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Friday, February 8, 2013

Rick Cantelli, P.I., The Sequel




I thought up another humorous adventure for my aging private eye, Rick Cantelli. I couldn’t wait a couple weeks before putting out the sequel to the first story, An Old Acquaintance. The over 4,000 word sequel, Rick Cantelli P.I., developed on Word in a couple sit downs, and I laughed through most of it, even the editing. I’m glad Triond put it up so quickly on AuthSpot. I have a feeling another Cantelli story will pop into my head quicker than the two week increments I was considering for publishing these short stories. I still have a great sequel in my head for my other short story, TheReunion, but Cantelli and his partner Lois just couldn’t wait.  :)
My novel HARD CASE climbed up the Amazon rankings in a couple categories. It hit #5 in Criminals, and #8 in Crime & Criminals. I have no clue how they come up with this stuff, but it’s neat to see it up there. I have 40,000 words done in my sequel. I’ll also be releasing the sequel to my YA novel DEMON in the first part of March. As I’ve mentioned, the title will be DEMON INC. It’s both funnier and darker than the first, but also still staying within the young adult parameters. My character Demon the dog, and sidekick Mike, expand their new enterprise of paranormal reality gigs.
I’ve found out a bunch of stuff on the screenplay writing front. There are a myriad of contests all over the place for paying to enter your script, supposedly to be looked over and judged by producers, directors, and high ups in the film industry. Having actually communicated with some professional screenwriters on the Stage 32 site I belong to, I’ve found out these are nearly all gimmicks, a lot like the poetry.com scam from decades ago. They select finalists for some big final reading. Only one problem – you pay your own way to get to the place. As one screenwriter posted on Linked In, ‘you would have a better chance of winning the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes’. Needless to say, I’m not blowing any money on an unknown entity like my screenwriting ability, but I’m not giving it up either. It’s fun and exciting. I’m over 40 pages/40 minutes in my third feature length screenplay based on my DEMON trilogy. I’m becoming more and more adept at the Final Draft software.
Anyway, that’s it for now. If you like humor mixed with a little action, check out my Rick Cantelli stories.

6 comments:

Vesper said...

That's great, Bernard!
I haven't had time to read the first Cantelli story so now I can read both of them!
Congratulations!
Yes, there are too many sites who take advantage of people's dreams of getting published. I don't trust them either.

BernardL said...

Thanks V. It goes up and down and all over the place, but it was nice to hit the top ten of anything if even for a moment. :)

Anything to do with Hollywood and film is a black hole for scams. There are a few legitimate sites that post the contests but they don't participate in the hype. One of the best so far is Stage 32. I have a very real network built up there of screenwriters, actors, and producers. It's fun, but who knows if it will go anywhere.

I think you'll like my Cantelli Tales. :)

Charles Gramlich said...

Yeah, contests might be the thing to try with that screenplay. Luck, of course. Sounds like the writing front is going well.

BernardL said...

The contests are something to steer clear of. Yep, the writing's still going very well, Charles. You know how it is when it's fun and flowing. It's all good then. :)

raine said...

It hit #5 in Criminals, and #8 in Crime & Criminals.

Bernard, that's AWESOME!! Congrats!
And I'll check out Mr. Cantelli at work. Give me something interesting to do. ;)

BernardL said...

Cantelli is striking a cord in me, Raine. I see more stories in his future. :)