Peachynat and I are goin' to see Silent Hill tonite. I'll give ya'll a review tomorrow. Let me know if any of ya'll go see it ,what ya'll thought.

Crew call isn't until 4pm so I spend the day writing. I break to go out and buy a new digital camera since my old Fuji had finally crapped out. All of the photos from yesterday are gone -- or never were. I find a Sony Cyber-shot on sale and snag it. The guy tries to sell me something with more features but if I use a camera four times a year it's a lot.

I'm supposed to ride over with Dario at 2:45. I get there at 2:35 and they've already left. Swell. I call the production office and they say I can ride over with Met Loaf. So I do. I want to talk about music but he wants to talk about how the film differs from my story. I give him my fiction imposing symmetry on the chaos of reality theory and why leaving out the homeless woman breaks that symmetry. He says he likes my ending better, but he may simply be polite.

We stop at a convenience store because he likes to drink Diet Coke with ice -- with ice -- and they don't have ice on location. We also have to find a florist so he can buy flowers for a woman he fears he inadvertently insulted yesterday. It's like driving around with an eccentric but lovable uncle.

They drop off Meat at makeup and me at the farm house location. Same as yesterday, they're serving breakfast. I grab some bacon and eggs and head up to the house. Dario is effusively apologetic when I tell him about being left high and dry -- he didn't know I was coming. I reshoot all the photos I took yesterday -- the ruins, the shack, etc., then go to the basement set where all of the day's interiors will be shot.

This is the scene where Larry, the trapper's son, performs a facectomy on himself. Covered with blood after bludgeoning his father to a pulp, he enters, opens a bear trap, and slams his face into it. The bludgeoning is in my story, but the trap is not. It's an AA (Argento addition) -- but I kind of wish I'd thought of it.

The prop is a real bear trap that's had its springs welded so they can't snap the jaws. Opening the trap takes the most takes because the actor's having a tough time making it look like he's struggling against the springs.

With retakes, lighting changes and different setups for master shots and close ups, it takes almost 4 hours to film a sequence that will run 40 seconds tops on the screen. I look around. Everyone's smiling. They're delighted with the progress we're making.

Meat arrives for the scene where Jake discovers Larry's body with it's ruined face (a dummy). He's been on the road doing driving shots for a later sequence. Now, with the interiors, the master shot and closeups are done in half an hour. He's outta there.

So am I. I say my good-byes and get an Italian left-right double embrace from Dario. I promise to send him the first-edition chapbook of "Pelts." (Hope I have an extra.)

On the way out I meet John Saxon who's playing Pa. No time for more than an introduction and moving on. He'll be shooting scenes with Larry down by the ruins. I'd love to watch but frankly I'm bored.

I drive back to the hotel with Meat. We commiserate about conglomeratization -- he about music, I about publishing. I get him talking about touring for his new album coming in the fall and his early experiences as an actor -- Rocky Horror in particular.

I realize how boring acting can be. They picked us up at 3:30 and now they drop us off at 9:30. They've needed him for maybe 90 minutes of those six hours. No wonder some actors get into drugs.

Meat wants to see the original "Pelts" story so I get his email address and promise to send it to him ASAP. He's too tired for a trip to the bar and I don't like to drink alone, so we shake hands and head to our respective rooms.

My Vancouver trip is, for all intents and purposes, over. All that's left is the plane ride home tomorrow morning.

Am I glad I flew 5-6000 miles roundtrip for this? Yeah. Very. I met some great people and saw pieces of my story come to life.

Also, it's a wake-up call. Acting has this aura of glamour, but there's nothing glamorous about the nuts and bolts of shooting a movie. It's repetitious and full of empty down time as you wait for your call. What's fascinating to me is the technical end -- the Director of Photography giving orders for the lighting, all these technicians bustling around, knowing exactly what's got to be done. And in short time a dusty old basement becomes an eerie, creepy chamber of horrors.

See you later.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/2006/01/barebacktopgun.html

Looking forward to the latest collection, when can we expect it to be published?

I’ve mentioned elsewhere that Showtime’s Masters of Horror (a series of one-hour horror films directed by “masters” such as John Carpenter, Stuart Gordon, John Landis and others) is adapting my short story “Pelts” for its second season. The notorious / infamous and enormously talented Dario Argento (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000783/) has chosen to direct it.

Since MoH films all of its features in Vancouver, that’s where I went. I couldn’t spare the time for the entire two-week shoot, but I could manage a couple-three days.

A few words about the adaptation: They’ve kept the basics but altered the ending and added lots of sex. My story held the promise of sex – it fueled one character’s actions – but it never happened. (Ah, frustration.) In fact, not one of the people who schemed to gain from the pelts got what they wanted. That was one of the points of the story.

Am I upset? No. Am I about to throw a hissy fit for you? No. Sure, I’d have preferred them to follow my nobody-got-what-they-wanted arc, and preserve the story’s symmetry, but when you sell film rights, the operative word is “sell” – which means you no longer own them. They belong to someone else. You hope they’ll treat your story with respect, but there’s no guarantee. I learned that the hard way with Michael Mann’s adaptation of The Keep (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085780/). But in that case my book was raped. Here, “Pelts” has simply been tarted up without corrupting its essence.

If you’re not JK Rowling, with every filmmaker in the world bidding to adapt Harry Potter, thus allowing you to demand cast and script approval, you either take your chances or refuse to sell any rights at all.

So, I arrove in Vancouver late Tuesday night, too late to visit the strip-club shoot. (NB: There’s no strip club in my story, but that shoot would have been, um, interesting.)

