Hollywood Script.Com Publicity

What Are You Reading? An ongoing survey of literary notables by Kathy Smith Some people you can get to know on the phone. Like Craig Kellem, original associate producer and talent consultant for Saturday Night Live. He's out from behind the orange curtain and his life as a Hollywood executive, living in Lyme and writing books and screenplays. He just finished reading a book, he said, that has created a whole new spiritual "canvas" for him. It's called A Path with Heart by Jack Cornfield, a "brilliant psychotherapist slash Buddhist." What's good about the book, Kellem says, is how it breaks that "bubble" of received wisdom about meditation, how, if you do it right and enough, you will "escalate" spiritually, reaching a level of peace and clarity which is the goal of true enlightenment. Well, yeah. But do we ever really get there? Kellem is grateful that Cornfield also talks about the "craziness" we still have to confront, whether we are enlightened or not. "I found that comforting," says Kellem. "It was a shift of perception, and it helped me relate better to others." This is a wonderful book, says Kellem. Far and away better than the usual fare of self-help of New Age remedial writing. It offers hope and advice on how to "name the demons," ˜ knotty drives like wantings, graspings ˜ recognize them as external forces, observe them, get to know them, tolerate them. Kellem has attached a couple quotes from the book to his writing desk: "True enlightenment and wholeness arise when we are without anxiety about non-perfection;" and, "It's over when we have so deeply accepted it that it doesn't matter if it arises again or not." Craig Kellem's reading seems to blend inexorably with his most recent, soon-to-be-published book, Fate, a collection of true stories (an oxymoron?) about bizarre coincidences. Like the story of Cindy who called her mother in Pennsylvania collect from a ski weekend in Killington to ask how her baby was. It was the first time she and her husband had left the baby with her mother. They talked for ten minutes until Cindy asked when her sister Gloria was leaving to join them at the ski lodge. Gloria? the mother asked. Gloria who? Who is this? Is this Cindy Murphy? No it turns out this is Cindy somebody else. But both Cindys were skiing at Killington, both had new babies they were leaving for the first time with their mothers, both had agreed to call their mothers collect on Saturday night at a specific time. Somewhat outre, huh? You should hear the rest of the story. Look for the book in 1997 from a new publishing company, The Bubble Factory. And look for Craig Kellem who will teach NHWPP's screenwriting workshop on September 21. (from Ex Libris, published by The New Hampshire Writers and Publishers Project) Return to the Hollywood Script Publicity Page Return to Hollywood Script.Com Hollywood Script Contacts Email addresses and phone numbers so you can get in touch with Hollywood Script.Com.. For more information about my services and Hollywood script.com, please feel free to email me or visit the contact page.   Website Design and Promotion by chapman film