Tuesday
Jun172014

SURGICAL STRIKE or the 3 RAMBOS

The first SURGICAL STRIKE book came about because of a phone call.  We were in our office doing what ever we were doing and we get a call from the office of that big movie producer I told you about last time.  Once the connection was made, our friend the producer says, “Jerry, I want you to write a story for me with 3 RAMBOS.”   He wanted a yarn filled with action and shooting and heroic men living on the edge. 

            Yep, we took the bait, dropped everything else and spent a lot of time coming up with a story.  We gave him what he perceived he wanted that day and I think we did a pretty good job.  Three RAMBOS with different personalities all united to fight terrorism.  Coming up with a plot was as easy as reading the day’s headlines.  We sent him our synopsis and detailed outline along with weaponry ideas and anything else we felt could be helpful.  I imagine everything is still sitting on a shelf somewhere or in a dead file along with probably thousands of other ideas.

            We had fun coming up with all this but realizing that the likelihood of anything ever happening to get it on a big screen or little screen or, for that matter, any screen was remote, we decided to shop it around as a book.  An editor at Bantam Books liked the idea and gave us a contract for not one but three books based on these 3 anti-terrorist RAMBOS.  Written at a time when we still believed that America would not stand down to terrorism and that we must fight the good fight because we were the good guys and proud of it.  The 3 SURGICAL STRIKE books have been reprinted by Speaking Volumes.  www.speakingvolumes.us

 

BTW:  PARKING SPACE 32D   Have you heard that the parking garage in Rosslyn, Virginia, where “Deep Throat,” leaked information about the Watergate scandal to Washington Post reporter, Bob Woodward, is going to be destroyed?   A developer is going to replace the 1960s office building and parking garage with a 28 story residential building and a separate commercial building offering retail and office space.  “Deep Throat,” later identified as Mark Felt, the former deputy director of the FBI, gave information to Woodward over the course of a year, which eventually led to the resignation of President Nixon in 1974.  Felt was able to keep his identity as “Deep Throat” secret for 30 years.  I wonder how many tears will be shed for the demise of this historic spot.

 

Sharon

 

Thursday
Jun052014

HOW DID WE WRITE THAT STUFF part 2

            Sometimes writing can take you to interesting places.  We were a couple of books into the SURVIVALIST series and hoping to get a contract for some more, seeing as how we felt we had plenty of story to work with.  Then, the contracts we were hoping for did arrive, along with a note saying that they were urgently needed back in the publisher’s hands.  Could we sign them and overnight the paperwork that same day?    At this time, there was no Express Mail service in our town and we had to travel to a town about thirty minutes away that did offer the service.  It was getting late in the day, Jerry got behind the wheel and drove off and I started reading the contracts.  The first one I looked at was missing a page or two.  Damn!  I thought, hopefully, since each contract was in triplicate, the missing pages were stapled in with the other copies.  No such luck.  I went through three copies of three separate contracts with no luck.  Pages were missing from them all.

            Our mommas didn’t raise complete fools!  We turned around, went home and got on the telephone to our editor who in turn put us on with one of the publishers.  Turns out that they "misplaced" some of the pages when they were making some changes and suggested we fly up to New York and sign the contracts in their office and take in a day or two of sightseeing, all at their expense, of course.  We couldn’t pass up the offer and made all the arrangements necessary.

            It turned out that a very well known movie producer was interested in making a SURVIVALIST movie – hence the contracts for additional books in the series.  If we had blindly signed the contracts as they had been sent to us we would have had a tough time getting any action out of the ensuing deal. Instead, we got to meet with the producer and his staff along with our publisher and participate in the deal.

            Things turned out well for us.  Not only did we make a little money – emphasis on little – we met some interesting and really nice movie people, got to sit in on a private screening of Jimmy Cagney’s last movie, visit the Guggenheim Museum, go to a Broadway matinee staring Lauren Bacall and shop at Macys Department Store!  The only disappointment was that Jerry wanted to visit the bar Mickey Spillane used to frequent and found out that it had closed just a few years before our visit.  We also got to meet our editor and created a much better working relationship and we got a handle on how many stories are optioned for movies and how few are actually made.

            We came home to life’s usual realities and settled back into our writing schedule, but, stopping to ask each other, “Do you remember when we saw what’s his name?  He looks so normal in real life.  I thought that cab driver was going to kill us all!  When he told us to think thin when he was driving in between traffic lanes on the way to the airport, I though he was kidding!

            Ahh.  New York, New York!

 

Next time I’ll tell you how this visit was the birthplace of the SURGICAL STRIKE three book series.

 

Sharon

Monday
May262014

WE THE PEOPLE: OUR MILITARY OBLIGATIONS

 

  Please take a moment today to celebrate the men and women who placed their lives on the line to keep the rest of us free.  Many people died in combat for us; many more were wounded both physically and emotionally.  Families lost husbands, fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.  Some families were broken forever while some grew stronger. 

            Our liberty has been fought for since the days of the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.  Our soldiers have fallen on foreign soil and sand helping to give this liberty, that we so many times take for granted, to others wishing to be free.

            Today is a day to give thanks to those in the military who are no longer with us. But, we also need to give thanks to those who have been there for us in the past and are now retired or otherwise no longer active duty and, for those personnel who are still serving. 

