An article from fantascienza
"In questa puntata ci occuperemo per la seconda volta di una scrittrice di fantascienza. Leigh Brackett (1915-1978), assieme a Catherine Lucille Moore, è una scrittrice della prima generazione, quando la fantascienza era ancora considerata una faccenda da maschi.
Il debutto della Brackett nel campo della fantascienza risale al 1940 con il racconto Martian Quest (inedito in Italia), guarda caso una storia marziana, e a Marte rimarrà legato il suo nome. Moglie di Edmond Hamilton, Leigh Brackett si è mossa a cavallo tra la fantascienza e la fantasy ma si è distinta anche nel campo della detective story. Ha inoltre lavorato nel campo del cinema, scrivendo sceneggiature per Hollywood, tra cui ricordiamo, oltre alle sceneggiature di Il Lungo Addio e Il Grande Sonno, tratte dai romanzi di Raymond Chandler, per registi del calibro di Howard Hawks o Robert Altman, quella per il film L'impero colpisce ancora, suo ultimo lavoro che non ha fatto a tempo a vedere realizzato sul grande schermo."
4 out of 5
http://www.fantascienza.com/magazine/rubriche/6654/?print=1
Showing posts with label study. Show all posts
Showing posts with label study. Show all posts
Sunday, March 21, 2010
The Empire Strikes Back Fourth Draft - Lawrence Kasdan
"TESB.4.
October 24, 1978.
The Empire Strikes Back.
Fourth Draft by Lawrence Kasdan. Shooting Script.
Source: Bouzereau: p. 123.
A Lawrence Kasdan quote from Starlog # 51 (October 1981): "[When he accepted the Empire assignment, Kasdan was handed a second draft script to work from that George Lucas had written.] George's draft was something that he wrote very quickly, when Leigh passed away. George had the story very well outlined […]"
A Lawrence Kasdan quote from Cinefantastique Vol. 28, No. 28 (February 1997): "What I worked on was a draft of the script George had written, based on the story George had given to Leigh [Brackett]. I don't know what of Leigh's draft survived into the draft George wrote. What George handed me was a very rough first draft, really somewhere between an outline and a first draft. The structure of the story was all there - it was the skeleton for a movie. What was needed was the flesh and the muscle.""
4 out of 5
http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/writings/cguide.htm
October 24, 1978.
The Empire Strikes Back.
Fourth Draft by Lawrence Kasdan. Shooting Script.
Source: Bouzereau: p. 123.
A Lawrence Kasdan quote from Starlog # 51 (October 1981): "[When he accepted the Empire assignment, Kasdan was handed a second draft script to work from that George Lucas had written.] George's draft was something that he wrote very quickly, when Leigh passed away. George had the story very well outlined […]"
A Lawrence Kasdan quote from Cinefantastique Vol. 28, No. 28 (February 1997): "What I worked on was a draft of the script George had written, based on the story George had given to Leigh [Brackett]. I don't know what of Leigh's draft survived into the draft George wrote. What George handed me was a very rough first draft, really somewhere between an outline and a first draft. The structure of the story was all there - it was the skeleton for a movie. What was needed was the flesh and the muscle.""
4 out of 5
http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/writings/cguide.htm
The Empire Strikes Back Second Draft - George Lucas
"TESB.2.
April 1978.
The Empire Strikes Back.
Second Draft by George Lucas. Handwritten and typed versions.
Sources: Bouzereau: p. 123; Pollock: p. 226.
A George Lucas quote from Alan Arnold's book Once Upon A Galaxy, 1980, p. 177: "I hired Leigh Brackett to write the screenplay, but tragically she died right after completing the first draft. Faced with the situation that somebody had to step in and do a rewrite, I was forced to write the second draft of this screenplay. But I found it much easier than I'd expected, almost enjoyable. It still took me three months to do, but that's a lot different from two years. I also had the advantage of Larry Kasdan coming in later to do a rewrite and fix it up."
4 out of 5
http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/writings/cguide.htm
April 1978.
The Empire Strikes Back.
