Author! Author!

July 2, 2011. Recently I received this note from a reader: "I was wondering if the audio version of The Greatest Golf Shot Ever Made was ever digitized for CD?  I know you mentioned it on your blog a few years back. I am a big fan of George S. Irving, and know someone who is a huge golf fan who would be so thrilled to have this, but alas, I no longer have a cassette player. Thanks."

The Greatest Golf Shot, now out of print, was a collection of golf stories and anecdotes made into two audiobooks, which were voiced by the highly honored Broadway actor George S. Irving. A few years back I received word from the publisher that they were going to turn the tapes into CDs, but that was the last I heard of it. You would think the author would know everything there is to know about his work, but the truth is, sometimes the author is the last to know. I frankly don't know what the state of this project is, but your letter has spurred me to look into it. I do still have a cassette player, but alas, I don't use it much. [end]

April 18, 2011. Choice, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries, posted a winning review of Wheels of Change, my award-winning book on the history of automobiles in California. In recommending the book for purchase by libraries, the reviewer describes it as "a great deal of fun and full of information. Author Nelson writes beautifully, with an air of wonder, appreciation and enthusiasm. One gets the feeling that he likes the people he writes about and is genuinely sad that so many have passed on." Indeed.

[Here is an email I sent recently to the producer of the—someday, I hope—Operation Bullpen movie. A script based on my book has been finished and it is now being peddled around Hollywood although there are, as yet, no takers. I thought ‘The Social Network,’ the (relatively) new movie about the founding of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg, has some parallels with the Bullpen story, as I say here…]

Hi L-

Saw "The Social Network" last night. I liked it and it spurred some thoughts on "Operation Bullpen," the movie. Give me just a minute or two to share them with you. "The Social Network" opened with a $24 million weekend box office and there's not a car crash or any violence to be found anywhere in it. That's reassuring, since I know that's one of the things you've heard from people about the Bullpen script: Not enough sex and violence.

Actually, "The Social Network" doesn't have much sex either, does it? No actual sex scenes, just party scenes and the suggestion of sex, but that's all. God knows the Bullpen story has lots more sex than that, with hookers and Vegas strippers and sex and drug parties on the Bada Bing boat. And it's got the criminal element to boot—the fact that all these formerly law-abiding guys are committing widespread fraud while being hunted down by the FBI. "The Social Network" has no big stars in it, unless you count Justin Timberlake, who's very good. Of course, it has a script by Aaron Sorkin, who's a superstar screenwriter and superb, and a hot director whose name I can't recall but who is clearly a hot property too. Interestingly, Kevin Spacey is one of the producers—isn't he Trigger Street Productions?—and clearly Kevin has a sharp eye for material, because he also produced "21." [ more ]

Remember "21"? I know you do. We talked about that one before. It was a sleeper hit that was No. 1 for two weeks in a row when it opened a couple or three years ago. It's based on the book, "Bringing Down the House," written by Ben Mezrich, who also wrote "The Accidental Billionaire," which was the book Sorkin used to write "The Social Network." Mezrich also clearly has an eye for stuff that Hollywood is looking for.

 So both "The Social Network" and "21" were youth movies about gifted (and pampered and rich) Ivy League kids with some allusions to sex, very little violence (none in "The Social Network"), and lots of money. And of course "The Social Network has the glamour associated with being about the Facebook billionaire. But the story itself? It's basically about some legal proceedings and the makings of a Silicon Valley startup, founded by Mark Zuckerberg, the Charles Kane of his generation. The genius of Sorkin and the director is that they could make an entertaining movie of such thin material.

Okay, so hang with me, I'm coming to my point. The Bullpen story has many of the same elements as "21" and "The Social Network," except, of course, it's not about privileged rich kids. It's a working class story. But it is about young people, and it is potentially a youth movie. I've never seen the script for "Bullpen" (and I'm sure that's not the working title), but there is a clear potential story line in the character of Nate, the naïve young guy who starts as Wayne’s friend in the book. Wayne, the mastermind of the operation, takes him under his wing and basically teaches him to be a crook, brings him into the life, corrupts him, shows him how to rip people off. Nate makes millions of dollars selling fake memorabilia, buys houses, gets girls that he could never get before (just like Mark Zuckerberg), and basically achieves his corrupted version of the American Dream. And then, in the twist that makes the Bullpen story so powerful, Wayne ultimately betrays Nate and all his other friends and flips and goes to the FBI and turns in Nate and all the rest of his fellow crooks to save his skin.

