Category: Novel Concept - Dan Fiorella: Writer @ large

Dan Fiorella

Barely Home Companion: Easter Edition - P.A.U.L.A.

4/19/2019

From 1999 to 2004-ish, I was one of the contributing writers for Garrison Keillor's renowned radio show "A Prairie Home Companion." I learned a lot of things there, mostly how to spell 'prairie." It was a solid gig and I'm proud of my work there. But, like any other job, there were...things...

Breaking the timeline here to go with the holidays. Easter's coming up and as it turns out, I didn't write a lot of Easter themed material. I guess it never pulled me in the way Christmas and Halloween do. But doing this deep dive into my old work, I brought up this thing that I had written and frankly had forgotten about. That prompted me to do a PC search and I pulled up one or two other bits.

Again, I had forgotten this sketch. It's an odd little bit. I see I was doing a PETA parody, though I'm not sure what triggered it. Then I have that very solemn animal speech in the middle. Don't know where that came out of. And I'm guessing I the term "vegan" hadn't been coined yet, based on one line. I may have been inspired by a Looney Tunes cartoon, where Elmer Fudd is hunting the Easter Bunny and the Easter Bunny tricks Bugs Bunny into completing the route. We'll post it under the commercial...

With a holiday coming up, it's time to plug a book! Sure, it's got nothing to do with Easter, but what are you gonna do? It's "Novel Concept" the epic comedy adventure about a young, aspiring author who learns about all the unknowable things when you're writing what you know. Laughs, thrills and adventure all in one book? That's a Novel Concept! It's available on Amazon! Get your copy today! And your friend's copy tomorrow!

P.A.U.L.A.

A Writer’s Journal Journey 33

8/12/2017

I've been looking back on my adventure in Hollywood, culling pages from my journal...

So, as it turns out, my big reason for joining the WGA Activities committee, to get a workshop going, was misdirected at best. I was on the wrong committee. Another committee, the Programs committee, would do something like that.

A Word From Our Author...

8/4/2016

Novel Concept at Amazon.com

Making book

12/7/2015

So, “Novel Concept” got its first review from an Amazon customer. It was an amazingly positive review. My first reaction was…relief. Someone “got” the book. They enjoyed the book. This person is a complete stranger to me. I don’t really try to get friends and family to buy my stuff. That’s not why I do it. My goal is to get strangers to buy it. You can’t make a living from your mom and dad buying your output (my constant FB postings on the matter notwithstanding).

Sure, my other books got some pretty solid reviews but there was something about this one. He approached like a real critique. He compared me to some of my favorite writers. In fact, as he referred to me by my last name in the review, I got excited because that’s how reviewers refer to real authors in their reviews (I wonder if I would have been as thrilled by the procedurals if the review had been bad?).

I posted and tweeted this review out to the world, ad nauseam. Will it help? I’d like to think so. It validates what I was writing. It means someone other than me enjoyed the tale. Now, the trick; getting a second person to jump on the bandwagon…

Thanks Dr. Pat.

Novel Conception - part 5

12/1/2015

With the release of my latest book, Novel Concept, I had the urge to explain myself, I mean, examine the creative process and how this story came to be (see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4).

Amazon announced their Kindle and set in motion the self-publishing revolution. I saw a couple of acquaintances go out self-publish their stories, the stories they really wanted to tell. Frankly, there wasn’t much going on for me, so I stuck a toe in the water. That toe was “Lost Claus” (which I go into here). I now realized I could get those stories I wanted out to the public, or some of them anyway.

Novel Conception - part 4

11/29/2015

With the release of my latest book, Novel Concept, I had the urge to explain myself, I mean, examine the creative process and how this story came to be (see Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).

Writing my book was kind of a willy-nilly affair. I don’t have some den to process my thoughts and put them to paper. I would write on the ferry, at lunch, during breaks, sometimes at home, but not so much. Essentially I reached a point where I had more time to type it at work than at home. At some point, when I decided to return to the partially-written manuscript, I started re-typing it into a work processor at work.

Novel Conception - part 3

11/27/2015

With the release of my latest book, Novel Concept, I had the urge to explain myself, I mean, examine the creative process and how this story came to be (see Part 1, and Part 2).

Writing anything takes time, but the writing process for my first book idea was a long drawn out affair: Squeezing out a few pages during the commute to and from work. On breaks. At lunch. At my desk during work lulls. I would write during the day, then type it up on my Atari Word Processor, a little present I bought myself when I sold my first script (to the TV series “The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers” for those keeping score). Typing up a manuscript was no easy feat on that thing. But it was a lot easier than trying to type a script up on one of those things.

I’d print out the pages and edit them. Then rewrite those. Then I wouldn’t. Start and stop. Rewrite, then let it lay fallow. Go until I hit a wall, then walk away from it. Go work on other stuff. Get involved with Pee-Wee Herman. I admit it, I’m lazy. And without a firm deadline, I took my dear, sweet time with it. Finally, after a couple of years, I typed the words, “The End.”

The next step, of course, was sending it out to publishers for rejections. Check. After a couple of dozen of those, I let it sit for a while. Before a techno-tragedy had me put it aside for years.

Novel Conception - part 2

11/23/2015

With the release of my latest book, Novel Concept, I had the urge to explain myself, I mean, examine the creative process and how this story came to be (see Part 1).

I grew up on the Marx Brothers and Monty Python. I wrote sketches that were very meta and would often turn in on themselves. This was my style. And if I was going to write a book that was going to be the book’s style as well. I hadn’t written a lot of prose, mostly short pieces for my college humor magazine. There I had learned the fun and elasticity of the language. These are things you can’t do in a script, where you have to keep the language of stage directions pretty bland and locked within a template. That’s probably why I love doing dialogue so much. Word play was play.

Novel Conception - part 1

11/21/2015

With the release of my latest book, Novel Concept, I had the urge to explain myself, I mean, examine the creative process and how this story came to be (see Part 1)

Writing a book was not on my bucket list. I was going to write MOVIES! Or SKETCHES for TV!!! That was it. Not a TV series, no prose, articles or matchbook covers. All through college and post-graduation, my attention was drawn to the shiny movie screen and flickering TV image. There were spec scripts to mail out and sketches to hoard away (because by this time there was only one sketch-comedy show on TV and “Saturday Night Live” was a tough nut to crack)...

Kindle Scouting...

9/4/2015

Okay, world, looking for a favor...

I have uploaded my latest, "Novel Concept" to Kindle's new Scout program. It's much like their film production side, where the crowd gets to select what TV pilots and projects move forward, only here the winners will become a published work by Kindle Press. As it happens, I was finishing my book, and it's a stand-alone story from my other books, so, why not?

Now, I need a crowd...

It's a goofy, wacky tale of a writer who wants to be a best-selling writer and decides he needs to travel the world to do it. Just sans money.

If any Amazon account holders could make their way to
https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/235QKTEJFACJR and nominate me, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you for your time and consideration. We now return you do to our regularly scheduled program...

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