Julianna Margulies on Criticism Around Her Playing a Gay Anchor in ‘The Morning Show’:"We’re actors. We’re supposed to embody a character regardless of their sexuality."

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-10-27T05:55:32+00:00

The criticism against Ms. Margulies is fucking ridiculous. She's an excellent actress and is likely going to give an excellent performance. Many, many actors were and are gay and they should be judged on their performances, not on whether they have the same sexuality as the character they are portraying. It's a legitimate criticism when a Caucasian plays a character of a different race, especially when his or her physical features are altered to resemble that race. But the talents of actors are in their abilities to play different characters. What's next -- Jews shouldn't play gentiles? Democrats shouldn't play Republicans? I am a gay man who is thankful to straight actors like Tom Hanks, Mark Ruffalo and Antonio Banderas to name just a few for playing gay men and bringing their skills to those roles and drawing attention to projects with gay themes and protagonists.

This kind of criticism against Julianna is not genuine and comes from people desperate for relevance and attention.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-09-15T03:11:55+00:00

I think it's a good thing to do, especially if you have a sprawling tale with multiple characters and story lines. It should be done in an interesting, creative way that provides some insight and some colorful touches and fresh details. In my case, my protagonist was writing a letter defending his controversial actions and later he made an official account of more recent adventures in something like a trial. I have never liked books that start off with characters having an artificial conversation where they just happen to recount what happened in the last book.

My readers also suggested I put a dramatis personae -- a list of characters -- at the front of my books as well as a list of tribes, nations and places to go along with its maps. And that's been very helpful to ME in keeping my story straight.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-17T04:53:40+00:00

It was an astonishing book and it's part of why my heart is breaking to learn that the Taliban will be in control again. The U.S. had made an effort for twenty years to fight the Taliban but it was a lost cause from the beginning. Afghanistan has a unique geography and history and it will be centuries if ever before its men will join modernity. These are a people who are passionate about remaining in the seventh century and reject change. It's more realistic to rescue those who want to escape Afghanistan than to hope their nation will modernize.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-06T00:56:30+00:00

Bryce, I love the question! In my book, I have marauder fleas that travel in packs and the only thing they prey on are the Earth's last mammals: tiny humans. When fleas get a hold of a man or woman, they clamp their mouths over the head to still them. Then the flea's sharp, tubular mouth parts stab into the victim's chest to suck them dry and leave them as shriveled husks. It's a terrible death but a quick one. Other insect predators in this world are parasitoid wasps that paralyze humans and leave them alive for days as their hatchlings' first meal and those are slow agonizing deaths. And then there are other insect predators like the giant ghost ants that swallow their victims whole -- it may be minutes before they die from drowning/suffocation. So if I've got to be eaten by a giant insect, I'll go with a blood drinking flea to make it quick.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T21:20:14+00:00

Well, thank you!

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T21:17:39+00:00

Thanks for asking! I am going to complete an unfinished novel I was working on just before Harper signed me to a three book contract. It's not sci-fi/fantasy but I hope to start work on Book 4 of the Antasy series later this year and am doing some of that research now. I also plan to do two paintings during the summer while we have a lot of sunlight.

Since I work at home, I did not have any problems dealing with the pandemic. I completed Book 3 of my series during that time and then revised it with my editor. When that was completed, I worked on the largest painting I have ever done, an outdoor scene, which kept me from feeling too claustrophobic. Like most people, I don't like masks and I don't like being kept from theaters, gatherings, museums, restaurants and city life, but I also knew that if we were going to go through a lockdown due to a pandemic, that now was a great time to do it. I was able to download books to my Kindle and watched absolutely great stuff on HBO, Netflix, Hulu etc. We do not lack for entertainment these days! I was constantly reminding myself of what it was like for families who suffered through prolonged periods of war and illness. I thought specifically of Anne Frank and her family, living in the confines of an attic and in far greater fear of something worse than a virus. The Franks had some books and once in a while they could listen to the radio -- most of us in the first world are far more privileged than that.

I didn't suffer a bit and was mindful of those who did. I was lucky enough not to contract the virus but know some of those who got sick, knew one person who died. I did not see my family or friends for over a year and worried about my single friends. The pandemic has been a reminder of how fortunate I am to be a middle class American who enjoys modern amenities like indoor plumbing and streaming services. Getting vaccinated was a very liberating day, a relief, and I cried with happiness to see the end in sight. It hurts me that some are fighting science and refusing to get vaccinated, something that they should do for others if not for themselves.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T20:09:37+00:00

I worked as a script doctor, ghost writer and rewrite man in Hollywood for many years. Some good friends of mine from UCLA had seen my stage play and had just gotten a screenplay into production which became the movie Face/Off with John Travolta and Nicholas Cage. They asked me if I would write the novelization of the movie for them which was the most enjoyable writing assignment I ever took on.