Second Draft by George Lucas. Handwritten and typed versions.
Sources: Bouzereau: p. 123; Pollock: p. 226.
A George Lucas quote from Alan Arnold's book Once Upon A Galaxy, 1980, p. 177: "I hired Leigh Brackett to write the screenplay, but tragically she died right after completing the first draft. Faced with the situation that somebody had to step in and do a rewrite, I was forced to write the second draft of this screenplay. But I found it much easier than I'd expected, almost enjoyable. It still took me three months to do, but that's a lot different from two years. I also had the advantage of Larry Kasdan coming in later to do a rewrite and fix it up."
4 out of 5
http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/writings/cguide.htm
The Empire Strikes Back First Draft - Lawrence Kasdan
"TESB.1.
February 23, 1978.
Star Wars Sequel, from the Adventures of Luke Skywalker by George Lucas.
First Draft by Leigh Brackett.
Sources: Bouzereau: p. 123; Pollock: p. 226.
A Lawrence Kasdan quote from Starlog # 51 (October 1981): "I only skimmed it [Leigh Brackett's first draft]. It was sort of old fashioned and didn't relate to Star Wars. The characters all had the right names, but her story's spirit was different. […] I'm sure that had Leigh lived, she could have made the changes that George wanted in an excellent way."
A Gary Kurtz quote from Cinefantastique Vol. 28, No. 8 (February 1997): "Leigh had just barely finished her first draft [when she died], up to the two last pages. The pages weren't even typed, but they were done.""
4 out of 5
http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/writings/cguide.htm
February 23, 1978.
Star Wars Sequel, from the Adventures of Luke Skywalker by George Lucas.
First Draft by Leigh Brackett.
Sources: Bouzereau: p. 123; Pollock: p. 226.
A Lawrence Kasdan quote from Starlog # 51 (October 1981): "I only skimmed it [Leigh Brackett's first draft]. It was sort of old fashioned and didn't relate to Star Wars. The characters all had the right names, but her story's spirit was different. […] I'm sure that had Leigh lived, she could have made the changes that George wanted in an excellent way."
A Gary Kurtz quote from Cinefantastique Vol. 28, No. 8 (February 1997): "Leigh had just barely finished her first draft [when she died], up to the two last pages. The pages weren't even typed, but they were done.""
4 out of 5
http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/writings/cguide.htm
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Lorelei of the Red Mist - Christy Marx
There's a quote from the writer on Amazon :-
"I was quite surprised to find this obscure comic book show up in my amazon.com listing. I hasten to clarify that what I wrote was a comic book adapation of this classic fantasy/sf story by wonderful authors, LEIGH BRACKETT and RAY BRADBURY.
The art was by Dell Barras.
I've never actually seen copies of the thing myself, so I have no idea how it came out, but they still want me to rate it."
3.5 out of 5
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1MDOFFUTGMOV0
"I was quite surprised to find this obscure comic book show up in my amazon.com listing. I hasten to clarify that what I wrote was a comic book adapation of this classic fantasy/sf story by wonderful authors, LEIGH BRACKETT and RAY BRADBURY.
The art was by Dell Barras.
I've never actually seen copies of the thing myself, so I have no idea how it came out, but they still want me to rate it."
3.5 out of 5
http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A1MDOFFUTGMOV0
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Ed Clive - Kevin Burton Smith
"Created by Leigh Brackett (1915-1978)
"She was wearing a white raincoat with the hood thrown back. There were raindrops caught in her soft black hair, but the drops in her thick lashes never came out of a Los Angeles sky. Her arms went around him, tight. He kissed her. 'Hello, tramp.' ""
"EDMOND CLIVE's your classic, wounded-romantic Chandleresque private eye. Wearing his world-weary heart on his sleeve, with a soft spot for the underdog, Ed stalks the same mean streets of Los Angeles as Marlowe, although he seems to be doing a bit better than ol' Phil, at least financially. He has a partner and a secretary, and even a headline or two, after he cracks a case in San Francisco. He can quote Shakespeare, and take a beating."
