So we already talked about the One Act that represented the first 11 pages of my Screnzy 100. But what is the bulk of my page count about.

Script #2: The Muppet Play

When I was in college, a year after I wrote The Author, I started another novella. I was going along pretty good with it when my adviser told me that novellas were a waste of time. Now this whole conversation was much longer and was mostly about The Author but the end result was that I walked away realizing that the story I was working on wasn’t going to be long enough to be a novel but was too long for a short story so, like The Author, it was going to be “unpublishable.”

So from 2002 to 2010, the story of that novella has been gestating in my head. Amusingly enough, the story is about someone who is many years out of college, trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. This is funny, of course, because when I started it, I was still in college and thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life. Now, I am actually in the same place as the characters which makes it that much easier to write. Of course, I know what I want to do with my life but, handily, my brother does not so I have many hours of conversations with him on this topic to draw upon. So, in many ways, it’s better I waited as I am more equipped to write this story now then when I started it.

I also went back and forth over the years as to whether the story should stay prose or become a stage play. In recent years, I’ve leaned much more towards making it a play though I still go back and forth. I figured if I committed to writing the whole thing as a play, at least I’d have the whole story down and could more easily convert to prose later if I wished. So I decided to make this my Screnzy play this year. It has a working title but let’s call it The Muppet Play for blog purposes.

Because, see, the play also deals with the Muppets. Of course, on the surface, the Muppet connection isn’t apparent. The story isn’t about the Muppets and, aside from one character that is a fan, they aren’t really a part of the story. But, to me, the Muppets are what this play is about. I think of this play as “Riffs on The Muppet Movie and Especially I’m Going to Go Back There Someday.” I’m Going to Go Back There Someday is a song that Gonzo sings in the film and it is very deep and abstract and the best way I can explain this play is that I listened to that song and this play is my interpretation of what that song means to me. If for some reason you have never heard this, greatest of Muppet songs, you can listen to it here.

I wasn’t sure how long this play would be, especially since it was originally written to be a novella but the 45 page mark was the end of Act 1 so I certainly seems like it will be near the 100 page mark all told. I am still not 100% sure that a stage play is the best way of doing this story but its working so far.

Of course, this play needs to be all about subtly and understated things to work and as you may expect, my first draft is very bull in a china shop but I’m OK with that. Second Draft Hillary is a much better writer than First Draft Hillary, what’s important now is getting it all down. I have my moments where I am afraid I’m not a good enough writer to pull this play off but I think parts of it are very good and it has the potential to be really great once finished.

So, anyway, as promised, that is what I am working on for Script Frenzy. As you see my page count change these last days of the challenge, know that The Muppet Play is what I am working on.

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• No related posts.

OK, I numbered all of your comments on my One World One Hearth give-a-way and let a random number generator pick a winner so I couldn’t play favorites.

So the winners are…. (drum roll, please)

Thank you to everyone who played and thank you for stopping by my blog! It was lovely meeting all of you.

If you haven’t already subscribed to this blog or followed me on Twitter (@HillaryDePiano) so we can keep in touch, please do so!

And if you didn’t win a copy of The Love of Three Oranges or The Author, you can grab one on Amazon.

You may also enjoy these related posts. . .

• One World One Heart 2010: Win a copy of The Author or The Love of Three Oranges just by leaving a comment below!
• I’m randomly in a book. . . that I didn’t write! I’m quoted in Magic Words: A Dictionary
• The Love of Three Oranges opera & my play are both based on the commedia scenerio of the same name

So my friend Diana (who makes freaking awesome jewelry, you should check her stuff out over here) gave me a heads up about One World One Heart, which is basically a yearly community building web tradition. The idea behind it is, you offer something as a free prize and Lisa from A Whimsical Bohemian adds you to the directory of participating sites. Therefore, other participants and just people looking for a free give-a-way will come and visit your site giving you a chance to find new readers, meet new people and discover new blogs.

If you have a blog, all you need to do to play along is to post about your give-a-way on your blog. The official entry details can be found here.

If you don’t have a blog or otherwise have nothing to give-a-way, you can still play along by entering some of the give-a-ways and getting some free stuff. People like free stuff, it’s a fact.  Just go to this page and pick any site from the list on the right hand navbar. There are some really cool crafts and other nifty stuff up for grabs so it’s worth a look. And you may find some cool new blogs to follow and people to chat with online.

So, that’s what’s going on. As you likely guessed from the title, I’m going to join in this little web party myself.

For those of you only visiting for One World One Heart, let’s take a moment to get to know each other. Hi! I’m Hillary DePiano. I’m a fiction and non-fiction author. I also am obsessed with The Muppets, The Sims and My Little Pony. These things keep me off the streets. Over here on this blog (Unpublishable Pennings) I write about writing but I actually write for several other blogs including The Whine Seller (e-commerce and selling online), My Little Pony Collecting.com (take a wild guess what that one is about) and The Cult of Cummings (voice-over actor Jim Cummings fan site.) I’m also on Twitter here and Facebook here. Feel free to fan or follow me on either and say hello!

