Tallfellow Press Blog

Book News & Updates

Hello folks!

Just a few updates. We're doing some internal re-structuring, which means the Author Quote of the Week and Publicity Tips are temporarily suspended. However, there's another Droodles Caption contest on the horizon...

In the meantime, here's where you can find more Tallfellow News on the web:

• Great Failures of the Extremely Successful review on Armchair Reviews
• Ten Minutes to the Pitch review on Armchair Reviews
• Write Screenplays That Sell review on Armchair Reviews
• Forever Friends review on Preschool Entertainment
• The Enormous Mister Schmupsle review on Preschool Entertainment
• It's Spring review on Preschool Entertainment

Lots of reviews trickling in, and more in the works!

Hal Ackerman Teaching at the Learning Annex

Hey all you L.A.-based screenwriters:

Hal Ackerman is teaching a class at the Learning Annex. Topic: The Art and Business of Screenwriting.

August 2 in L.A. Three hours for $50. A great deal!

Author Quote of the Week

New blog feature! We'll be quoting one of our authors every Tuesday. Tune in for words of wisdom from a variety of primary sources: books, interviews, articles, gossip blogs... If there's wisdom (or a stunning lack thereof) from a Tallfellow author, you're sure to find it here.

Now, on to the quote:

"For you who are paralyzed by perfectionism. Flush or get off the pot. The delay is not about the script, it's about your relationship to rejection. Accept that someone whose opinion you value will think this piece sucks. Then die or go on living and see what happens next."

-- Hal Ackerman, author of Write Screenplays That Sell, on the role of perfectionism in screenwriting. Excerpted from an interview on WritersBreak.com.

Hal on CoolStuff4Writers.com

Hey folks... Hal Ackerman just did an interview at Coolstuff4writers.com. Please drop by for his latest words of wisdom. Thanks!

WritersBreak Rocks

Hello folks, and welcome back to our resident blogger, Kristen, who went on vacation to bonnie Scotland and returned to town yesterday.

While she was gone, Hal Ackerman's interview on WritersBreak.com went live, and is also featured in the site's monthly newsletter. You can read it here.

Right about now, our author Barbara Cohen and editor Claudia Sloan will be heading off to the BEA in New York. If you've got a ticket, please take a look around for the Tallfellow booth!

Hal Ackerman Interview: Writersbreak.com

Hey folks! Hal Ackerman's wonderful interview at Writersbreak.com is up and running. This is a great, in-depth discussion of the craft of screenwriting, as well as habits that will help all writers succeed in the long haul. Please take a look!

And if you'd like to interview Hal about screenwriting, playwriting, or writing in general for your own site, please drop us a contact here, or an email at tallfellowpress@gmail.com.

I Wanna Be Sedated

Great news: our very own Hal Ackerman (Write Screenplays That Sell) has a poem about parenthood in the new anthology, I Wanna Be Sedated. The anthology includes humorous and serious pieces about what it's like to parent teenagers. Other contributors include Dave Barry, Barbara Kingsolver and Anna Quindlen. Way to go, Hal!

Tallfellow Authors at 2005 Festival of Books

Hey folks. If you're so inclined to check out the L.A. Times Festival of Books -- always a wonderful, informative, and inspiring way to spend a weekend -- please sign up to see our authors talk about movie and TV writing. For more information, go to the Writers Guild Foundation Events page.

The event runs the weekend of April 23.

Another "Write Screenplays" Review

Happy New Year!

And I'm pleased to start it off with yet another glowing review of Hal Ackerman's screenwriting book, "Write Screenplays That Sell."

Here's the full text and a link to the review on the original site:

When I was first asked to convert a novel into a screenplay, I believed that novelists had the market cornered on how-to books, but the abundance of screenplay manuals proved me wrong. Like books for the novelist, many are laden with feel-good fluff and advice that becomes outdated before New Year’s Day. Write Screenplays That Sell is an exception. With arresting prose, Ackerman gives the only lesson that is relevant. He breaks down that peculiar yet beloved sub-genre of storytelling known as the screenplay. His lessons are just as useful for the novice as they are for the journeyman who thinks he knows it all. Write Screen Plays That Sell doesn’t explain how to sell a script. That’s a different animal, but with Ackerman’s instructions and a pile of master scripts, the aspiring writer will be well on his way toward production.

-- Christopher Klim, editor Writers Notes Magazine, author Everything Burns

UGO/Screenwriters Voice Review

Here's a great review of Hal's book, Write Screenplays That Sell.