When: Friday, August 9, 2019 at 7:30 PM – 9 PM Where: Writers Guild Foundation, 7000 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, California 90048 Tickets$25/$20 at wgfoundation.org
On this special evening, we gather a panel of TV writers and producers for a discussion about their experiences writing and developing nuanced portrayals of motherhood while also balancing duties as working moms themselves.
Panelists
Julia Brownell – This Is Us, About a Boy, Parenthood
Jamie Denbo – American Princess, Ronna & Beverly
Valentina Garza – Jane the Virgin, Bordertown, The Simpsons
I was pleased to be asked to attend the first Italian Stories Day hosted by the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers and the Istituto Luce Cinecittà and Italian Audiovisual Producers Association at Mr. C in Beverly Hills. The three groups share the mission of helping more Italian authors see their work produced for the international film and television markets.
I had the pleasure of hearing about new books that we Americans will be able to read once their English translations are complete (within the next year) from authors like Tiziana Triana, author of Luna Nera – Le Città Perdute (Vol I) (Black Moon – The Lost Cities, Vol 1) which deals with witch hunters of 17th century Italy and how that affected women who yearned to gather knowledge; Stefania Auci, a Sicilian teacher and author of the historical novel Florence, published in 2015 by Baldini e Castoldi; and Edoardo Albinati, author of La Scuola Cattolica (The Catholic School).
I also had the chance to reconnect with Leonilde Callocchia, the Attaché at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura who hosted our Mentoris Book Launch last year, and a few producers I was able to invite to come to our Stephens College MFA workshops this August while we all munched on some marvelous brunch.
Wherever you go, you find Monkees fans and the Denver Popular Culture Con was no different. Amid rooms full of caped crusaders and cosplay creations, I was initially not sure how many folks would attend a talk on a TV show from the 1960s – but happily I was met by a nice, engaged audience for my talk on Why the Monkees Matter – and afterward they bought books! What more could an author ask for?
A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Acheivement in Comedy.
Capitalizing on the show’s success, the actual band formed by the actors, at their peak, sold more albums than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined, and set the stage for other musical TV characters from The Partridge Family to Hannah Montana. In the late 1980s, the Monkees began a series of reunion tours that continued into their 50th anniversary.
This book tells the story of The Monkees and how the show changed television, introducing a new generation to the fourth-wall-breaking slapstick created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.
Its creators contributed to the innovative film and television of 1970s with projects like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laugh-In and Welcome Back, Kotter. Immense profits from the show, its music and its merchandising funded the producers’ move into films such as Head, Easy Riderand Five Easy Pieces.
This one allowed me to riff on some of my favorite female science fiction writers across time, whether they be novelists or television writers. It also opened up a good conversation on what art we support and include in our lives – and what that art says to us and about us. — Rosanne
Transcript:
So Frankenstein is fascinating but tell me, what you notice about these two copies of this book? What’s different? The covers are different in what way? {Audience: The font is a little more sinister.) True. True. The font is a little more sinister. There’s also a big difference. (Audience: Her name isn’t on it) In 1818 they’re not gonna publish a book written by a woman because not only were women not supposed to write novels — they weren’t supposed to read novels because they’ll rot your brain and damage your interior organs such that you can’t have children. Yes. Which is kind of what we say about video games these days. So every new piece of media is going to rot your brain and destroy you. Now we say destroys the boys as well as the girls but still there was this idea that women should not dabble in that business of novels. They were very bad for you, which is kind of hilarious cuz now I’m telling you to read a novel over the summer. It will be good for you.
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
KPFK’s Andrew Tonkovitch interviewed Paperback L.A. Editor Susan La Tempa for Bibliocracy Radio last weekend and they had nice things to say about how fun my piece on the writers of The Monkees and how much he had misunderstood the band until he read my article.
They discuss the whole anthology in this interview, and touch on The Monkees around the 20:20 mark.
Host Andrew Tonkovitch interviews editor Susan LaTempa, June 16, 2019 about the Paperback L.A. Book 3, A Casual Anthology: Secrets. SigAlerts. Ravines. Records.
He says, “This one is titled, joyfully, ‘Secrets, Sigalerts, Ravines, Records.’ Once again, this compendium-meets-literary/artistic collage includes both new discoveries and reminders, with a multi-media collection including fiction, nonfiction, photography, lists– a free-form provocation which, after reading, will inspire readers to pursue recommended or featured writers, topics, historical moments, artists and places. It’s a little hard to describe but you will know it — and love it! — when you see it.”
Editor Susan La Tempa hosted all the local contributors at the event space in the Helms Bakery district, which gave us a chance to check out that lovely landmark. Then I had the chance to meet Lisa See – author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of 4 generations of her Chinese-American family living in Los Angeles and running a factory, an antique shop and a restaurant popular with the Hollywood crowd of the 1930s and 40s. We had first heard of her book when Doug and I were docents at the Autry Western Heritage Museum in Griffith Park and they had a whole exhibit dedicated to telling the story of the book (which it turns out Lisa curated!) It was so popular an exhibit that it hung around long enough for Joseph to be born and to become old enough to play in the little mini restaurant they set up with pots and plates and menus. So it was wonderful to hear Lisa read an excerpt from the book and then to talk to her during the book signing segment of the afternoon.
I was also deeply impressed by the way Susan opened the event with a native Tongva greeting – something I had only seen done at the public events we attended in New Zealand where everyone began events with the traditional Maori greeting where you introduce yourself in terms of what is your mountain, your river, and your ancestry. Beautiful! So hearing it in Los Angeles was a lovely idea we all ought to emulate.
Then the super cool thing was that several friends made the trip down to Culver City – thanks Duke and Dena Jackels and Dan and Liz Forer – and Euphemia – for coming to the reading, and for buying books!
