"The universe is made of stories, not of atoms."
—Muriel Rukeyser
____________________________

Story Merchant Books E-book Deal: FREE June 27 - June 30! The Nomad's Premonition ⁠by Georges Benay


AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

A thrilling fusion of mystery and intrigue in an exotic setting.⁠
Eric Martin is desperate to forget his past, one that almost cost him his future.⁠

Working in Paris as deputy head of a bank's internal security department, Eric notices a high-speed trader's uncanny ability to predict extremely profitable trades. Even though there's nothing illegal about the activity, he knows the trader's success is more than just luck.

But, no one believes him. Armed only with a handful of data and a powerful instinct, Eric searches for the mysterious trader on his own. He suspects that a predictive algorithm has fallen into the wrong hands.

Eric sets off for Istanbul to find answers promised to him by an informant. He finds an unlikely ally in Interpol agent Stephanie Brule. With Interpol wanting him back in Paris and out of the way, Eric's quest is also hampered by the sudden appearance of his ex-lover, a boss he's not sure he can trust, and a terrorist who always seems one step ahead.

Will Eric put an end, once and for all, to the nightmare that began when he accepted a job that was too good to be true? Or will his need for revenge and justice lead him deeper into a treacherous world he has no way of escaping?

Writers It's Never Too Late to Follow Your Dream

 



Learn more about One-on-one coaching to help understand a Type-C personality and equip you with practical tools to make yourself more productive and less frustrated with storytelling at http://www.thewriterslifeline.com/

#FREE June 20 - June 24! TWO ED NOON MYSTERIES!⁠


AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

The Tall Dolores (Ed Noon Mystery Book 1) by Michael Avallone ⁠⁠

Enter Ed Noon on the world scene. The tallest burlesque queen in the universe hires Noon to find her even taller lover, who has vanished under strange circumstances.⁠⁠

And... The Spitting Image - '2nd book in the Ed Noon series ⁠

Noon is caught between two lovely suspects trying to kill the other in order to collect the million dollar payoff!⁠


Ken Atchity, The Story Merchant, visits with Mark to share a family recipe and talk about his book "MY OBIT Daddy Holding Me










Anyone who enjoyed Mircea Eliade’s autobiographical multi-volume Exile’s Odyssey, Oliver Sacks’ The Man Who Mistook My Wife for a Hat and Awakenings, or Richard Feynman’s Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman, will find My Obit: Daddy Holding Me a page-turner filled with poignant family experiences, explosive sibling rivalry, literary adventures, ethnic cooking, wide-ranging storytelling, the workings of the brain itself--and what can be learned about life from playing tennis for decades. The jokes and recipes alone are worth the entrance price.

Books and Pals Gives Ken Atchity's My Obit: Daddy Holding Me Five Stars!

 Review: My Obit: Daddy Holding Me 

by Kenneth Atchity


Genre: Memoir/Autobiography

Description:

The author describes his book this way.

“At the prompting of a marketing friend, I was advised to title this book, My Intensely Madcap, Lebanese/Cajun, Jesuit-Schizoid, Terminally Narcissistic, Food-Focused, East Coast/West Coast, Georgetown/Yale, Career-Changing, Cross-Dressing, Runaway Catholic Italophile, Paradoxically Dramatic, Linguistically Neurotic, Hollywood Academic, ADD-Overcompensating, Niche-Abhorring, Jocoserious Obit. But when my designer pointed out that title wouldn’t fit on the spine, much less on any public display list, I changed my mind. Again! The story of my life.

Which this is at least the first volume of. I hope it makes you laugh, spares you some of my grief, and leads you to insist on telling your story to anyone who will listen.”

Author:

“Dr. Ken Atchity loves being a writer, producer, teacher, career coach, and literary manager, responsible for launching hundreds of books and films. His life's passion is finding great stories and storytellers and turning them into bestselling authors and screenwriters--and making films which send their stories around the world.

His books include, most recently, novels The Messiah Matrix and Seven Ways to Die (with William Diehl) and nonfiction books for writers at every stage of their career. Based on his teaching, managing, and writing experience, he's successfully built bestselling careers for novelists, nonfiction writers, and screenwriters from the ground up.

Atchity has also produced 30 films, including Hysteria (Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy), The Expatriate (Aaron Eckhart), The Lost Valentine (Betty White), Gospel Hill (Danny Glover), Joe Somebody (Tim Allen), Life or Something Like It (Angelina Jolie), The Amityville Horror: The Evil EscapesShadow of Obsession (Veronica Hammel), The Madam's Family (Ellen Burstyn).”

