CONSPIRACY THEORIES

I know I've touched on the Cold War espionage and racial themes of my novel "SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY." But I haven't really touched on the conspiracy theory element of my book.

What makes me think of this is I was contacted on Christmas day by someone who had purchased my novel on line. The individual claimed to have studied REMOTE VIEWING (a central element of my book) with the army. This person even mentioned having met the late INGO SWANN, a renown psychic who I believe had worked for the CIA's STARGATE PROGRAM (psychic spies). 

The interesting thing is this person lives in Los Angeles (where I currently reside). 

Originally, it was after talking to someone I knew who had been a CIA agent, that I decided to move forward and write my book. My contact assured me that the CIA's psychic spy program had been real and that some of the operators they had working for them were downright spooky.

While I was writing my book, I tried to contact people who had been involved with government psychic spy programs during the Cold War. A former Interpol agent who had been stationed in Munich during the old days, was even trying to put me in contact with a former member of the STASI (the East German Secret Police). I finally put out a posting worldwide on Craigslist of all places. I was contacted by a number of interesting people. Some I suspected were spying on me (they wanted to know if anyone else had contacted me and, if so, who).

It was a very paranoid phase for me during the development of my book. 

So... I'd like to go on the record and say here and now...

I BELIEVE JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY WAS KILLED BY A JOINT CIA/ MAFIA TASK FORCE KNOWN AS PROJECT MONGOOSE, AFTER JFK SAID HE WOULD NO LONGER TRY TO OVERTHROW CASTRO (THE OBJECTIVE OF PROJECT MONGOOSE). LEE HARVEY OSWALD DID NOT ACT ALONE (IF AT ALL). 

I BELIEVE MARILYN MONROE WAS GIVEN A DRUG OVERDOSE FROM THE MAFIA IN A CIA CONDONED OPERATION, BECAUSE SHE KNEW TOO MUCH ABOUT THE CIA/ MAFIA OPERATIONS.

I BELIEVE MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. WAS MURDERED BY THE CIA. NOTE: MLK WAS ONLY KILLED AFTER HE GAVE THE SPEECH TELLING YOUNG BLACK MEN NOT TO FIGHT IN THE WAR IN VIETNAM.

The Marilyn Monroe murder is covered in my novel. JFK and MLK's assassinations will be covered in subsequent novels in my SPOOK series.

My novel may be fiction, but I'm writing these historical events as I believe they had happened. 

To this day, the cover-up of these crimes continues to go on.

Checkpoint Charlie

     

THE GAME'S AFOOT

The game is definitely afoot as Sherlock Holmes was apt to say. 

"SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY" has been attracting a lot of interest. I know there are a few favorable reviews being written and hopefully soon I will be able to announce some good news about the novel coming to select book stores.

But right now I have something else on my mind. 

It was recently relayed to me from someone in my Hollywood circle, that I am an arrogant writer for not round-tabling "SPOOK" with other writers and taking their notes. This is a common practice in the Hollywood screenplay world. After nearly every meeting, everybody and their mother has notes for the writer. It's a form of writing by committee to make your script as commercial as humanly possible. 

I've never been a big fan of writing by committee, other than making changes for budgetary reasons or to further the director's vision. I wrote my novel with a young fresh editor because I wanted a young fresh look at a novel that, while set in the past, expounds on themes that are very relevant in America today. 

When I decided to start my company BROOKLYN APACHE PRESS I did so because I wanted to have freedom as an artist to write my novels my way. I also want my voice to be the voice of the unrepresented audiences out there. I want my lead characters to be Black or Spanish or Chinese or  Middle Easterner or female or old or Gay or young. In Hollywood, virtually every script is written for a white male lead. 

What a lot of people in Hollywood don't get is that I'M A FAN OF WHAT I WRITE! I never wrote a sci-fi script because sci-fi was in. I never wrote a horror pilot because "THE WALKING DEAD" is a runaway hit. I write my stories, whether script or novel, as a fan. I'm writing the kind of stuff I want to see. 

I think that makes me selfish more than arrogant.

I love SPOOK. I am a fan of it. Every single word is exactly the way I wanted. This is my voice. It's not going to be everybody's cup of tea. I don't expect it to be. But if you are a fan of this genre, I believe you will be entertained. 

I also hope it makes you think... and feel. 

If it does, then I've done my job.

THE SPOOK WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD

Well, "SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY" is finally out in paperback on Amazon. 

