tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7197112653366237745.post8444828581696647947..comments2022-01-31T06:03:24.073-05:00Comments on MY HOLLYWOOD MISADVENTURES: TOWTRUCK BOOGIE AND THE EATANTERAllan Colehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17393660419513065556noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7197112653366237745.post-32295953328149794232010-09-10T12:01:22.376-04:002010-09-10T12:01:22.376-04:00Breaking into the Writing Game is tough. Making a ...Breaking into the Writing Game is tough. Making a full time living at it is even tougher. However, if you read Reckoning in paperback we were sitting pretty by then. In its first printing, the paperback version of Reckoning sold over a million copies, helped by the numerous awards and be-still-my-beating-heart reviews the hardback drew. At the same time Sten really took off and things became less of a money struggle. Writing, of course, never gets easier. The better you get, the harder you become on yourself.Allan Colehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17393660419513065556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7197112653366237745.post-23520216880365616572010-09-09T16:49:15.634-04:002010-09-09T16:49:15.634-04:00I've probably read Reckoning at least a dozen ...I've probably read Reckoning at least a dozen times over the years. Of all the Vietnam war fiction I read as a teen -- and I read a lot of it -- hardly anything else touched Reckoning, in terms of how it held my interest, and kept me coming back for more on each successive pass. Once I got into the military myself, Reckoning sang truer than ever, and I always tell all my military buddies (and all my writing buddies) that Reckoning is hands-down the best war novel -- of any period -- I have ever read. Bar none. I always wondered why it never won the Pulitzer, because I think it's fucking brilliant.<br /><br />It's so funny to read how shoe-string you guys were as Reckoning went through its genesis. Sure presents a different picture from the one I had in my head when I was first getting into STEN, after having discovered Reckoning first. Never a dull moment with you too, that seems certain.<br /><br />Back to Reckoning: I always thought it proper that you didn't try to slant the book to one side or the other. If there is any "antagonist" apparent in the book, it's the stupidity of governments and bureaucracies who send ordinary men to die for dubious reasons. What made the book work was that an average American reader could dig the Vietnamese POV as well as the American POV. Characters on both sides were sympathetic and realistic. War was portrayed as being every bit as chaotic and messy as it is in reality, and there was plenty of bona fide laugh-out-loud humor to balance the scale.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7197112653366237745.post-36788682420727054442010-08-13T16:18:56.434-04:002010-08-13T16:18:56.434-04:00It sure is, Matt. But the Godfrey in Sten is nothi...It sure is, Matt. But the Godfrey in Sten is nothing like the real life Godfrey. Alex Kilgour, however, is exactly like the real life Kilgour, as you probably noticed in Alex Kilgour Goes To Hollywood.Allan Colehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17393660419513065556noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7197112653366237745.post-16147654008772521882010-08-13T16:06:34.307-04:002010-08-13T16:06:34.307-04:00And this is where the Godfrey character who liked ...And this is where the Godfrey character who liked combat a little too much got his name, as well, I presume?Matt Kaufmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7197112653366237745.post-49866087305378700732010-08-13T15:15:29.944-04:002010-08-13T15:15:29.944-04:00Postscript: Towtruck Boogie proved to be a propose...Postscript: Towtruck Boogie proved to be a proposed TV series "inspired" by the hit cult movie, Repo Man. So they took out all the the sex, drugs, rock and roll and the aliens, then told us to go write the sucker. When we were done, Greg Mayday, head of TV development at Fox said it was the best pilot script of a shitty idea that he had ever seen. Thumbs down for the series, thumbs up for further work from Mayday and Fox for Bunch & ColeAllan Colehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17393660419513065556noreply@blogger.com