 So, again, I'm not trying to stick my nose where it doesn't belong, but if you tell the story from Nate's point of view—with Wayne as his slightly older Machiavellian mentor, along with the Marinos and all the other characters and stuff that are there—you have a youth-themed movie that teens and early twenties young people would really get into. You could potentially attract a bankable young star, as well as a late twenties, early thirties actor like Justin Timberlake who is playing the Wayne character. And the thing is, it's all in the story. You're not making any of it up. It's all there. That's what happened in real life. Thanks for listening-

 Best, K 



Well, so much for experiments. My recent grand attempt to reshape this blog has caused about 20 percent of my subscribers to unsubscribe. If I were a politician steeped in my self-importance I would say these people are badly misinformed and need greater education. However, since I have respect for all of you who grace these pages with your time, I prefer to listen to what my constituents are saying and reform my ways.

Not everyone disliked my recent posts; I received lots of nice comments too. After my piece on Lagunitas IPA, Dan C. passed along the names of several brews he likes: Ranger IPA, made by New Belgium Brewing, makers of Fat Tire ale; Thunderhead IPA from Pyramid Brewing; and the colorfully named Moose Drool from Big Sky Brewing in Missoula, Montana. Did you know that IPA, which stands for India Pale Ale, originated in the 18th century; it was brewed in London to be sent to Her Majesty's soldiers serving in India.

Wheels of Change, my book on California car history, has enjoyed some recent stirrings, winning (as I mentioned last time) the Valentine Memorial Award for best car book of 2010 by the Society of Automotive Historians. Brad Bowling gave it a glowing review in the latest issue of Car & Parts Magazine, calling it "fascinating" and saying (in a line that sums up my approach to writing history), "If books such as this had been my required reading in high school, I definitely would have made better grades in history." In my view, history belongs to everybody, not just academics.

Joe F. asked me the other day what was happening with the movie for Operation Bullpen: The Inside Story of the Biggest Forgery Scam in American History. The short answer is, "Not enough." There is a script based on the book, written by an Oscar-nominated screenwriter, and he and the producer are peddling it around Hollywood. So far, no takers. The producer told me that the reaction they're getting is that the Bullpen story is "too indie (not enough sex or action) or not indie enough (not enough guns or dead bodies or dark enough)." He added, "I do find that these things go in waves and the film industry is going through all kinds of schizophrenic growing pains at the moment." "Schizophrenic growing pains" is an apt description of the Internet-tormented publishing industry as well. 

Praise for The Runner's Book of Daily Inspiration came out of the blue the other day from Jaclyn Dionne, a "master trainer" with the North American Academy for Sport Fitness (NAASFP). "I personally use and love your Runner's Book," she writes. "Everyday there is some wonderful tidbit that just works. When teaching the certification, I recommend to the runners that they pick up a copy of your book." Adding, "There are references to things we touch on that just so perfectly express challenges a coach faces with a client. We are actually listing your book on our page of reference books recommended for coaches; it is a great tool for runners and the coaches." She asked if she could use excerpts in the NAASFP's certification manual for marathon coaches, and I of course said yes.

 Let me finish with a literary reference inspired by the aforementioned Dan C., who, in thinking about beer, reminded me of the great poem, written in the late 1800s, by the French poet Charles Baudelaire, whose somber mug adorns this column. "Get Drunk" is the name of the poem, and it is anything but somber (or sober). Here it is:

"One should always be drunk. That's the great thing: the only question. Not to feel the horrible burden of Time weighing on your shoulders and bowing you to the earth, you should be drunk without respite. Drunk with what? With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you please. But get drunk.

"And if sometimes you should happen to awake, on the stairs of a palace, on the green grass of a ditch, in the dreary solitude of your own room, and find that your drunkenness is ebbing or has vanished, ask the wind and the wave, ask star, bird, or clock, ask everything that flies, everything that moans, everything that flows, everything that sings, everything that speaks, ask them the time; and the wind, the wave, the star, the bird and the clock will all reply: 'It is Time to get drunk! If you are not to be the martyred slaves of Time, be perpetually drunk! With wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you please.'" [end]