Later this week, I should have it out as an ebook on Kindle as well. I'm negotiating with a number of book stores which will carry my novel on their book shelves. 

I'm also in the beginning stages of working out a deal for an audio version of the book.

Other things are in the mix, but I can't talk about any of it just yet.

All I can say is that my creation has finally come in from the cold.

My book exists. I may not have big bucks marketing revenue behind me to promote it... and there are millions of books Online nowadays... but I truly believe a well-written and unique novel will be noticed. So...

Sooner or later, it'll find it's audience.

I'm banking on the sooner part.

WHY AN AFRICAN AMERICAN SPY?

People ask me two questions about my second novel.

1) WHY DID I WRITE A NOVEL ABOUT AN AFRICAN AMERICAN SPY?

It was important to me to write a story about an African American spy because it is becoming more and more apparent to me multicultural characters are woefully unrepresented in mainstream film, television, and literary entertainment. 

When I was a kid, I read comic books and science fiction, horror, and adventure novels. I can't remember any of the heroes of these works being Black. After a time, I started to see secondary characters and sidekicks who were Black or minority. But they weren't the heroes, and in many instances, they were weak cowardly characters. I felt like much of this was lip service. I loved the James Bond series of films. But James Bond did not look like me. Could only White men and women be spies? 

Even when Marvel Comics created the Black Panther, I still didn't really connect. What did I know about Africa? I was a city kid born and raised in Brooklyn. The only jungle I knew was made of concrete.

I guess the first comic book character I read who did reflect something close to my reality was Marvel's Luke Cage: Hero for Hire. 

I loved reading about characters, time periods, and worlds wildly outside my frame of consciousness when I was a kid. But I would have also liked to have read about characters who I could identify more heavily with. Characters who looked like me, came from my experience.

I would love for children of color growing up in America today to be able to read books that have characters in it that reflect their race and heritage. Part of African American's disenfranchisement with America today I believe comes from us feeling left out.

Amazingly enough the first character I really related to in cinema, was Ben (played by Duane Jones) in the 1968 "Night of the Living Dead." He was a strong Black man who didn't lose his head in the face of the zombie apocalypse. More importantly, I loved the fact that his race was never mentioned and was never even a factor in the film. He was simply a hero who happened to be Black. The brilliance of filmmaker George Romero was not in his creation of the modern day zombie, but in the brutal irony of Ben surviving the zombie onslaught, only to be shot dead by a redneck hick who thought Ben was a mindless zombie. The statement this made about our our society - which was only three years into equal rights for African Americans - was extremely powerful. 

The second question I receive on my book is: WHY THE TITLE SPOOK?

My answer is complex and reflects the duality of my novel. In 1964, discrimination based on race was banned in the United States (at least on paper). In 1965, a bill giving African Americans the power and protection to vote, was signed. Five scant years later we had uber-macho Black male anti-heroes spouting, "Honky pig" as they pummeled racist corrupt White cops in Blaxploitation movies like Shaft and Superfly. And Hollywood found box office gold as not only Black Americans, but also White Americans flocked to these films. 

Since my spy John Henry was a product of both the Cold War and the Civil Rights movement, I wanted him to reflect both. As a spy, John is a spook. As an African American man - in the eyes of the prevailing establishment of the day - he is also a spook. 

To me the double entendre is a central part of the theme of this work.

Whether I have failed or succeeded, "SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY" is meant to be a genre spy thriller that transcends its genre, segueing into important social commentary. 

Maybe even the statement I make about racism and race relationships will be as powerful as the one George Romero made in 1968, when he cast a Black man as a hero, without the need for his character to be Black.

Richard Roundtree as Shaft. As a young stuntman 

I had the pleasure of working with him.

    

 

HAPPY OCTOBER

October isn't just the month of my very favorite holiday HALLOWEEN, it's also BLACK SPECULATIVE FICTION MONTH!

HURRAY!

So, instead of just watching horror movies all month long (like I usually do), I'm going to surf the Web for science fiction, fantasy, and horror with diversity (I'm tired of seeing the token Black guy in the horror film get killed off first anyway). I'm also going to bone up on my reading in light of this dark month. Instead of reading Steam Punk, I'll read Steam Funk. Instead of reading Sword & Sorcery, I'll read some Sword & Soul.

Because it's a fact, Black and Multicultural Speculative Fiction (as well as Street Lit) is gaining in popularity, perhaps to reflect today's true ethnic landscape of America and the world beyond (Hollywood take note).

