The Difference Between a Screenplay and a Novel

Upon reading The Pitcher I like most writers was amazed at how different it is in the format of a screenplay. I don't write screenplays. I tried once but it just dried up on me and I realized I didn't care about fading in or fading out or exterior shots or breaking out dialogue into the middle of the page. A screenplay is shot from the outside and hopefully goes in. Novels are written from the inside and hopefully go out.

Saying that I did have some thoughts on the screenplay and I passed those on. Mostly they had to do with different elements of the script necessary to get the story across to the audience. Lets face it you have ninety minutes to get across a whole novel. That is not a lot of time. Imagine reading a novel that quickly. Your head would be spinning. So right there you know a lot of the book will not make it into the screenplay

Then there is the whole problem of voice. The Pitcher is told in first person so how do you get that voice across in a movie. Ricky's voice is very distinctive and carries the book but you cannot achieve this in a movie unless you have a narrator lording down from above. This was used in the first Great Gatsby and Tom Perrotta's Little Children. In both cases it was clumsy and overbearing.

I think this is why I prefer novels. There is one person controlling the story and I have all the weapons at my disposal to tell a story. Fading in and Fading out just doesn't apply.


The Pitcher
www.williamhazelgrove.com
 

Jackie Robinson And The Best Years

Watching the Little League duel between Jackie Robinson and South Korea made me think of all the Little League games my son played and I managed to hang around as Assistant Coach. We had an amazing nine year run and now it seems almost amazing it has ended. Baseball is the ultimate kid sport. Something about swinging a bat and shagging balls in a dusty field makes you into a kid again and then of course the games are to die for.

Because in that moment nothing else matters but that game. And it is not just a Little League game anymore it is something between parents and their sons and daughters and it is a moment in time. Like the final game you just cant believe it will end and when it ends badly you don't really believe that either. You think you are immune to rooting for a bunch of kids in a life and death struggle but baseball doesn't put up with that. You are either in or out.

And when it does end you realize quite suddenly those were the best years. Parenting is a strange continuum of moments but doing something with  your kid that you can both participate in and both feel good about is a rare moment. And when it is over all you want to do is just have one more chance. One more game to capture all that youth again.

But of course the season is over and when they grow up all you can do is say...wow...those were the best years.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher

The Real End to The Natural

Just finished The Natural again. And there was that ending again. The Bernard Malamud ending that is not like Hollywood. The exact opposite in fact. Roy Hobbs takes the payoff and misses the final pitch and strikes out. He does tell the judge and Memo and the bookie to go where the sun doesn't shine but he is a broken man in the end with no future...just another drifter in Depression era America.

And the book is different in that it is really a treatment of baseball during The Great Depression. The Natural with Robert Redford is a much more upbeat tale of a pitcher who gets knocked off by a woman who shoots him early in his career. Years later he comes up but he is much older with only a few good seasons in him.

But the real difference lies in the ending. In the novel the natural does not pull it out. He simply cant get his mojo back and when he strikes out he is accused of being in on the fix and there are people who want to ban him from baseball. But Roy Hobbs has banned himself as he becomes just another person in Depression era America.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher

The Sweaty Author

You get there and the authors are already at their tables. One guy is taking pictures upon pictures and tweeting them all over the place. He has his table right in the middle. You are there with a bookstore and are standing by to sign books for whoever may buy. The self published contingent is there. They are organized and efficient with their books and their notebooks. They sit behind their tables and stare out at the people beginning to stream in.

You did not start this way. You came form the old world of publishing. Big advances and Big Media. Signings were exclusive affairs at bookstores for people who came to hear only you. Now you are a baker at a carnival in a sea of barkers. Everyone is selling something and a lot of the products are substandard but it doesn't really matter. Whoever barks the loudest gets the sale.

And so for the next five hours you bark at everyone passing by. Authors eye each other warily. Who has self published? Who has been reviewed? Who is selling? The arty crowd is there and they just want to make contacts. You are there to sell. People steer clear because you wear a sport coat and don't evince the tired Bohemia of so many literary festivals. Your book is heavy with reviews. Another violation. It goes like this and when the people stop the authors stare at each other.

And then it slowly dies. The guy who self published Goth Horror closes shop. The experimental guy with the crazy cover who sold a good amount of books leaves. Your bookstore takes off and leaves you with a few more books. You sell another one but that is really it. Time for a drink at a bar and the lingering vague dissatisfaction of the Literary Festival.

