Quattro Media Inks 'Eden'

Quattro Media to globally release Eden by Rob Reuter

From the Editor Last week, a deal was inked between Rob Reuter and Quattro Media for the publishing rights to Eden, which is Rob's first book in the Jack Dunn action-adventure series.  Quattro Media specializes in publishing novels which platform into films and games. The story starts as Jack Dunn and his team from the National Antiquities Foundation (NAF) are brought in to retrieve lost and stolen ancient artifacts for the re-opening of the Iraqi National Museum. As an aejej slowly billows and vanishes against the stark landscape, the sultry, dry, desert calm of Bagdad is broken when the museum is suddenly rocked by a presumed terrorist attack.  Some rare cuneiform artifacts are stolen, and Jack finds himself in a web of death and destruction as he tracks the thieves through Iraq.      The investigation turns ugly under the watchful eye of a paramilitary group contracted to provide security.  Having to outwit trained military professionals to uncover the truth, Jack Dunn and his trusted friends are plunged into the dark world of guns-for-hire, unknowingly finding themselves in the path of a madman searching for the legendary lost land of Eden and the fabled Tree of Life.    Outgunned and outnumbered, it's a race against time to uncover the truth behind Eden and to destroy it before it's too late!

First Look Deal with Quattro Media

	Manuscript Editing Solutions, LLC www.mesolutions.biz
	Here is what Paul Elliott, who has five published plays in the last five years, two world premieres and three productions scheduled for 2012, says about Alan Brown and Manuscript Editing Solutions -- "In all my years of writing for television, commercials, and theater, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as tuned in to the creative process as Alan Brown. As an editor, he is a joy to work with because he respects your work, and understands exactly what you are trying to achieve. With his expertise on your side, your chances of seeing your project move forward are much, much greater.” MES offers a unique service to writers because we have actual work experience in story development in the entertainment and publishing industry. Let Manuscript Editing Solutions (MES) help you. We have worked as editors and consultants to some of the most renowned literary agents and writers in the industry. Having spent thirty years working in storytelling, we know what the film industry and the publishers are looking for. We are different from other editing services because we help our clients craft their stories into marketable intellectual properties. We have also been successful in helping our clients secure representation. MES is an editorial service designed to deliver to the writer a manuscript formatted and edited for agency and publisher submission. Through regular phone discussions with the editor, and manuscript change suggestions by email, MES aims to make book editing a valuable experience for the fiction writer. Our editors suggest changes that focus on story editing. We analyze characters, character arc, balance of characters, descriptive, setting, tempo, point of view, and plot points. www.mesolutions.biz	A First Look Deal with Publisher, Quattro Media on the eve of Devil's Bait widely awaited release! Check out Devil's Bait tomorrow on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/6w2tjfj We are pleased to announce we have entered into 'A First Look Arrangement' for novels edited by Manuscript Editing Solutions with Quattro Media in behalf of our writers. Quattro has three publishing imprints: Madness Books, Malevolent Books, and Tinsel Road Books which may be viewed on the web: Madness Books: www.madnessbooks.com Malevolent Books: www.malevolentbooks.com Tinsel Road Books: www.tinselroad.com Quattro Media's newest book is the thriller DEVIL’S BAIT by JEFFREY MARIOTTE which will be available everywhere books are sold on May 1st. "Jeff Mariotte has written a compelling heroine in banker Jessie Dawn Cutler, whose well-ordered world implodes when she witnesses a cold-blooded killing by her biggest client. Now Jessie must pit her courage and resourcefulness against a remorseless killer whose reach is limitless. In this heart-pounding thriller set against the glittering backdrop of international banking, Jessie must hold her own against tremendous odds to survive." "Fast-paced and gripping, THE DEVIL’S BAIT takes you full-throttle from beginning to end. One heck of a ride!" —J. Carson Black, bestselling author of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN and THE SHOP Follow me at Twitter: http://twitter.com/JimStrader Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimstrader Check out Manuscript Editing Solutions on Linked In. What people have said about Manuscript Editing Solutions... “I would highly recommend Alan Brown and Manuscript Editing Solutions for your manuscripts. Before you submit to a literary agent it is essential that your book be in superior editorial shape with a clear plot, subplots, character development, action, tone, climax, and an emotional connection for your readers. Alan is highly experienced in all of these editorials area and he also brings with him the added experience of working on film scripts, developing story ideas for writers and excellent editorial work with writers. Jan Kardys, Literary Agent, Black Hawk Literary Agency, Chairman, Unicorn Writers' Conference” September 7, 2011 "When I began working with Alan, my expectation was that he would clean up a few of the static mistakes in my manuscript and make it ready for a publisher. But Alan did so much more. He gave me a new bag of tools that transformed my writing forever. His suggestions were invaluable. Through his expertise I enriched the personalities of my characters, intensified the plot points of my novel, and polished the sharp edges of what was once a rough manuscript. His gentle, hand-holding technique leaves a new writer feeling as if she is not all alone in the cold world of publishing. Thank you, Alan, for bringing out the confident author that was inside of me. I will forever be grateful." -Jacquelyn Tripp Lewis, North Louisiana Regional Editor, The Minute Magazine, LLC. www.theminutemag.com "Words cannot express your imaginative side. You are not just an excellent editor, but a caring, devoted, and patient one." -Mamet, author of Hush Ma “I've often heard the saying: "Novelists make Literature, Playwrights make Art, Screenwriters make Entertainment and TV Writers make Furniture." Though I am third on this list, I can honestly say that Alan Brown's keen eye and gentle touch guided my through the perilous world of screenwriting and on to a higher level of writing. Alan has an innate gift that he earnestly shares with detail, insight and patience; I am a better story-teller for it. He has changed my life as a filmmaker, and I am grateful for the time well spent with him through two complex screenplays. My only regret is that I did not audio-record our many, many, many script-conferences -- for there are tidbits of precepts, theory and tenets of his own that I use and repeat to myself each day; then there are those that I cannot recall at all. They don't make "them" like this anymore!” August 31, 2011 Frank S Petrilli, Director/Screenwriter/Story Development, Hurricane Development, LLC worked with Alan at Independent Film www.mesolutions.biz
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Raptus is no rap!