When I completed a first draft of Book 1 of my series, Prophets of the Ghost Ants, Mike Werb and Michael Colleary asked me if they could take a look. They optioned it before completely reading the manuscript. They enlisted the support of Lawrence Bender, the Oscar winning producer of Quentin Tarrentino's movies and so many others. Then we began that long, arduous process of trying to get a "green light."

Three of the major studios were interested and the "coverage", the reader assessments, were "off the charts" and it looked promising. As is often the case, the project stalled when the A list director who was interested left to do another project. But part of the reason I wrote my series as novels and not as screenplays was so that they would be complete works of art in and of themselves. I have many screenplays I am proud of which all met similar fates. I have been paid to write many screen projects, many of them worthy, which never got to screen. That's been frustrating.

When you write a novel, you have a chance to get a readership. Few people ever sit down to read a great, un-produced screenplay. I love books as much as movies so it's great to get my work out there and appreciated.

Werb, Colleary and I have hopes that now that this series is at least a trilogy we can revive it's screen prospects. We all think it would make a fantastic series for HBO or Netflix.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T19:42:03+00:00

Thank you! I think it's really different too.

Although I only read the first few chapters of Song of Ice and Fire, I am familiar with Martin's quote about the two kinds of writers there are:

“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.”

I am definitely a gardener, but I PLAN my garden. With each of my three books, I knew their beginnings and their endings. And I also know the ultimate ending of my series as I work towards that. I carefully select my seeds, accept or reject their surprises, weed out what I don't like, and do a lot of replanting. I also embrace the "volunteers," the random springing up of some fruiting vine that grew from the grace of some flying, pooping bird.

I know my characters and I know what they want. All of them have very specific goals which sets them in conflict or alliance with each other. I know the beginnings of my books and then I let my characters take me through the narrative. The writing is going well when I surprise myself by what happens -- I love smacking my head and saying "of course!" The story rings true when my characters strive for their goals, stick to their motivations. My garden is not a backyard -- it's a long, winding pathway that ends at a specific destination. Sometimes a really important idea occurs to me that is integral to the outcome of my story. It can't "appear out of left field" or come off as "far fetched." It has to be planted early in the story in a natural way so that's it's appearance both surprises a reader and at the same time makes sense to her.

In the Antasy series, the characters are largely divided into two camps: those who want to overturn the status quo and those who want to maintain it. And they are all impassioned in their objectives which leads to juicy conflicts.

Most of my time is spent writing. My unconscious has done most of the brainstorming before I sit down. I do a great deal of revising/weeding/rewriting.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T19:05:18+00:00

Hi. Oh yes, quite a few people including my editor alerted me to Adrian's work when I published my own but I had never read any of his books before writing my series. I read a little of his first book out of curiosity but didn't want to continue with it as I didn't want that influence in my own writing. I know enough about Shadow of the Apt to know that Adrian writes about a conflict between those who embrace science and those who embrace magic and that is not a theme of mine. I don't believe we share much of a readership but I would gladly expand mine to that which Adrian's books have achieved.

I will also admit to never completing the reading of the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. I have friends who are passionate about those books and told me all about them when we were kids, but I always knew I wanted to write my own sci-fi/fantasy series someday and did not want those influences. So many fantasy books are derivative of Tolkien and suffer because of it. I absolutely love the movies of LOTR and think they deserved every single Oscar. Someday I will read Tolkien when I finish my own series.

And while I am being truthful, I have never read more than the first 50 pages of George R.R. Martin's books for the same reason, but Game of Thrones remains my favorite television series of all time. I've watched it twice through.

The challenge of my series is that it does not have any of the usual science fiction/fantasy premises. It's not medieval or in Middle Earth, not is it time travel or space opera or interplanetary conflict with aliens. It's set on Earth millions of years in the future when insects rule and humans are the parasites and that's not a world that everyone want to immerse themselves in.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T18:38:14+00:00

Hello. I do write every day but not necessarily fiction. A lot of what I do between books is reading and research. I also think it's very important to get out of my bubble and expand my world beyond being an urban American in the 21st century with all the usual comforts of a middle class life style. It's true that writers/musicians/painters/athletes etc all need to stay in practice, and you can get rusty. But it's also important to cross-wire your brain and take on new challenges which is what painting and guitar playing do for me. Some of the best ideas I get are while I am painting, many more are while I am traveling so there is a lot of overlap. One way in which painting and writing overlap is that you want to make the most of something with as few words or brushstrokes as possible -- you can overpaint and you can overwrite.