The era of the Sweaty Author is like that.

www.williamhazelgrove.com

The Pitcher
 

When Fiction Meets Reality

The high school is old. It smells of those old trade schools that put students into jobs. Why shouldn't it? The school was built in 1901 on the edge of Chicago. A monster taking up a full city block with all those immigrant voices still echoing in the halls. And you go in there into the other world that is very far from the white suburban life. There are real lives here that are really just hanging on and you have come to sign their books.

And the school  bought them with Federal Funds. They would not have the books otherwise. The librarian tells you before you speak that they come from unspeakable problems. They deal with things that you have no idea of. Some of the kids are homeless. And your book is about that. A Mexican American kid with nothing. A sick mom. An abusive dad. A one in a million dream and a broken down pitcher who cant stop drinking. And it is fiction and you created it in your very safe world but now you cant turn off your laptop.

Because here it is. They don't have anything. They do have abusive fathers. They are raised by single mothers. They do have one in a million dreams. So you give your speech and you sign their books and you tell them to never give up on their dreams. And you hope you made a difference. You hope your book  helped them along. 

But you know when you get in your car that you are leaving and they have to stay. And you go back to your white suburb. Its only fiction after all.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Piticher...sometimes a dream is all you have

Components of a Bestseller

Bestseller. It has a ring to it. But what are the components to a book that make it take off when another book sputters. First. It has to be good. And maybe that lets out a lot of books. Good is defined by the reader who tells another reader who tells another. Bestsellers are a word of mouth phenomenon when it is all said and done. Even today with the Internet the word is still passed on from trusted source to trusted source.

This is why the people who buy  two hundred five starred reviews get little traction. The reader is missing in that scenario. And yes bait and switch is alive and well. We will still download a book that looks great from the Amazon reviews only to find we have been had. The reviewers were friends or family or they were bought and paid for. This sadly happens.

But the book that is honestly reviewed by someone who really loves it is a double edged sword. Not only will that person review the book they will then tell someone about it. It happens more than you think. I get asked a lot what I am reading and I will rattle my brain and say...well this is a great book that I read a while ago. I even helped sell a copy of Wilson's biography when a man picked it up and stared at it and I spouted out and said, 'That's a good book." We talked and then he bought it.

Yes of course you have to market. Yes you have to do all those thousand and one things to get people to notice your book. But really the real test is is your book good enough to have someone in a Barnes and Noble blare to someone else "hey I read that book! It's good." That is the acid test of any potential bestseller.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher...sometimes a dream is all you have

Baseball is Over...bummer

With the Boston Red Sox winning the Series that ends the season. And it was sort of anti climatic even though it was the first win in Fenway since 1918 and that says something. But I don't know. Watching the guys all have the victory pile in the field you just couldn't feel like wow so that is it. That is the end of the season and it just made you want to get a few more in and wonder if the summer and baseball had slipped by one more time.

Because baseball is associated with summer and summer is associated with being a kid and lazy days and swimming pools and not going to school. Maybe it is just associated with leisure. And those guys in their uniforms and their hats look so much different than the football gladiators. Football players are beginning to look like people from another planet. They are so big and the equipment is so massive and they hit so hard you just aren't sure anymore who is really behind those facemasks. But baseball you know who the guys are.

They are the same guys you played with in some sandlot or in some street or in some yard. And even though they play the game at the very top it is still just baseball. And baseball is something every kid in American learns to play at an early age and then learns to watch as an adult. And both activites take you back to something you just cant get your arms around..

Time. And it does slip away.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The PItcher

Writers Making Money off of Writers

You see it all the time. The success story and then the pitch. I became a Kindle Bestseller and so can you. So you click. Why not you don't want to miss out. And it is a testimonial and basically breaks it all down to  a system. Becoming a bestseller has nothing to do with the merit of your book but the merit of the marketing. And here is how you do it. Post until you die. Shoot an email to these people. Contextual advertising. Facebook. Twitter. Skype. Radio. YouTube. Here is the secret and for a mere 9.95 or 19.95 or 99.95 you can have my secret.