The Editor's Desk                           My interview with Svet D'Naoumov

  I just finished editing a book that deals with the fictional study of violence entitled, Raptus by Svet D'Naoumov. Provocative, scientific, and thought-provoking, the book looks at violence as an organic process spreading from one part of the world to the next. Where evil has a global mind of its own, and mankind is just a biological vehicle. From a global perspective, I found it frightening in its implication considering the present state of the Middle East, the London riots, and the North African violence.  Can this global organic process be measured, evaluated, and predicted? Raptus was a page burner for me which was scary as an editor. I found myself reading rather than analyzing. In one sense, I suspect that Raptus was the culmination of Svet's educational and job experience. Besides a law degree, he holds a PHD in economics from Buxton University, U.K.
Svet has worked for such notables as George Soros, and his background includes jobs as Program Director for the Resource Center Foundation, funded by the USAID in the areas of: democracy strengthening and economic development.  Senior Expert, National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria, Committee on Local Self - Government and Regional Policy.  Director PMU – World Bank Project “Educational Modernization”.  Senior National Consultant, World Bank Cadastre and Property Register Project – Ministry of Justice.  Head of Ex-Ante Department, PHARE Implementing Agency, Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works.  Head of Programming and Monitoring Department, Directorate General Programming of Regional Development, Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, Operational Program Regional Development (OPRR) – European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – Structural Fund (funded by The European Union).