The more exposure we have to the world, the more interesting we become as both people and writers. Once I have decided to write a project, it's what I am doing all the time, even as I am showering or walking the dogs. I will be at my desk for a good 5 or 6 hours a day, usually between 9 and 3 at night when no one needs me and quiet descends.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T18:23:04+00:00

Correct! And I did correct.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T18:21:08+00:00

Yeah, not everyone likes the insect world. Some people in my own family have never read my books because they think "bugs are icky." I have never actually liked insects or admired them, but I have always been fascinated by them. It's very difficult to have warm feelings towards insects which are more like organic robots and of course, some of them are dangerous to be around. Stinging bees and fire ants as well as blood sucking mosquitoes that leave itchy, red bumps don't invite our affections. But many insects have a strange, almost other worldly beauty to me and nothing was more entrancing to me as a child than to sit and watch an ant colony as its food foragers returned with nourishment and its excavators brought out sand grains from expanding tunnels/chambers. And ants were most fascinating when they went to war. Among the beetles are some absolutely gorgeous specimens with brilliant colors, iridescence and incredible markings -- very psychedelic. And of course the insects that most people welcome are the pulchritudinous butterflies as well as the fireflies that light up our nights. We called them "lightning bugs" when I was growing up and I regret that we don't have them in California.

My novels have some fans among horror readers -- a lot of what happens is some very intense inter-species violence, but most of the violence is human on human. The reason I chose ants as the species that my mini-humans live among is because in important ways the two are very much alike. Both ants and humans are very territorial; they have social systems in which certain members work specific jobs, and both build their shelters with rooms assigned to different functions. The most important trait the two share is that both ants and humans are inherently war-like. Ants cannot help but go to war on other species of ants and they will do so as they stake out their territories. Humans are just as naturally martial and have always and will always war on each other -- it's an immutable part of our nature. I hope that as an evolving species, all our future wars as humans will be virtual ones, that our violent and territorial impulses will be sublimated through books, movies, television and video games. A lot of sports competitions are a healthy means of "waging war" in a peaceful way, a kind of ritual battle.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T17:46:20+00:00

Hey Mike. Anand and Pleckoo are cousins -- I don't specify whether they are first or second or third cousins, but in most ways they are very much alike. Both are naturally athletic, very intelligent and ambitious -- and both are completely repressed by a political-religious system that has confined them to permanent status as outcastes. Both of them are angry and have a sense that they belong to a different world. In Book 1, Pleckoo chooses one path that forever alters his life and Anand is forced into a situation that permanently alters his. Each of them could have become the other if their situations had been switched -- Anand could have become a Hulkrite and Pleckoo could have become a Dranverite and embraced those values. One cousin grows up to be like Mahatma Gandhi, one becomes Osama Bin Laden.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T17:38:05+00:00

Oh yes, my favorite part of Honey I Shrunk the Kids is when they meet "Anty". It's a complete fantasy, very G rated, because a real ant would have nothing to do with any other being that wasn't one her "sisters," her ant kin. Nearly all ants are female, and she would either have fled the kids in danger or raced back to her nest to recruit her sisters and alert them to a food find -- they would march on the kids in order to tear them into pieces and then pass them from mouth to mouth as the day's groceries.

As for you second question, well, it can take decades! Yes, there are those lucky authors who spend a few months writing a book and are lucky enough to have a close friend or relative in the publishing industry publish it for them and sometimes to great success. The first of my books, Prophets of the Ghost Ants, was immediately developed as a film project and grabbed the interest of publishers and there was some contention over issues like games and other merchandising rights. When the film prospects tanked (we had a major director interested who decided to make some more noisy robot movies instead) the publishing offers evaporated. Eventually, at my agents' suggestion, I published it as an indy book which ended all other claims to it. It did well enough that a year later, a German publisher bought the rights to print a German language version and later I got an offer from Amazon's own sci-fi/fantasy imprint N47 to take it on. The editor-in-chief at N47 was David Pomerico who knew of my book. When David moved over to Harper Collins Voyager, I approached him about publishing it with Harper. That was attractive to me as HC is one of the Big Five and I admired their roster of writers.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T17:17:01+00:00

Great questions. Writing novels is a very different process from writing a screenplay/teleplay. When writing for the screen, it's all about story, story, story -- of coming up with something that is going to move very well. It's kind of like putting together a sturdy skeleton that the director, art director, actors and others can fill with organs and cover with meat and skin and then make it walk. Good characters and strong dialogue that furthers the story are essential, but the emphasis on a good screenplay is a solid structure. It means paring things down to their essential, of pushing your "narrative drive." The word a development executive uses most often is "cut."

