Showing posts with label Kenneth Atchity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kenneth Atchity. Show all posts
Story Merchant E-Book Deals: FREE May 6 - May 10 Seven Ways to Die by William Diehl with Kenneth Atchity
Manhattan Murders... by the book! There are seven basic ways to die. In 1969 Dr. John C. Cavanaugh catalogued them all in his Primer of Forensic Pathology-Case Studies for the Novice M.E. and someone is using it as a handbook to kill!
From the New York Times bestselling author of PRIMAL FEAR and SHARKY'S MACHINE -- From the Nez Perce Indian reservation in Idaho to New York's Central Park is a straight line right through Bill Diehl's last and most intriguing lead character, Micah Cody.
Kenneth Atchity's Suspense Thriller The Messiah Matrix FREE October 16 - October 20!
To what lengths would the Vatican go to suppress the secret origins of its power?
A renowned priest is killed in Rome. A Roman coin is recovered from a wreck off the coast of ancient Judea.
It’s up to a young American Jesuit priest and a vivacious, brilliant, female archaeologist to connect these seemingly disparate events and unravel the greatest mystery of all.
Books and Pals Gives Ken Atchity's My Obit: Daddy Holding Me Five Stars!
Review: My Obit: Daddy Holding Me
Genre: Memoir/Autobiography
Description:
The author describes his book this way.
“At the prompting of a marketing friend, I was advised to title this book, My Intensely Madcap, Lebanese/Cajun, Jesuit-Schizoid, Terminally Narcissistic, Food-Focused, East Coast/West Coast, Georgetown/Yale, Career-Changing, Cross-Dressing, Runaway Catholic Italophile, Paradoxically Dramatic, Linguistically Neurotic, Hollywood Academic, ADD-Overcompensating, Niche-Abhorring, Jocoserious Obit. But when my designer pointed out that title wouldn’t fit on the spine, much less on any public display list, I changed my mind. Again! The story of my life.
Which this is at least the first volume of. I hope it makes you laugh, spares you some of my grief, and leads you to insist on telling your story to anyone who will listen.”
Author:
“Dr. Ken Atchity loves being a writer, producer, teacher, career coach, and literary manager, responsible for launching hundreds of books and films. His life's passion is finding great stories and storytellers and turning them into bestselling authors and screenwriters--and making films which send their stories around the world.
His books include, most recently, novels The Messiah Matrix and Seven Ways to Die (with William Diehl) and nonfiction books for writers at every stage of their career. Based on his teaching, managing, and writing experience, he's successfully built bestselling careers for novelists, nonfiction writers, and screenwriters from the ground up.
Atchity has also produced 30 films, including Hysteria (Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy), The Expatriate (Aaron Eckhart), The Lost Valentine (Betty White), Gospel Hill (Danny Glover), Joe Somebody (Tim Allen), Life or Something Like It (Angelina Jolie), The Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes, Shadow of Obsession (Veronica Hammel), The Madam's Family (Ellen Burstyn).”
Appraisal:
Memoirs are an interesting beast. Some I’ve read have been people who I have a lot in common with, growing up in the same environment geographically and culturally, where I find myself comparing our respective life experiences and how we viewed them, sometimes adjusting how I view some things in subtle ways or feeling validated that the author and I are in agreement. Other times the memoirist and I have nothing obvious in common, yet I realize in contrasting our different lives that there are still commonalities with everyone that are part of the generic human experience. These can also help me understand people not like me, which has obvious benefits.
This memoir, billed as volume 1 of Kenneth Atchity’s autobiography, fell somewhere in the middle. I’ve written more than a few book reviews in my time, but never for the big publications that Atchity has. I’ve made a few career or life decisions that were outside the norm, shaking things up with a purpose, which Atchity does. But mostly his experiences were much different from mine, growing up in a much different environment, in a different time, with a much different relationship with his family from what I’ve experienced. He’s also risen to the top of multiple fields, overcoming lots of challenges on the way, learning as he goes, making mistakes, and learning still more from them. In the process of learning about his life, I think I learned a bit more about myself, and maybe picked up a few ideas to help guide me in the future based on the lessons he’s learned from life thus far.
Buy now from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
So adult language.
Format/Typo Issues:
No significant issues.
Rating: ***** Five Stars
Reviewed by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 100-105,000 words
Story Merchant Books: Author Interview – Kenneth Atchity on is latest Release – My Obit, Daddy Holding Me
- My Obit is an autobiography that explores the scenarios on family dynamics. Kenneth, what made you decide to write this autobiography at this stage of your life?
It occurred to me a few years ago that I might just end up dead. As a writer I hated the prospect that someone else might write my obit, and decided it was my job to do it myself!
- What made you decide on throwing these into the mix?
