HUGE podcast tonight - Sarah Crow Q&A with Savannah Dooley

I meant to post about this last night, but I fell asleep. An odd turn of events for me. Luckily, I got in a little pimpage for it on Facebook, but I really wanted to get the word out on this.

You may remember last week I sat down with Sarah Crow and had a long conversation about the impending zombie apocalypse, hipsters, boats, and bath salts. Now, no, just for the sake of clarification, I'm not involved in this next one [which automatically improves the quality 410%, I'd imagine], but writer/producer/fellow Bennington ex-pat Savannah Dooley is, meaning two of my favorite ladies are going to be doing a "Between Two Ferns" thing on Sarah's Spreecast channel tonight at 10 PM eastern, 7 PM Pacific.

Sarah will be doing a Q&A with Savannah about her short-lived, but totally awesome television show "Huge," not to mention tying up some loose ends about where things would have went if ABC Family was totally mental, along with more serious commentary about the state of society's collective body image [hint: fucked up], and really anything the else Sarah and her audience comes up with to ask her. [She's a mad talented writer for instance - that might be something people want to get her to talk about, hint hint.] Savannah's incredibly skilled when it comes to dialogging about these sorts of things, and is always incredibly funny, if you have ever had an opportunity to know her and her work, so one can only imagine when paired with the equally hilarious Sarah Crow, the show should be a really great time.

I was a big fan of "Huge," really big fan of Savannah getting her work out there like that, and blogged about it on a couple of occasion, too. So if you're painfully out of the loop, hit Google, or click the "Huge" tag at the end of this post.

Check it out.

What: Q+A w/ 'Huge' Creator Savannah Dooley

When: 10:00 EDT

Where: http://www.spreecast.com/events/qa-w-huge-creator-savannah-dooley

Finishing up one project, looking at old stuff.

My nights and days have inverted again.

Sort of a strange few days. Got a deal on a new phone, slightly larger than my old one, but it's way faster, the screen is clearer, the ringer is louder, and everything loads so much quicker. Still, there were a lot of problems getting my old number transferred over, and I'm starting to see why people with steadier incomes just lock themselves into a phone plan. At least then, I guess, you have a contract you can shake at your provider and say "See? This was promised. I don't care that it's four in the fucking morning, make my phone work."

There was even one strange day where I got to sit with a phone that could not take calls. It could act as a two gigabyte mp3 player, it could take pictures, it could play PacMan... it just couldn't do any of the things you sort of expect a phone to do, like, you know, take calls. If you dwell on it long enough, the crotchety old man instinct can take over, until you're just shaking your head and thinking "Feh. Technology."

Anyway. I sent off what I think will be the final draft of copy for my current website job, which apparently I nailed pretty much on the first go. It was just a matter of making sure it was typo-free and adding a small blurb that hadn't been made available to me in the first go round, and then I shot the new content off to the client late last night, my near vampiric hours once again better serving clients by the promptness in which they find copy in their inbox the next morning.

I always thought we got this whole work hours thing wrong. Yes, I toil away after the sun goes down like some nocturnal madman, racing to get done before the sun comes up. But then for everyone who works during the daylight hours, well, they're always sure to have exactly what they need upon getting up the next morning. Trust me, I know these things, as my dad used to deliver newspapers -- the thing you need in the day, so it must be taken care of the night before -- a profession that proves that divvying up day jobs and night jobs better would solve all sorts of problems for people who work on both sides of dawn.

That, and maybe society could cater to us night owls because of it. I would kill to get pizza or Chinese takeout at four in the morning.

Other than the phone and the work, most of my week has been spent thinking about older, unfinished projects [re: Trendsetter, and The Familiar], including a comic book idea I had back in college that I'm not entirely sure why I never bothered to finish it. Two issues already written, and I just up and forgot about it, save for a bunch of notes I cannibalized back when I was trying to put together that treatment for a pilot [re: Sweet Home]. Paying work has made me not really keen on sitting down and typing at the computer, so all of this work has mostly been scribbled in the moleskin, but it feels nice to be creative again, and even in the case of the narrative problems I'm having trouble solving [Familiar in particular -- every time I think I fixed something, I find new plot holes to obsess over] I'm thinking about characters and stories that haven't been on my mind in a long time. Better writers than I probably won't think much of this, but having those names, those places, those situations on the tip of my tongue or in the back of my mind [because apparently writing is like fellatio, kids!] means that sometimes I step out of the shower or into the soup aisle and suddenly realize how to tie something together better. And its always those eureka moments that seem to get me motivated to get the most done.

Pleasant reminders I can still, occasionally, be clever.

Also got some big news concerning some friends of mine. Sort of waiting to see them in person before putting anything here about it, though. Seems more personal that way.

It's my friend Nick's birthday today, too. He's big into tumblr, and for his birthday, you should go check out his blog "Blue-Eyed Devil."

