As the last “chance to control the pandemic evaporated and the virus began its deadly march, turning the pandemic into an Apocalypse”, Spanish lawyer, his Persian cat, the Ukrainian pilot Viktor “Prit” Pritchenko, the teenager Lucia, and Sister Cecilia, gamble everything, and make a desperate attempt to reach Lanzarote, hoping the island will offer protection, but instead find the living can be as dangerous as the dead.
This Rotten World: No More Heroes by Jacy Morris
With Portland in their rear-view-mirror our survivors encounter new perils, some undead, some very much alive. Morris keeps the action moving, and the threats coming, and the multiple storylines flowing.
This Rotten World: Let It Burn by Jacy Morris
“Portland, Oregon, once a hipster haven, the progressive jewel of the Northwest, was now nothing but a collection of buildings on the precipice of becoming a ruin.” As the plot continues, survivors try to escape the unrelenting threat from the undead, shifting perspective offer depth to the characters that make this a compelling read.
This Rotten World by Jacy Morris
First in the series begins with the fall of civilisation at the teeth of the undead. A disparate collection of survivors, forced together by circumstance, battle to escape Portland.
Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End by Manel Loureiro
This first novel by Manel Loureiro, started as a blog before its publication as a book, follows a lawyer, his cat, and a Ukrainian helicopter pilot, as they fight to survive the undead.
How they write a script: Walter Hill
A must read for anyone interested in screenwriting.
I tried to write in an extremely spare, almost haiku style, both stage directions and dialogue. Some of it was a bit pretentious — but at other times I thought it worked pretty well.
When I’m working alone, the old hard way. Longhand. Fountain pen. Legal pad. Thesaurus at my side.
This last item, I’m not ashamed to say, is quite helpful — when you write screenplays, you don’t have a lot of room, and the stage directions can become onerously repetitive if you don’t work at fresh descriptions.
Walter Hill
How professional screenwriters outline
Molly’s Game by Aaron Sorkin
This screenplay feels like a transcript of the film. What’s on the page is so what’s on the screen, it feels like Sorkin made the movie before he wrote it. It’s clear, precise, and most of all readable, in a way some writers don’t manage, and some screenplays aren’t. It flows on the page the way people tell their stories. It jumps around. There are digressions but only to clarify something else. His use of voiceover is a marvel. Best of all it doesn’t feel at odds with the story. It is the story, Molly Bloom’s story, told in her voice. I have long considered voiceover a literary affectation. Screenwriters use it when they want to get the writing of a book, and the voice of the original author, into a film. It’s used as a framing device to make the film feel like a book. Sorkin goes beyond that. In his hands it’s a structural element that holds together the multiple strands of the story. A must read for anyone interested in screenwriting.
Eastern Promises by Steven Knight
Knight’s writing is dense. His descriptions weighty, full of intention. The dialogue follows the same template, functional and to the point. There’s one plot element that has always bothered me. The revelation that Nikolai is an undercover policeman. If we were made aware of this fact earlier in the plot it would provided another level of jeopardy to Nikolai’s story. As it stands it comes as explanation, the reason why he helps Anna. I understand this might’ve changed the emphasis of the story, but it could’ve made him more active. Just a thought.
Spartan by David Mamet
The screenplay is somewhat different to the finished film. The dialogue’s very Mamet. It’s almost a code. Characters saying things that are both direct but also cryptic. His descriptions are dense but direct, and maintain a focus on the character’s intentions. He uses parentheticals more than any other writer I’ve read. Overall it’s very utilitarian. It does the heavy lifting. It’s a document used to make a film, not a thing on its own.
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