The story of me is rich and funny and full of surprising twists and turns. One of the richest parts of life for me has been the food I loved along the way so I decided I needed to share that as well—plus my son insisted (he is an excellent cook!).
- Which recipe is your favourite?
From a sentimental viewpoint, it’s the recipe for my Lebanese grandmother’s beans, “Tata’s beans.” For sheer culinary delight, it’d be the recipe for kibbeh nayah, tartare mixed with wheat.
- Who was the biggest influence in your life?
Aside from my father and mother, I’d have to say it was the Jesuits, starting with Edmund Ziegelmeyer who stopped by our house every day beginning when I was 10 to teach me Latin and to inspire me to learn many languages.
- If you could go back, what is the one thing that you would change in life?
I would have liked a role in The Godfather!
- Would you say that all families are dysfunctional in a way?
Absolutely! Ambrose Bierce (Devil’s Dictionary) defined a family as, “a random group of characters who one would otherwise encounter only in a prison break or a train wreck.” So, to idealize the situation, it’s up to us to go out there and build a family in our own image and likeness—and that becomes your true family (though it may include a couple from the bloodline).
- Would you say this book is a journey for yourself on self-reflection?
Yes indeed, in every way. That’s why it took so long to write it because it’s all about getting my story straight and recognizing that the happiest life is the one whose self-narration is the strongest and most heroic.
- If you could go back, what is one thing you would have liked to have more time to pursue?
For sure, I would have liked to study music, play the piano, and learned to dance properly! I’m proud that I’ve composed a half dozen songs (lyrics) some of which appear in my movies and could have led a happy life just writing songs.
- For many people, family dynamics is a major part of their day-to-day life, society’s expectations etc. In a nutshell, it’s a serious issue. What made you decide to portray it in a comedic, philosophical sense?
It’s only serious if you’re not an optimist with a sense of humor.
- How long have you been working on this book? Is it something you just sat down and decided to write or is it something compiled over time?
I started it fifteen years ago and have been fiddling with it ever since. It was stop-and-go because I had constantly to wrestle with point of view—from what perspective to tell my story? And, of course, what to include, what not. At one point the draft was 900 pages before I decided it MUST be cut into several books. I’m hoping to publish Vol. 2 by the end of 2022.
- What do you hope readers gain from reading this book?
I hope they enjoy it, learn something, and laugh a lot. And I hope they learn to take charge of their own stories and realize that power is life’s greatest gift. If you want a happy ending, you have to shape it.
- What is next for Kenneth?
My Obit: Daddy Holding Me by Kenneth Atchity
"I’ve lived a lifetime of literary adventures by refusing to be relegated to a niche. In My Obit: Daddy Holding Me, my storytelling passion and family and professional anecdotes provide humor and insight into my hugely self-determined life."
~ Ken Atchity
Advanced Praise for My Obit: Daddy Holding Me:
“Powerful. Honest. Heartwarming. A courageous examination of the secret nooks in the soul that expose to the self who we truly are… and why. Atchity’s memoir is riveting, reflective, and revealing. A MUST read!” – Tracy Price-Thompson, bestselling novelist
“My Obit: Daddy Holding Me by Kenneth Atchity is a compelling autobiography worthy of the analogy of Sisyphus discovering the burdens and pleasures of each push of the rock up the hill of his extraordinary life.” – Norman Stephens, producer, former head of Warner Brothers television.
Being Bazan Spotlight Series: 'The Ally'
Dr. Nicolas Bazan during the planning of the film "Of Mind and Music" with Dr. Ken Atchity who guided the publication of Dr. Bazan's first two novels.
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From Being Bazan Spotlight Series: 'The Ally'
Featuring 'Women of Excellence in Science'
https://awarenow.us/bazan/the-ally
Spotlight featuring "Women on Excellence in Science" a group of selected woman scientists trained by Dr. Bazan.
Story Merchant Books: Publisher's Weekly Booklife Review of Kenneth Atchity's My Obit: Daddy Holding Me
Filled with humorous anecdotes, pictures, and a unique perspective from an immigrant's child growing up in the south, this memoir offers the reader a dive into childhood trauma, and learning to rethink those experiences. Atchity is a seasoned writer and storyteller, peppering his work with homages to the literary greats, such as Homer. The reader will enjoy this novel, and likely come away from it with helpful knowledge to help them traverse through their own life journey.
Atchity's prose reads like an erudite grandpa telling a story to some curious grandkids. His flowing, informal language mixed with elegant phrasing entices the reader to continue along on his life journey; he spices up the writing with a perfect amount of pictures, poetry, and quotes to keep the reader interested.
Although memoirs are not uncommon, Atchity has lived an uncommon enough life to make this memoir interesting for the reader. With his unique heritage and complicated parental relationships, his work will speak to a wide range of readers, and offer curious insights.