Some of Svet's professional associations include an honorary membership in the NATO Defense College Ancients’ Association, Balkan Ethnic Studies Center, Europe Foundation World Law Association, National Youth Environmental Center (NGO) Bulgarian Institute of Peace & Preventative Policy (NGO) – Chair of Board Intercoms Association (NGO),Regional Economic Development & Investment Agency (NGO) – Kardjali, Bulgaria

Raptus is being submitted to different publishers via his agent as I write this. I was so passionate about the book that I asked both the author and the agent to allow me to write this article and the following  interview.

Here it is -- My Interview with Svet D'Naoumov

What is Raptus?
Basically, Raptus is a medical term meaning sudden seizure or mass madness in Latin. It is a social phenomenon occurring in closed groups of people or collectives – for example, hospitals, ships, army, prison, etc.  In my novel the main character gets the task to examine, investigate, analyze, and report to what extend the phenomenon of Raptus transfers itself from a typical medical illness to a social disease, especially among the leaders of the planet.

Did your extensive academic background, from your undergraduate degree in philosophy, a law degree, and a PhD in economics to your work in broadening democracy in Bulgaria play a role in writing Raptus?  Was this experiential view of the world the motivation for writing Raptus?
To some extent it did, especially my philosophy background. Moreover, my participation in the transition to democracy in Bulgaria gave me the opportunity to know and meet with a variety of key players, international organizations, and famous figures. It was a period of fast change, and I could observe so many social processes at once – and some of them were productive and progressive, some were destructive and regressive. But my total motivation came from my international, world experience, not just from my experience in Bulgaria.

What inspired you to write Raptus?
My deepest inspiration came from the powerful thought of seeing the world free from any kind of dogmas, doctrines, cults, or enforced ideas that serve as an enslaving tool for the human mind.

When did you write Raptus?
The idea for the novel came to me one winter night in New York City still in 1991. America is the cultural leader of our world. Whenever something good happens here, it is good at global level. Whenever something goes wrong, it inevitably influences everybody else. It was a powerful impulse. It needed many years to become mature enough in my head. Plus, my life experience added a lot of new aspects. Finally, I wrote Raptus in the period 2007-2008.

Where did you write Raptus?
In my home in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, and in New York City.

What impact on the book did it have working with many of the twenty-first century luminaries like George Soros?  Who was the most influential in your mind?
Most of the characters are a collective synthesis, a product of many powerful personalities. George Soros could be mentioned only as an element in a chain of people, organizations, processes, and institutions which form the contemporary leadership. In my mind the most influential factors were all powerful think-tanks and closed groups who usually stay in the shadow while at the same time they pull the strings of the public institutions and the public figures. They are the masters of puppets.

Why did you write Raptus?
As a writer and as a thinking person, my duty is to serve to the truth. Moreover, I feel obliged to write with honesty and to try to unfold and disclose to the reader what I feel, what I sense, what I perceive, and what I believe. It is a common task; it is an esthetic partnership between the author and the reader. Together, they take this journey through our contemporary world and find the sources of good and evil.

Is there a message for the world in the book?
Yes, there is. Our human reason, our mind, is the most precious universal gift for us. If we lose it, we lose ourselves and our civilization and we go backward. Democracy is a complicated process. Freedom demands an everyday struggle. We should never allow our free mind to be enslaved by the ideas of leaders who have lost their common sense during their fight for power.

Thank you for your time.
Finis. 

If you are interested in contacting Svet's agent, please email me at alan@mesolutions.biz and I will forward on the information.

Unicorn Writers Conference Pictures

Rainy Days and Sundays

With a supreme vote of confidence for the future (mass market paperback and foreign rights), Harbor House publisher E. Randall Floyd flew movie producer Alan Brown (upcoming Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides with Brad Pitt) and the famous director Harry Thomason (Designing Women) to Sea Island, Georgia for a big media launch party at the Cloister…his cost for that alone must have been staggering. 

One advantage of having your debut with a small publisher is that small publishers are in for the long haul.  There are excellent small publishers in the South, including Harlan Publishing, Crane Hill and Pineapple to name a few.

