Today I am delighted to have author Howard Kaplan on the show!

Howard is a native of Los Angeles, but he has lived in Israel and traveled to numerous places across the world, including Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. He also has had some incredible adventures in the former Soviet Union which, along with his time in Syria, inspired his bestselling thriller The Damascus Cover.

Published forty years ago to rave reviews, The Damascus Cover is finally coming to the big screen. The movie debuted in September 2017 at the Boston Film Festival, and is scheduled for release everywhere this spring.

Listen in as we talk about this bestseller, the art of film, and how to take a story from page to screen.

In this episode Howard and I discuss:

• The importance of endings, and how to do them right.
• How to use film to elevate your story.
• Kill your darlings, knowing what to cut on the page vs. the screen.
• When your characters come to life, what to expect when working with actors.
• Setting the right tone in scene one for a book and a movie.

Plus, Howard’s #1 tip for writers.

About Howard Kaplan

Howard Kaplan, a native of Los Angeles, has lived in Israel and traveled extensively through Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.

At the age of 21, he was sent on a mission into the Soviet Union to smuggle a dissident’s manuscript on microfilm to London. His first trip was a success. On his second trip, he transferred a manuscript to the Dutch Ambassador inside his Moscow embassy. A week later, he was arrested in Khartiv in the Ukraine and interrogated for two days there and and two days in Moscow, before being expelled from the USSR. The KGB had picked him up for meeting dissidents and did not know about the manuscript transfers.

Howard holds a BA in Middle East History from UC Berkeley and an MA in the Philosophy of Education from UCLA. He is the author of four novels. The feature film adaptation of The Damascus Cover, which is Book 1 in his Jerusalem Spy Series, will be released in theaters worldwide in spring 2018.

The Damascus Cover

In a last ditch effort to revive his career, washed out agent Ari Ben-Sion accepts a mission he never would have 30 years ago, to smuggle a group of Jewish children out of the Damascus ghetto. Or so he thinks.

In Damascus, a beautiful American photographer, Kim, seems to be falling in love with Ari, but she is asking too many questions. His communication equipment disappears. His contact never shows up. The operation is only hours away and everything seems awry.Desperate to succeed, Ari might risk everything. Even his life.

Forty years ago, Howard Kaplan’s bestselling thriller, The Damascus Cover, debuted to rave reviews. On September 23, 2017, the film adaptation premiered at the Boston Film Festival as a major motion picture. An action-packed thriller, this film features an all-star cast, including Jonathan Rhys Meyers (The Tudors, Bend it Like Beckham), Olivia Thirlby (Just Before I Go, Between Us) and in one of his last performances, the late, great Sir John Hurt (The Elephant Man, television’s I Claudius).

After ten years of annually optioning the movie rights with director Daniel Berk, the film is finally seeing the light of day, and the story has never been timelier. “My books are generally about reconciliation between Israelis and Arabs/Palestinians,” Kaplan says, “and this film is very much a hard-hitting representation of the excesses of both sides.”

If you decide to check out the book before you see the movie or if you want to check out the writing book Howard mentioning in the interview, we hope you’ll do so via these Amazon affiliate links — The Damascus Cover and Writing to Sell —  where if you choose to purchase via the links DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 182

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 182: Adapting a Book to the Screen — Interview with Howard Kaplan appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I’m thrilled to have Herb Freed on the show. Herb started his adult life as an ordained rabbi and became the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Lake Mahopac, New York, at the same time producing and directing three shows at the Maidman Playhouse in New York City. Eventually, he resigned his pulpit to become a movie director.

Today we’ll be speaking about his book Bashert, which is out now.

In this episode, Herb and I discuss:

• Considerations for writing a book based on true events. Which elements do you change? Which things do you keep the same?
• The decision to tell this story as a novel instead of a memoir, even though it is based on true events.
• The difference between telling the factual truth versus the conceptual Truth.
• Why you should write about things you’re passionate about and tell the story you can’t not tell.
• How screenwriting can shape a novel writer’s process and which skills transfer between the two genres.

Plus, his #1 tip for writers.

About the Author

Herb Freed started his adult life as an ordained rabbi and became the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Lake Mahopac, New York while producing and directing three shows at the Maidman Playhouse in New York City. Eventually, he resigned his pulpit to become a movie director. He has directed and produced 15 feature films most of which have had psychological, spiritual and/or social themes in spite of their commercial categories. He is best known for Graduation Day, a horror film, and Tomboy, a teenage romp, as well as the psychological drama Haunts, and Child 2 Man, a story of survival during the Watts riots. You can find out more about Herb Freed at herbfreed.com

Bashert

Would you recognize your soul’s complement in another? Beyond the bliss of actually finding your soul mate, there is a belief that the universe hinges on predetermined people finding their other half, their bashert, to maintain cosmic balance. In Bashert (Bellrock Press; February 14, 2017) author, screenwriter, director and former rabbi Herb Freed immerses us in the heady intoxication and thunderous losses of what it really means to be bashert.

