Books

In the Trenches—Day 337 Year 2: “THE WAR OF ART”

Posted by

In the Trenches—Day 337 Year 2:  “THE WAR OF ART”

Day 337 Year 2:  I set an intention for 2013 to be the year of completing my creations.  To review:  that’s none.  Yes, things have moved forward—a lot.  An hour has been shaved off of High School 911’s running time, we have a rough assembly of Collusions, I have a first words-on-paper draft of my script Death Over 3 Bottles of Wine which I just got great feedback on and I’m about to start another pass, and Screenwriter Cindy and I have been working like maniacs (and having a blast) the last two weeks to get her going on a rewrite of The Botox Party which she just started on the first act.  But, is anything actually and totally complete?  No. Surprisingly, I’m not...

Read More

In The Trenches—The Founder’s Daily Report: Day 308—“While I Was Learning To Become God” by Roxana Jones

Posted by

In The Trenches—The Founder’s Daily Report:  Day 308—“While I Was Learning To Become God” by Roxana Jones

Day 308:  I rewarded myself for finishing (for now) Scene 16 by finishing a book I started reading a few months ago, While I was Learning to Become God by Roxana Jones.  I wrote about breaking my ban from Amazon to buy it and a few other books back on Day 187.  Finding the time to read—like making time to do yoga or eat healthy—seems to get thrown out the window the minute I get busy.  I need to work on that. I originally had a difficult time getting into the device the author uses to tell the story.  Parts are written in first person by the woman whose story it is and other parts are being narrated by the woman who the woman whose story it is is telling her story to. ...

Read More

In The Trenches – The Founder’s Daily Report: Day 277: The Cutting Season

Posted by

In The Trenches – The Founder’s Daily Report:  Day 277:  The Cutting Season

Day 277:  I broke my ban from Amazon again!  But I had to.  My friend Attica Locke’s second novel, The Cutting Season, just came out.  I simply can’t wait to read it!  The reviews have been stellar so far and she made it on Oprah’s top 10 must-reads in O Magazine this month. I loved her debut novel, Black Water Rising.  It was a page-turner and I know this next one will be as well.  There’s something about Attica’s writing that I can’t get enough of.  Yes, there’s the broader thriller, mystery, suspense aspects that take you for a ride, but it’s the intensely personal, intelligent and intimate layers that touch me on a deeper level.  She not only entertains, but...

Read More

Day 205: Hey Jack Kerouac

Posted by

Day 205:  Hey Jack Kerouac

Day 205.  On The Road – The Original Scroll was broken into “books,” one right after the other.  Book four was the final trip across the country—this time from New York City through the heart of America and straight down to Mexico. “…off we went across the street into Mexico on soft feet.  …  Behind us lay the whole continent of America and everything Neal and I had previously known about life and life on the road.  We had finally found the magic land at the end of the road and we never dreamed of the extent of the magic.” The ride was beautiful and wild and vivid and chock full of drugs and whores and mythical white horses until apparently Lucien Carr’s dog...

Read More

Day 204: Will I ever get off the road?

Posted by

Day 204:  Will I ever get off the road?

Day 204.  The prose in On The Road The Original Scroll is intense.  It comes at you in long, endless sentences not unlike open highway.  It rarely catches its breath.  Neal Cassady exhausts me with his restless energy, his incessant movement, his utter lack of grounding.  Jack’s devotion to Neal and going mad and getting his kicks back and forth across the country driven by a seemingly inexhaustible urge to find what he’s looking for yet having no idea what he’s forgotten drives me mad.  It also makes me nostalgic for the decade I was on the road searching literally and figuratively—in my 20s—first from Missouri to California then regular road trips all over the...

Read More

Day 203: Reading’s Role

Posted by

Day 203:  Reading’s Role

Day 203.  Here’s what’s currently on my nightstand to read: On the Road the Original Scroll by Jack Kerouac – I’ve been reading this one for awhile now—it’s research, or so I claim.  I’m half way through.  Apparently, once I’m done reading it, I’ll miraculously know my character Geoffrey, pop a benny and bang out the rest of my script in five days on a single scroll. While I was Learning to Become God by Roxana Jones – I discovered and connected with Roxana via Twitter.  On the back cover it reads:  “Based on a true story, author Roxana Jones narrates conversations with her friend Sybil Vaughan, who is on her deathbed, waiting to rest in peace…”  Sounds powerful....

Read More

Day 195: Nuggets not to be ignored!

Posted by

Day 195:  Nuggets not to be ignored!

Day 195.  Ignore Everybody!  It’s not my suggestion it’s Hugh MacLeod’s who wrote the book, Ignore Everybody, and 39 Other Keys to Creativity.  I bought the book on title alone.  How could I resist?  I finished reading it over a year and a half ago.  How do I know?  Well, I know because of my trusty handwritten note on the inside cover!  It reads, “12-27-10 – Some great nuggets!!  🙂  —Kelli Joan Bennett.” It’s on my mind because I had dinner with a wonderfully talented actor friend on Monday and the book came up.  My Talented Actor Friend has a rather big, impressive day job in the lawyer world.  In general he has the best of both worlds—financial security and time to...

Read More

Day 194: Read to Travel

Posted by

Day 194:  Read to Travel

Day 194.  Jack Kerouac is taking me On the Road.  I’m reading the original scroll, not the 1957 edition.  It’s research for a character in my screenplay.  I love reading—novels, non-fiction, self-help, memoirs, classics, More magazine, tweets—you name it, I probably like to read it.  Reading is like traveling to me—another love of mine.  Instead of being on a bus or on a plane or on my feet, I’m traveling on words. “There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.” ―Jack Kerouac, On the Road:  The Original Scroll   Until tomorrow, create from what you have…reading. Kelli Joan Bennett is a filmmaker, actress, writer, entrepreneur, advocate...

Read More

Day 187: Lazy Days of Summer

Posted by

Day 187:  Lazy Days of Summer

Day 187.  Okay, I’m going to make this full disclosure Thursday.  I’m a compulsive confessor, so let me just get all of this off my chest right now.  First of all, I can’t get out of vacation mode!  There’s just too much watermelon to eat.  Too much barbeque to smell.  Too much grass to run my toes through.  Second of all, I did not complete my writing crusade!  Like that’s a surprise.  I’m sure you noticed I stopped mentioning it back around the week of June 18 when I was supposed to be done by the 22nd!  And finally, to top it off, I broke my ban from Amazon!  UGH.  I was only supposed to order my supplements.  Yeah, you know where this is going. I save like $25 if I...

Read More

Day 181: Profit, Passion & Meaning

Posted by

Day 181:  Profit, Passion & Meaning

Day 181.  Blake Mycoskie started something that mattered to him.  That something was TOMS.  His title in the company:  Chief Shoe Giver.  The story is remarkable.  I’m not going to lie, I’d never heard of him or his shoes until I stumbled on his book, Start Something That Matters.  I read it at the end of 2011 when I was formulating my new venture and beginning to put together my business plan.  In a nutshell, it’s ridiculously inspiring.  He created a for-profit business that has a sustainable and large philanthropic aspect to it—and it’s a big fat financial success.  He calls his business model, “One for One.”  You buy a pair of his shoes and a pair is given to a...

Read More