Saturday Spotlight

There’s a bit of a backstory with how I discovered this book. First, I’m currently in the process of making a short animated film so I’ve been attending various industry events to get advice from professionals in animation.

One of the events I attended last year was the World Animation Summit located in Los Angeles, CA. It was a wonderful event with lots of panel discussions from well know people in the industry and also some up and coming folks. I learned so much.

At the summit, I was able to meet Chris Appelhans who is the co-director of the hit Netflix film, Kpop Demon Hunters. He was so nice about giving me advice. I asked what books he read to help him in his writing journey and he recommended The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri. Chris mentioned that even though the book is meant for plays, the concepts of characters and their relationships can be used in animation storytelling as well. I look forward to reading it and using it to build my characters.

Unfortunately, I was not able to meet Maggie Kang, but I’m very grateful to have gotten this book recommendation from Chris Appelhans. Also, congrats to Chris and Maggie for their recent Oscar win and for the announcement of a Kpop Demon Hunters sequel!

Here’s the info on the Chris Appelhans book recommendation:

TITLE: The Art of Dramatic Writing

AUTHOR: Lejos Egri

PUBLISHER: Touchstone

RELEASE DATE: February 15, 1972

GENRE: Writing, Non-Fiction, Film, Theatre

ABOUT:

Learn the basic techniques every successful playwright knows! Amid the hundreds of “how-to” books out there, there have been very few which attempted to analyze the mysteries of play construction. Lajos Egri’s classic, The Art of Dramatic Writing, does just that, with instruction that can be applied equally well to a short story, novel, or screenplay.

Examining a play from the inside out, Egri starts with the heart of any drama: its characters. All good dramatic writing hinges on people and their relationships, which serve to move the story forward and give it life, as well as an understanding of human motives—why people act the way that they do. Using examples from everything from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Egri shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise—a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behavior—and to develop the dramatic conflict on the basis of that behavior.

Using Egri’s ABCs of premise, character, and conflict, The Art of Dramatic Writing is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in writing. (Description from Amazon)

Also, I decided that when I read this book, I’ll use a Kpop Demon Hunters art print as the book mark! I believe I got this at the Los Angeles Comic Con convention last year.

It’s always a great feeling when I receive a book in the mail. I get all excited knowing that, when I open it, I will get to immerse myself in another great story. While I have adopted the digital age of reading using my Kindle, I still love the feeling of holding a book in my hands, admiring the cover, and curling up on the couch with only the light of the table lamp beside me (if only I had a fireplace in my apartment).

Before I let you know what wonderful book I received, I’d first like to thank Grand Central Publishing for providing a copy of this book to me. I’m always grateful for their generosity and indulging me in my obsession with books.

TITLE: Two Across

AUTHOR: Jeff Bartsch

PUBLISHER: Grand Central Publishing

RELEASE DATE: July 19, 2016 (Trade Paperback Edition)

GENRE: Fiction, Romantic Comedy, Romance

PRE-ORDER LINKS: AMAZON | B&N | KOBO | INDIEBOUND

Highly awkward teenager Stanley Owens meets his match in beautiful, brainy Vera Baxter when they tie for first place in the annual National Spelling Bee-and the two form a bond that will change both of their lives.

Though their mothers have big plans for them-Stanley will become a senator, Vera a mathematics professor-neither wants to follow these pre-determined paths. So Stanley hatches a scheme to marry Vera in a sham wedding for the cash gifts, hoping they will enable him to pursue his one true love: crossword puzzle construction. In enlisting Vera to marry him, though, he neglects one variable: she’s secretly in love with him, which makes their counterfeit ceremony an exercise in misery for her.

Realizing the truth only after she’s moved away and cut him out of her life, Stanley tries to atone for his mistakes and win her back. But he’s unable to find her, until one day he comes across a puzzle whose clues make him think it could only have been created by Vera. Intrigued, he plays along, communicating back to her via his own gridded clues. But will they connect again before it’s all too late? (Description found on Amazon.com)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS

Jeff Bartsch grew up in Milwaukee, where at the age of 14 he delivered newspapers before dawn on the city’s coldest day on record, at 26° below zero. He pursued the primarily indoor study of creative writing at the University of Wisconsin, and held the Katey Lehman Fellowship in the MFA program at Penn State University. He is an award-winning copywriter who has worked on campaigns for many major brands. When not writing, reading, or drinking beer, he enjoys riding his fancy Italian road bike as fast as he possibly can without hurting anyone, himself included (one broken collarbone was more than enough). He lives in New York. (Bio found at www.jeff-bartsch.com/bio)

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