If you're not the predator, you're the prey!

There are a lot of people who dream of selling a script for big money and seeing their work turned into a movie starring Ryan Gosling, Angelina Jolie or Seth Rogen. There are even more people who dream of exploiting these people, trashing their dreams by lying to them and misdirecting them and charging a lot of money for their services. I often cross paths with these predators and they make me angry. I also often cross paths with their victims and that makes me sad. Because people who trample on other people's dreams and take their money under false pretenses are scum.  This morning I ran into a writer on Craig's List who was looking for someone to format his script properly.He didn't know what he needed was someone with access to Final Draft software.  He'd been told " If it was in the correct script format for submitting to the "Writer's Guild he'd have a script that was a movie."
I don't know who this "reputable script advisor" (the writer's words) was, but I'd like to shake her until her teeth rattle.  the writer also admitted that he wasn't a professional writer in the ad, which raises even more warning flags for me. I breifly worked for a service that provided notes for would-be screenwriters and while I saw several promising scripts, I never saw one that simply needed re-formatting to "be a movie."
It's an insanely competitive business.  Being told all you need to do is reformat your work and you're good to go would be like an agent telling me all I need to do is change the margins on my novel manuscript and I'm on my way to a seven figure sale at Simon & Schuster. JUST. NOT. GONNA. HAPPEN.

Recommended Viewing Luther

I'd heard good things about this Grit-Brit cop show from the BBC starring Idris Elba (The Wire, The Big C), so when it popped up on Netflix, I couldn't wait to check it out. It's terrific. Dark. Psychologically complex. Layered. Saskia Reeves plays his boss as tough, smart and savvy. Others warn her character against betting too heavily on Elba's character, a damaged cop named John Luther, but her attitude is that he's an investment. The show premiered in 2010 and is still in production, so people just discovering the show have new episodes to look forward to.

A dolphin funeral?

anyone who lives with a pet knows that animals experience emotions and moods. One of the most provocative books I've read on the subject was The Emotional Lives of Animals. I thought of that book when this video popped up on FB today. It shows what looks like a dolphin funeral procession with a dead dolphin calf on an adult, followed by other dolphins. It's pretty heart-breaking and a reminder that we're not the only animals that feel joy and sorrow.

Review: Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight

EVERY PARENT'S WORST NIGHTMARE comes true in the opening pages of Kimberly McCreight's debut novel Reconstructing Amelia. Stressed single mother Kate is called out of an important meeting at the law firm where she works as a litigator to deal with an emergency at the private school her teenage daughter Amelia attends. Kate's told that Amelia has been suspended, starting immediately, and that makes no sense because Amelia is not a trouble maker, not the kind of kid who gets suspended. Kate gets to Grace Hall expecting some answers, but all she gets is more questions because by the time she arrives, her daughter is dead, apparently as the result of a fall from the roof of an administration building.
 Later Kate willl be told that Amelia was caught plagiarizing an essay on a Virginia Woolf novel and that makes no sense either because Amelia was her mother's daughter, an academic overachiever who loved Woolf so much she posted quotes from her on her Facebook status updates. Kate only learns about the Facebook updates later, when she's desperately panning thorugh the electronic debris trail of her daughter's life in search of clues that might explain why Amelia is dead. The convenient answer is suicide and Kate is almost okay with that until she gets an anonymous text that says, "Amelia didn't jump." Those three words change Kate's perspective and as she focuses her grief and channels her anger into her investigation, she learns more than any parent ever should about the secrets Amelia was keeping.
This is a terrific debut novel that offers readers the same insight into the world of teenagers who aren't quite as grown up as they'd like to be, as Megan Abbott's The End of Everything. Amelia is a cmplex, complicated, layered character and as we, and Kate, learn more about her, we see that she was on a trajectory leading to tragedy long before anyone could have seen the warning signs. The answers to Kate's questions about how Amelia ended up on that roof and what really happened drive us through the narrative, but really, it's the young characters and the intensity of their inner lives that keep us engaged. The publisher (and some of the reviewers) have labeled this a "literary mystery," but that's really just a backhanded compliment saying that the writing is smart and self-assured. If you're in the mood for a character-driven mystery that's more interested in the WHY of the death than the WHO, Reconstructing Amelia is the book you want.

Chocolate buttermilk Cake Recipe

Photo by Nadia Jasmine

I know what you're thinking. Cake? How can you be thinking about cake on the Monday after Easter? Didn't you get enough chocolate in your Easter basket? And normally, making something sweet would be the last thing on my mind.  But there was leftover buttermilk in the refrigerator and I didn't feel like making biscuits. (I love the taste of buttermilk in baked goods but would rather chew glass than actually drink it.)

This is an incredibly easy cake to put together and doesn't take much time. You really don't even have to frost it, just serve it like a snack cake cut into squares. Or you can bake it into cupcakes.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine:

            2 cups flour

            1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

            1 ½ tsp. baking soda

            Scant tsp. salt

In another bowl, cream together:

            1 ¾ cups granulated sugar

            1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened

When the sugar/butter mixture is fluffy, beat in

            3 large eggs, one at a time

Add:

            2 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix the cocoa/flour mixture with the sugar/butter/egg mixture, alternating with:

            1 ½ cups buttermilk

Begin and end with the flour mixture.  Don’t overbeat.

Pour into a 13 x 9 brownie pan that’s been treated with non-stick cooking spray.  You can bake this cake in round layers but I like to make it in a 13 x 9 rectangular pan for easy snacking.

 Bake for 40 minutes or until a knife or toothpick comes out clean.

Cool the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Invert the cake to cool it completely.  (Or, you can just leave it in the pan so you don’t have to scrounge up a rectangular plate to put the naked cake on.)

Frost when the cake is cool, if you want to.

Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting

½ stick unsalted butter

3 Tbsp. buttermilk

3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ½ cups confectioner’s sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine the butter, buttermilk and cocoa powder in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

Remove from heat and add the confectioner’s sugar.  If it’s too stiff, you can add a little bit of sweet milk.

Beat until smooth.  Add the vanilla. Spread on the cake.

Enjoy!

Blogs to Watch Out For: The Diabetic Foodie

If you're diabetic or just want to eat great food that's good for you, check out Diabetic Foodie, where the recipes include gluten-free and heart healthy and completely tasty-sounding dishes.

Pacific Rose Apples

When I moved to Los Angeles, I discovered all kinds of really delicious fruit I'd never encountered before, fabulous berries, wonderful melons, magnificent stone fruit (dragon heart plums!!!). And best of all, I found that you could more than the three default types of apples (Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith) in any grocery store. I come from a family that knows apples and my uncle (who lent his name to Jim's Apples) had nothing but disdain for those varieties. I think he would like the Pacific Rose Apple, a sweet and crisp variety that has just shown up in California supermarkets. It's another one of those lovely red and gold (or red and green in some cases) apple and it fills the spot previously held by the Envy Apple, which is now out of season. Pacific Rose apples are cheaper than Envy apples, which is another selling point for them. (Although once you've had one, you won't need to be sold.) For more information on Pacific Rose apples, go here.