Also, on October 17th I will be the guest blog for Alicia McCalla's insightful blog:

MULTICULTURAL SPECULATIVE FICTION WITH HEROINES WHO FIGHT BACK

Don't miss it! I won't!

Boo!

SCHEDULE

Even though the weather in LA doesn't reflect it, Summer is over.

I've got one and a half months left to promote the hell out of (get it) "THE BLACK ALBUM: A Hollywood Horror Story." I'm also busy promoting "SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy" my upcoming novel (out November 17th). I would rather just write, but what good does it do you to write a book if no one knows it exists (it's like a tree falling in the woods). So I've got to market these little gems.

On an artistic note, I am very excited to have cracked a brand new storyline for my next novel "THE MOON BEAM RIDER." This is being adapted from a screenplay of mine that I was originally taking out with some people from the animated world. They wanted to produce it as a 3D animation movie. It was very PG, which isn't me. But now, I'm planning on turning it into a novel. MY first YA (young adult) book. This should appeal to tween and teen girls first and foremost. It's a novel about an overweight fangirl who transforms into a streamline heroine (the first book of this kind that I know of). I don't really like saying it's in the vein of "The Hunger Games," because it's totally different. But it should definitely appeal to that demographic and touch on some of the same themes. Plus, it will feature a very different kind of love story.

Anyway, I'm very happy to begin work on it. I'm hoping to have it finished by early 2015!

http://www.brooklynapachepress.com/spook.html

FREAK KING REVIEW OF SPOOK

Below is a review of my novel "SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy" by my colleague Beauregard Freidkin of the Midnite Review. I was counting on a good review from him by virtue of the fact he had read and endorsed my book. However, when I read the very first sentence of the review, I got a little queasy. Then it turned into my best review ever. Very glad. I worked hard on this.

BOOK REVIEW

By Beauregard Freidkin



While at first glance of the book cover - an angry Black man holding a smoking gun behind the title Spook - you may gasp at the political incorrectness and dismiss it as a blaxploitation version of a genre thriller. But if you did, you would be so wrong. "SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy" is so much more than just a spy novel with a paranormal twist. It's a meditation on racism, the duality of man, and lose of innocence. This novel is social commentary at its highest level disguised as science fiction.

The protagonist, John, is an African American who is a powerful remote viewer. He is also a tragic creation of the author's in that John, although used by the CIA as a psychic spy, is despised and hated by the men he works for. At the same time, because of John's clandestine alliance with the government, Black men and women of the period - shoeshine boys, maids, bathroom attendants, the labor force of America - sensing his difference, fear him. John is an outcast at every turn whose only acceptance ironically comes from the foreign psychic spies he is pitted against across Europe and behind the Iron Curtain. Conjointly, this Cold War era is also the decade of the Civil Rights and Peace movements, as well as the Women's Liberation movement, adding to the unpredictable powder keg of a setting.

The author, Carlton Holder, promises a series of books taking our tormented hero through the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, right up to the end of the cold War. I can't wait to see how John changes and is changed by an America in upheaval. Thanks for something different.

http://www.brooklynapachepress.com/spook.html

ON SALE NOVEMBER 17TH!

COMING SOON

POWER TO THE PEOPLE! 

Check out my novel in November. 

Don't be no jive ass turkey!

http://www.brooklynapachepress.com/spook.html

BACK ON THE BLOG

Summer is over, my world sojourns - or at least nationwide travels - are over for the moment (sadness).

AND...

I'm back behind my laptop again - like a mad scientist in his laboratory - (happiness).

In other words, I'M BACK ON THE BLOG!

I'm putting the finishing touches on the SPOOK TV PILOT script and will be going out to Networks with it, as well as directors.

The SPOOK novel will be released NOVEMBER 17TH 2014 and will be available on both the Internet and in SELECT STORES IN LOS ANGELES.

There are a few other things in the works, but I can't talk about them just yet.

On HALLOWEEN I'll officially release the SPOOK BOOK COVER SPREAD.

I'll also soon begin work on my third novel and first YA: "THE MOON BEAM RIDER." So I'm very excited about that.

ONE LAST NOTE...

I'M MAKING ADVANCE COPIES OF MY NOVEL AVAILABLE TO PUBLICATION BOOK REVIEWERS AND BOOK REVIEW BLOGGERS! So let me know if you're interested in reading it. I'm also going to be setting up interviews regarding the book.

