The Office of Letters and Light Blog

Writer Fuel: Baked Macaroni and Cheese

I have been in serious need of writer fuel lately, as I have been working on my MFA thesis, which is a collection of short stories. As readers of this blog know, I am a big fan of sweet things. Dessert food just seems to go with writing better than any other food. (Maybe it’s just the sugar?) But every now and then I get a craving for the ultimate savory comfort food: mac ‘n’ cheese. So I baked up a batch last weekend, and have been living on it for the past week. Must be great writer fuel because I managed to finish up 180 pages, and submit the first draft of the thesis yesterday.

Here’s my favorite mac ‘n’ cheese recipe, and be sure to share your own in the comments!

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Everything Must Go

A few of us have written about movie adaptations on this blog—most recently Water For Elephants, which the office took a field trip to see last month. But, I am really intrigued when short stories get turned into movies. There are quite a few, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Brokeback Mountain, and Minority Report. Check out a whole list here. And I wonder, how does a screenwriter expand a short story into a full-length movie?

I was thinking about this because of the new movie Everything Must Go, which is based on a Raymond Carver story. After watching the trailer, it seems that there have been a lot of drastic changes from the short story. (You can read the entire Carver story here.) The writer/director, Dan Rush, has apparently added additional characters and scenes, and the main character develops deeper relationships. The whole story runs about 2,100 words, so it makes sense that it would need to be expanded to work as a film. But it seems like it would be incredibly difficult to decide what to expand on without knowing the author’s  intent.

I’m looking forward to seeing this one, and figuring out how the story worked as a jumping-off point. What other short story-to-film adaptations have you seen? Which ones work, and why? Which ones definitely don’t?

30 Posters, 30 Days: Recap

We made it to the end of another Script Frenzy! And for the first time in our five-year history, we ran 30 Posters, 30 Days. Here’s a quick snapshot of all the posters from this month, and you can see them in closer detail here. Thanks to everyone who submitted a script (we received over 600 nominations!) and a big thanks to all of our designers who so generously donated their time and created 30 amazing posters.

With the help of John Gall, we’ll be back in design action this November with 30 Covers, 30 Days for NaNoWriMo! Until then, keep your eye out for good design, and start thinking about your NaNo plot!

30 Posters, 30 Days: Day 30

Nate Duval designed this poster in 24 hours:

Dave Wilson, a film by mattferrett

Logline: Workaday loser Dave Wilson embarks on a bizarre journey when his hometown is invaded by a horde of himself from countless parallel dimensions.

Dave Wilsons from different dimensions can vary from near-exact lookalikes, to bizarre non-humans from wildly different universes. Our workaday loser Dave Wilson is guided by a brilliant inventor Dave Wilson, hoping to stop a ruthless madman, dictator Dave Wilson.

The power-hungry dictator Dave Wilson (dubbing himself “Dave Wilson Prime”) plans to mate with a female Dave Wilson… a cross-dimensional paradox which will result in the creation of a parallel universe of nothing but Dave Wilsons. D.W. Prime plans to enslave that universe of Daves as a personal army to conquer the multiverse.

Our two hero Daves must cross dimensions and recruit as many Daves as possible to stop DW Prime before it’s too late. Their motley crew includes Plant Dave Wilson, Dave Wilsonasaurus Rex, Mecha-Dave Wilson, and Octo-Dave Wilson.

Nate Duval is an illustrator, printmaker, and designer living outside of Boston, MA. His client list includes Nike, Sierra Nevada, Phish, Iron & Wine, Blue Q, Sweet ‘N Low, and many others. nateduval.com

30 Posters, 30 Days: Day 29

Tim Gough designed this poster in 24 hours:

Cursed Wings, a film by Alyxyndyr

Logline: Daisuke Toukagen all of a sudden finds himself with black wings coming out of his back, and the title of the town legend on his shoulders. But will he actually follow through and listen to his parents’ wishes for him to be the Guardian of the Museum, or use his newly found talents to steal from the very museum he was chosen to protect?

Daisuke Toukagen thought nothing of the town legend of the Guardian of the Museum, despite the fact that his family used to own the museum, and his best friend’s obsession with it. The dark angel—as some called it—acted as a night guard of sorts, throwing thieves into a large iron cage in the front of the museum for the police to take care of in the morning. However, his father—the current night guard—told him the story was ridiculous. So Daisuke thought nothing of it… until large, black, angel-like wings grew out of his back.

After a rather large attack on the museum, during which his father gets gravely injured, Daisuke is suddenly alone in the museum at night. Will he become the Guardian of the Museum like his parents want him to be? Or will his talents as a thief cause him to steal from the museum rather than protect it? And why does it seem like the thieves are more interested in defeating him, than actually stealing?