Finally, and not to bury the lead in the least, Savannah's TV show "Huge" was not renewed for a second season. There's currently a petition up to save the show, and whether you were able to watch it or not, whether you were a fan or not, I really would consider it a personal favor if you'd go, and sign. Another one of my friends [Hannah], put it best [and in an especially apt way for this blog, which has always been about writing and creativity]: just think, if you were given an opportunity to tell a story, to make something important to you, and then had your funding yanked out from under you and were unable to continue, let alone finish, the story you were trying to tell. I don't know a creative person that wouldn't be heartbreaking to, so please, sign the petition, spread the news, and just generally get the word out. Realistically, maybe this is a long shot, but with the internet we have seen cult shows saved by fan outcry before, and a show this smart, this funny, this different deserves a second chance.

Or at least some kind of gesture by us, the fans, to show those involved how much their work was appreciated.

Stumping for HUGE.

Just a pleasant reminder.

My friend Savannah's TV show, "Huge," comes on tonight at 9 o'clock eastern time, and as the summer season is coming to its end, it would be really great if everyone would tune in to help gets the ratings up and let the show catch a second season [and hey, I know I don't have a ton of readers, so please, tell your friends and family to do the same]. The whole experience has meant the world to Savannah, and she's really invested in this show -- so I guess this particularly goes out to all you storytellers out there who occasionally read the blog -- imagine if you didn't get the chance to finish, or even really get started, a story you really, really loved.

Something to think about. And we're all in this together.

And if you like it, hit the official "Huge" website, and watch some of the episodes from earlier in the season, or watch the show on Hulu. As shocking as this sounds coming from me, it's best if you watch the show some place nice, and legal, where the network can track the views. If you have cable with OnDemand, that works pretty well too.

Savannah, pictured above in front of the official ABC Family "Huge" bus with her mom Winnie Holzman [of "My So-Called Life" and "Wicked" fame] and her dad Paul "No Seconds!" Dooley, is the writer and producer of HUGE, a TV show adapted from the book by Sasha Paley. The show's about a bunch of teens enrolled at a Wellness Camp, more colloquially but less sensitively called "fat camp," and their trials and tribulations while dealing with subjects like social acceptance, sexuality, and body image -- of course, they're teens, so they've also got all these aspirations, hormones, and angst mixed in too. The show stars Nikki Blonsky, Haley Hasslehoff, and Gina Torres, with regular appearances by Savannah's dad, and a lot of really talented actors and actresses who I'm looking forward to seeing more of in the future. Hopefully, on new episodes of "Huge."

Catch the "Huge" summer finale tonight at 9/8 central on ABC Family.

Oh, and for kicks, here is a picture of the bulk of our Bennington crew from wa-a-a-ay back freshman year, at the "Sad Birthday Party." Savannah's there giving the metal sign to the right of me, between Hannah and Allison [bright burgundy hair]. God, we look young.

Special thanks to Ian, for hooking me up with this big version of the photo.

HUGE Party

You guys are just going to have to take my word for it that I'm not riding coattails here.

The success of your peers should be celebrated. I believe this implicitly; it's why I link the things I link here on the blog and on Twitter, it's why I like to show people the weird-ass comic books I pick up at conventions and indie bookstores, and why if someone tells me they know someone who published a book, I try to get it. I'll be honest, in most situations, like with John, or Hannah, or Eric and Dave, or Hipstercrite [I feel badly that I don't know her real name, like I should have picked it up by now - though sometimes I call her "Mrs. Brown" in my head], calling them my peers seems like overreaching, and they've certainly done more than enough to not need my mentions.

But I digress.

Tonight, my fellow alumnus, more importantly my friend, Savannah Dooley, has her new TV show Huge premiere on ABC Family, at 9/8 central. For those of you who didn't see my earlier post about this, Huge is a one hour teen drama about a weight-loss camp that's based off the young adult novel of the same name by Sasha Paley, and it was adapted by Savannah and her mother, Winnie Holzman [that would be the Winnie Holzman of My So-Called Life and Wicked fame, folks]. The show stars Nikki Blonsky, Gina Torres is in it, David Hasselhoff's daughter has a part in it, and I have this sneaking suspicion you'll also see big time actor/West Virginia escape artist Paul Dooley show up too. Call it a hunch. Savannah is producing the show too, and it's just such a big opportunity, such a really big accomplishment for her that I want to get her as much support as possible. As limited as I am from my little soap box here.

Because Savannah deserves this. I have had the privilege of reading things of hers that Hollywood may never be bold enough to touch, I even keep one of her scripts from a screenwriting class we had together, just because I periodically like to go back and read it again. It reminds me of her, it makes me feel a little better about all the distance between us. It's also really fucking good.