TO ALL YOU OTHER CREATIVES OUT THERE... HAPPY PITCHING!!!

BACK ON THE BLOG

It's been awhile.

A little over two months to be exact.

My excuse is that I've been traveling: Orlando, Palm Springs, Vegas, and next month New York City. I've also been doing pre-promotion for my upcoming novel "SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy." The book drops November 17th and I'm getting advance copies to bloggers and book reviewers. I'm also doing an adaptation of it for the screen (big or small, I'm keeping my options open). In addition to that, I'm taking meetings with various movie types regarding the project (can't say much about that yet).

I'm also in the beginning stages of shooting a documentary (I'll cover that under my other blog).

Even though it'll be awhile before the book goes on sale, if you had been lucky enough :) to read my first book "THE BLACK ALBUM: A Hollywood Horror Story," I'll send you a free advance copy of my new book. All ya gotta do is ask.

I've been intentionally keeping any visuals regarding the cover for SPOOK under wraps, due to the sensationalistic ramifications it will likely have (although my editor Solange, bless her soul, did leak a photo of the cover on FB).

I'm still reaching out to newspaper and magazine book reviewers as well as TV show hosts to review and/or do a news piece on the novel. If you know any reviewers, I'd love to get them a copy of SPOOK.

I'll be in touch.

And next time I won't be away for so long.

                                      I am the great and mighty Thor the God of Thunder!

MATHALUH LIVES

Well, it's official. THE BLACK ALBUM is leaving the confines of this blog.

It grew beyond the pages of this blog and will once more have its own blog THE BLACK ALBUM MOVIE here at Blogger.

More info, footage, and details about what happened in those damn mountains is being released than ever before.

There's a lot going on with the project (including a possible documentary) as you will find out in the coming months.

MATHALUH LIVES!

Play it backwards.

Images courtesy of "The Black Album"

THE BLACK ALBUM TRAILER

BREAKING NEWS

Hi Friends,

Here's the latest breaking news. I just finished the manuscript for "SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy." It went to my editor for a final proofing. Then I will go over it one more time. In the meantime, I'm going to focus on the feature film adaptation of the novel, until the editor's finished her end.

My photo shoot is scheduled for this Friday and I am very happy with actor Arthur Clark who will appear on the book cover as my psychic spy and the talented photographer Taner Tumkaya who is going to shoot it.

As for the new feature film version of "THE BLACK ALBUM," we're planning a shoot in the bayous of New Orleans, Louisiana. My producing partners are in talks with Larry Brand ("Halloween: Resurrection") to direct. 

We have other cool stuff in store for this project as well as you'll find out in coming months.

Also, a new chapter of TBA will be up on Wattpad this weekend.

In two weeks, I will be starting on my third novel "THE MOON BEAM RIDER." I'm very excited to get to work on this one. I'm tempted to rent a cabin in the mountains for two months and just hold up there writing until it's all over. Or better yet, go back to Antwerp, Belgium and rent a flat on the centrum and look out at the cathedral everyday as I write.

Sigh... one day. Hopefully soon.

"I love zombies. I love zombies..." (sung to the "I love candy" tune).

Images courtesy of "THE BLACK ALBUM"

 

NEWS AND STUFF

Hi all,

I'm finally starting to get caught up with everything. So I'll give you the scoop project by project.


"THE BLACK ALBUM: A Hollywood Horror Story" Novel 

The new screamplay is out to a film financier who is trying to raise money for my producing partner and I to shoot. The new script is much scarier than the original. 

The book is on Wattpad as an ongoing serial. I released the FOREWORD, PROLOGUE, and CHAPTER ONE yesterday and will be releasing a new chapter every week.

Please check out and enjoy.

THE BLACK ALBUM: A Hollywood Horror Story 

Read Now

or open in Wattpad app: 46692527

"SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy" Novel

Thanks to my friend Casting Director Pamela Staton and my team, we will be shooting the photography for the book cover this coming Friday. So I should have the completed cover art about a week after that.

I will be finished the latest pass of the novel with my editor's notes. I will be handing it back to her for a polish, but that should not take more than a week and a half.

After that, I will be releasing advanced copies to reviewers, publishers, industry people.

I am also halfway through the screenplay adaptation of SPOOK.

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hallelujah!

"THE MOON BEAM RIDER" Novel

I'm starting to compile my notes for this, my next book. This will be my first teen fiction book. I actually started writing it in novel form a number of years ago. I believe I already have the first fifty pages written, although there will obviously be changes.

