SELECTED WRITINGS

My memories of the late Michel Roethel, whose shop sold only books by Jules Verne and who in many ways inspired The Great Easterncan be found in the Los Angeles Review of Books.

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My afterword to Jean-Patrick Manchette’s mordant and glorious crime novel
No Room at the Morgue out now from NYBR Classics
was featured in The Paris Review.

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In conjunction with the release of a boxed set, Blondie commissioned a graphic novel anthology, Blondie: Against The Odds, in which ten writers were asked to use a Blondie song as a springboard for an illustrated short story.  I chose the Blondie song “Atomic” as a way into telling the Lower East Side love story of the young Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, accused atomic spies of the cold war era.

 

SHORT STORIES & TELEPLAYS

“BANG”
Black Clock issue 21, 2016.

“Where the Boulevard Ends”
Black Clock issue 19, 2014.

“The Double-Goer”
(a parallel story set in the world of The Great Eastern)
Black Clock issue 10, 2009.

“Good Life”
Black Clock No. 5

“Can We Afford Channel 3?”
The Wild Palms Reader (St. Martin’s Press, 1993).

“The Quiet Room” and “The Frightening Frammis”
Fallen Angels, intro. by James Ellroy (Grove Press, 1993)

 

ESSAYS & ARTICLES

 

“Jean-Patrick Manchette’s Cabinet of Wonders”
The Paris Review Daily, August 5, 2020.

“After Hours Capitalism: on Tom Lutz’s Born Slippy”
Los Angeles Review of Books, January 15, 2020.

“Former Writers Guild West President Pays Tribute to William Goldman: ‘Our Most Complete Screenwriter’”
Variety, November 20, 2018.

Foreword, “On Adaptations”
Great Adaptations: Screenwriting and Global Storytelling,
Alexis Krasilovsky, Routledge, New York & London: 2018.

“Who Inspires Us”
Filmmaker magazine, Winter 2017.

“Eastern-European Fatalism in Minnesota: The Mournful Destinies of A Serious Man”
Shtetl to Stardom: Jews and Hollywood,
Purdue University Press, West Lafayette: 2017.

“Remembering Walter Becker”
Los Angeles Review of Books, September 2017.

“The Big Question,” essay on Fritz Lang & Thea von Harbou’s Metropolis
The Atlantic magazine, March 2017.

“Essential Psychedelia #24” and “Essential Psychedelia #32”
Black Clock issue 20, 2015.

“Review: Godard’s ‘Le Petit Soldat,’ From Geneva, with Angst”
IndieWire, April 25, 2013.

“One Day with Chris Marker”
IndieWire, 2012.

“Remembering Maurice Sendak”
Los Angeles Review of Books, 2012.

“Cutting it Fine” profile of film editor Dede Allen
Los Angeles, April 2010.

“Why I Write”
Creative Screenwriting magazine, 2008.

“Share the Wealth with Writers”
Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2007.

“What a Screenplay Isn’t”
Cinema Journal, Vol. 45, No. 6 (2006), pp. 86-89.

“A Lesson from the 50s”
Los Angeles Times Op-Ed page October 22, 2006.

“The Year of Writing Dangerously”
Conversation with George Clooney and Grant Heslov,
written by magazine, February/March 2006.

“Secrets of the Sundance Lab Revealed”
written by magazine, January 2006.

“Without a Trace”
Black Clock No. 4, Fall-Winter 2005-2006

“Counterpunch”
Los Angeles Times, February 21, 2005.

“Spend the Day with Ricky Jay”
Profile of magician Ricky Jay
Los Angeles magazine, 2000.

“Between Black and White”
Interview with filmmaker Euzhan Palcy
Elle magazine, October 1989.

“Jaywalking with a Two-Time Loser”
The New York Times Op-Ed page, May 27, 1971