Saving Grace At the Paley Center

Well, we didn't exactly save her as Earl wasn't there, but then she's doing fine as she is. Or at least she was at the Paley Center's panel discussion and screening of the third season premiere of Saving Grace. The entire main cast was there, except for the aforementioned Leon Rippy who plays Earl.

On stage with the cast was creator/showrunner Nancy Miller, with the rest of the writers in the audience. The panel was moderated by Cynthia Littleton of Variety.

On stage in the back row was Lorraine Toussaint, Bailey Chase, Gregory Cruz and Yaani King. In the front row is Dylan Minnette, Laura San Giacomo, Kenny Johnson, Holly Hunter, and creator Nancy Miller.

First we were treated to a screening of the powerful season 3 opener. It was very intense and yet, had lots of humor. Yaani had a small but pivotal role in the crime story and apparently will have a larger role going forward.

When asked about what she looks for in writers, Miller said strong, original voices, which is what most showrunners say in answer to that question.

However, she also said she looks for writers who have something to say (something I wish all shows valued more in their writers).

Miller mentioned that we will meet Bobby Stillwater's father this season -- something I'm looking forward to.

Afterwards in the lobby, I mentioned to her a wish for more emphasis on Native Americans in their stories. Miller said she was interested in doing more, but their Native American advisors were quite sensitive to issues of portrayal and they had to take care.

When I talked to Gregory, he mentioned that his father will be portrayed by an actor who will please me, but he wouldn't tell me who. Drat! I did find out that Gregory is Apache on his mother's side.

Littleton asked Holly Hunter, who is also an executive producer of Saving Grace, about bringing the show to cable when she was a very sought after actress by the networks. Hunter was quick to point out that a woman character like Grace could never get on network.

She credits Shawn Ryan for breaking open cable with The Shield and she credits Vic Mackey for paving the way for a character like Grace. She also pointed out that Victoria Mackey would not have flown. Hunter also credits Helen Mirren with paving the way for Grace, even though her Prime Suspect character was in England.

Miller confirmed that all of her characters' last names were towns in Oklahoma. Kenny Johnson said laughingly that he has been unable to find Dewey, Oklahoma on a computer map and Miller promised to show it to him when they got back to the office.

A question from the audience that stumped Holly was whether she had seen Grace's relationship to her male cop co-workers change over the course of the series as opposed to her female cop co-workers. She admitted it was a very good question, but it was obvious she had not thought along those lines and didn't have a ready answer for him.

After the Q and A, some of the actors and writers hung around to take photos and talk with fans who approached them in the lobby. I took some random photos which I'll include here.

It's a great show and tonight was an informative and fun evening.

In Print and Available to You: CAT's Contribution to Thrilling Wonder Stories Hits the Stands

So many days it feels like you are beating your head against a brick wall or jumping at an impenetrable glass ceiling. So when something you do actually sees the light of day, it's cause for celebration.

Today I got an exciting package in the mail -- my author copies for the article I wrote in THRILLING WONDER STORIES, volume 2. I was commissioned to write a behind the scenes history of the making of the "World Enough and Time" Internet Star Trek episode we made for Star Trek: New Voyages, which is now called Star Trek: Phase II.

On this blog, you have seen some of my writings about our filming of this episode with a crew of half Hollywood professionals and half Star Trek fans from around the world. This book's article is based on different interviews than the ones I put up on the Net when I was doing publicity for the Premiere of the streaming event. Those were individual interviews which you can find at This Writer Wrote, since the TVGuide.com pages where many of them were originally printed is no more. In this book is a perspective of the entire creation of the episode, so I interviewed a variety of participants, including GEORGE TAKEI.

It was great fun to do these interviews and great fun to write the article and I think you'll have great fun reading it if you choose to go on the journey with me.

And to make it even better, I'm here in the company of accomplished and prestigious Science Fiction and Star Trek writers -- many of whom I've read when I was younger. You can see me listed among them here on the back page, with a description of what I've written. For instance, Diane Duane... I loved reading her first original novel, Door into Fire, an entertaining book I've never forgotten -- how neat is it to be in the company of someone who gave me hours of pleasure many years ago.

This is not the first thing I've had published, but it is a milestone for me anyway, because this is the first time, I've had something like this published. And how cool is it that it is available on Amazon where I buy so many of my own books and DVDs. Hmm, I wonder if I could do a search on my name there and come up with this book -- probably not, since I'm just a contributor, not the editor, who is WINSTON ENGLE.

Restoring the fifties pulp fiction magazine to its former glory was Winston's dream and he has succeeded admirably. This is his second volume and they are both books to be proud of. He did a great job with them and we should all applaud him for it.