The same is true for her family. Her mother has always been a sweetheart to me, always spoke to me like I was a writer, even though in her position she didn't have to give some snot-nosed kid like me that privilege. Her dad singled me out right away as someone who wanted to get out of this shit-hole of a state, and took me aside and gave me words of encouragement I'll never forget [or, in this case, share. Some things are private, y'all].

So go. Tune in. Let's get the ratings up on this thing, let's give this show the credit it deserves. If I had a bunch of friends here, instead of scattered to the far corners of the country, even the world, you know I'd be throwing a gigantic viewing party in celebration. In lieu of that, I'll probably be getting takeout and watching from home, but still -- the point stands.

All you writers I know, Savannah's one of our good ones. Let's lift her up. We need more writers like her out there in the trenches.

And hey, she's also not the only person in this little shindig I know, either. Another classmate of mine, Molly Tarlov, a girl who I never got to know as well as I would have liked to, but who always seemed so happy to run into me, always greeting me, no matter where or when, with this brilliant excited smile [and I'd always walk away from her humming a certain Vaselines song]. She's on the show too. So, seriously, there are so many talented people involved here, there is no reason not to check it out.

So. Go forth and watch. Huge. Monday night. The 28th. That's tomorrow, folks. 9/8 central. ABC Family. And while you wait, go check out the official website, go check out the Facebook page, the IMDB page, the Wikipedia entry. Get pumped for this.

One of our own made it.

"Huge" news for one friend, another is pro-rate, and a couple more are Bleeding Cool

So all this talk lately about getting "Nova" ready for submission, and I haven't really taken the time to congratulate some folks on their real accomplishments.

The first, and the one that I've wanted to post about the longest, is at least tangentially related to "Nova" though a much, much, much bigger deal. As I've mentioned before, my friend Savannah [friend is a vast understatement, but I'm afraid most people wouldn't understand if I called her one of "my girls"] turned me onto the competition, probably because she knew how downhearted I was by all my other projects falling apart in such short-order. What I haven't mentioned is that said Savannah is none other than the Savannah Dooley, writer and developer behind the upcoming ABC Family show "Huge."

Let me pause for a minute, to bend down and pick that name back up.

I have been criminally negligent in keeping up with my west coast friends the past several months [a fact that's made me really uncomfortable tonight, considering the whopper of an earthquake they just had -- if you're reading, I hope you're okay, Dooley], but I still know a little about the show, that Savannah and her mother [veteran TV writer Winnie Holzman, of My So Called Life fame] adapted it from a book by the same name, and that it deals with a group of teens working at a weight-loss camp -- more in the vein of "Glee" than, say, Heavyweights. Several name actors have already been cast, with go-to curvy actress Nikki Blonsky on board, and second-generation stars, or soon-to-be-stars, Haley Hasslehoff and Zander Eckhouse [look them up if you don't know who their daddies are] also on board, not to mention several relative newcomers I probably couldn't do justice with my limited knowledge of TV personalities after 1995[and one of my few celebrity crushes, Gina Torres]. So instead, I direct you to this plethora of links about "Huge" on "ohnotheydidnt," TVStar, Hitfix, Zap2It, and the super-classy Jezebel. Not to mention ABC Family's main page for the show, which includes a blog that is a tetch sparse now, but hey, it's pretty early on still.

I'm just so unbelievably jazzed for Savannah that collecting these links is almost like scrapbooking for me, though I have to admit I'm already starting to miss write-ups among all the buzz. And as awesome as it is to see a such a recognizable name as Blonsky's attached to "Huge," just the fact that a fellow writer and friend is getting this opportunity is just amazing to me. I have a small stack of writings from my Bennington peers that I saved from workshop classes, and one of Dooley's pieces [a screenplay called "Eddie"] is something I occasionally turn to for comfort reading, sometimes even inspiration -- I liked it that much. She's very skilled at what she does, and I can only wish her success, and maybe that I had some better way to congratulate her than just gushing about knowing her here.

I'm proud of her though. I can't say it enough.

While we're on the topic of friends and their accomplishments, I'd be remiss to point out that our buddy John over at the Bathroom Monologues recently got a pro-rate story over at Flash Fiction Online. The story in question is "Alligators By Twitter," or as I will always colloquially know it, "Holegators." It's quite the achievement, and great exposure for him. Tell your friends.

Finally, and this is a week old, and I hope they'll forgive me for that, but my online compadres Eric M. Esquivel and Dave Baker, hell, the whole Modern Mythology Press crew recently got a mention on the big-name comic news site Bleeding Cool. This is great exposure for them, and it happened under what might be the strangest of circumstances, so I encourage everyone, as always, to go check out what they're doing. If I had artist I was working with on a regular basis, I'd always be looking to the Mod Myth guys as my measuring stick to how good the work was. And I hope one day, if I do make this comic book thing work, that I'll be lucky enough to work with folks that talented.

Salud!