Tim Gough has been working in Philadelphia as a designer/art director for various agencies and design firms for the past eight years. His art is influenced by the screen printing process and mid-century graphics. In 2007 Tim left the agency life behind to pursue illustration and art full time. His work has been found in books, magazines, newspapers, and other ephemera nationwide and abroad. www.timgough.org

30 Posters, 30 Days: Day 28

Peter Buchanan-Smith designed this poster in 24 hours:

How Bud and Earl Saved the World, a stage play by crazed.actor

Logline: Sheriff’s Deputy Bud and redneck friend Earl are convinced that their local truck stop and diner in the desert of West Texas is the potential landing zone for an alien invasion.

Bud is a Sheriff’s Deputy out in the middle-of-nowhere West Texas. Earl, his best friend, is a fixture at the truck stop and diner which is the social center of the town. Bud has become convinced he is witnessing flying saucers on a nightly basis, and is concerned about the potential consequences if he’s correct. Bud confides in Earl, whose reaction would be somewhat understated as “skeptical.” Nonetheless, Earl grudgingly agrees to go saucer-hunting with his friend, if for no other reason than to prove that Bud’s imagination has run away with him. But an (unexplained?) encounter in the desert makes Earl a true believer, hell-bent on convincing the world—or at least the local news—that we’re under attack.

Peter Buchanan-Smith is a New York–based designer, author, and entrepreneur whose career has included art direction of the New York Times; creative direction for Paper magazine; and work for fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi, musical legends David Byrne, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, and the band Wilco. His first tome, Speck: A Curious Collection of Uncommon Things explores the fascinating lives of ordinary people and commonplace objects. This connection between people and objects is also at the heart of Buchanan-Smith’s most recent venture, Best Made Co.

The Great Gatsby

I’ve been re-reading The Great Gatsby, which I haven’t read since high school. I’m reading it for a class called “Style in Fiction” which makes perfect sense, since the book is so stylistic. (It’s really amazing, actually!) I don’t remember loving the book in high school. I didn’t dislike it either. It just didn’t leave an impression on me. But now I am absolutely loving it, and wondering why I didn’t love it in high school.

I was talking about this with one of my professors, who suggested that it was because books are often taught differently in high school. In high school there is a sense that everything in a book is symbolic. Everything has to mean something. I’ve always thought this was the wrong way to read because it makes kids think that a book is a puzzle that must be solved. If they don’t “get it,” they might end up hating reading because they feel like they are doing it wrong.

There’s really no wrong way to read a book. (And thankfully, in the MFA world, multiple interpretations are encouraged.) Most books aren’t meant to be symbolic (sure, many books have a metaphorical meaning that goes beyond what is on the page, but it’s not so black and white; like this means that) and I think we’re doing a great disservice to kids by teaching books this way. In fact, I wonder if kids are still taught that in high school? Maybe things have changed since my day.

So my questions for you—What books did you read in high school that you’ve changed your opinion on since? And for all you teachers out there, how do you teach classic literature to your students?

30 Posters, 30 Days: Day 27

Brian McMullen designed this poster in 24 hours:

Just Misunderstood, a film by Aratos

Logline: The league of evil doctors experience a breakdown in trust in the aftermath of a caper gone very, very right.

The League of Evil Doctors—Dr. Gentleman, a mad scientist in a lab coat, welding goggles, and top-hat; Dr. Dilemma, a mad philosopher; Dr Procrastination, a man so lazy he developed psychic powers to avoid having to work; and a variety of other evil geniuses (plus Dr. Freud)—set out to pull off the ultimate criminal endeavor… and succeed! But as the evil doctors hide out in Dr. Gentleman’s secret underground lair awaiting the arrival of Captain Awesome, the world’s greatest superhero, tensions are high and mutual suspicion leads to the tragic and hilarious deaths of the entire group.

Brian McMullen is a writer and artist living in San Francisco. He works at McSweeney’s, where he recently edited and art-directed an issue of McSweeney’s Quarterly (#36) that looks like a human head.

30 Posters, 30 Days: Day 26

Jesse LeDoux designed this poster in 24 hours:

Framed, a film by withanee206

Logline: How do you find your way home when you don’t know when you are?

Ivan, Emma, and Zak begin the day on a school trip to the art gallery and end up sucked inside a painting from the 1500s. There they meet Rissa, a girl from 2206 who is holding the Game, and together they have to discover the answers to get themselves home.

If being stuck in a painting isn’t bad enough, the four are also being chased through the art movements by Cleo, Ten, and Jaleb. Thieves from Rissa’s time, they have been paid to steal the Game by a competing corporation.