If you want to take the journey behind the scenes of making this award-winning, Hugo-and-Nebula-nominated Star Trek episode with me, you can find it here at Amazon or here at Barnes and Noble. You can even find my name mentioned in the product descriptions at both sites. You can also visit the Official Website Winston has set up for his book. I haven't had the opportunity to read the other contributions yet, but considering the heavy-hitters of science fiction that they are, I'm sure their stories are well worth reading. I know I look forward to delving into them.

If you do read my article, please come back and share your thoughts about it as well.

James Whitmore, Sr. RIP

I heard tonight on the news that James Whitmore, Sr. died today of lung cancer.

He is a great loss to us because he was such a terrific, mesmerizing actor. I met him once.

In my early days in LA, I used to go to movies at the Academy of Motion Pictures with the actress mother of a young actor I worked with on a short film. She was on the Oscar committee for foreign films so during Oscar season, we'd see all the foreign films, but during the rest of the year, we'd see screenings of the films for the year. One time we went for a double feature film, I forget why, but we had never done that before, so we hadn't been smart, like some people, and brown-bagged it.

So in between the films, we and a theater load of others went rushing out to look for a nearby restaurant for dinner -- and of course we had limited time. There weren't many restaurants within walking distance of the Academy, but we found a little French hideaway restaurant and like locusts, we descended on them. We totally overwhelmed this lovely little restaurant, which was used to small, intimate, leisurely dinners, and didn't have the staff to serve the hungry swarm we were.

My friend Diana and I wound up at a table next to James Whitmore, Sr. He was with a party, but he was the only one I recognized. Diana and I perused our menus and he and his party perused their menus and we made our selections. But in an hour's time, although the waiters were frantically scurrying around, nobody came to take our orders. Knowing we were under a time crunch, Diana and I decided we could live with soup and salad and I went off in search of a waiter to ask if they could get us something.

I told Mr. Whitmore what we were doing and why and suggested he do the same. He said that they wanted a real meal. But it took a bit to get our salads and soup and when they came, and Whitmore still hadn't seen a waiter to give an order to, he changed his mind and they wanted soup and salad, too.

Even though the place was bustling, it was almost impossible to get service for silverware or water or coffee or anything you might ask a waiter to do for you. So I started running for things for Diana and me. And as long as I was getting up, I felt I should offer my help to the senior citizens next to me, whom we were by now chatting with. So I got them coffee and various things as well. And of course whenever I did, Whitmore and his companions thanked me.

At the end of the meal, when we were looking for our checks to leave, James Whitmore said to me that he felt he should give a tip to me since I had worked so hard getting them things when I didn't have to. I told him that it had been my pleasure to give back to him some of the pleasure he as an actor gave me when I was a child.

I will never forget that unusual encounter with such a lovely man and I'm so sad to hear of his passing. My condolences to his family and friends.

Every Writer Should Visit a Fire Station

I got an invitation to attend the Grand Opening Ceremony of the new Fire Station #78 on Whitsett in Studio City. I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to see the inside of a fire station for whenever I write scenes inside them. And to get a sense of the culture of the firefighters within her.

Because the community was very active in furnishing the firehouse, there was quite a turnout of people for the opening ceremonies. Afterwards, they had hotdogs and potato chips and cake for the kids and the 'big kids'.

For the occasion, the yard was filled with vehicles from every type of fire rescue situation... units that we rely on and never really think about.

In our urbanized, highly industrialized, highly technical and electronic society, we don't think about how extensive a variety of fires we can have and how much specialized education might go into combating each of them. We just expect our firemen to take care of them.

For example, there is the Foam Tender Squad, the Hazardous Materials Squad, the Heavy Apparatus Unit (which has things like The Jaws of Life), the EMS Cars, the Swift Water Rescue with its very neat little boats, and the Bike Squad. These are some of the special units which were on display in the yard.

Firemen have to go through a year or two on regular shifts before they can apply for training on their special interests.

The cute green vehicle above is called a Medi-Bed unit. It has a gurney on it. I'm not quite sure what it might be used for, unless it's a way to bring another gurney into play to transport victims who might not need the facilities of a full-fledged ambulence on the way to the hospital.

I talked with the guys from the Hazardous Materials Squad about their specialized training.

One doesn't stop to think about it, but you can't go in and stop a chemical spill or fire without understanding the chemistry behind the materials you are facing -- what reacts with what, what will neutralize the situation, what will exasperate it, what will make the situation even more toxic, what will require evacuation, etc.

When these guys come onto a scene, we expect them to know all this, but I know that I've never stopped to think about how much more learning they must have than the guy who holds a hose or someone like me, for that matter.

