nosepeople Presents

The delay continues in preparing The Shadow of the Tower for publication. The subplot has played havoc with the initial plot.  The changes required to the initial plot are subtle and I am having some difficulty co-ordinating the minutiae.  While doing this, I am working on a comedy monologue that I hope to deliver before the summer is over…not because I want to do stand-up but because I am going into the comedy writing business, with my writing buddy or whatever you call the person you are writing with and we are looking to market our comedy.  it seems most comedy writing schools (of thought) think that it is pretty important that we have an understanding of what the practical results are going to be before offering up material. Besides the “Shadow”, I am working on a more ambitious project but that’s still under wraps.  I’m also constructing an office room in the basement, and of course,in the process of developing the screenplay for the “Uncollected Soul” which reminds me that I was going to serialize the rough draft story line so….here it is:

Max

The Uncollected Soul 2

Gabe, you cut me to the quick. I offer you my hospitality…”

 

“The unclaimed soul, could we get on with it?”

“ Ok, Yeah, sure. I was visiting with one of my favorite mortal agents, “You know him, the motion picture director and producer E. Cedric Hargendof. He’s done a lot of excellent work for me. He had a screenwriter and a young director with him who both seemed to have a lot of, how do I put it, potential, so I decided to hang around. When I caught up to him, E. Cedric’s car had just pulled into a supermarket parking lot and he and his two companions got out and went into the store. As they went, E. C. was regaling them with the secrets of his success…leaving out, I might add, the most important secret,…yours truly.”

“I love to visit supermarkets,” E.C. was saying. “ I find some of my best ideas here. Look at that guy in the threadbare coat beside the magazine rack pretending to look at the magazines. See how he’s really watching that cute little blond cashier at cash 9. Now, there’s a scene a creative person could grab and run a long way with.

…And actors…. I’ve found some of my best actors in super markets, but you have to be careful. Take the threadbare guy. He’s not bad. The blond on 9, she has some mileage in her. But don’t be fooled. See that hunk of a guy stacking cans up the aisle, here. Yeah, the tall guy with the hair and the well cut chin…looks like he works out, guys like that are a dime a dozen. Don’t waste your time on guys like that. They’re wrapped up in love with their own image before the cameras even start rolling, but nine times out of ten you could fill their role with a dime store Indian that would be less wooden. You want to make successful movies, fill your cast with interesting losers.

E.C. grabbed a six-pack of beer from the cooler and carried it to cash 9. The blond cashier jiggled and wiggled and snapped her gum and was soon giggling at E.C.’s clever small talk. That was when the hunk looked over and, surprise, surprise; he was a movie star wannabee. He immediately recognized E.C. and was hovering solicitously beside him before you could say, “I love your movies”, which, in fact was exactly the first thing he said when he got there.

I did enjoy the way he fawned over E.C., grabbing up his six-pack and offering to carry it out to the car leaving an elderly lady to figure out how to carry her 17 bags of groceries to a taxi. Well, it turns out, one of my operatives had been following this guy for a few months thinking that he might be a good candidate to get under contract.

He tells me that this guy would do just about anything to make it in the movie biz. I wasn’t sure. The guy had a goofy kind of innocence to him and guys like that worry me.

E.C. let him hold his door for him and set the six-pack in beside him before shutting the door and pulling away without a word or a backward glance leaving the guy standing there with proverbial egg on his face. Mankind, I love that E. C’s style.”

“Yeah, yeah, right, really evil and nasty. E.C. is ancient history here. The unclaimed soul, tell me what happened after that?”