4 out of 5
http://thrillingdetective.com/clive.html
"She was wearing a white raincoat with the hood thrown back. There were raindrops caught in her soft black hair, but the drops in her thick lashes never came out of a Los Angeles sky. Her arms went around him, tight. He kissed her. 'Hello, tramp.' ""
"EDMOND CLIVE's your classic, wounded-romantic Chandleresque private eye. Wearing his world-weary heart on his sleeve, with a soft spot for the underdog, Ed stalks the same mean streets of Los Angeles as Marlowe, although he seems to be doing a bit better than ol' Phil, at least financially. He has a partner and a secretary, and even a headline or two, after he cracks a case in San Francisco. He can quote Shakespeare, and take a beating."
4 out of 5
http://thrillingdetective.com/clive.html
Monday, March 1, 2010
Leigh Brackett - Hardy Kettlitz
Looks like a range of publications about SF authors. Anyone that has (and can) read one of these and would like to let me know that would be great.
"Hardy Kettlitz (Hrsg.): Die vergessenen Science-Fiction-Klassiker
SF Personality Sammelband 1
In Zusammenarbeit mit ausgewiesenen Kennern unternimmt es Hardy Kettlitz in seiner Reihe SF Personality, die Geschichte der Science Fiction schlaglichtartig aufzuarbeiten. Nachdem die Einzelausgaben größtenteils vergriffen sind, werden in diesem Band die chronologisch ersten fünf Nummern wieder zugänglich gemacht. Sie wurden grundlegend überarbeitet, die Bibliographien ergänzt und das Bildmaterial auf den doppelten Umfang erweitert. Die Abbildungen umfassen Titelbilder von Originalausgaben, deutschsprachigen Ausgaben und Illustrationen aus zeitgenössischen Magazinen. In diesem ersten Sammelband werden Murray Leinster, C.L. Moore & Henry Kuttner, H. Beam Piper, Leigh Brackett und Gustav Meyrink ausführlich vorgestellt und gewürdigt; weitere werden folgen.
Hardy Kettlitz war Chefredakteur des SF-Magazins ALIEN CONTACT und gilt als einer der besten Kenner der Science Fiction und Phantastik im deutschsprachigen Raum. Unter anderem für die Reihe SF Personality wurde er 2002 mit dem renommierten Kurd Laßwitz Preis ausgezeichnet."
Unseen.
The google translation says : "SF Personality Sammelband 1 Personality SF anthology 1
In Zusammenarbeit mit ausgewiesenen Kennern unternimmt es Hardy Kettlitz in seiner Reihe SF Personality , die Geschichte der Science Fiction schlaglichtartig aufzuarbeiten. In collaboration with designated experts undertakes Kettlitz Hardy in his series of SF Personality, work up spotlighted the history of science fiction. Nachdem die Einzelausgaben größtenteils vergriffen sind, werden in diesem Band die chronologisch ersten fünf Nummern wieder zugänglich gemacht. After the single issues are largely out of print, will be in this band the first five numbers in chronological re-opened. Sie wurden grundlegend überarbeitet, die Bibliographien ergänzt und das Bildmaterial auf den doppelten Umfang erweitert. They have been thoroughly revised, the bibliographies complements and extends the imagery twice the size. Die Abbildungen umfassen Titelbilder von Originalausgaben, deutschsprachigen Ausgaben und Illustrationen aus zeitgenössischen Magazinen. The images include covers, original editions, German editions, and illustrations from contemporary magazines. In diesem ersten Sammelband werden Murray Leinster, CL Moore & Henry Kuttner, H. Beam Piper, Leigh Brackett und Gustav Meyrink ausführlich vorgestellt und gewürdigt; weitere werden folgen. In this first collection will be presented Murray Leinster, CL Moore & Henry Kuttner, H. Beam Piper, Leigh Brackett and Gustav Meyrink was fully acknowledged, and, more will follow.