Wednesday is a night exterior shoot with crew call at 3pm. Mick Garris (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0308376/) – the creator and guiding light of the series – calls in the morning and invites me to go to the location along with him and director Dario Argento. We all gather in the lobby at 1:30. I've met Mick before. He’s a screenwriter, director, producer, novelist, and a gracious, unpretentious, genuine man – about as unHollywood as you can imagine.

He introduces me to the maestro and his translator, Francesca. Dario Argento turns out to be a slight man, about five-eight, with a quick smile and an amiable manner. His heavily accented English is serviceable and Francesca helps him when he gets stuck on a word.

The location for the Jamesons' farm is a historic site about 40km outside of Vancouver. We all make small talk and stroke each other for a while, then Dario and Francesca put their heads together over the day’s call sheet while Mick and I catch up.

We turn off a country road onto a dirt drive lined with equipment trailers and cranes and generators and the all-important catering truck. Even though it’s after 2pm, they're serving breakfast. I have some peppers and eggs and bacon while the other three grab fresh-made grilled-cheese sandwiches.

Two hundred yards from the road sits the house. It has no power lines running to it so it’s perfect for a remote place in the Jersey Pine Barrens. The set designers have wound vines all around the front to give it a more unkempt look.

Beyond that, on a rise behind the bend, they've erected two walls with a roof to serve as an old Piney woman’s shack – from the right angle you'd think it was a complete building that had been sitting on the spot for fifty years.

Beyond that the land slopes off to where they've erected the “ruins” Dario requested. In the story there’s a species of spleenwort growing in a straight line. It can't grow in the acid soil of the Barrens, so when you see it you can be pretty sure a building (or maybe one of the “lost towns” of the Barrens) used to sit there and the stuff is growing over the limestone of the foundation.

Since this is film, Dario wanted a more visual hint that some other structure preceded the Jameson farm in the area by a long, long time. What they've given him is a couple of piles of worn, broken blocks (styrofoam, but you'd never know) indicating maybe an ancient gateway, and beyond that something that may have been a monolith or temple stone in its heyday. I’m impressed.

A light rain begins as they start the shoot. People grumble but it isn't going to stop them. Today’s scenes involve furrier Jake Feldman and his assistant as they find the pelts and what’s left of the Jamesons. John Saxon plays Pa Jameson but he’s not involved today.

Meat Loaf (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001533/) plays Jake, and Mick introduces me to him as the guy who wrote the original story.

“You dreamed this up?” Mr. Loaf says as we shake hands. “You're one sick guy.”

I hear that a lot; I give my standard reply: “Thank you.”

Between setups Mick, Meat (his folks named him Michael Aday but he wants to be called Meat -- I kid you not) and I sit and gab in the set’s “video village” – a tented area where we can watch monitors and see what the cameras see as they shoot. He’s natural and unassuming, and serious about his acting. He wants to know more about Jake and how he feels when he first sees the pelts. I tell him these aren't just pelts, they're uber-pelts and he’s seeing his whole future open up before him. He's seeing paradise by the dashboard light.

After hours of lots of activity and very little footage being shot, I'm ready to go. The temperature has dropped, a wind has sprung up, and I'm not dressed for this. Mick is heading back to the hotel to meet with Tobe Hooper about budgeting his upcoming film, and so I hitch a ride.

Back in my room, I write into the night.

(I'll post photos in a few days.)

Hey there all and sorry i started a whole new thread here but i can barely contain my enthusiasm. Just finished Gateways and i turned to look at my stack of books and noticed i had no others the ones i ordered have not arrived yet. hope i can last till then.

one observation not a spoiler at all. Being a Jersey boy and all i love RJ even more. Loved Gateways every bit as much as Hosts, finished this title in one work day. Loved the story and thirst for more.

XXXXXXXX SPOLIER AHEAD XXXXXXX

LOved oyv gotta get me a dog like him and loved anya or kother or whoever she is. The whole thing with Jack's dad was fantastic and it is good to learn about RJ who he is and all that and even sal too.

xxxxx END SPOLIERXXXXX

just wanted to let my adrenaline out here for a bit before ig et depressed when i realize i have to wait to read more RJ.

Oh my God!!!! I watched this on Comedy Central last night, and I don't know if I have ever laughed so hard. Hilarious!!! I remember this guy from the early 1990s back when stand-up was at its peak. He hasn't lost a step. His show involves 5 dummies, each with individual and HILARIOUS personalities. Hopefully, they will rebroadcast it. Find this, and watch it. You won't be disappointed.

http://www.onastick.com/

Just wondering, is there anyone out there that would be interested in some Seinfeld trivia once the RJ trivia is over with at the end of this week. I have about 200 questions ready. They range from basic knowledge to hard-core junkie difficulity. Let me know if there is any interest out there.:confused:

couldn't get them in order but just finished reading Hosts. RJ is the man. loved the story and can't wait to get more into it to find out about the otherness and the adversary whom i will assume with my limited knowledge is sal roma or whatever. one question i have is the russian lady with the dog. it seems to me she fills the same role as the oracle in the matrix or have i just over simplified it or even overshot the whole damn purpose of this woman.

shame Kate had to die and Sandy too actually liked the kid and liked Beth too.

Gateways is my next trip and i hope to learn infinite amounts more about this world and oh yeah almost forgot gotta love Abe too

Russian lady mentioned tests and etc in the scene at the end. was this something that happened to happen, meaning the death of kate, for him to be able to continue down the path that has been chosen for him. im sure im way off base here or was it the otherness trying to slow him down.

oh god i cant wait for gATEWAYS and the rest.

i am starting to reread all the RJ novels from the beginning and i was wondering if you ever learn Jack's real last name in any of them. i know we have met his entire family, but i don't know if his real name was every given. does anyone know it or is it forever a mystery?