While I have been fortunate to get great reviews like the Orlando Sentinel that went out nationally on the Knight Ridder wire, both Harbor House and I believe that with a movie upcoming and the mass market paperback rights still up for sale, the best days with this title are yet to come.

Rainy Days and Sundays has been optioned for a major feature film by producer Alan Brown (currently in pre-production of Pat Conroy’s Beach Music starring Brad Pitt). Your novel is extremely visual, but two hours causes limits in scriptwriting novels. What part/element of Rainy Days and Sundays must be captured in the film to do the novel justice?

I claim no expertise at writing for the big screen but both Alan Brown and Harry Thomason assure me that one of the big pluses for Rainy Days and Sundays is that the subplots unfold as short vignettes which will easily compress into a two-hour timeframe without sabotaging the suspense or sacrificing atmospherics or diminishing the fully-fleshed-out characters of the main plot line(s).  Harry Thomason says that when they start casting, his phone will be ringing off the hook with calls from agents of every young female actor in Hollywood wanting to play the four strong women characters in the book. 

 

Film producer Alan Brown, director Harry Thomason and author Brewster M. Robertson.

As a book reviewer for a national magazine and a member of the Southern Book Critics Circle, how important is it for writers to be well read? How are books with southern themes doing on a national market?

I’m convinced that most good writers are good readers.  There is no substitute for reading.  I am so lucky to have a day job that forces me to read over 50 of the leading novels each year. 

My aunt Blanche Brewster Pedneau founded the county library system in Roanoke, Virginia.  As a child, I read all of Tom Swift and Nancy Drew, but early on I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books and graduated to Hemingway when I was still in grammar school.  Of the early novelists, Dickens was the great storyteller.  Besides Papa Hemingway, of the pre- and post-Depression era novelists, modern writers owe a debt of gratitude to D.H. Lawrence and Henry Miller.  American writers like Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, Fitzgerald, O’Hara, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell and James M. Cain provide a great legacy.  Of post-World War II novelists, I think Norman Mailer and James Jones were just as important as Lawrence and Miller in breaking down censorship.  I am a great fan of the crisp prose of hardboiled suspense writers Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, John D.- and John Ross MacDonald and the newer generation Elmore Leonard, Les Standiford and James W. Hall.  They get my juices flowing.  A new writer that I much admire is John Miller (Causes of Action).

I’m flattered to have been compared to John Grisham, Nelson DeMille and Pat Conroy…but I hope my style is completely my own.  I always thought that Robert Ruark must have hated it when critics called him the “…poor man’s Hemingway.”  Secretly, I live for the day when someone writes that some fine new novelist writes like Brewster Milton Robertson.

Unfortunately, southern voices and southern themes do not dominate the national bestseller lists.  With the publishing powerbrokers located mainly in New York and Boston, it is very difficult to find agents and editors who resonate with southern voices and themes.  Southern publishers like Algonquin and Longstreet and small independent presses like Harbor House, Hill Street and Orloff represent a great new hope for today’s southern writer.  At the moment, Robert Morgan’s Gap Creek is the only truly southern title on the bestseller list.

You teach a fiction writing workshop in various institutions in the Carolina Lowcountry. What are the most common problems for aspiring writers?

This year will mark my sixth appearance at FIU’s Conference (leem@fiu.edu) at Seaside, Florida.  I think it is important that writers attend workshops and conferences.  It is surprising how many successful writers still attend conferences.  Most beginners have difficulty understanding the fiction voice.  Fiction is told from the viewpoint of the characters—not reported like journalism.  The easiest way for beginners to grasp this is to write in the first person.  I also recommend that beginners consult a professional developmental editor.  I am fortunate to use the services of Cheryl Lopanik (clopanik@islc.net) who brings over twenty years of experience editing fiction (novels and short stories) and non-fiction (biography, memoirs, etc.).  She not only reads my work for content and structure but also edits for grammar/punctuation.  It is very important that editors and agents see only work of professional quality.  Modern day editors do not often waste time with amateurs.