The book I am most known for is The Love of Three Oranges which is a play (for the theatre) that has been performed all over the world. My newest book is The Author which is a novella that is part mystery, part thriller, part comedy. It’s won some awards so apparently people like it. I have other books but these are the two that are up for grab today. You can see the full list of the books I’ve written here.

Here are the terms of my give-a-way:

• I am going to pick two random winners from the people who comment on this post. 
• The only rule is that, in your comment below, you have to introduce yourself. It can be only a few sentences but, since the point of this is to get to know other bloggers, just give me an idea of who you are, what you do and where I can find you (link to blog, Twitter, etc).
• Those two winners will have their choice between a printed copy of The Author (my newest book, a novella) or The Love of Three Oranges (a play and also my oldest book). 
• Your comment has to contain valid contact info so I can contact you if you win. My comment system lets you log in through just about anything so just make sure it’s a valid email address, link to your site or Twitter, Facebook, whatever otherwise I won’t be able to contact you to send you the prize. You don’t have to post it in the comment, as long as you log in with valid info, I can see it on the admin side. Just no made up info is all I ask. 
• The contest is worldwide. Anyone from anywhere can enter. I will mail the winner a copy of the book they choose.
• My family cannot enter (sorry). But since this is totally random, my friends can enter if they want since it will be impossible for me to show favoritism. Enemies may also enter if they so desire. So as long as you are not closely related to me, jump on in!

Keep in mind that everyone who comes to this blog will read your comments so you aren’t just introducing yourself to me, you’re introducing yourself to The World so keep that in mind.

So, as we covered, I’m Hillary. And you are. . .

You may also enjoy these related posts. . .

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I logged into my GoodReads account today and noticed a really nice new review of The Author that was posted by one of the giveaway winners:

I’ve never read anything by Hillary DePiano……… I won a copy of this book in a giveaway. It was an awesome novella. I couldn’t put it down! As an added bonus, she signed the copy I received I definitely recommend this book to people who LOVE page-turners. Thumbs up!

Thanks to Chris for that really nice review! You can see the original post here.

I was also pleasantly surprised that another giveaway winner posted reviews of The Trading Assistant’s Assistant on GoodReads, Amazon and her own blog which was incredibly kind of her! You can read her review on her review blog here.

If you have read either of these books and have a spare second to review it on Amazon, GoodReads or your personal site, it would be very much appreciated!

Haven’t read either book? Well, copies of both are available on Amazon right now (The Author is also available for the Amazon Kindle, iPod Touch and iPhone) so why not grab a copy.

Short on cash right now? No problem. You can get started reading The Author for free via audio book right here. The rest of the book will be posted soon so you can go through the entire book without paying a cent.

You may also enjoy these related posts. . .

• The Author now available for Amazon Kindle, iPod Touch and the iPhone
• One World One Heart 2010: Win a copy of The Author or The Love of Three Oranges just by leaving a comment below!
• In a month, Happy Birthday to me means a present for you!

Huge thanks to anyone who took the time to enter the book giveaway I was running in partnership with GoodReads! I was really pleased in how much interest there was in this contest so I definitely plan on hosting another giveaway in the future (maybe for Christmas?) so please let me know below what you’d like to see in a future giveaway so that I can make it better.

There were a total of 983 people who entered the contest which is a good 980 more people than I was expecting so, again, thanks for passing the word to those who did!

Now, I’ll bet you are dying to know who won. Let me go ahead and end the suspense right now and offer a hearty congratulations to the winners!

The links below are to the winner’s GoodReads profile so that you can friend them if you wish. Keep in mind that GoodReads selected the winners, not me, so don’t get mad at me if you didn’t win as I had nothing to do with it!

The following people won copies of The Author (this giveaway was the only one for 5 copies)

• Cody Murphy
• Chris Tuttle
• Liz Dranow
• Miranda Galbraith
• Arlene Purcell

The winner of the copy of The Love of Three Oranges was Ariel Richardson.

The winner of the copy of The Trading Assistant’s Assistant was Bev ethington

Huge congratulations to the winners! Your copies will be shipping out today so you should be getting them soon.

If you missed out on this giveaway, don’t worry! Not only will I be sure to do another giveaway in the future, you can always get these books at any time from bookstores like Amazon.

PS: If you aren’t my friend on GoodReads yet, why the heck not? Friend me here.

You may also enjoy these related posts. . .

• In a month, Happy Birthday to me means a present for you!
• One World One Heart 2010: Win a copy of The Author or The Love of Three Oranges just by leaving a comment below!
• Want a free copy of The Love of Three Oranges?

My birthday is just about a month away and I thought I might try something fun.

It’s my birthday but I am going to give you the presents! I have partnered with GoodReads to do a special giveaway of some of my most popular books. These giveaways are free to enter and end on my birthday (October 16th).

GoodReads handles the drawings to make sure there is no funny stuff so if you aren’t a remember yet, you can create a free account now. Once you have logged into your account, you can click the big Enter to win button on any of the giveaways below.

The drawing is random so it doesn’t matter how late or how early you enter so place your name in the hat now so you don’t forget.