"DEATH DEFYER" TV Series

I can't say too much right now regarding this TV show I created and am trying to sell here in Hollyweird (my trials and tribulations), but some heavy-hitters may be coming aboard to join me and my producing partner.

Anyway, that's it for now. Have a great weekend everybody.

KEEP ON CREATING AND DON'T LET ANYBODY STOP YOU!

And remember: THE REVOLUTION WILL BE DIGITIZED!

Grace Lynn fights possession

Images courtesy of "The Black Album"

BACK COVER DESCRIPTION FOR SPOOK

Hi all,

Sorry I have been very remiss in my blogging duties. I believe it has been about two weeks. I won't let that happen again. But right now I am deep into the heart of the espionage world as I finish up my latest novel (I can't wait to get on to the next one. Each book is like entering a new world).  I have my photo shoot coming up for the book cover. I have a great actor to appear on the book cover as my Spook character thanks to my wonderful friend, casting director Pamela Staton. 

In the meantime, here's the backcover description for my soon to be finished novel:

 SPOOK

Confessions of a Psychic Spy

"THIS BOOK WILL ONE DAY BE REGARDED AS A TRULY UNIQUE GREAT AMERICAN SPY STORY! As unfathomable as it sounds, it's 12 Years a Slave meets 
Ian Fleming's James Bond."

-Beauregard Freidkin

Host of the MIDNITE REVIEW

In 1961, during the hottest days of the Cold War, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, in a time when the Superpowers are deploying psychic spies behind the Iron Curtain to engage in intrigue and espionage, the CIA discovers a man who just may be the most powerful remote viewer of them all: a Black prison convict named John.

Although they hate him because of the color of his skin, although they fear him because of his unnatural abilities, the CIA secretly ‘baptizes’ John into the world of espionage. From Montgomery, Alabama to Istanbul, Turkey, from the Orient Express to Washington, D.C., from Marilyn Monroe’s Los Angeles doorstep to the Cuban Missile Crisis countdown, John walks unseen through the annals of history, in its shadow.

And this is only book one.

UPCOMING TITLES

As I near the end of work on "SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy," I realize I'm trying to hold onto it. Prolong the project. This is a common dilemma for the writer. When I first moved to Los Angeles, I read a book on the art of writing screenplays. In it, the writer (I believe it was Syd Feld) said that as you near the end of your screenplay you may find yourself moving very slow. Holding on to it. This is because part of you loves writing this project and doesn't want to see it end. But part of the writer's process is to finish the project and move on to the next.  

Finishing a script or book is like saying goodbye to an old friend. But just as that is a bittersweet part of life, so is saying hello to a new friend.

Wow. I didn't know I was going to me so sentimental this morning. 

The other day I told someone that I write stories that I would love to see. That I am a fan of. The stories I don't see on TV or in the movie theaters. The stories Hollywood isn't telling. 

Anyway, that was my big lead in to the list of projects my indie publishing company Brooklyn Apache Press will be releasing in the coming months:

"THE BLACK ALBUM: A Hollywood Horror Story" (released 2013) Genre: Horror/Thriller

"SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy" (Release: Spring 2014) Genre: Spy/ Drama

"THE MOON BEAM RIDER" (Release: Summer 2014) Genre: Science Fiction/ Young Adult

"TEENAGE WASTELAND" (Release: Fall 2014) Genre: Science Fiction/ Young Adult

"MIDNITE REVIEW OF THE FREAK KING" (Release: Winter 2014) Genre: Science Fiction

"DEATH DEFYER" (Release: Winter 2015) Genre: Dark Comedy

"UNTITLED SPOOK NOVEL" (Release: Spring 2015) Spy/ Drama

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

On the run.

Images courtesy of "THE BLACK ALBUM"

NEW COVER FOR THE BLACK ALBUM

Hi all,

I just wanted to share the exciting new cover jacket for "THE BLACK ALBUM: A Hollywood Horror Story." I'm having great fun working with my new graphic designer Ki.

I am currently setting up the photo shoot for "SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy" and the "MOON BEAM RIDER." I may do both shoots simultaneously. I'm still in the planning stages and a friend of mine who is a Casting Director is helping me find the model for the "Spook" cover.

All I know is I'm having a great time building my publishing company, working with my editor on "SPOOK" (I'm hoping to have advanced copies for people in a few weeks), and living the American dream.

