Author Jean Davis and author podcast porducer Emma Palova.
This episode on the @For the Love of Books Podcast is sponsored by @moraviansonsdistillery https://moraviansonsdistillery.com, author Terri Martin and Doc Chavent.
Find out what’s so funny. Listen in for a chance to win a signed copy of I9.
One fed up woman with no filter holds the key to changing the future of the empire.
Burning season on the exile world of Anduvea means the space station at the edge of the empire is full of rich, drunk tourists and their idiotic antics. When Senior Security Officer Rita Stabinov spots a thief wanted dead or alive by Empaetor Iradio VIII himself, she envisions a hefty reward or maybe a promotion anywhere else.
A deathbed promise to keep the goods out of the Empaetor’s hands puts Rita in possession of a stolen treasure with a value far greater than she’s ever dreamed. The heavy-handed ruler will do everything in his power to get it back, and his agent is already on the way.
Cooperating would be in Rita’s favor, but what have the empire or Anduvea’s residents ever done for her? Keeping her promise means subjecting her already tenuous tolerance for people to a whole new level of elite snobbery. It could also bring about a regime change and a new era of peace and prosperity…or the entire empire could slip into chaos, because when has anything ever worked out neatly?
Torn between reward and duty, Rita becomes entangled in a generations-old mystery that not only puts her heart in jeopardy but also her life and that of everyone she loves.
Cannes Film Festival attracts thousands of industry professionals
Note: As I write this, my daughter Emma Palova-Chavent is at the actual 66th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France that started on May 15th and runs through May 26th.
A big chapter in my memoir “Greenwich Meridian” is dedicated to my career as a journalist after coming to the USA. That was one of my many dreams to write for newspapers like Earnest Hemingway did, and then make a full-blown switch to literature and film.
So, here we go. Lights, camera, action.
I covered the film festival twice in 2010 and 2011 for a conglomerate of newspapers J-Ad Graphics as part of my journalism and freelance career. I was among the 30,000 reporters from all over the world who had descended onto the beautiful city nestled between the Mediterranean Sea and the Maritime Alps.
This is what I wrote after coming back:
“Experiencing Cannes Film Festival, held annually in the French Riviera, is like flying to the International Space Station and making it back. Not everyone gets to do it, and not everyone wants to do it. It’s riveting, it’s moving, it’s inspiring, and it shows that anything is possible.”
The cast of Pedro Almodovar’s film the “Skin I Live In” with Antonio Banderas in Cannes.
The biggest driving force to go to the festival was my own screenplay “Riddleyville Clowns,” which is registered with the Writers Guild of America, West.
While covering the making of Jerry Zandstra’s movie “Genesis Code,” which was partially filmed in Lowell and Grand Rapids, my interest shifted to screenwriting. I purchased “Final Draft” software, and I was on my way to the stars in Cannes.
At the time during the economic recession of late 2000s my husband Ludek was working in Wisconsin, and I was alone with my dog Haryk. I was writing for the Lowell Ledger and the Grand Rapids Magazine.
It was an ideal scenario for writing a script. I already had the setting, the main character, the plot and the driving force. The screenplay was inspired by a real clown parade that was held to celebrate 175th anniversary of Lowell.
A local resident Dave Thompson came to see me in my cubicle office. He told me he was organizing a clown parade. That was the spark that ignited the screenwriter in me.
“I am going to have a clown band from Scottville and clowns from all over,” Thompson said. “It’s been a heck of a deal to put this together.”
Emma Palova behind a pirate prop at the Cannes Film Festival 2011.
It took me four months to write the screenplay. I wrote every day after writing at work.
When I finished the last scene where the main character washes off the clown paints in the river that turn it red, I got up from the chair and my hair was standing straight up Mohawk style.
“I did it,” I said to myself.
I plan on going to the Cannes Film Festival again with my movies including the “Riddleyville Clowns” and “Greenwich Meridian where East meets West.” I am also writing a screenplay based on the memoir.
With its dynamics and exotic locales, the immigration saga has a potential for series just like the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and the Godfather.
The fourth pirate movie premiered at Cannes in 2011. For the event, the city decks out with sponsor posters, banners, billboards. The actual screenings of films with the cast and the producers take place in the evening.
Those who receive tickets to the screening from the producers walk the red carpet to the Festival Palace, much like the celebrities. Thousands of people and paparazzi watch the evening processions to the screening. That in itself is a huge show. There is a mandatory dress code to the screenings.
The core of the festival is the competition of the selected films by the jury. The winners are awarded the Golden Palm during the final ceremonies on Sunday.
Hi to all my friends,
I will be talking on the Internet with wlhs radio tomorrow at 3 p.m. EST USA about my writing projects at the Lowell High School. The show is with Joe Ryder and Al Eckman. Go to http://www.wlhsradio.org.
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