Being a memoir, this work is mostly focused on Atchity and his experiences. The rest of the characters present more as players in a game that are there to support the story that is the author's life, rather than living their own lives separate from him. However, he presents these characters honestly according to his own perspectives, which provide insight into his development at the various stages of his life.
Atchity's prose reads like an erudite grandpa telling a story to some curious grandkids. His flowing, informal language mixed with elegant phrasing entices the reader to continue along on his life journey; he spices up the writing with a perfect amount of pictures, poetry, and quotes to keep the reader interested.
Although memoirs are not uncommon, Atchity has lived an uncommon enough life to make this memoir interesting for the reader. With his unique heritage and complicated parental relationships, his work will speak to a wide range of readers, and offer curious insights.
Being a memoir, this work is mostly focused on Atchity and his experiences. The rest of the characters present more as players in a game that are there to support the story that is the author's life, rather than living their own lives separate from him. However, he presents these characters honestly according to his own perspectives, which provide insight into his development at the various stages of his life.
Ken Atchity Quote...
“If you have a dream, you have a responsibility to yourself and to us to make it come true. That’s the most important thing in your life. Don’t let anything stand in its way.”
― The Messiah Matrix
― The Messiah Matrix
Voyage LA Interviews Ken Atchity
Meet Ken Atchity
All my life I’ve been focused on stories–writing and editing them,; publishing them; analyzing them as a professor of comparative literature and Fulbright professor at the University of Bologna; reviewing them for The Los Angeles Times Book Review; developing them; representing them; and producing them.
Long ago an ambassador from a middle eastern country told me: “You’re like your Phoenician ancestors–you’re a story merchant,” and the more I thought about that the more I liked it. Especially because the Phoenicians, the great merchants of antiquity, invented the alphabet to make story exchange–from Indian to Greece, Egypt to Rome, China to Italy–easier.
I’ve written and published more than 20 books of my own, both fictions, like The Messiah Matrix, and nonfiction, like A Writer’s Time–which the New York Times called “the best book on writing.”
As a literary manager producer, I’ve made hundreds of deals for my clients for film and television, and produced over 30 films. We were nominated for an Emmy for The Kennedy Detail and saw The Meg, a book/film we developed, sell nearly $600 million in the global market. I’ve always believed that the world we humans inhabit “is made not of atoms but of stories.”
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
You begin to see it as a smooth road, the longer you endure the journey. What seemed like bumps at the time, looking back are merely the natural patterns, the ups and downs of the most exciting and least secure career in the story marketplace. The struggles were about clarifying and securing rights, dealing with people whose egos have suddenly blossomed, herding cats to get a project into production or a book into press, and, always, finding a way to stay “at the baccarat table” until the payoff comes. But if you have lots of ideas, there’s no downtime that isn’t filled with making them happen one way or the other.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We set up movies and television series on one coast, books on the other and through our own imprint, but my favorite activity is the one we’re known best at: developing intellectual properties for the widest possible markets. What sets us apart is that we’ve done it all, for over thirty years–we’re even dealing with theater and opera. We specialize in recognizing great stories.
What were you like growing up?
Born in Louisiana Cajun country and growing up in Kansas City, I was a serious student, especially of languages–Latin, Greek, French, Spanish and by the time I got my PhD from Yale Italian, German and recently just published a book on “domestic Japanese.” I love language because they unlock stories, so learned Greek to read Homer, Spanish to read Don Quixote, Italian to read Dante, etc.
Raised in a family that loved jokes, I soon learned to recognize that jokes, too, were stories and observed who knew how to tell them, who didn’t. I also noticed that EVERYTHING we do seems to be about storytelling, whether it’s serving on a jury and judging which of the opposing attorneys I believe; buying a car from a salesman; listening for a political candidate’s message; or deciding, on a first meeting, whether I “like her story” or not. I was, from early days, intent. One day in graduate school, I was walking across Harvard Square when a woman crossed my path and said, “Smile, sir!”
Getting Your Story Straight: One Liner - High Concept
Professional coaching tips to help you figure out point of view, structure, and master all the elements of story.
Learn more at http://www.thewriterslifeline.com/
Getting Your Story Straight: Sharpening Your Story
Professional coaching tips to help you figure out point of view, structure, and master all the elements of story.
Learn more at The Writer's Lifeline
Getting Your Story Straight: Multiple POV
Professional coaching tips to help you figure out point of view, structure, and master all the elements of story.
Learn more @ thewriterslifeline.com
Follow Ken's series on IGTV @storymerchant
Facebook @thestorymerchant
Getting Your Story Straight: Plot
Professional coaching tips to help you figure out point of view, structure, and master all the elements of story. Learn more: http://www.thewriterslifeline.com
‘You Never Had it – An Evening With Charles Bukowski’: New Trailer & Locations For Kino Lorber & Slamdance Documentary
New trailer for documentary You Never Had It – An Evening With Charles Bukowski, which will be released in North America on Kino Lorber’s Kino Marquee revenue share platform on August 7 to mark the centennial of Bukowski’s birth.