From the late Renaissance, through the Baroque, Romanticism and Impressionist periods, the teens have to avoid the traps within the paintings as well as out-wit the gang closing in on them.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Jesse LeDoux worked for many years as an art director for Sub Pop Records where he created iconic album and poster artwork for such artists as the Shins, Iron and Wine, and Death Cab for Cutie before leaving in 2004 to focus on his work at LeDouxville. Parallel to working on commercial illustration and collaborative projects for such clients as Nike, Kidrobot, Giro, Penguin UK, Rome Snowboards and Target, he has exhibited internationally. He currently lives and works in Seattle, WA. www.ledouxville.com

30 Posters, 30 Days: Day 25

Kellie Rogers designed this poster in 24 hours:

Dead Letters, a film by zaise chsa

Logline: A newbie in the Dead Letter Office of the USPS must deliver a stack of unread letters from a Vietnam War soldier to his sweetheart.

A newbie at the Dead Letter office of the USPS finds a pile of unread letters from a young soldier in the Vietnam War to his sweetheart. The newbie—with the consent of his supervisor—decides to try and find either the sender or the receiver. To find the information needed to make the delivery, he must follow a trail through history that will test the boundaries he is willing to cross for someone he has never met.

Kellie Rogers is a native Washingtonian living in Seattle, WA. She studied graphic design at the Seattle Central Creative Academy and is now working at Amazon. You can see some of her work at www.kellierogers.com.

30 Posters, 30 Days: Day 24

Allen Lau designed this poster in 24 hours:

Snow Day, a film by lberry

Logline: A closet-computer programmer and the viola player he hopes to take to prom search for the hacker behind a series of escalating traffic accidents.

When Oliver hacked the school computer system in seventh grade, he had only meant to give his classmates a snow day. He hadn’t meant to get caught, and the last person he had expected to turn him in to the principal—as well as the police—was his own dad. So when they sentenced him to a public apology and the entire student body to an extra day tacked on at the end of the year, his reputation went from that of an anonymous hero to “target practice.” Though the bullying stopped as soon as the year came to a close, Oliver could never quite shake it.

Years later, Oliver is more than ready to graduate high school. His social status has never fully recovered, and he has walked on eggshells to avoid making any waves. His fascination with computers, as a rule, never leaves his room. And most of the time, he’s fine with it: it’s senior year, the atmosphere is nonchalant, and his main concern is asking the colorful viola player Coralie to the Winter Wonderland prom—that is, until the state government apprehends him in English class. Due to the seventh grade snow day fiasco, he knows his name has been on a list of criminal hackers for years; it’s just never been a problem before. Now he’s being questioned about traffic lights, of all things.

Though he is quickly found innocent, Oliver can’t seem to quell his curiosity. Someone has been messing with the stop lights, and already two people have died in resultant pile-ups. With the help of Coralie, he’ll search for the hacker behind the accidents. Perhaps along the way he’ll come to terms with the “snow day incident” and score a date for the prom, too.

Allen Lau is an Interactive Designer at Tether in Seattle. When he is not working, you can find him either watching obscure indie films, pondering on the mysteries of life, or bouldering at indoor rock climbing gyms. www.allenylau.com

30 Posters, 30 Days: Day 23

Sasha Barr designed this poster in 24 hours:

The Insignificant, a film by Gilli_

Logline: In 2048 cloning is perfected. In 2053 nearly everyone in the United States has one in case of emergency. These are The Insignificant.

The script follows a clone, 35118X2, just after his original, Chris Ambler, suffers a grave injury. After giving up most of his blood, 32118X2 is taken back to his holding tank in a vast warehouse filled to the brim with more tanks. We quickly realize he’s becoming self-aware. Under normal circumstances, clones are as dead to the world as something can be and still have a heartbeat, and are only around to be used as organ donors for their originals.

He begins seeing flashes of memory from his original. He sees a woman, Judy, Chris’s fiancee, over and over again. He soon develops the feelings Chris has for her and longs to see her, to touch her.

He also realizes that he isn’t alone. He can see the world around him through the thick pinkish/clear liquid nutrients the clones are kept in, and begins to feel outrage and sadness at how they’re being used as organ donors and how he’ll never be able to feel the sun warming his skin. Or the grass between his toes.

Sasha Barr is a designer/illustrator originally from the hills of Tennessee, currently living in Seattle. WA. For the past ten years he has designed posters, rearranged text, and generally made things pretty. He is currently an art director for Sub Pop records as well as co-owner of Wonder Thunder, a screen-printed textile company. He spends his free time skateboarding and manhandling his two cats. You can see his work here: www.thisisthenewyear.com; here: wonderthunder.etsy.com; and here: www.subpop.com