And sometimes you pull the trigger. Why not?  It is the wild west out there and no one knows what really works and these writers selling these programs know that too. The hungry must be fed and so writers turn to making money off of writers. It is pathetic in a way. Writers have little money. Most writers. And now there is another predator out there. And maybe the system worked for the person. Maybe they lucked out and the marketing or Internet Gods turned in their favor. But probably the only thing that turned in their favor was the idea to con other writers.

And it all assumes that the central idea of writing a good book is secondary. That telling a really good story might be the only way to sell lots of books. This is buried under the pyramid scheme idea that there is some secret nestled deep down in the ground that has more to do with computer algorithms than the merit of your book.

The sad truth is the only thing deep down in the ground is a treasure chest filled with the fools gold of people who think talent can be bought for 19.95. 

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher
 

Because it's the World Series....Sports Rack Review of The Pitcher

So, have you ever had a dream?  That’s a question that every person is asked time and time again.  Do you have a dream.  If you’re Ricky Hernandez, your dream is the same dream as everyone else.  He wants to be the American Dream.  A kid from nothing that turns into something.
“The Pitcher” is a book about dreams.  The dreams of kids.  The dreams of parents.  The dreams of immigrants.  The dreams of a man who’s lived the dream.  And it’s all brought together in the mind of William Hazelgrove.  After the cut, find out how.

“The Pitcher” by William Hazelgrove
Published by Koehler Books
Release Date: September 1, 2013
Pages: 242 (Kindle Edition)

As you can see from the picture, the Junior Library Guild has selected this book as a must read.  And it really is.  And so, let’s put myself into Ricky’s shoes, shall we?  I am a 3rd generation Mexican American, as is Ricky.  My family isn’t from this country, and my grandmother came to this country to find a better way of life, as did Ricky’s.  And as a Mexican American, imagine the scrutiny faced by a culture that is xenophobic.
Ricky’s constantly in the bottom of the 9th with nobody out in this expertly crafted story.  His mother is dying.  His father is worthless.  He wants to be a pitcher, just to fulfil his mother’s wishes.  But his mother cannot afford the lessons needed.  Hence, comes in the surprise character, nicknamed “The Pitcher.”  A down and out former MLB pitcher who was a World Series MVP.  A man trying to forget squandering his dream.
In this story, Ricky and The Pitcher come parallel.  Two people who aren’t interested in school or life.  All they want is the game.  All while dealing with Mrs. Payne, the representation of that Tea Party mom and Sports Mom who drives us nuts.  Coach Devin, her seemingly spineless husband.  And their “perfect” son named Eric, who represents that “perfect” kid willing to step on everyone on his way to the top.
From the opening pitch in Ricky’s life to his final triumphs, William takes you on a journey that you’ve been on before.  The journey of love, doubt, and self-searching.  All through the eyes of a Mexican boy who thinks the world is against him.
So, get ready to root for the underdog in a social and sometimes political commentary of the kid’s journey.  Kids will pick up the theme of beating the odds.  Adults should pick up the underlying themes of our xenophobic nature.  Everyone should be rooting for Ricky.
William Hazelgrove weaved this book together with mastery, and you should pre-order this now from Amazon.  It’s available for $11.56 USD, so definitely put in your order and get ready for one heck of a baseball story.  Like my last pre-release, this one is a love book, folks.  And that doesn’t happen often.
Cheers, Mr. Hazelgrove.  I’m rooting for this book to make it, too.
The Pitcher

The World Series in the Modern Age

Ok. So the World Series begins. Here in Chicago it is cold. It snowed yesterday. And we are clearly in an early winter mode though it might break again. But the fact that baseball is being played still is nothing short of amazing. Baseball belongs to warm days and a slow summer pace. The ball game playing somewhere on a radio is part of the summer. Time does slow down in summer and we look to our National Past Time to take the measure of the hot months.

In Chicago it is Wrigley Field that takes you back to a time when baseball was the sport. It is an old ivy covered stadium that is now finally going to be retrofitted. But it still has that old tang  of summer hot dogs, beer, peanuts. The game simply cant be played when it is cold out and we don't have that association. When I was researching for The Pitcher I was stuck by how many players were farm kids and how many players hated winters. The off season was just hell then.

But now we have the series and football is in full swing. The two sports are in two different universes. Football is a gladiator sport played under any condition. Baseball seems almost quaint in comparison. Of course it is not quaint. It is a hard fought battle that will be played out over the next two weeks. With football under siege now because so many players are getting their brains scrambled baseball might be the sport we are left with.

