For more information go to: http://ghosttownwritersretreat.com/

“One of the perks of my 2013 summer was reading my bro ERIC RED’s THE GUNS OF SANTA SANGRE (which was re-released in March BTW ). A grisly, mean spirited and action packed book (read Jake Dee’s review here). On August 1st 2017 the sequel to that bad-boy THE WOLVES OF EL DIABLO (PRE-ORDER IT HERE) will gore up book shelves around the world (expect a review of it on the site soon). I recently managed to fire a couple of questions Red’s way about his upcoming novel and the impending third chapter of his “Men Who Walk Like Wolves” trilogy – here’s what he gunned back at me!

“The Wolves of El Diablo” is a Western and a werewolf story rolled up in one. So what would say is your favorite Western flick and you fav werewolf film? And your movie Bad Moon is not an option ☺?

My favorite western is The Wild Bunch. The Searchers, The Magnificent Seven, Once Upon A Time In The West, and the original True Grit are others. Bad Moon aside, don’t really have a favorite werewolf film. I guess if I had to pick, it would be old Universal The Wolfman with Lon Chaney Jr. because the Lawrence Talbot character is so classically tragic and the actor played him with such pathos. In my opinion, and people may disagree, there have not been a lot of good lycanthrope flicks throughout movie history—you’d think there must be because werewolves are so iconic a film monster but when you think about it there really aren’t, even if some have terrific special makeup effects. Werewolf films are kind of a lousy movie genre.

“The Wolves of El Diablo” is a sequel to your badass book: “The Guns of Santa Sangre”. How does the follow up differ from the first installment?

The first book was mostly set in a Mexican village in the 1800s where three American gunfighters, Tucker, Fix and Bodie are recruited by a peasant woman named Pilar to protect her town from a pack of werewolves who are Mexican bandits in human form led by a jefe named Mosca. The heroes end up kicking serious lycanthrope ass. The second book begins a month later during the next full moon where the three gunslingers rob a steam train loaded with silver protected by Mexican soldiers. The cowboys don’t know that Mosca, the leader of the werewolves they killed in the first book has a bloodthirsty vengeful bandit sister named Azul out for revenge. She and her wolf men ambush the heroes during the train robbery. Before long, the three gunfighters find themselves fighting fifty werewolves on a highballing stream train in the middle of the Mexican desert.

I like to say, using a movie analogy, The Wolves Of El Diablo is to The Guns Of Santa Sangre what Aliens was to Alien: More action, more werewolves, more silver bullets, bigger weapons. It’s a high-octane action novel. Do readers need to read the first book to fully appreciate the second one or can they go straight to Wolves? The Wolves of El Diablo can be read by itself if you haven’t read The Guns of Santa Sangre. It’s important in writing a book series that readers can start with any book in series and enjoy a self-contained complete reading experience. The trick for the author is to let them know what happened in the story up to that point without revealing too much that it would ruin the past books when they read those. The Wolves of El Diablo recaps the basic events of The Guns of Santa Sangre just enough so you know what’s going on but doesn’t give away too many spoilers…”

To read the rest of the interview go to the full article at: http://bit.ly/2vc5XSI

We talk about my new novel THE WOLVES OF EL DIABLO, western and horror books and films, and lots of other fun stuff: http://bit.ly/2upNDC2

I’ll be doing a BAD MOON Blu Ray signing with star Michael Pare, special makeup effects designer Steve Johnson, and composer Daniel Licht at Dark Delicacies Bookstore in Burbank this Tuesday, July 19th at 7:00 PM.

The address is 3512 W Magnolia Blvd. Burbank CA 91505.  Stop by and visit.

Thanks, as always, to Del and Sue Howison!

Today, I’m excited to host a guest blog on my blog by my pal, screenwriter and author Max Adams. I had the pleasure of getting to know Max a few years ago at the San Antonio Film Festival, when we were on several lively panels together. She has written numerous Hollywood studio films, including EXCESS BAGGAGE and ONE FOR THE MONEY. Max founded the Austin, Texas based Academy of Film Writing, a school for screenwriters, and teaches several online classes. She has also written a best-selling book on the subject, THE NEW SCREENWRITER’S SURVIVAL GUIDE.  Sharp, savvy, funny, and beautiful, Max knows her stuff about the craft and business of screenwriting. On her guest blog below, she shares a few tips on script technique…

Five Instant Script Fixes

THE BAD NEWS: If you’re making these 5 mistakes, you’re not ready for prime time.

THE GOOD NEWS: Correcting these 5 mistakes will rocket your script quality up so fast NASA will dial you for launch tips.

1:  NAKED SCENE HEADERS: Naked scene headers are headers floating on the page with no scene description:

……….INT. KITCHEN – DAY

………………………………………BOB
…………………………Who won the game?

No scene header should float alone on the page. At the very least — and I do mean very least — a reader must know WHO is in the scene:

……….INT. KITCHEN – DAY

……….Bob looks up at Dan.

………………………………………BOB

…………………………Who won the game?

2:  FORMS OF BEING: “Is” is not your friend. Bob is lounging. Bob is eating. Bob is talking. Action is only immediate if verbs are immediate:

Bob lounges, Bob eats, Bob talks.

3:  TONTO SPEAK: Tonto Speak is scene description with all the articles (the, a, an) chopped out of sentences:

Bob opens door.  Bob drives car.  Bob kicks soccer ball.

There is no universe in which reading 100 pages of Tonto Speak will not be painful and also justification to douse a script with lighter fluid and watch it burn.

Bob opens THE door, Bob drives THE car, Bob kicks THE soccer ball.

4:  NUMERIC DIALOGUE: Dialogue is not a text message or a math equation. Dialogue is the spoken word. Which can you pronounce, reading it out as dialogue?

15?

Fifteen? [Hint, "fifteen." That is dialogue.]

5:  BAD PARENTHETICALS: Parentheticals are about defining inflection and attitude in dialogue when they aren’t clear in context and wording alone.

Here’s dialogue that is clear without a parenthetical:

………………………………………BOB
…………………………That’s great!

Here’s dialogue that is not clear without a parenthetical:

………………………………………BOB
……………………………..(dripping sarcasm)
…………………………That’s great.

Parentheticals are also not about physical action. Here’s a parenthetical carrying action it shouldn’t be carrying:
………………………………………BOB
……………………………..(striding across the room and bear hugging Dan)
…………………………That’s great!

Here’s what that should actually look like on the page:

……….INT. KITCHEN – DAY

……….Bob strides across the room and bear hugs Dan.

………………………………………BOB
…………………………That’s great!

The link for the book site is at http://screenwriterssurvivalguide.com

MAX ADAMS is an author and screenwriter. Winner of a Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting and an Austin Film Festival screenwriting award early in her career, Max went on to be dubbed “Red Hot Adams” by Daily Variety and has worked with Columbia Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios, and Tri-Star Pictures — among others. Max is the founder of two international online screenwriting workshops, The Left Door and 5150, is the author of The New Screenwriter’s Survival Guide, is a University of Utah adjunct professor, is a former WGA online mentor, and is the founder and mover and shaker behind The Academy of Film Writing. Her produced feature films include Excess Baggage, The Ladykillers, One For the Money and she most recently appeared in Tony Tarantino’s Underbelly Blues.