Hardy Kettlitz war Chefredakteur des SF-Magazins ALIEN CONTACT und gilt als einer der besten Kenner der Science Fiction und Phantastik im deutschsprachigen Raum. Hardy Kettlitz was editor of the SF magazine ALIEN CONTACT, and is considered one of the foremost science fiction and fantasy in Germany. Unter anderem für die Reihe SF Personality wurde er 2002 mit dem renommierten Kurd Laßwitz Preis ausgezeichnet. Among other things, for the SF series of personality, he was honored in 2002 with the prestigious Kurd Laßwitz price."
http://translate.google.com.au/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shayol.biz%2Fepages%2F61530001.sf%2Fde_DE%2F%3FObjectPath%3D%2FShops%2F61530001%2FProducts%2F02103&sl=de&tl=en
0 out of 5
http://www.shayol.biz/epages/61530001.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61530001/Products/02103
"Hardy Kettlitz (Hrsg.): Die vergessenen Science-Fiction-Klassiker
SF Personality Sammelband 1
In Zusammenarbeit mit ausgewiesenen Kennern unternimmt es Hardy Kettlitz in seiner Reihe SF Personality, die Geschichte der Science Fiction schlaglichtartig aufzuarbeiten. Nachdem die Einzelausgaben größtenteils vergriffen sind, werden in diesem Band die chronologisch ersten fünf Nummern wieder zugänglich gemacht. Sie wurden grundlegend überarbeitet, die Bibliographien ergänzt und das Bildmaterial auf den doppelten Umfang erweitert. Die Abbildungen umfassen Titelbilder von Originalausgaben, deutschsprachigen Ausgaben und Illustrationen aus zeitgenössischen Magazinen. In diesem ersten Sammelband werden Murray Leinster, C.L. Moore & Henry Kuttner, H. Beam Piper, Leigh Brackett und Gustav Meyrink ausführlich vorgestellt und gewürdigt; weitere werden folgen.
Hardy Kettlitz war Chefredakteur des SF-Magazins ALIEN CONTACT und gilt als einer der besten Kenner der Science Fiction und Phantastik im deutschsprachigen Raum. Unter anderem für die Reihe SF Personality wurde er 2002 mit dem renommierten Kurd Laßwitz Preis ausgezeichnet."
Unseen.
The google translation says : "SF Personality Sammelband 1 Personality SF anthology 1
In Zusammenarbeit mit ausgewiesenen Kennern unternimmt es Hardy Kettlitz in seiner Reihe SF Personality , die Geschichte der Science Fiction schlaglichtartig aufzuarbeiten. In collaboration with designated experts undertakes Kettlitz Hardy in his series of SF Personality, work up spotlighted the history of science fiction. Nachdem die Einzelausgaben größtenteils vergriffen sind, werden in diesem Band die chronologisch ersten fünf Nummern wieder zugänglich gemacht. After the single issues are largely out of print, will be in this band the first five numbers in chronological re-opened. Sie wurden grundlegend überarbeitet, die Bibliographien ergänzt und das Bildmaterial auf den doppelten Umfang erweitert. They have been thoroughly revised, the bibliographies complements and extends the imagery twice the size. Die Abbildungen umfassen Titelbilder von Originalausgaben, deutschsprachigen Ausgaben und Illustrationen aus zeitgenössischen Magazinen. The images include covers, original editions, German editions, and illustrations from contemporary magazines. In diesem ersten Sammelband werden Murray Leinster, CL Moore & Henry Kuttner, H. Beam Piper, Leigh Brackett und Gustav Meyrink ausführlich vorgestellt und gewürdigt; weitere werden folgen. In this first collection will be presented Murray Leinster, CL Moore & Henry Kuttner, H. Beam Piper, Leigh Brackett and Gustav Meyrink was fully acknowledged, and, more will follow.