It's just another layer of thanks we should have for them, even beyond what we have for what they do for us.

There were demonstrations mainly for the kids to interest them in fire-fighting, but I did stop to witness one and participate in another. A couple of firefighters were stationed near the LA River canal with their big hoses and they were spewing water into the river. The idea was to let the public, mostly kids, hold the hose and feel how heavy it was and what a kick it has. I'm not embarrassed to be a big kid about it, so I asked if I could hold the hose. After all, I can always rationalize it as a writer should know how it feels in case it becomes a necessary point in a story. What I held in my hands was quite powerful and heavy. It makes me have even more respect for the men who wield it under the trying circumstances of a fire. And I could understand how powerful the pressurized water stream is in combating another powerful force in nature, fire -- how water can actually have enough power to blanket and suffocate a fire.

The event that I stood as a bystander for was the high dive into a mat off the roof of the firehouse that a firefighter geared up to do. There was no way I could miss such an awesome event.

And it was fascinating. First, the firemen on the ground brought in a rolled up large plastic bundle which they laid out flat on the ground. I didn't think to ask how long it might be but it was huge -- maybe 10 to 20 feet?

Then they brought out two free standing fans, the kind you set on your living room floor if you don't have air-conditioning. Connected to the mat were these plastic tubes, which for lack of a correct name for them, I'll call the mat legs. It was these legs which the firemen attached to these fans to inflate the mat. As you can see from the picture to the right, the legs are pretty good size themselves.

When the mat was fully inflated, it stood higher than I did, which meant that I couldn't see the top surface of the mat. This, of course, meant that I also couldn't see the firefighter either when he bounced into it.

In the picture to the left, you can see a fireman holding a rope fairly taut. There were firemen stationed at each end and in the middle of the sides, also holding onto ropes. With these ropes, they held the mat steady and in place. Otherwise, the wind could cause it to move. I had never before realized how big these mats are, but they would have to be to buffer a fall from a high building. Still this looked far more dangerous than I ever want to be involved with.

And then the firefighter on the roof did his dive. I held my camera at ready, hoping to capture it, but between my brain acknowledging that he was falling, my finger depressing the button and the shutter opening, his flight was too quick for me to capture a picture. All I got was the shadow you see here.

But it was quite a spectacular feat and to know that this might be the only way to have your life saved some day... it was awesome.

What I was most interested in was the promised tour of the firestation. Except there turned out to be no official tours. When I asked about them, they told me to just walk around the first floor. The second floor was off limits because that was the firemen's private quarters. You can just imagine how disappointed the writer in me was.

I must have looked like a poor waif to be pitied because the fire captain offered to show me around himself. I couldn't ask for a better guide.

The Day Room is where the firemen relax when on duty and they had a nice large TV hanging on the wall inside it. He pointed out the platform which the guys built themselves so that they had their version of stadium seating. It was so nicely done and carpetted that one would think it was part of the original design.

There's a gym where they can work out and that had a small portable TV in it. Since we weren't allowed upstairs, and being with the captain didn't earn me any special privileges to go touring up there, I did manage to wangle a description out of him, for writing purposes. Apparently they have the upstairs partitioned off for the guys and two beds in each partition.

The kitchen is huge and would be the envy of any Suzy Homemaker, but each shift has to bring in their own food and prepare it. Each shift is on for 24-hours and then they rotate off. So the first thing they do is decide what they want to eat and collect the money to go shopping. Remember how you see firemen in the groceries while you shop? While one always figures they are shopping for the firestation, I didn't know that they do this every day because they are shopping for their own shifts, using their own money.

Because the Small Apparatus Bay was being used as Volunteer headquarters for the many volunteers that were working the Opening Day Ceremonies (such as feeding us), I didn't get to see what would usually be in there. And the Captain's description ('small vehicles') wasn't very illuminating.

The chairs for the opening ceremonies were set up in the area where the fire trucks would actually be housed, so on the other side of that was the Laundry and the Turnout Room.

The laundry has your typical industrial sized washer and dryer and sink. I've never thought about who washes their bedding and whatever, but I know that there was never a picture in my mind of firemen on active duty doing the fluff and dry. I wonder who does the laundry at their homes - 'oh, honey, you are such an expert at it, you do it' or 'I do it all day at work, I don't want to look at it here, you do it for the kids.'

Next to the laundry room is what's called the Turnout Room and this is where their heavy fire jackets hang on racks and their helmets and body gear is stashed. In a fire alarm, it seems that those inside the fire station will have to run around the trucks to get to the Turnout Room, but once they get their gear, it's a straight shot into the big fire engines.

It was fun to learn about this world. Kudos to them for risking their lives and health protecting us.