Appraisal:

Memoirs are an interesting beast. Some I’ve read have been people who I have a lot in common with, growing up in the same environment geographically and culturally, where I find myself comparing our respective life experiences and how we viewed them, sometimes adjusting how I view some things in subtle ways or feeling validated that the author and I are in agreement. Other times the memoirist and I have nothing obvious in common, yet I realize in contrasting our different lives that there are still commonalities with everyone that are part of the generic human experience. These can also help me understand people not like me, which has obvious benefits.

This memoir, billed as volume 1 of Kenneth Atchity’s autobiography, fell somewhere in the middle. I’ve written more than a few book reviews in my time, but never for the big publications that Atchity has. I’ve made a few career or life decisions that were outside the norm, shaking things up with a purpose, which Atchity does. But mostly his experiences were much different from mine, growing up in a much different environment, in a different time, with a much different relationship with his family from what I’ve experienced. He’s also risen to the top of multiple fields, overcoming lots of challenges on the way, learning as he goes, making mistakes, and learning still more from them. In the process of learning about his life, I think I learned a bit more about myself, and maybe picked up a few ideas to help guide me in the future based on the lessons he’s learned from life thus far.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

So adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl  

Approximate word count: 100-105,000 words


Read more of Big AL's Reviews


George Gallo, Nick Vallelonga Team on High-End ‘Gambino’ Film Produced by Julius Nasso with Ken Atchity (EP)



Veteran Hollywood multi-hyphenate George Gallo (“Bad Boys,” “The Comeback Trail”) is attached to direct “Gambino,” a high-end biopic about organized crime boss Carlo Gambino that Gallo is co-writing with two-time Oscar winner Nick Vallelonga (“Green Book”).

The ambitious project, announced in Cannes, is being lead produced by Julius R. Nasso, also a Hollywood veteran, best known for his production partnership with Steven Seagal that went sour. Nasso more recently shepherded “Narc,” and is among producers of Susanne Rostock’s Harry Belafonte doc “Sing Your Song.” 

Nasso has acquired rights to the novel “Gambino: The Rise” by Pierre James which delves into the U.S. story of Cosa Nostra starting from its roots in Italy and the role played by Carlo Gambino, who was its boss from 1957 until his death in 1976 of natural causes in his Massapequa, Long Island, home.

“I have known this story all my life,” Gallo told Variety, speaking from Los Angeles.

Gallo added that Gambino’s world is very different from that of “The Sopranos,” noting that Carlo Gambino came from an educated background and was a quiet, soft‐spoken man with a courtly manner.

“He was a businessman in a darker universe,” Gallo said. “A tremendous Machiavellian money-maker; that’s why he got to the top and stayed there for decades.”

The “Gambino” film will be “a tale of money and power as the world changed around him,” and also, of course, of betrayals and violence. “But there won’t be a lot of people getting whacked,” the director went on to point out.

Gallo also noted that he’s been friends for decades with Vallelonga and Nasso. Nasso in turn has been pals for ages with U.S.-based Italian singer/songwriter and music producer Tony Renis, who is also among producers of the “Gambino” film. Renis is also set to play Gambino as an old man and is in charge of the film’s music score.

Vallelonga, speaking in Cannes, noted that the approach he and Gallo are taking is: “This is not just a mob movie. We’ve seen a lot of that. This is Shakespearean; it’s on that level. We have to elevate the material, and that’s what we are going to go for.”

“Think of ‘Once Upon a Time in America,’ said Nasso who started out in the film business as an assistant to Sergio Leone. “The book starts from when Gambino was a young boy, so there will be three characters playing the one [titular] role,” he added.

Nasso said he is looking to start pre-production on “Gambino” in Italy in January. The plan is for cameras to start rolling no later than July 15, 2023. The producer intends to reconstruct New York between the 1950s and the 70s at Rome’s Cinecittà Studios and shoot the entire film in Italy.

Nasso and his team have also been scouting locations in Italy’s southern Calabria, Puglia, and  Campania regions.

Casting, for which Nasso said he is seeking A-list Hollywood talent, will start as soon as the screenplay is ready. Meanwhile he is recruiting the film’s below-the-line crew in Italy and is in talks with triple-Oscar winner Dante Ferretti who is based at Cinecittà, to come on board as the film’s production designer he said.

“Gambino” is being produced by Julius R. Nasso, Tony Renis, China Bridge Capital founder and CEO Edward Zeng, and Santo Versace, who is an investor, and president of, Italy’s Minerva Pictures.

Minerva chief Gianluca Curti will serve as executive producer, as will Helena Zeng and Ken Atchity.

The film is being produced by Nasso Production, which is as Nasso-Zeng company. Pic is fully financed by Edward Zeng and former Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam, who were both present at the film’s Cannes announcement.

Minerva Pictures will be handling international sales, excluding U.S., on “Gambino.”

(Pictured above from left: Tony Renis; Nick Vallelonga; Julius R. Nasso in Cannes)

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