Dan Sobol and Marion Gladstone meet by chance at a screenwriter’s event in Los Angeles. He’s a rabbi turned director known for his cinematic television commercials; she’s a writer and film editor who is recovering from a tabloid-headline screaming Hollywood divorce. From the moment Marion hears Dan’s voice, she knows—and so does he. It’s bashert.

But when did the course of true love ever run smooth? Dan and Marion are soon partners in business as well as life, traveling the world to create movies. He directs, she writes and edits, and life becomes an amazing adventure—until Cancun. There, among the ruins of the Mayan civilization, Marion has an eerie premonition that has the potential to change everything.

Drawing upon his own personal experience, Freed spins a tale unflinching in its examination of life, but weaving along the edge of magical realism. From the bright lights of Hollywood to Mexico, Israel, Paris and the dreamy exhilaration of Jamaica, Bashert is a love story about transcending life, loss and the boundaries we mistakenly place on our lives and our hearts.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase DIY MFA makes a small commission at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 144

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If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 144: Telling a True Story — Interview with Herb Freed appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I’m delighted to welcome back the founder and principal of Book Architecture, Stuart Horwitz, and his collaborator Dave Stebenne. You can listen to my previous interview with Stuart here.

Stuart has spent over fifteen years helping writers become authors and his clients have reached wow-worthy levels of success. You can read the details in his bio below. More personally, though, Stuart is also a trusted colleague of mine and a good friend. When we first met over drinks at a Writer’s Digest Conference back in 2013, I knew right away that I had met a fellow writer and writing teacher whose perspective both aligns with and complemented my own.

Stuart’s books are among my top go-to resources, both ones that I recommend to my students and that I use for my own writing. The newest installment of the Book Architecture trilogy–Finish Your Book in Three Drafts: How to Write a Book, Revise a Book, and Complete a Book While You Still Love It–just might be my favorite one yet.

For this book, he teamed up with Dave Stebenne who created the stop-motion shorts to accompany the Book Architecture 5-year tour to create a cross between a non-fiction how-to guide and graphic novel. The result is nothing short of awesome.

In this episode Stuart, Dave, and I discuss:

• How the idea for this book came about
• The importance of both spontaneity and planning in writing
• Form, function, and continuity in the development of an idea
• Creating something that has a life beyond you

Plus, Stuart’s and Dave’s #1 tips for writers.

About Stuart Horwitz

Stuart has spent over fifteen years helping writers become authors. His clients have signed with top literary agencies, sealed deals with coveted publishing houses, or forged a successful path as indie authors. Book Architecture’s clients have reached the New York Times best-seller list in both fiction and nonfiction, and have appeared on Oprah!, The Today Show, The Tonight Show, and in the most prestigious journals in their respective fields.

Stuart’s approach is a synthesis of academic theories of narrative structure and his hands-on experience as an independent editor, book coach and ghostwriter. He has written three highly acclaimed books which together comprise the Book Architecture trilogy (affiliate links):

• Blueprint Your Bestseller: Organize and Revise any Manuscript with the Book Architecture Method
• Book Architecture: How to Plot and Outline Without Using a Formula
• Finish Your Book in Three Drafts: How to Write a Book, Revise a Book, and Complete a Book While You Still Love It

Stuart is an award-winning essayist and poet, who has toured the Book Architecture Method through over seventy venues in North America and taught writing at Grub Street of Boston and Brown University. He holds two master’s degrees—one in Literary Aesthetics from NYU, which helps him a lot with this work—and one in East Asian Studies from Harvard with a concentration in Medieval Japanese Buddhism, which helps him get out of bed in the morning. To learn more about Stuart and his work, visit his website, or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

About Dave Stebenne

Dave is a 23-year veteran of the creative business, as an art director, editor and animator. Dave is responsible for the stop-motion shorts featuring action figures that are hands-down the best part of the Book Architecture 5-year tour. Having worked in broadcast media, the toy industry, advertising, publishing, and the corporate design world, he has a wide base of expertise to draw from in his work with Chick ’n Coop Pictures. He and his wife, the photographer Kristin Stebenne, live in Lincoln, RI with their two incredibly cool, sweet and adorable kids. Dave is responsible for the stop-motion shorts featuring action figures that are hands-down the best part of the Book Architecture 5-year tour.

Link to Episode 102

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome.

The post Episode 102: Finish Your Book in Three Drafts – Interview with Stuart Horwitz and Dave Stebenne appeared first on DIY MFA.