The distributor, which is releasing the film in collaboration with festival Slamdance, is lining up a virtual Q&A to accompany the virtual screening with special guests to be confirmed. Matteo Borgardt directed the documentary, which features lost footage of the cult writer in conversation with Italian journalist Silvia Bizio in 1981. During the evening, the two and others, including Bukowski’s soon-to-be wife Linda Lee Beighle, smoke cigarettes, drink wine and engage in intimate conversations about sex, literature, childhood and humanity.
Bizio found the video of the interview in her garage in 2014, some 20 years after Bukowski’s death. The interview was shot on U-matic videotapes, which have been digitised and edited with new Super8 footage of Downtown Los Angeles as a backdrop to Bukowski reading poetry.
U.S. markets set to virtually ‘launch’ the film next month include New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Portland, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Fort Worth, Albuquerque, Ann Arbor, Berkeley, Cleveland and Columbus. The feature originally debuted at Venice in 2016 and played at Slamdance in 2017 but didn’t have a broader release.
Read more
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| Kenneth Atchity with Charles Bukowski and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, co-founder of City Lights Bookstore |
The distributor, which is releasing the film in collaboration with festival Slamdance, is lining up a virtual Q&A to accompany the virtual screening with special guests to be confirmed. Matteo Borgardt directed the documentary, which features lost footage of the cult writer in conversation with Italian journalist Silvia Bizio in 1981. During the evening, the two and others, including Bukowski’s soon-to-be wife Linda Lee Beighle, smoke cigarettes, drink wine and engage in intimate conversations about sex, literature, childhood and humanity.
Bizio found the video of the interview in her garage in 2014, some 20 years after Bukowski’s death. The interview was shot on U-matic videotapes, which have been digitised and edited with new Super8 footage of Downtown Los Angeles as a backdrop to Bukowski reading poetry.
U.S. markets set to virtually ‘launch’ the film next month include New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Portland, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Fort Worth, Albuquerque, Ann Arbor, Berkeley, Cleveland and Columbus. The feature originally debuted at Venice in 2016 and played at Slamdance in 2017 but didn’t have a broader release.
Read more
CHANGING SPIRITS WITH DREAMS: Lu Xun's Wild Grass by Carolyn T. Brown
One day Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly fluttering about, doing as he pleased. He was not aware of being Chuang Chou. Suddenly he awoke with a start and he was Chuang Chou again. But he could not tell whether he had dreamed that he was a butterfly, or whether he was a butterfly dreaming that he was Chuang Chou.
The dream of the ancient Taoist philosopher Chuang Chou (369-286) is the most famous of a long, rich tradition of dream narratives in Chinese literature. Chuang Chou's dream poses a problem of human freedom: how to transcend the limits of any duality whose first term, in this case dreaming, logically generates its opposite, waking.
![Dreamworks 5:2: 1986-1987 (Dreamworks Magazine Book 5) by [Atchity, Kenneth]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51De2Ry9w%2BL.jpg)
Excerpt from Dreamworks 5:2: 1986-1987 (Dreamworks Magazine)
Kenneth Atchity Available on Amazon
ANNOUNCING THE BARD AWARD WINNERS AT THE FIFTH ANNUAL DUBLIN WRITERS’ CONFERENCE JUNE 21-23, 2019
Dublin, Ireland - Emmy Award-winning script-writer Michael Hirst, the script writer for all 69 episodes of the Vikings TV series will be awarded the Bard Award for Story Excellence at the Dublin Writers' Conference this June.
Michael is best known for his films Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), as well as the Emmy Award-winning television series The Tudors and Vikings.
Dr. Ken Atchity, author, literary manager, publisher and producer will be awarded the Bard Award for Story Management at the Dublin Writers' Conference.
Ken is best known for The Meg, the blockbuster movie of Summer 2018, The Kennedy Detail (Emmy nominated), and his novel The Messiah Matrix.
The Conference was established in 2015 by successful Irish thriller author Laurence O'Bryan, as an event dedicated to helping writers.
The Conference will feature five separate session streams over three days and 29 speakers.
There will be break-out sessions including the popular “Pitch a Producer” feature in which participants get a chance to make a brief oral presentation of their work to a panel of producers.
The Saturday evening will feature the Annual Conference Dinner and Awards presentation.
The impressive list of speakers this year also includes New York PR guru Dee Rivera, and million selling Irish author Patricia Gibney, the latest best-selling Irish publishing phenomenon.
Full details of the conference are to be found at:
To contact the organisers email: admin@booksgosocial.com
Or call: +353 86 8369254
BooksGoSocial
5 Dame Lane, Dublin 2, Ireland
Contact: Laurence O'Bryan
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