Have a great day everyone.

GAP BETWEEN WRITER AND AUDIENCE BECOMES EVEN SMALLER

Yesterday, I was introduced to an app that I really found pretty cool. I mean, they have an app for everything nowadays. But, for me, this one really piqued my interest. It's called WATTPAD (not sure why yet). It allows people to post ongoing serialized stories (you can post poems and other things, but I'm focusing on the storytelling aspect). What's even more interesting is that the audience can connect right back with the writer in the body of the story itself. 

I'm going to do a little more investigation, but I believe that as I write my next book, a YA novel called "THE MOON BEAM RIDER," I will post every 2,000 words on Wattpad (the entire novel should be about 60,000 words). I will also adjust my story according to the reactions of the readers into the finished work, which will be a book I release through Kindle Direct Publishing and CreateSpace.

I'll keep you posted. If you're already on Wattpad, start looking for my work. I should begin MBR in about three weeks.

OTHER NEWS

DEATH DEFYER

I'm finally beginning to assemble a team for my proposed TV series. I can't name names now, but it is looking good. Everyone really liked the rewrite I did of the pilot teleplay. I brought the storyline into the crime action world. 

SPOOK: CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHIC SPY

I'm halfway through the edit of the book with my editor. 

I'm also a third of the way through the tandem screenplay adaptation of the novel. 

I'm about to start prepping for the photo shoot for the cover art for SPOOK and MOON BEAM RIDER. Also getting ready to hire an artist to do the cover design.

Anyway, that's all the updates for now. It's such a long process writing a novel. I'm completing my second one now. When you're writing them, it seems like you're never ever going to be finished. Then one day, you just are. I'm close. The true excitement will come when I hold a copy of SPOOK in my hands. 

Thanks for reading.

Carlton Kenneth Holder

Ring-a-round a zombie

Images courtesy of "The Black Album"

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Below is an excerpt from the foreword of my upcoming novel "SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy." The foreword was written by Beauregard Freidkin aka The Freak King.

If I were to believe John Henry, and his every movement and expression seemed to ring true, the events he had been a party to, the secrets he had been privy to, were mind numbing. Incidents and information the superpowers have kept from the masses for decades. Secrets that would let us know just how fragile all our little lives really were. If the world only knew how many times we had flirted with the brink. How close we had stood to the edge and spit.

     
John said there was the known history of the world and then there was the history the superpowers unanimously agreed to keep hidden from us. The secret history of the world. A clandestine transcript that included historical assassinations, recovered alien beings, conspiracies on a global scale. My head felt like it was going to explode from all the things John offhandedly revealed to me. 

Things I don't dare believe. 

UNDERSTANDING CREATIVE FREEDOM

Hi all,

Creative freedom is the goal of all artists. Or is it? I think it depends on the project. At least for me. I have big action adventure scripts that require large scale budgets. On these projects, I am one hundred percent open to going in different directions with the material, as long as it still gets me excited about the project. Then, I have very small indie style screenplays that I plan to direct. I'm fiercely loyal to seeing those executed exactly as written.

On my very first script sale, I had a disasterous situation. I had written a "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" style script (years before CTHD) called "A BRIDGE OF DRAGONS." The actor who agreed to star in it, 'got' my script (Dolph Lundgren). Unfortunately the company who bought the script didn't. They just wanted to make a movie with DL. They were famous for shoot 'em up action films with helicopters and machine guns. Needless to say, I was unhappy with the result even though it became an HBO World Premiere movie and made lots of money. The company knew their niche.

I just finished a rewrite of the pilot for my TV series "DEATH DEFYER" that is now being well received. I took the storyline away from the movie industry and played up the humor, action, and crime element. Depending on what directors, company, and actors come into the project, I am open to changes. It could be more serious, or more humorous. I do believe it is a cable show because of the the R-rated content. I also see it as a serialized ongoing storyline, rather than an episodic series. 

However, when it comes to my novels, I am very particular about the vision of the projects. My editor makes suggestions and I am free to accept or reject them. I don't understand how a novelist could write by committee. 

To me it seems a very personal thing.

If you're going to put your thoughts and feelings into a world you create, you damn well better have some passion about it. 

There has been the temptation to submit "SPOOK" to agents and publishers, because I believe it is the best thing I've ever written. But I just couldn't imagine compromising, changing one single word unless I absolutely thought that word needed changing. "SPOOK" is my vision. I love it. If everyone in the world hated it, I would still love it. 