You can enter drawings for all or just one of the books, it’s up to you! Increase your chances the more books you put in an offer for.

To enter the drawing for a particular book, click the relevant link below.

• The Love of Three Oranges
• The Trading Assistant’s Assistant: How to start a part-time job or full-time consignment drop-off business on eBay
• The Author

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that YOU are the one to win!

You may also enjoy these related posts. . .

• Want a free copy of The Love of Three Oranges?
• One World One Heart 2010: Win a copy of The Author or The Love of Three Oranges just by leaving a comment below!
• Congratulations to the winners of my Birthday Book Giveaway!

I really wanted to release the audiobook of The Author on Podiobooks because I have heard such great things about them but, unfortunately, they can only do an all or nothing scenario with this book. In other words, unless I give them all four parts at once, they cannot put the book on the site. This is a huge pain in the buttocks.

When I started doing this project, I very much wanted to do the “serialized” part of serialized audiobooks so having to wait until the whole book is done wasn’t exactly part of my plan. So I have decided to make the best of the situation. While I will still release the book through Podiobooks when it is completely done, you, my loyal blog readers, get a chance to listen to it ahead of time on TalkShoe. Episodes will be posted as they are released (which will be the second they are done) so you’ll get them before anyone else.

I will definitely still release the book on Podiobooks once the entire thing is done so if you prefer to wait, be my guest. If you want to listen to the first section now, you can listen above or download it from this link.

When you are finished listening, please let me know what you think. If you are on Twitter, please add the hashtag #theauthor to your comments so that I can easily find them or just share your thoughts below. If you enjoy it, please tell a friend. I am giving this book away to get my name and work out there so the more people read it, the better.

I would like to have a question and answer show on TalkShoe after each episode so if you would be interested, please make sure that you are subscribed to the blog so you don’t miss that announcement. Also, you can subscribe to this podcast on TalkShoe via iTunes or RSS so you will be sure to know the second new episodes are available.

I worked crazy hard on this audiobook version so I really hope you like it.

You may also enjoy these related posts. . .

• Second Teaser Trailer for my book The Author: Eugene
• One World One Heart 2010: Win a copy of The Author or The Love of Three Oranges just by leaving a comment below!
• My 12 Step Guide for Succeeding at National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

OK, now that you have seen both of them, I’d appreciate your weighing in on which one you liked better. (If you watched Julianne when I first posted it, watch it again as I figured out how to up the quality significantly so it’s a lot clearer now.)

Which one did a better job of grabbing your interest? Which one worked better? Whose voice do you enjoy listening to more? Any feedback that you want to offer, please be my guest.

If you haven’t seen the videos yet, here they are again:

Julianne

Eugene

If you have read The Author already and are wondering, I have no plans to make a Libby trailer though I am trying to come up with one for Leslie. The problem with Libby is that I play both her and Julianne and I wasn’t sure how to make them sound different enough that it would read. Also, I feel like it goes against the plot to let Libby have her own.

As for Leslie, I have been trying to write something for him for weeks and I have nothing. If I do come up with something I will be sure to create one.

You may also enjoy these related posts. . .

• Second Teaser Trailer for my book The Author: Eugene
• One World One Heart 2010: Win a copy of The Author or The Love of Three Oranges just by leaving a comment below!
• My 12 Step Guide for Succeeding at National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

]]> http://www.hillarydepiano.com/2009/06/11/war-of-the-author-teaser-trailers-which-one-do-you-like-better/feed/ 0 http://www.hillarydepiano.com/2009/06/10/the-author-is-now-available-for-pre-order-on-amazon/ http://www.hillarydepiano.com/2009/06/10/the-author-is-now-available-for-pre-order-on-amazon/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:57:57 +0000 Hillary DePiano http://www.hillarydepiano.com/2009/06/10/the-author-is-now-available-for-pre-order-on-amazon/

While the print version of The Author isn’t technically available until Monday (June 15th, 2009), Amazon has started taking pre-orders for the book right now!

If you are eager to get your hands on a copy, you can go ahead and place your order now and they will ship it once the book is available. At $4.99, it makes a great little add-on to your order to reach the $25 minimum for free shipping!

Feeling super impatient? Order the Kindle version and you’ll have your copy in less than a minute!

Place your pre-order for the printed book below.

You may also enjoy these related posts. . .

• One World One Heart 2010: Win a copy of The Author or The Love of Three Oranges just by leaving a comment below!
• Nice reviews of The Author and The Trading Assistant’s Assistant from GoodReads
• I’m randomly in a book. . . that I didn’t write! I’m quoted in Magic Words: A Dictionary

I am please to present the second teaser trailer for The Author.

The visual is exactly the same as last time so don’t get too excited. The difference is that this time it’s from the perspective of Eugene. Getting this one done was a bit of logistics nightmare because my Eugene lives out of state but we got it done and I think it isn’t half bad.

Please watch below and let me know what you think. Comments and YouTube star ratings are much appreciated.

You may also enjoy these related posts. . .

• War of The Author Teaser Trailers: Which one do you like better?
• Listen to Part 1 of The Author for free today!
• First Teaser Trailer for my book The Author: Julianne