The Write Or Die Chicks, founded by 3 of my former MFA alums from Cal State Fullerton (Deanna Gomez, Mercedes Milner, and Angela Thomas) were kind enough recently to name me on their Writer Crush Wednesday post which made my day.
After their graduation a year ago May, they came out of the dust of the classroom (CP 126) where they spent so much time for two years ready to take over the town with their writing and their energy.
wish them all the luck they’ll need (because they already have all the talent required). Starting such a writers group is always a great way to continue creating new material with caring collaborators.
Dr. Rosanne Welch, PhD is this week’s #WriterCrushWednesday We thank her for being an inspiring and influential Screenwriter, Author, Professor and Mentor from her work on #TouchedByAnAngel to her lectures at CSUF and every publication in between.
This one allowed me to riff on some of my favorite female science fiction writers across time, whether they be novelists or television writers. It also opened up a good conversation on what art we support and include in our lives – and what that art says to us and about us. — Rosanne
Transcript:
…and she came up with Frankenstein which is pretty crazy because we all think of Frankenstein. It’s like the bedrock of… it’s been around forever because it has, but she just made it up. Which i think is fascinating and there’s a lot of themes to it that if you take a class — some classes discuss Frankenstein — very interesting what’s going on in her world there. She had had a miscarriage and she had a lot of thoughts about loss and about parenthood and in many ways when you think about Frankenstein it’s crazy because it’s the story of a bad father right? Who creates a child and then lets it go running loose and doesn’t teach or care for it. She’s really thinking about the obligations and all of that.
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Acheivement in Comedy.
Capitalizing on the show’s success, the actual band formed by the actors, at their peak, sold more albums than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined, and set the stage for other musical TV characters from The Partridge Family to Hannah Montana. In the late 1980s, the Monkees began a series of reunion tours that continued into their 50th anniversary.
This book tells the story of The Monkees and how the show changed television, introducing a new generation to the fourth-wall-breaking slapstick created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.
Its creators contributed to the innovative film and television of 1970s with projects like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laugh-In and Welcome Back, Kotter. Immense profits from the show, its music and its merchandising funded the producers’ move into films such as Head, Easy Riderand Five Easy Pieces.
This is an excellent example of one television show promoting another… and note that Dick Clark has no attitude in his voice when he lists The Monkees among that pretty hallowed hall of 60s hit makers. — Rosanne
Michael Lynch shared a link to the group: Zilch! A Monkees Podcast!May 25 at 8:06 AM
Monkee business on ‘American Bandstand.’ Dubbed audio, but still, a nice peek of people digging the Monkees when they were still a relatively new “thing.”
Airdate: October 8, 1966
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart wrote “Last Train..” as a subtle protest of Vietnam as the man catching the train is going off to an army base in the fictitious town of Clarksville and he doesn’t know if he’s ”ever coming home”. This, the very first song by The Monkees (Mickey Dolenz with Boyce & Hart’s band The Candy Store Prophets), is at #6 today and will peak at #1 next month. “The Monkees” TV series premiered last month on Sept. 12 on NBC.
Depending on when this episode was actually taped, it’s just possible that this is the first time some of these kids had ever heard a Monkees song. Dancers today include Toni Kashinoff (1:15), Theodosia Dayton (wearing glasses at 1:20), Laura Bravo (1:30), Lauren Montgomery (2:00) Marcia Silverman (3:03), and Martha Sedaris (3:14).
A hit television show about a fictitious rock band, The Monkees (1966-1968) earned two Emmys–Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Directorial Acheivement in Comedy.
Capitalizing on the show’s success, the actual band formed by the actors, at their peak, sold more albums than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones combined, and set the stage for other musical TV characters from The Partridge Family to Hannah Montana. In the late 1980s, the Monkees began a series of reunion tours that continued into their 50th anniversary.
This book tells the story of The Monkees and how the show changed television, introducing a new generation to the fourth-wall-breaking slapstick created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers.
Its creators contributed to the innovative film and television of 1970s with projects like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laugh-In and Welcome Back, Kotter. Immense profits from the show, its music and its merchandising funded the producers’ move into films such as Head, Easy Riderand Five Easy Pieces.
This one allowed me to riff on some of my favorite female science fiction writers across time, whether they be novelists or television writers. It also opened up a good conversation on what art we support and include in our lives – and what that art says to us and about us. — Rosanne
Transcript:
First off I’m gonna start with the officially the grandmother of science fiction. Somebody knows who she is. Shelley. Thank You. Mary Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft Shelley. The lady had a lot of names right? Yes, Mary Shelley is most famous. She literally invented the genre and its funny because when we think of science fiction we often do think of the names of famous male writers. They kind of took it over when, you know, men you got to do more of the cool stuff, but Mary invented it and she invented it with what character? Frankenstein! Exactly. She’s the lady — then I mean she was having a party. We’re not sure how drunk everybody was and exactly what substances they might have been imbibing at that time but her and Lord Byron, her boy or her boyfriend slash soon-to-be husband Percy Bysse Shelley. They all were hanging out with this really cool sort of villa in Italy and they were having a contest — which is also very fun. Instead of watching other people’s art, they were making their own and the contest was can you write a ghost story over the weekend and we’ll see who writes the best one.
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs ** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
![Why The Monkees Matter: Even 50 Years Later with Dr. Rosanne Welch – Denver Pop Culture Con 2019 [Video] (48 Minutes)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/monkees-denverpcc-2019.png)
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![04 Mary Shelley and The Monster from The Sisterhood of Science Fiction – Dr. Rosanne Welch [Video] (38 seconds)](https://rosannewelch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/scifi-rmw-cpp-04.jpeg)
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