In spite of the chaos of 2020, I managed to get three different projects into publication this year.

First, my in-depth study of the 1983 Film Brainstorm was published in e-book form by Liverpool University Press as part of Auteur's prestigious Constellations series. Each book in the series profiles an important science fiction film and puts it into historical context. I researched the ten-year development process behind Brainstorm -- analyzing over a dozen unpublished drafts of the screenplay and conducting interviews with all three credited screenwriters (Bruce Joel Rubin, Phil Messina, Robert Stitzel) as well as the film's director Doug Trumbull. I believe this book will change the way people view the film, which is in my opinion a flawed work of genius. Even if you've never seen the film, I think the book is worth reading for its insight into the crazy Hollywood development process. U.S. paperback edition available soon from Oxford University Press.

Also, my friends at Resurrection Films have included five original horror short stories by yours truly in their new anthology The Dark Side of Acting Up, Vol. II. I worked closely with the Resurrection team on their award-winning 2019 documentary Millennium After the Millennium, and when I heard about this project I couldn't resist submitting some stories. My prose fiction is featured alongside plays by film director /editor Jason Morris, writer/producer Carly Street, playwright Mark Francisco, and illustrated by artist Ian Stopforth. This is how I recently pitched the book to some fellow horror geeks: "Psychos, demons, aliens, and killer ducks... trading fours in the seventh circle of Hell."

Finally, Mateo Latosa has decided to publish my 2018 novella Out the House through his independent press Powys Media. Technically, this will be the second edition of Out the House. The first edition was a limited printing of only twenty-five copies, which were delivered to the cast and crew of the Internet web series The House Between. Author John Kenneth Muir wrote and directed three seasons of that ultra low budget series in 2006 - 2008. Ten years later, I couldn't get the show's characters and ideas out of my head, so I wrote a meta-fictional spinoff story. It's a very personal and esoteric book and I have no idea what casual readers will think of it... but I'm curious to find out. The book should be available for purchase in December 2020.

Now, on to 2021. I have a new book coming from McFarland & Company in the spring... and it's an big one, the first volume in a projected series about screen adaptations of Stephen King's work. Volume 1 covers all seven adaptations of the author's first three novels, focusing on the produced and unproduced screenplays. It includes new, in-depth interviews with Lawrence D. Cohen (screenwriter of the 1976 film CARRIE), Bryan Fuller (screenwriter of the 2002 TV movie CARRIE), Peter Filardi (screenwriter of the 2004 TV miniseries SALEM'S LOT), and Diane Johnson (screenwriter of the 1980 film THE SHINING). I think it will be be an important text in the growing field of Adaptation Studies, and I'm confident it will satisfy -- and surprise -- even the most hardcore Stephen King fans. I'm already hard at work on Volume 2.