumb to the pressures of popularity? Or will she be crushed under the heels of the "Stilettos"?

~High school is hard enough just being yourself, let alone trying to be someone you're not~

Get your very own Kindle Copy of "Forever Me" Kindle  

Thomas Amo took up the pen and began his writing career after a trip to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. From that day on he knew he wanted to write and tell stories. During the late 90s he became a full time theatrical producer and began writing plays for this theatre, Smiler's Comedy Playhouse. Since that time he has returned to doing what he loves most which is writing novels. His latest release is the YA novel, "Forever Me."
Available on Kindle KDP Select. 

Connect with Thomas Amo online.

Amazon Author Profile

Official FaceBook Page

Goodreads

Twitter

Official Blog

Roger Corman—It's All Your Fault!

As I get closer to finishing my next novel, the YA drama, FOREVER ME, and 5 months and 3 days from turning 50! I began to think about how was it, I became a writer? In most interviews I tell about the tale of being taken to Disney's Haunted Mansion in 1973 and how my experience there made me want to write scary stories so I could make enough money to buy my mom a house. While that story is true, it's not completely accurate as to how and why I truly ended up becoming an author. Oh sure I always wanted to be an actor too. I followed that dream, and worked in movies, independent television and even became a full time theatrical producer for about a decade. But outside of my love for acting, film editing, directing and producing. I always come back to being a writer. And while perusing NetFlix yesterday, I saw an old gem of a movie that takes me back to where for me, it all began.
It's 1971 and my older sister is on a date with her boyfriend at the time. Where do most couples go in the age of post hippies, and free love? Where else, to the Drive-In. Well my mom was no fool, she knew what couples do at the Drive-In, and so, guess who got to see a whole bunch of R Rated movies at the age of 8? I guess my mom should have known they weren't going to see the latest kid flick, and certainly not at The Motor Movies on old Hwy 50! (That's where they show all the booby movies!) Well it was also where you could see all the scariest movies of the time too. I remember seeing the trailers for, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte in Re-Release co featured with the new Alan Alda film, The Mephisto Waltz.

Anyway, I digress. The whole point of sending me was so my sister couldn't shag in the car. I think maybe perhaps they were always hoping I'd fall asleep, but I'm television generation baby! I don't go to sleep when there's scary stuff and boobs on the screen!  So tonight's feature is Roger Corman's exploitation drama, The Big Doll House, starring a very unknown at the time, Pam Grier. (Yep Rosie's cousin for those of you who follow football and knitting.) Now I haven't seen this picture since 1971 and I'm sure by today's movie standards, it's pretty much a turd. Hell even then it probably was too. But who's keeping score. It's a basic woman's prison movie, only it was set in the Philippines. But it had this crazy lady warden who used some sort of electric device to shock women into submission..and oddly enough shocking them in well...shall we say specific regions. (I'm thinking Frankenstein here kids and nothing more.)
Anyway there's guns, boobs, girl fights, boobs, explosions and yep...more boobs. However, not to be infantile about my mammaries of days gone by. (boob joke in case you missed it.) You have to remember on a screen that big, every girl is Chesty Morgan! The girl with the 73 inch set of knockers. The basic story always stayed with me. A group of people caught in a bad situation forced to die or form a plan to escape. So for me I have to say, thanks, Roger Corman, for making a cheap movie, shown on a cheaper screen in the cheapest of seats, an 8 year old boy was inspired to one day become an author and learn to not objectify woman in spite of the frontal assaults on my eyes. So love or hate my work, either way, it's all Roger Corman's fault. And when I cash my first five figure royalty check, I'm going to tell him so!

Time Machine Saves Book From The Abyss.

Oh my god, I've just lost my entire book! The worst feeling any author can experience in the world of word processors, smart phones, iPads and so on. If only there was I way I could go back in time! Well thanks to Apple there is. Well as far as your Mac is concerned.

Yesterday, I had just finished writing two very important chapters in my new YA novel, "FOREVER ME." As always I click save after every sentence I write and when I get to the end of writing, I usually send a backup copy to email. However my iMac has been dying a slow death due to a worn out video card. But times being what they are, you can't always just run out and buy a new Mac. So you work with it as much as the computer will allow. So in between the screen blacking out in the middle of anything, or just out right freezing, to say it has been a challenge is an understatement for sure.

So, very happy with my work, I save to email and it freezes, no fear I got the email it's okay. I reboot and open the email and....nothing but a mess of scrambled letters, numbers and symbols. If it weren't such a terrifying moment, I'd laugh and say, so that's what my book looks like in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. "Oh no, the file is corrupted! My most recent email save, is two days ago! Before I wrote these two amazing chapters!" Well you can imagine I said every four letter word I could think of more times than Jonathan Demme said "Um" in his Oscar acceptance speech for "Silence of the Lambs" (It was over 40 for those of you who need that info.)

