Don Maker's Blog

Here is the latest interview I had the good fortune to accept. Please give Maria Grace's blogpost a visit and read my interview, as well as those of other writers.

http://randombitsoffascination.com/20...

I have published four novels now, most of them historical fiction. So this is something very different for me.

In high school and throughout college, I acted in many school and community theater plays. I also minored in psychology in college. So I decided to combine those two disciplines.

SIGI AND CARL explores the questions that plague most of us: Have we done something truly meaningful with our life? Will we leave a legacy? This surrealistic play responds through the life and relationships of Sigmund Freud, with Carl Jung as his major counter-point. Guest figures include Hamlet, Albert Einstein, Anna Freud, and Melanie Klein.

SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS, please note: I am happy to provide text copies at no charge if you would like to read in class or produce any or all of this play. As an educator, I wish to promote knowledge as well as creative thinking.

If you have time, please give this a look.
https://www.amazon.com/Sigi-Carl-Play...

I am pleased to announce my latest novel, "The Grindstone", will be available Saturday, Sep. 12. For 5 days, it should be downloadable in the Kindle version at no cost. Thanks for giving it a look!

http://www.amazon.com/Grindstone-Don-...

Harvey liked the screenplay, as he is a huge history buff. However, he was looking for some “treatments” (very elaborate proposals) he could submit to a large German production company (Prosiebensat1) who are looking to select 15 projects for serialization.

In addition to “Zenobia”, I told Harvey I had a couple of more projects: “The Shakespeares and the Crown”, which I’ve been working on for a couple of years, and “The Francs”, for which I have some basic research.

Prosiebensat1 will accept up to 5 treatments only from recognized industry professionals, and their deadline is August 3, so in between work (teaching and editing) I have been trying to whip these into shape. They want dramas that will have international appeal, so historical fiction seems a good fit.

In addition, Harvey has called a lady he knows at Lifetime and other stations that produce their own content, so that is another possibility. I imagine the current treatments are pretty much an industry standard, so the work I’m doing now will not be wasted.

The odds are slim, but success will mean one of my works will be serialized for international distribution. It’s the sort of opportunity all writers dream about, so I’m focusing on creating strong treatments.

Thanks to all for your best wishes.

I received an email Friday:

“Id like to make a major motion picture on your book Zenobia! Please give me a call in florida.” There was a name and number at the bottom

Ever seen the movie “Rock Star” starring Mark Wahlberg? He plays Chris, the lead singer for a ‘legends’ band imitating a famous rock band “Steel Dragon”. One day he gets a phone call from a man claiming to be the leader of Steel Dragons. Chris does the sensible thing: he hangs up. But the fellow calls back, and proves he is who he claims to be. When Chris is finally convinced, the man tells him their lead singer has quit, and would he like to audition for them?

I felt like Chris – or more accurately, like Arnel Pineda (as in “Journey”). Yes, perhaps Neal Schon was inspired by “Rock Star” as well.

Before I called, I looked up the area code. Okay, not one of those that charges you $500 per minute if you call. Then I looked up his name on IMDb. Lo and behold! Four film productions to his credit. So I called.

Harvey was very non-committal, but sounded sincere. Seems a friend of his told him about my book. He is a history buff, and is looking for a history-based script to make into a film. So I have mailed him a copy of the script (“Zenobia” was originally written as a screenplay, which I converted into a novel because I had no concept of how to sell a screenplay) and see what, if anything, transpires.

Like Chris (and Arnel), I am winging my way to an audition. I hope that perhaps I actually get to sing with the band.

Wish me good luck!

As a writer of historical fiction, I’m sometimes asked how much “real history” I put in my books. My stock answer is: ALL history is fiction. This sometimes baffles people, but most often irritates them. Please allow me to explain.
What is "real history" anyway? Science tells us that there are two types of biases: the bias that comes from an observer's viewpoint, and the deliberate bias that comes from motivation.
As to the first, was the historian actually at the event he/she is describing? Did they see the action, or hear the words spoken? In almost all cases, they are recreating an event from documents and verbal testimony of "eyewitnesses", who (if they were really at the scene, unlike many who claim to have been) may have been extremely limited in what they actually witnessed. In the best of cases, they are not trained observers or recorders anyhow. Such second-hand accounts are sketchy at best; think of the Warren Commission Report. If we cannot even know exactly what went on with a modern event that was witnessed on television by millions of people, how can we know what went on in events hundreds and thousands of years ago?
As to “primary documents”, have you ever written a memo about a corporate event you were involved in, or a letter to a friend relating some incident in your life? Just between you and me, were you totally honest about what happened? Did you paint yourself in the glaring light of “truth”, or perhaps embellish your role just a tiny bit? Did you ever once make the other guy the hero? Yeah, well, all of those olden time folks who wrote their memoirs, or letters to friends, or whatever, did exactly the same.
For the second, the old saying: "The victors get to write history", has a lot more meaning than the surface value. In some cases, many of the ancient monarchs hired historians to write of their exploits--that becomes little more than propaganda. In many cases, such as Shakespeare's "Richard III", it was politically and financially expedient for him to explain events in a way that would be pleasing to the sitting monarch, Elizabeth Tudor.
Even if a person does not have a religious, political, financial, or other motivation in "slanting" what happened, they still have personal biases for or against an individual or a particular side in a conflict that colors the way in which they portray the events. For example, early historians portrayed Christopher Columbus as a courageous hero who "discovered" America. Later historians say he never set foot on American soil, and committed genocide and slavery in the Hispaniolas. How about the great emancipationist, Abraham Lincoln? He was no more a fan of African-Americans than Governor George Wallace. We have recently learned that it was his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, who constantly urged him to abolish slavery. His original plan to get rid of the “black problem” was to ship them all to a new colony in South America.
So, my view of historical fiction is to go with what the "historians" tell us as much as possible, but realize that they were no more "there" than I was, and my version of what happened, within the bounds of known data and logic, is just as valid as theirs. Maybe more so: at least I label mine as fiction on the cover.