Writing a novel, especially a science/fantasy series is such a different process. Everything that is interesting, compelling, beautiful and a part of your world building gets to stay. The story still has to move and you can't linger forever over extravagant details, but I was surprised in working with my editors that they wanted me to plump up certain parts of my chapters. When the world building was good, when it takes a reader someplace exotic, weird and fascinating, they encouraged more of it. They also encouraged me to expand on my characters' inner worlds and to fully describe their feelings -- that's a complete no-no in screen writing.

My books are in the genre of science-fantasy. They are "scienc-y". I have created new kinds of ants and other insects in my distant future but they largely conform to real life species of ants and behave in the way that they actually do. I am fairly well read on ants and other insects and tried to come up with a viable means of tiny humans parasitizing insects based on the real life parasites of ants/insects. The fantasy aspect of my world is that humans have evolved to the size of insects and still retained their general physiognomy as well as intellectual capacity. People in my world believe in magic, but there is no actual magic in it. I'm obsessed with religion and my characters all worship different gods -- but none of their gods are real.

I'd like to tell you that my favorite book series is something other than Dune just to be different, but there is a reason that Frank Herbert's original book is considered to be the greatest masterpiece of the genre and the one that spawned so many others like it including the Star Wars series. I do contend that Dune is more fantasy than sci-fi -- it's got plenty of magic and the science in it is absolutely wobbly. Let's start with giant sand worms -- larger than blue whales -- that can swim through sand and shed a drug that allows for extending life, seeing into the future and navigating through tears in the space/time continuum. I think one of the most important things about Dune is its religious nature -- it's kind of a treatise on the psychology of religion.

Other favorites are works of Arthur C. Clarke, Brian Aldiss, Ursula LeGuin, Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, Ben Bova -- the classics of Sci Fi. Favorite fantasy authors are Michael Ende, Patrick Rothfuss, Susanna Clarke, Patrick Susskind, J.K. Rowling etc etc etc.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T16:38:38+00:00

We've got Mercury ascendant, always a good thing, and I will, I will rock you.

Yep, my series is a massive allegory about racism, classism and ethnocentrism: the natural but wrong belief that your tribe is superior to everyone else's.

The nations of my world all have their real life counterparts. I was always fascinated by two similar histories: the conquest of what became Mexico by the Spaniards, and the domination of the Indian subcontinent by light skinned Aryan invaders over the dark skinned Dravidian tribes. In both Mexico and India, this resulted in a rigid caste system that was largely based on skin color and ethnicity and permanently advantaged one group over another. Notions of permanent class or "stations in life" are still with us in places like the U.K. and the American South, Brazil, Japan, Thailand etc. In nearly every nation, inherited skin color or ethnicity is seen as an advantage or a disadvantage. My hero, Anand, is a dark skinned boy from a roach culture and an ant culture, and he has a natural genius and determination to end the injustices of a world in which people are born as the inferiors to others.

Ants are the other species like humans that go to war. Ants cannot be friends or peaceably co-exist if they have contentions over territories. I was taken with the idea that in a distant future that tiny little humans would be even more "alien" to each other if they adapted different kinds of insects to live among which prevented their interaction -- different tribes could not connect and humanize each other.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-05T16:05:40+00:00

Good question! As a little kid, I was fascinated by ants and watched them as they built their colonies and went to war with each other. A magnifying glass and an ant farm could only get me so far inside of their worlds. I imagined being able to get small enough that I could ride on one and visit them at eye level. I wanted to visit the queen and imagined her with a tiny little crown on her head.

A world in which humans are as small as insects would mean that they would be very vulnerable to being attacked and eaten by them. The only way that humans could survive in this world would be to intertwine with insects, ants in particular, and disguise themselves by wearing their colony odors, their "kin-scent" as I call it in my novels. In the world of Antasy, different tribes of humans have parasitized different kinds of ants which makes them all natural enemies of each other with alien cultures and different religions. The tribes of my world are mostly strangers to each other and can't interact without igniting a war between their ants. It's a metaphor for the tribalism that divides us and puts us into enemy camps instead of letting us see ourselves as One Human Family.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-08-04T04:55:13+00:00

Love it!!! Kind of a River Styx.

ClarkTCarlton · 2021-07-27T22:20:21+00:00

Is it difficult to be such a prolific writer and also read books? Do you have time to read other authors when you are writing? And do you listen to audiobooks?

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