Welcome back to another edition of Author's Corner. I've noticed the first few weeks of July that Hollywood is relieved to see people going to the box office again (for Pirates of the Caribbean, Pt. II). Apparently, they believed that we all lost interest in paying $7-$10 a seat for sub-par movies. Not that 'Pirates' was sub-par, for I found it very entertaining. In my querying process, I've learned about many of the production companies and their interests. Unfortunately, many of them have become locked in on their own interests and not those of the general public.

Looking back at some of the best selling movies over the last six years, the common thread seemed to be the imagination, not the reality. Prior to 'Pirates' outstanding first few weeks, Spiderman (2002) set the previous record. Titanic and Independence Day were also big hits in that time frame.

Maybe Hollywood will realize that we want to be wowed and see things that we don't normally see. Of late, they've been giving us a steady diet of reruns and reality shows.

There aren't many movies I would spend the money to see over the last six years. I enjoyed Underworld I and II; Van Helsing; The Day After; The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe; and of course, Lord of the Rings (each of them). I saw things that stimulated my own imagination. We'll see how they react (or don't react) to 'Pirates' success.

I'm still stuck in a holding pattern for all of my projects. Here's the latest on them: The Christmas Solution has attracted the interest of a major motion picture company and may have a decision in the next month or so.

Fractured Time is under review by several motion picture companies while the Sci-Fi Channel has the complete project (Fractured Time movie & TV series, Twisted Fate movie and TV series, Dark Horizon movie) in their hands and I'm waiting for them to reply. It could be a while because of the size of the package.

I'm still waiting for a response from a certain agent about representing the screenplay for The Eye of Icarus. I may resume shopping it myself as well as looking for another agent.

The manuscript for The Eye of Icarus is in the hands of New York Literary Agency. The second book in the Space Frontiers series (Dangerous Liaisons) is finished and waiting in the wings. The third book, The Devil's Playground, is about half finished.

Now, regarding the Fractured Time Trilogy, I'm looking to sell it to a major publisher. When this happens, I'll have some interesting details regarding the material. Until then, we'll have to wait and see.

My next convention is CopperCon in Phoenix from Sept.1st to 4th. I hope to have more information on that for the next Author's Corner.

Locally (Philadelphia area), I'm speaking at the Collingdale Library on July 27th at 7:00.

For this month's Writers' Tip, here's something that I learned the hard way - word count. Sounds simple: press TOOLS and WORD COUNT on the computer and presto! Nope. That's not what the publishers are looking for. Hopefully, you are writing in #12 font and double-spacing your lines.

If so, the formula equals 297 words per page. Multiply that by the number of pages (less the sum of half pages) and you have a significantly different (and bigger) number. The reason for this is so a publisher has an idea how much book space (in pages) needed if they print the story. This can be confirmed on the Writer's Guild web site (www.wgae.org) or the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers site at www.sfwa.org. For me, it's the difference between a meager 60,000-word novel and an 85,000 word novel.

Thanks for joining me again. See you next month.

Best Wishes,

- Michael D'Ambrosio

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