My company, BROOKLYN APACHE PRESS, is my universe. And I'll keep writing novels for it until the day I die. 

If they are hits, so be it.

If they languish in obscurity, so be it. 

SIN-cerely yours,

Carlton Kenneth Holder

The Demon Jeremy rising.

Images courtesy of "The Black Album"

IS FICTION A LIE THAT REVEALS THE TRUTH?

Humm...

Is fiction a lie that reveals the truth? I think that GREAT fiction is a lie that reveals the truth. So... it is and it isn't. If your goal is to create a summer tentpole popcorn action film, then you probably aren't interested in truth, merely money. And there's nothing wrong with that. If your goal is to write the great American novel, then it is. 

So, it's all about knowing what your goal is. Classic old TV shows like "STAR TREK" are prime examples of lies that revealed the truth about the times the writers of those shows, lived in. "Star Trek" broke new ground with the first televised interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura. The episode "City at the Edge of Forever" (written by one of my favorite writers Harlan Ellison), is a meditation on the greater good and whether the ends justify the means. In "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," aliens whose bodies were white on one side and black on the other side, waged a race war against one another based on what side you were black on and what side you were white on. 

Which - btw - is just as absurd as hating a person because they're Black, or from the Middle East, or Gay.

Which - btw - is just as absurd and racist as thinking writers of Color are inferior to White writers.

In my upcoming Cold War spy drama "SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy," I put a microscope to the American dream. In "Spook," we have a conflicted protagonist in John Henry. Because he is the world's most powerful remote viewer, the CIA is forced to use him, even though they hate him because he is Black. While fighting for democracy in foreign superpowers, John ironically enjoys more freedoms there, than he does in his home country which has a policy of apartheid towards Black people.

Just food for thought.

UPDATES:

"DEATH DEFYER"

I just finished a rewrite of the pilot script for my TV series I'm currently shopping to studio Hollywood with a producing partner. It's about a rogue group of stunt people who, blackballed by Hollywood, endeavor to create the most dangerous live action stunt show in the world. The only thing that stands in the way is themselves.

We're looking to assemble a team (director, EP, star actor) and so far have interest.

"THE BLACK ALBUM: A Hollywood Horror Story"

I had planned on doing a big push for TBA last Friday, but was waylayed by a cold that had me so congested, I couldn't sleep for days. I plan to pull more footage from the scarist movie you'll never see and post it Online.

I am talking to investors about a reboot of the movie and have rewritten the original screenplay. I'll keep you posted. 

"SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy"

I finished my first pass of the novel a few weeks ago and handed it off to my editor. I am starting to get back notes from her now. She really dug it and said what I hope everyone says, 'There has to be a sequel.' "SPOOK" is planned as a series of novels that takes our character from 1960 through the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties, until the end of the Cold War.

Like I said, this is my Ian Flemings' James Bond.

That's all for now.

SIN-cerely,

Carlton Kenneth Holder

"I see you!"

Images courtesy of "The Black Album"  

  

THANKS AMAZON AND GROUCHBAG

Hi all,

I have been so engrossed with editing my upcoming novel "SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy" and doing a rewrite of my TV pilot teleplay "DEATH DEFYER" (which there is now interest in), that I have totally neglected doing promotion for my first novel "THE BLACK ALBUM: A Hollywood Horror Story" (there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day).

However, Amazon is still doggedly promoting it. I received their promotional email this morning recommending my book. When I went to the sales page on Amazon, I found a new review on it. This is now my sixth FIVE STAR REVIEW.

What also makes this even sweeter is that the person who did the review, Grouchbag, is a ranked Amazon reviewer. I have to tell you, with a name like Grouchbag, I was a little hesitant to read the review. But I was happy I did.

Below is Grouchbag's reviewer:

"This book is everything a horror book should be. While I was reading it, I got a royal case of the creeps. Kenneth Holder is an excellent writer. I think it would be great if this book were made into a movie. I'd be one of the first to see it. Thank you Mr. Holder! I will be looking for more of your books."

Wow, writer's so rarely receive accolades. I have struggled as a writer for twenty years because I love writing so much. It has cost me a lot. To now finally bypass the gatekeepers of studio Hollywood and the publishing world, and go straight to the audience is truly one of the blessings of the Internet. 

I am honored by this review and thank Amazon and Grouchbag for their support. I plan to release many more novels through my newly founded publishing company Brooklyn Apache Press. 