Hardy Kettlitz war Chefredakteur des SF-Magazins ALIEN CONTACT und gilt als einer der besten Kenner der Science Fiction und Phantastik im deutschsprachigen Raum. Hardy Kettlitz was editor of the SF magazine ALIEN CONTACT, and is considered one of the foremost science fiction and fantasy in Germany. Unter anderem für die Reihe SF Personality wurde er 2002 mit dem renommierten Kurd Laßwitz Preis ausgezeichnet. Among other things, for the SF series of personality, he was honored in 2002 with the prestigious Kurd Laßwitz price."
http://translate.google.com.au/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shayol.biz%2Fepages%2F61530001.sf%2Fde_DE%2F%3FObjectPath%3D%2FShops%2F61530001%2FProducts%2F02103&sl=de&tl=en
0 out of 5
http://www.shayol.biz/epages/61530001.sf/de_DE/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61530001/Products/02103
Leigh Brackett: The science fiction epic - Carlos Sáiz Cidoncha
Note the original link is in Spanish. Apparently from :- Original edition of Fantasia Fan 2, 1980. Excerpted from Ad Astra 10.
Google translation link :-
http://translate.google.com.au/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fvioletfreak.blogspot.com%2Fsearch%2Flabel%2FLeigh%2520Brackett&sl=es&tl=en
4 out of 5
http://violetfreak.blogspot.com/search/label/Leigh%20Brackett
Google translation link :-
http://translate.google.com.au/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fvioletfreak.blogspot.com%2Fsearch%2Flabel%2FLeigh%2520Brackett&sl=es&tl=en
4 out of 5
http://violetfreak.blogspot.com/search/label/Leigh%20Brackett
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Monday, December 14, 2009
Meet the Authors Leigh Brackett - Raymond A. Palmer
Article in Amazing Stories, July 1941, (Jul 1941, Raymond A. Palmer, Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, $0.20, 148pp, Pulp, magazine)
This is also reprinted at the end of Haffner's Martian Quest the Early Brackett.
Short piece on how she grew up loving adventure stories, Burroughs, Haggard etc., and became a writer.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Amazing Stories, June 1941
IN quite undramatic fashion, I began by being born. Place, Los Angeles, California. Date, December 7, so few years ago that darned little has had time to happen. Ancestry, Scots-English. I weighed ten pounds, had black hair, and a strident personality, especially during the wee sma' hours.
The next few years are somewhat hazy, except that I was very naughty and had an uncanny faculty for imitating dialect. The family was never quite sure whether it had hatched out a Chinese cook or an Italian fruit man.
At an early age I discovered books. It was a sad day for the family. It's a mournful tradition with us that if you want to get me out of a book, you've got to use a good-sized percussion cap.
Presently I was put into a small school in Santa Monica. I may say, with a pardonable blush, that I was the second worst brat on the campus. The worst one had a head start — she was a year older.
This I call my beachcombing period. I lived at the shore, acquired an indelible tan and a mop of straw-colored hair — the black fuzz I started out with having apparently made a mistake. I didn't grow scales and gills, but the fish all called me by my first name.
By this time several alarming characteristics had appeared in me. I was crazy over dogs. I'd have had a dozen or so, if the family hadn't sternly refused to cooperate. I had a nice taste in Elizabethan oaths, garnered from pirate stories. I wavered between four desperate alternatives: whether to be a smuggler like Jim Davis, a pirate like Blackbeard, an all-round daredevil like Douglas Fairbanks, who was my idol, or just to settle for cowboys'n' Indians.
And I discovered "imaginative fiction." There was apprehensive shaking of heads among the female relatives. Attempts were made to save me. But it was too late. I devoured Burroughs, Haggard, Balmer and Wylie, Doyle's unforgettable "Maracot Deep," Jules Verne. Yes, boys and girls. I was hooked. Completely and utterly.In the meantime, I flunked Latin and algebra, acted in some school plays, fought the neighbor's boy, and made several unsuccessful att¬empts to go to Mars a la John Carter.
Then we went East, and the Fateful Day arrived.
It dawned quite simply. The sun shone, the little birds were doing their stuff, all was quiet and serene. I got out of bed...
There was a muffled thunder of psychic drums. Boston quaked to foundations. And I said to myself:
"Brackett, you're thirteen. Time you thought about things. The days of piracy are over, smuggling has degenerated into boot-legging, and cowboy-ing seems to have lost its siren charm. What's it to be, the life Work?"
