'Evacuation Plan' in Award-Winning Books Week

The folks over at Storyfinds.com are highlighting the new e-edition of my novel-in-stories Evacuation Plan today on their site as part of their Award-Winning Books Week. The novel won the North Texas Book Award and garnered some good attention. (Look on the right of this page for more info!)

They've got an excerpt of the book here. Check it out and spread the word.

On the 'Revolution' set in Bartlett

 My report for The Austin Chronicle on NBC's Texas-shot second season of Revolution:

Evan Cauduro, 11, heard about it from friends at school. Then his family was at a dinner party where a woman talked about the call for "weird people." At home, Evan rushed to the computer and began to sign himself up. His father Paul uploaded two photos – one of Evan in his baseball uniform and another from the boy's school science fair. Soon Evan was staying up all night in grungy clothes. He ran dangerously close to an oncoming horse. And you might just see him as a background extra on Sept. 25 when the NBC series Revolution debuts its second season, its first as a Central Texas-shot phenomenon.
 
The show is headquartered in Austin for a 22-episode sweep that will continue into May, says Gary Bond, head of the Austin Film Commission, but cameras have been popping up at Decker Lake and in Maxwell, downtown Taylor, Cedar Park, and elsewhere. The conventional wisdom is each episode results in $1 million in local spending. "That's the wonderful thing about television," Bond says. "It's the gift that keeps on giving. The potential for them to be here five years is there."

Read the rest in The Austin Chronicle here.


See photos from the Bartlett set here.

David Gordon Green: third Austin-area film and counting

How many films has Richard Linklater shot recently in the Austin area? I suppose there's Boyhood, his 12-year indie project that shot in yearly spurts and Bernie filmed a few years ago. Robert Rodriguez quietly pumps movies out in his secluded bat cave (with occasion trips out to block downtown Austin traffic.

But compare that to newish Austin resident David Gordon Green who has two Central-Texas shot films done: Prince Avalanche shot covertly in Bastrop last summer (he's learning from his secretive mentor Terrence Malick) and Joe shot all around the area last fall.

Now add something called Mangelhorn that will shoot in Austin this fall featuring Al Pacino, Holly Hunter, Harmony Korine (director of Gummo) and Chris Messina (Greenberg).  Manglehorn is about "an eccentric man who tries to come to terms with a past crime that cost him the love of his life."

Three films in about two years? It's probably premature to crown a new king of Austin indie-ish film, but Green might want to come in for his royal fitting.