I am going to dedicate this coming Friday to The Black Album. Indeed, it will be a Black Album Friday. I will do promotion, release excerpts from the novel and even attempt to put up another scene or two from the scariest movie you'll never see.

SINcerely yours,

Carlton Kenneth Holder

The Demon Jeremy reborn

Footage courtesy of "The Black Album"

THE HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE AND BOOK NEWS

THE HOLLYWOOD SHUFFLE

I've been living in Los Angeles a long damn time now. It's a maddening town. Selling a screenplay isn't so much about having talent and a great script as it is about having the right connections. People will disagree with me, but that's the truth. So the next time you see a two hundred million dollar turd on the big screen, you'll know why. I get mad when I see books about screenwriting in Hollywood or lectures, where the speaker says, "all you have to do is write a great script." They're not telling people the whole truth. It helps to have a great script. But that's only the beginning.

That being said, anything is possible. I'm a pessimistic optimist. If I wasn't, I would have moved out of LA long ago. Then again, it is nearly 80 degrees outside with blue skies and sunshine.

Finally, now with an independent producer I'm working with on the Paramount lot, things are starting to look promising. We're out with a TV show. Things are slowly starting to fall into place. But, we spent much of last year pushing a boulder up a mountain.

So, as jaded as I am, I'm also hopeful. Maybe this will be the one. If not, I will keep on trying.

"THE BLACK ALBUM: A Hollywood Horror Story"

Amazon has begun promoting the book, I'm looking for publications that will review it, and I've also rewritten the original screenplay. It's scarier and darker, delving even more into the psyche of the characters and what they're going through. After being persuaded, I'm pursuing a reboot of the movie either as an indie or a small studio horror film. We're currently out to some investors.

"SPOOK: Confessions of a Psychic Spy" 

I've finished writing the book and handed it off to my editor a week ago. So far - she's halfway through the book - I've gotten rave reviews from her. She really enjoyed TBA (or at least she told me she did), but she said she likes "Spook" way more. In a way, I feel like "Spook" is my first novel. I wrote TBA in a breezy pop culture kind of fashion. I wrote "Spook" like a novel. I hope it is regarded as an important piece of literature. 

While the editor is going through the book, I'm now planning a photo shoot for the book cover. Whereas, I just slapped something together for TBA, I really want the book cover for "Spook" to be slick, iconic and eye-catching.

I am curious how it's going to be received. After-all, as an African American, I have a book coming out with the image of a Black man on the cover and the title Spook. Then again, this novel is supposed to spark lively debate and explore hard issues that we don't want to discuss. 

As bizarre as it sounds, I describe "Spook" as "12 Years a Slave" meets "James Bond." And if you think I'm jumping on the "12 Years" bandwagon, know this, I'm adapting this novel from a screenplay I wrote over three years ago. 

Anyway, that's all the updates for now. In a few weeks, I will be writing my first YA novel and my creative wheels are already spinning in that direction.

Sincerely,

Carlton Kenneth Holder

The Hell Board

Images courtesy of "The Black Album"

  

LIKE A BAT OUT OF BROOKLYN

So... I've changed the name of my blog. Whereas formerly it was just about my first novel I published "THE BLACK ALBUM: A Hollywood Horror Story," it will now be about my life in Hollywood, as well as, the new novels I am coming out with and my road to exposing them to an audience. 

I hope everyone enjoys this blog and finds it entertaining and informative. I've been in Hollywood a long time, first as a successful movie stuntman, then as a struggling writer.

I've made a lot of mistakes. But then again, who hasn't?

I've followed an unusual path. But at least it was my own. Would I change some things if I could go back? Of course I would. But you can never go home again.

Why the title "Like a Bat Out of Brooklyn?" Many of you who've been to New York in recent years probably think, Brooklyn is a really cool place. They have vegan restaurants, brownstones, hip upwardly mobile people, but the Brooklyn I grew up in wasn't like that. The Brooklyn I grew up in was a dark, dangerous place. When I think of Brooklyn, images of Walter Hill's iconic "THE WARRIORS" movie comes to mind. It was a world full of predators. 

I ran and fought my way out of Brooklyn. It made me tough. Gave me a thick enough skin to deal in Hollywood and not lose my mind. 

Like a bat out of Hell! Like a bat out of Brooklyn. Take your pick. 

AMAZON'S PROMOTION OF THE BLACK ALBUM

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