No problem though, thanks to my friend and fellow author, Michelle Muto, I have the Time Machine backup drive. My entire computer is SAFE. So I click Time Machine and my Mac freezes. Only once do I see the timeline of the save before I sent the email. Otherwise it just kept crashing...CRAP! But a little sleuthing and I see I sent the email at, 12:25 and most recent save was 12:10. Maybe it won't be so bad, but I can't see the files because Time Machine keeps crashing the Mac.  Time to call a superhero.

My wife Ashton comes to my rescue. We take the Time Machine and connect it to her Mac laptop find the 12:10 version and I only lost half a paragraph! She saves it emails it to me and tells me, "Come on, we're getting you a new Mac! You can't write like this!"  My hero! She not only saved my book, but she saved the day and yes I am writing this blog post from my new iMac. To give credit, my Mac lasted me six years trouble free. I can NOT say that ever about a PC.

So the point of this blog is all about SAVE YOUR STUFF!!! Get a backup drive, save to email, use a flash drive, print out a hard copy but do not take any risk that could result you losing months if not years of hard work in the blink of an eye. If you own a Mac get an external HD and plug it in, Time Machine automatically goes to work for you. I paid like $140 for a 1T HD. So worth the money and peace of mind. So this morning I am once again feeling good about my novel, a new computer and naturally feeling very blessed by a wife who believes in my writing. I have to say thanks to all my friends who sent me posts yesterday on FB, cheering me and encouraging me about what steps they take to keep their stuff safe, but I would be remiss if I did not mention my friend from high school, Sean and his absolute amazing observation: "Something to be said about good old fashioned, pen and paper, hmm?"  Point taken Sean! Reminds me of the space program. Americans spent millions of dollars trying to design a pen that would work in space but zero gravity did something to the ink. "What are the Russians doing?"  You guessed it. "Using a pencil."

Meet The Authors! Or How to not let the audience know you're giddy!

Saturday, June 16th, fellow author, M.E. Franco and I were guests of the Stockton Library, M.E. was instrumental in making the event happen in the first place. She tried to get Barnes & Noble to do a local author event, but alas, we  weren't
B& N material...but that didn't bother us, we loved being guests of our local library and it helped me see the need to support our hometown library. They were so gracious to both of us, purchasing copies of our books to help support local authors. We in turn agreed to come, speak, and autograph the raffled copies.  It was truly a wonderful event.

So play by play:
For what M.E. and I understood this would be an adult event to which we readily agreed as both our novels are adult themed. But as the time clicked closer to begin, more and more parents with children filled the room. M.E. and I exchanged deer in the headlights expressions..."DOH!"

Both of us had arranged certain chapters to read from our books and now...both scrambling and looking for F-bombs, mention of boobs, passion or anything that wasn't kid-friendly. I took the stand first as this was my second public event and M.E.'s first. I let the audience know, our books were adult in nature but we were taking the kids into consideration so they wouldn't worry, or rush them out the room, like bad parents who took their kids to see films like the Exorcist or Jaws back in the 1970's.

For a brief moment I thought this is how Quentin Tarentino must feel when he goes to an event as a guest speaker for a 70's night...and finds out...70's are how old everyone is! Seriously it went really well, M.E. and I didn't miss a beat. In fact she quickly found an alternative chapter and she sounded brilliant as if she had planned it all along.

So the time comes for a Q&A and the questions were great the audience kept us laughing and when it seem to come to a lull, my wife came to the rescue with a new question that got us back on track!

Now we have to select a winner for each of our books. They asked anyone who wanted to win, to put their name in each bucket for the book they wanted and M.E. and I had to choose the winner. Low and behold, wouldn't you know it...a child won both times! We were both busting up by this time. M.E. told the little boy who won.."Give this to your mother!"  And the little girl who won my book, M.E. told her, "Read it when you're 18!" LOL!  Then something amazing happened, people actually wanted to come up and get their pictures taken with us! We were both floored by that. Some people actually bought copies of our books and M.E. had some awesome swag to give away. I couldn't find my swag as I just moved and it's in a box somewhere in the Bermuda Garage.

All in all, the experience was awesome, not only did we get to support our local library but we got to meet a lot of wonderful people, who were so supportive of us as writers. I encourage indie authors, go to your public library, offer them a free copy of your book in exchange for an author event, bet they'd be pleased to agree!  It's good to get out there and meet the public! Who knows who might be in the audience...The nice thing...they invited us back when we release our next book!