All posts by Bob Greenberger

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Lost Whale: The Legend of Humphrey

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Notes from Howard Weinstein:

Awesome is a very overused adjective these days. I experienced the real deal on two whale watch cruises off the coast of Gloucester, Massachusetts some years ago. Watching the black bulk of a 40-foot-long humpback swim casually past a boat that suddenly seems much smaller…watching it flip its broad powerful tail flukes and submerge…and then leap completely out of the water in a twisting playful belly flop… Now that’s awesome!

This epic-scale screenplay is based on the riveting true story of the only rescue of a stranded humpback whale, using contemporary news coverage and the book The Great Whale Rescue as source material.

I got caught up in these events as they happened in 1985, and even in those innocent days before 24/7 news overload, this story made the daily papers and evening news for weeks – and captured the imaginations of people world-wide. Even Wikipedia describes Humphrey as “arguably the most widely publicized humpback whale in history.”

The ending knocks your socks off – just as it really happened. Proof of the story’s continuing power came in 2007, when a mother and calf pair of humpbacks incredibly retraced Humphrey’s path in California – prompting the same media frenzy and overwhelming public interest.

Lost Whale: The Legend of Humphrey was entered in the Motion Picture Academy’s prestigious Nicholl Fellowship screenwriting competition in 2007. The script was evaluated by industry-insider judges, and scored in the top 7 percent of 5000 entries.

Maybe this screenplay will actually become a movie someday. But for now, you can “see” it by reading this script. And it’s a free exclusive download – as Crazy 8 Press’s first-anniversary gift to our readers. Thanks for your support in our first year…and we have more great stories to come!

And now you can read the script by clicking: WHALEScript.Nov2011Crazy8.

Latchkeys

Meet The Ugly Little Bloke

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Steven Savile had no idea what he ignited. There were a baker’s dozen of us chomping at the bit to write something, anything, and when he suggested we create our own project, we went crazy. He gave us his Latchkeys idea and we glommed on to it, forming a cooperative that has gone on to sub-divide and create a few more projects, but the heart and soul remains Latchkeys. Once we agreed on the premise, we build a bible, populating it with characters and once we decided which ones we liked, we began pitching ideas.

I imagine this is very much like a writers’ room in television, just a virtual version with members contributing ideas from across America and Europe. We all tossed in ideas and kicked them around, seeing which ones excited the others and which ones might make the cut. Just about three years ago, we had roughed out the idea of a thirteen episode season that brought us to particular point, to be followed by a second season that went somewhere else, and so on. Thirteen writers, thirteen episodes…this just might work.

We began voting for the premises we most liked while Steve began assembling the batting order considering some of us have more writing experience than others and we wanted to support one another while still offering some commercial power at the beginning and end. Clearly, Steve would go first and if you read Unlatched, then you know he did a great job setting the tone and introducing readers to the world.

The second installment needed to go further, focusing on some of the other members of the cast, deepening the readers’ understanding of the premise and sowing the seeds for future character arcs and mysteries. We settled on a story taking us from the house to a fantasy land, but one just a little skewed from the typical locales.

As we voted on the premise, Steve tapped me to bat second, making us the table setters before the heavy-hitters came to bat. He knew I could write in other peoples’ worlds and could do so while adding a little something of my own. Once we voted on the premise and I was pencilled in, things seemed fine.

I finally was given the green light to write my tale over the summer which was delivered to the others in August. I got some great feedback making the story stronger and then Steve gave it an editorial polish to make certain it closely matched the lead off tale.

In just a few weeks, you will see for yourself what I managed in The Ugly Little Bloke, available March 6.  For now, just feast on Vance Kelly’s really fun cover.

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Latchkeys: Unlatched Now Available on Kindle

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The first installment of Latchkeys, a brand new series from a gaggle of writers herded by Steven Savile, is now available on Kindle, with a Nook version due in a matter of days. The series has been discussed here before and its worth noting that Crazy 8 Press co-founders Aaron Rosenberg and Bob Greenberger are contributing members.

Latchkeys is a series of standalone stories that as a whole tells a larger story. The first cycle of stories is projected to be thirteen parts in all, released roughly every six weeks going forward. The series will therefore be back in early March with the second installment, The Ugly Little Bloke, by Greenberger.

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Sample the First Latchkeys Adventure

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As promised not that long ago, Steven Savile’s long-gestating Latchkeys idea has come to Crazy 8 Press. Steven has partnered with C8 co-founders Bob Greenberger, Aaron Rosenberg and nine other authors to create a brand new young adult fantasy series.

The very first offering can be previewed right here: Unlatched teaser. The entire first installment will be available for purchase for Kindle and Nook starting next Sunday.

Give it a read and let us know what you think.

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The Hidden Earth is Now Available on the Nook

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Crazy 8 Press is pleased to announce that volume one of Peter David’s epic fantasy tale, The Hidden Earth, is now available exclusively through the Nook at Barnes & Noble for the next thirty days. Darkness of the Light, which launched the ambitious series back in 2007, can finally be purchased as an eBook for the introductory price of $2.99. In January the book will go wide, offered both through Amazon and as a trade paperback. In short order it will be followed by the long-awaited sequel, “Height of the Depths.” Watch this space for further announcements and go HERE to begin the journey through the Hidden Earth.