Brackett struggled with this for a long time — five minutes at least. And then,
"I have it! You get good marks in Eng. Lit. You read incessantly. Composition is a snap. Writing is easy. In fact, it's so easy it'll be almost a pity to take money for it.
"Brackett, your future is assured,You will be a writer. "Uh huh. Gruesome, isn't it? My only excuse is that I was young. and no one had ever kicked me very hard.
I wrote a novel, an intensely dramatic problem piece. I wrote short stories. Then two more novels.
They made a horrible stench, burning. My one consolation is that wrote them in longhand, which in my case is practically illegible, mid I think the editors simply stuck rejection slips on them, of necessity, without reading.
We came West again. I entered school, and took a course in writing on the side. It did some good, but not much Besides, I was bitten by the acting bug about this time and spent most of my waking hours in the school auditorium.
hours in the school auditorium.
This eventually resulted in my placing second for dramatic reading in the Festival of Arts and Sciences, and teaching speech and dramatics for a year at an up-coast school.
I taught swimming as well during the summers, and had an idea I might be a physical instructor. But writing had become chronic. I couldn't shake it. I turned out incredibly bad stories in every spare moment.
Now we come to the tragic, soul-searing period inevitable in the life of every struggling artist, the time when he's sure his Muse has deserted him for good. If, indeed, the gal was ever around. In nine years I hadn't sold a word. I was beating my head against a wall, with no way over or around. Writing was easy. Ha!
Then, just as I was poised on the edge of a cliff, with a rope around my neck, a bottle of poison in one hand and a gun in the other, Fate stepped in. I found a teacher, heaven bless him. I found a writer willing to help. I found an agent, ditto. I decided life wasn't so bad after all.
Behold me now, laboring in my garret, which overlooks the city of Los Angeles. I've sold a dozen stories. Not much, but a beginning. And some day, maybe...
That just about finishes this uneventful chronicle. If physical statistics are of interest, I'm tallish, fairish, and mildly insane on the subject of beach volley-ball. I still read. I like eating and sleeping, dislike hats and cats, and dream of globe-trotting.
There's just one more thing — a very important thing. I hope you enjoy "No Man's Land..." It's the first story I've sold to AMAZING STORIES, but I hope, I do sincerely hope, that it will not be the
last. — Leigh Brackett.
This is also reprinted at the end of Haffner's Martian Quest the Early Brackett.
Short piece on how she grew up loving adventure stories, Burroughs, Haggard etc., and became a writer.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Amazing Stories, June 1941
IN quite undramatic fashion, I began by being born. Place, Los Angeles, California. Date, December 7, so few years ago that darned little has had time to happen. Ancestry, Scots-English. I weighed ten pounds, had black hair, and a strident personality, especially during the wee sma' hours.
The next few years are somewhat hazy, except that I was very naughty and had an uncanny faculty for imitating dialect. The family was never quite sure whether it had hatched out a Chinese cook or an Italian fruit man.
At an early age I discovered books. It was a sad day for the family. It's a mournful tradition with us that if you want to get me out of a book, you've got to use a good-sized percussion cap.
Presently I was put into a small school in Santa Monica. I may say, with a pardonable blush, that I was the second worst brat on the campus. The worst one had a head start — she was a year older.
This I call my beachcombing period. I lived at the shore, acquired an indelible tan and a mop of straw-colored hair — the black fuzz I started out with having apparently made a mistake. I didn't grow scales and gills, but the fish all called me by my first name.
By this time several alarming characteristics had appeared in me. I was crazy over dogs. I'd have had a dozen or so, if the family hadn't sternly refused to cooperate. I had a nice taste in Elizabethan oaths, garnered from pirate stories. I wavered between four desperate alternatives: whether to be a smuggler like Jim Davis, a pirate like Blackbeard, an all-round daredevil like Douglas Fairbanks, who was my idol, or just to settle for cowboys'n' Indians.