 

In your novel, you give a line to a character that you original heard from Mickey Spillane – “The first line sales the book. The last line sales the next book.” What tips would you give for creating hooks?

“All morning long Norris Wrenn felt like he was being followed but it made no sense at all,” is the first line of my new novel Some Old Familiar Rain.  I always try to begin with the promise of trouble or danger…also a hint of romantic complication is good.  I believe you have to hook the reader with the first line.  For fiction as well as non-fiction, I believe that the reader owes the writer nothing beyond the first line.  The writer’s job is to seduce the reader line by line from the opening line to the final word.  And, I believe that every line should be treated as the “opening line.”  

Some memorable opening lines are: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” (A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens) and “Elmer Gantry was drunk.” (Elmer Gantry, Sinclair Lewis). I also believe that titles should be enigmatic…rather than give the story away titles should entice the reader to take the book from the shelf and read the dust jacket synopsis.  The dust jacket copy such be well calculated to make it impossible for the reader to leave the store without buying the book.   

Tell us about your next novel.

Some Old Familiar Rain is a stand-alone novel, not a continuation of the Buchanan Forbes character.  I just completed the manuscript and publishing plans are still up in the air.  The dust jacket synopsis reads: 

            A sexy, suspenseful saga of the classic archetypal modern Southern agrarian power structure SOME OLD FAMILIAR RAIN examines the underseams of the Graham family dynasty.  Thirteen on the Fortune-100 list, Graham/unLimited is more powerful than Phillip Morris/Nabisco.  Like the turreted spire of a feudal castle, the forbidding G/uL Tower casts an ominous shadow of adultery, greed, lust for power, felony drug death, blackmail, and the threat of international political scandal over the steamy North Carolina river town of Colonial Hall.

Sexy young actress Emma Claire is found dead in a Greensboro motel and alcoholic playboy Trip Graham, the failed generation of the Graham dynasty, is having trouble remembering the events of his lost weekend in the Carolina mountains at Blowing Rock.

Both still in their thirties, Trip’s wife Marilee Bryant Graham, the famous rags-to-riches super model, and Trip’s former college roommate, charismatic wonderboy Norris Wrenn, have come to positions of power in Graham/unLimited by exercise of intellect and strength over the weakness of heir-apparent Trip Graham. 

         Amid all the awesome power, these two alone represent the only real vitality in this otherwise crumbling family system.

         On the eve of being named corporate CEO, Norris, Time Magazine’s Man of Destiny—now G/uL’s charismatic wunderkind—is being courted by the scandal-beleaguered White House.  Enamored of Marilee but shadowed by his failure to live up to his youthful ideals, Norris is struggling to rediscover that best part of himself and become his own man again. 

Marilee, Town and Country’s “Mother of the Year,” realizes she married the wrong man.  She means to have Norris for her own.

         Despite sober misgivings and firm resolve, Norris is helpless to resist Marilee’s invitation to meet in New York, away from inquiring eyes.  After one matchless night in her arms, Norris whisks her away to Sheepshead Light, his secret island hideaway off the coast of Maine. 

Meanwhile back in Colonial Hall all manner of trouble is breaking loose.  Unbeknownst to the star-crossed lovers, suddenly the whole world is trying desperately to find them.

Over the next five days—the Monday through Friday before Mother’s Day—the world will change forever for the opportunistic sensualists.  They are about to be presented the opportunity to get away with a perfect murder!  

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Brewster Milton Robertson’s Official Home Page

http://www.rainysundays.com

 

Rainy Days and Sundays, Harbor House, 2000.

                     Southern Scribe Review

 

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Variety Article

How did you do on the test?

Here is the test:

Grammar (Time, one hour)
  
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph.
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,' 'play,' and 'run'.
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.
  
Orthography(Time, one hour) 

1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'.
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9.. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane , vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

This test was part of the 8th Grade Final Exam, Salina, Kansas, 1895.