I guess that would be one way to make sure The World Series is the only game in town.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher

Why Our National Past Time Just Isn't The Same

The NY Times had a recent article about our National Past Time becoming less releavant. Seems people  just don't watch baseball anymore like they used to. They go to the games but they don't watch on television as much. Something is up in Mudville. Could it be the doping scandals where one big hitter falls after another. Or as the Times speculates is there something else going on. Could it be we are changing.

Baseball used to a sport of action back in the nineteenth century. It was considered a very exciting sport. One that rivaled the American spirit for settling the country. But now it is our past time. Our kickback sport. Problem is we as a people don't really  kick back anymore. Football is our sport now. Something violent. Something dangerous. Something unpredicatable. Baseball is none of these things. Baseball is a conservative sport played by conservative men. A long drawn out game of chess that flares up and then goes back to sleep.

But we are not a sleepy people. We just don't have the time to kick back and watch men bat a ball around and trot around bases. We want to see gladiators who knock each other senseless. We want to see men literally try and knock each other out. And we crave more. We may have outgrown our own national sport. Our life moves at nanosecond speed now and we have not a moment to lose. We literally don't have time to eat anymore much less watch a slow game of baseball.

So to take a day and sit back and have a beer and watch men in the summer knock a ball around. I don't know. Sounds pretty nineteenth century to me....sounds pretty nice.

www.williamhazelgrove.com
The Pitcher
 

Moment to Shine...Amazon Review

I am blown away by this novel. It gave me more chills than "The Field Of Dreams" and "The Natural" combined. I choked up more times reading this, soon to be classic tale, than a team that leaves 11 men on base during a game. I kid you not; it's that moving.
This is much more than a story of the love of a game, or a mother's dream for her child. This is a perfectly crafted piece of literary fiction that is relevant to contemporary issues of the day.
You will come to respect and admire Maria and her son Ricky. If you're like me, you will be fascinated by the Pitcher Jack Langford. All I could see when I read about him was Clint Eastwood (about 25 years younger). You'll love his evolution and root for him as well as Maria and Ricky. If this isn't made into a movie, Hollywood is missing out on a potential blockbuster as big or bigger than "Sandlot" or "The Natural".
It weaves in hot button issues like illegal immigration, health care, and domestic violence in a way that isn't preachy or over the top. It is sentimental but not maudlin.
These issues and the dream of a mother and child to have "their moment to shine" is brilliantly done in a manner that is at times humorous, tension filled, and totally satisfying. The last 25 % of the book will have you in angst as the the twists of the story unfold into a totally fulfilling conclusion.
This novel is a must read for men and women of all ages. I just can't put into words how impressive this book is, but I have no doubt that this future best seller is Mr. Hazelgrove's
"moment to shine".
http://www.amazon.com/The-Pitcher-ebook/product-reviews/B00DMOO3RM/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

 

Money in Kids Sports

The fact that money is now a factor in kids sports is not surprising in our comodified culture where everything is for sale including our politicians (see gridlock). But as a parent there is that ta da moment where you realize money does influence who will  make the team and who wont. My new novel The Pitcher is about a Mexican kid with no money at all and a broken down World Series pitcher who coaches him to make the high school team. On the other side is his nemesis, the kid who has everything and every lesson. The question is then will talent or money win out?

And in real life I was confronted with this as my own son developed a terrific arm but we did not give him the high powered pitching lessons. I had played sports all through high school without one lesson but of course the times have changed. The competion is intense and there are parents who spend thousands so junior can have a leg up. I still remember when we played travel ball and the price tag of about three thousand dollars was batted around at a parent meeting. Was my wife and I the only ones who stared at the people like they had just bought the proverbial Brooklyn Bridge.

But of course then I found out what travel ball was all about and three thousand dollars later we ended up in fields in St Louis and a few other states with a promised trip to Coopers Town. And again we were in the caboose of family Olympic sport spending. We just couldn't compete at the higher end levels of personal trainers and personal lessons. And so when high school came along my son made the team but we found out the real positions were for the few who had logged many hours at Finish Strong camps.

And in my novel I put this maxim to the test. Will talent ultimately win out? Or have we reached a point where cream will not rise to the top...unless it is pushed there by a lot of buoyant greenbacks.

Sometimes a Dream is all you have...The Pitcher