            Our freedom comes with a cost that we all must bear.  We have an obligation to support our military who through their commitment to OUR CONSTITUTION keep US free.  Let’s not let them suffer at the hands of bureaucrats and those who don’t give a damn.  Let them know that it is WE THE PEOPLE who appreciate their efforts and sacrifices for us and offer to them OUR respect and admiration.  They deserve the best care and respect that this country can bestow on them.  Let’s make sure that they get it.  Honor the memory of our peacekeepers that have died for this country and honor and support those and their families still with us.

 

Sharon

Monday
May192014

HOW DID WE WRITE THAT STUFF?

Dave left a comment recently asking how did we  schedule our writing.  This will probably take a few posts to explain but here is where I start.      

 

            Jerry and I had a somewhat unique writing schedule.  Many times we would be working on multiple projects simultaneously.  We might be gathering together and testing guns, holsters, knives, etc., for a magazine column or article and working on finishing up one of our over 80 novels while researching the next book and coming up with another story idea, all at the same time.  After a few near disasters we learned that multi-tasking was fine as long as we stuck to dissimilar projects. 

            Many writers hold down full time jobs and have to find time to write.  Writing was our full time job and we had to find other moments to fit in other necessary projects.  The majority of our books were written in our 1904 frame, 13 room house in Commerce, Georgia.  Think old.  Think wood.  Think handmade so nothing in the house was plumb.  Think nothing had been done to the place much since 1904 including heat and electricity.  Add five acres of untamed land, two young children and anybody’s guess as to pets at one time or another, etc....You get the picture.

            “Mom. Dad.  We need help!”

            “We’re trying to finish a scene.  What’s up?”

            “Well, the drainpipe musta broken again on the upstairs bathtub and water is running out of the light fixture in the bedroom ceiling down here.”

            “%%**###,” one person says.  “We’ll be right there.  Grab a bucket, turn off the light and get the @@%%## dog out of there! The cat too!”        

            Many of our stories were hashed out while driving nowhere in particular.  Usually we had a seed of an idea and nothing much else.  We would gas up the Suburban and take off in one direction or another, Jerry usually driving, me holding a legal pad and pencil.  We’d try to come up with a basic story line then let the characters take over as to what they would do in such a situation.  Occasionally we’d spend more time coming up with a character name than we took for an entire plot. 

            Once we were back in the office I would transcribe my notes – whilst I could still read my writing – and turn it into a workable outline.  While we’re on the subject of the office, this is the small room holding school and art supplies, camera equipment, a small part of our reference library, dogs, cats and sometimes a container of crickets for Jason’s tree frogs, two desks with computers and all their usual accompanying accoutrements and the two of us at those desks, facing each other.  Our office had large windows on three of the four walls which was an added distraction.  By the time I was through with framing up the outline, the phone had been ringing off the hook and/or the kids were home from school and we were now involved in something totally different.

            Series work such as THE SURVIVALIST, TRACK, THEY CALL ME THE MERCENARY, THE DEFENDER and THE TAKERS kept us busy because the publishers did have to keep up with scheduled releases.  We would faithfully promise in out contract to have such and such finished and in their hands by a certain date and we did try to keep to our promises.  Please keep in mind that not only did we have book commitments but we had articles and monthly columns in magazines and for a while a short radio segment that we wrote, produced and Jerry voiced at a local station.   We both had the attention span of a gnat.  

            I’ll tell you more next time.

 

Sharon

Wednesday
May142014

GRADUATION

           It’s that exiting, fun time of the year for a number of our young people.  School is winding down except for the dreaded final exams.  Proms are happening and graduations are being prepared for across the country.  Times of change.  Times of commitment.   

            A lot of these young people will be looking at their last summer of freedom to spend with friends they’ve known since they were but single digit ages.  Others will struggle with how to keep relationships of a more romantic leaning alive over the distances some of them may travel to continue their education.  Life can get complicated.

            Scores of these graduates will be entering the work force for either the first time or will be moving from a part time position to a full time slot,  hoping to make enough dough to support themselves in “the real world.”

            I remember when Jerry and I were at that point in our lives.  The Viet Nam War shadowed so many choices that had to be made.  The draft was in full swing and young men in college were easy pickings as well as those in non-essential jobs.  Some were able to change their career choices to try to avoid the draft, some were drafted and were given the option to learn other skills and some, well, some just never made it back home.  For most of us, if we really wanted one, a job was out there for us.  I came home each week with my take home pay of about $40.00 and feeling like I was rich.

            A lot of us did manage to get through school if we could find a way of affording it which for many, were those jobs we had.  Some who went right into the job market found that there was the opportunity available to succeed if one tried.  Technology opened up new prospects that we had never dreamed of, giving us many new career choices for both men and women.  We started families, settled down, hoped for the future, just like our parents did before us.

            Today’s young people will face the burden of a poor economy, high unemployment and staggering tuition costs.   Leaving high school will not be analogous to “spreading your wings;” it will be more like “throwing you to the wolves.”  I believe each generation has had obstacles to overcome in order to make it in this world but that doesn’t make it any easier for the next one coming up.  They have their own tough decisions to make.  Being realistic is a hard road for ones so young.  Let’s remember what roads we took and the consequences we suffered and give them some slack.  Life has never been about just black and white reality; there’s gotta be a rainbow of dreaming and hope tagging along.

            All the best to those of you who are starting this new road in your life and a special thanks to your parents and family members who have and will continue to encourage you to keep trying.  Learning never stops; we do it until the moment we stop breathing.  Do both for a long, long time!

 

Sharon