And I discovered "imaginative fiction." There was apprehensive shaking of heads among the female relatives. Attempts were made to save me. But it was too late. I devoured Burroughs, Haggard, Balmer and Wylie, Doyle's unforgettable "Maracot Deep," Jules Verne. Yes, boys and girls. I was hooked. Completely and utterly.In the meantime, I flunked Latin and algebra, acted in some school plays, fought the neighbor's boy, and made several unsuccessful att¬empts to go to Mars a la John Carter.
Then we went East, and the Fateful Day arrived.
It dawned quite simply. The sun shone, the little birds were doing their stuff, all was quiet and serene. I got out of bed...
There was a muffled thunder of psychic drums. Boston quaked to foundations. And I said to myself:
"Brackett, you're thirteen. Time you thought about things. The days of piracy are over, smuggling has degenerated into boot-legging, and cowboy-ing seems to have lost its siren charm. What's it to be, the life Work?"
Brackett struggled with this for a long time — five minutes at least. And then,
"I have it! You get good marks in Eng. Lit. You read incessantly. Composition is a snap. Writing is easy. In fact, it's so easy it'll be almost a pity to take money for it.
"Brackett, your future is assured,You will be a writer. "Uh huh. Gruesome, isn't it? My only excuse is that I was young. and no one had ever kicked me very hard.
I wrote a novel, an intensely dramatic problem piece. I wrote short stories. Then two more novels.
They made a horrible stench, burning. My one consolation is that wrote them in longhand, which in my case is practically illegible, mid I think the editors simply stuck rejection slips on them, of necessity, without reading.
We came West again. I entered school, and took a course in writing on the side. It did some good, but not much Besides, I was bitten by the acting bug about this time and spent most of my waking hours in the school auditorium.
hours in the school auditorium.
This eventually resulted in my placing second for dramatic reading in the Festival of Arts and Sciences, and teaching speech and dramatics for a year at an up-coast school.
I taught swimming as well during the summers, and had an idea I might be a physical instructor. But writing had become chronic. I couldn't shake it. I turned out incredibly bad stories in every spare moment.
Now we come to the tragic, soul-searing period inevitable in the life of every struggling artist, the time when he's sure his Muse has deserted him for good. If, indeed, the gal was ever around. In nine years I hadn't sold a word. I was beating my head against a wall, with no way over or around. Writing was easy. Ha!
Then, just as I was poised on the edge of a cliff, with a rope around my neck, a bottle of poison in one hand and a gun in the other, Fate stepped in. I found a teacher, heaven bless him. I found a writer willing to help. I found an agent, ditto. I decided life wasn't so bad after all.
Behold me now, laboring in my garret, which overlooks the city of Los Angeles. I've sold a dozen stories. Not much, but a beginning. And some day, maybe...
That just about finishes this uneventful chronicle. If physical statistics are of interest, I'm tallish, fairish, and mildly insane on the subject of beach volley-ball. I still read. I like eating and sleeping, dislike hats and cats, and dream of globe-trotting.
There's just one more thing — a very important thing. I hope you enjoy "No Man's Land..." It's the first story I've sold to AMAZING STORIES, but I hope, I do sincerely hope, that it will not be the
last. — Leigh Brackett.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
The Connoisseur's Guide to the Scripts of the Star Wars Saga - Bjorn Wahlberg
Includes some notes on what Brackett did on The Empire Strikes Back.
4.5 out of 5
http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/writings/cguide.htm
4.5 out of 5
http://www.starwarz.com/starkiller/writings/cguide.htm
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Leigh Douglass Brackett - Kevin Burton Smith
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/brackett.html
A multi-media bibliography, detailing her work of interesting to crime fiction people.
4 out of 5
A multi-media bibliography, detailing her work of interesting to crime fiction people.
4 out of 5
The Unclassifiable Leigh Brackett - James Sallis
http://www.grasslimb.com/sallis/GlobeColumns/globe.09.brackett.html
A shortish overview type article.
3.5 out of 5
A shortish overview type article.
3.5 out of 5
Leigh Brackett Much More Than the Queen of Space Opera! - Bertil Falk
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue250/brackett1.html
A lengthy article about her career and life.
4.5 out of 5
A lengthy article about her career and life.
4.5 out of 5
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