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"The Daves" Celebrate Their Silver Punk-versary |
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Paul's Gettin' Hitched! Paul will marry his fiancee, Heather Jo Swartz -- a fellow fiction writer, Obama-backer, long-distance runner, prehistoric-mammal enthusiast, Wonder Woman fan, and committed simiophile (that's someone who digs apes) -- on Sat., Sept. 27, in the South Dakota Badlands, with a reception that evening in Wall, S.D., and a second one a week later in Milwaukee (where they are seen here, at Atwater Beach -- a key locale in Planet of the Dates). |
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Further Persons Imperfect Story Does Perfectly Well in Competition "What You're Looking At," a gripping short story by Heather Swartz (Paul's fiancee) that appears in the Paul-edited 2007 anthology Further Persons Imperfect, recently won the Leo Love Merit Scholarship for best prose piece (encompassing both fiction and nonfiction) submitted in advance of this year's Taos Summer Writers' Conference. Heather will be attending the conference -- for free, thanks to the Love Scholarship -- in July and studying with the outstanding short story writer Pam Houston (Cowboys Are My Weakness). Says Heather, "I'm thrilled and honored; this recognition means a lot to me."
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Collaboration with Bill Nolan on "Logan" Novel A Childhood Dream-Come-True William F. Nolan -- award-winning author of the best-selling novel Logan's Run, and author/editor of 80-odd other books (as well as a terrific Foreword to Planet of the Dates), is currently co-authoring the fourth Logan novel, Logan's Journey, with Paul -- who's been a hardcore "Loganite" since the age of 14! The first new book in the seminal dystopian-s.f. series since 1980's Logan's Search, Journey is currently planned for publication in 2010, to coincide with the projected release of Warner Bros.' big-budget cinematic remake of Logan's Run. The new book comprises three linked novellas: "The Mission," co-written by Bill and Paul; "The Challenge," written by Bill and revised/expanded by Paul; and "The Gun," written by Paul and revised by Bill. Said Paul in late July 2008: "'The Mission' is done, and 'The Challenge' is nearly done, so we're about 2/3 finished. It's going to be the longest Logan so far. . .and, honestly, one of the best; Bill and I co-write very smoothly and very well." Previously, Paul wrote the Foreword for Nolan's 2005 multi-genre short story collection, Ships in the Night [ISBN #1-59266-020-7], and Bill wrote a killer back-cover blurb for Unplugged.
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Unplugged Screenplay Garners National Prize The feature-length screenplay that Paul adapted from his 2002 "critics' darling" of a novel, Unplugged, recently took Third Prize (out of some 400 entries) in national competition through the New York City-based The Writer's Place. Says Paul, "This was some of the hardest writing I've ever done: getting a 92,000-word novel down to the length of a two-hour screenplay, without losing the heart and soul of the material. It took me six ever-shorter drafts; the first one was a freakin' mini-series! But it was worth it, and I'm hoping that Planet -- now that it's been optioned -- might open a door or two for an eventual movie version of Unplugged."
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No Budget Needed To Win First Prize Paul's & Brian Cox's comedic cable-TV series "No-Budget Theatre" has just been awarded First Place in the "Best Original Teleplay" category by the Alliance for Community Media. Paul (& maybe Brian too) will go to Fort Wayne, IN, in November 2007 to accept the award.
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Going Further! As of mid-October 2007, Further Persons Imperfect was, according to Amazon.com, its 15th-best-selling current anthology title! And on October 20th, Further Persons Imperfect received an Honorable Mention in national competition at the 2007 DIY Book Festival in Los Angeles!
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Paul Wins (faux) Academy Award! Following a recent public screening of his 11-minute Star Wars sequel, Vader (which Paul made in 1977 at the age of 15), the "auteur" was presented with a cardboard Oscar for Best No-Budget Special Effects. After doing his best Adrien Brody impression, a visibly flummoxed Paul thanked his cast, his crew...and, oh yes, George Lucas. Not bad for a movie in which the "spaceships" were modified ping pong balls!   
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Ivana award......two, in fact! On October 8th, 2004 in Troy, Michigan, Shock Theatre - a short film adapted from the "Ivana Viktimm" subplot of Paul's novel Unplugged - received two first prizes from the Alliance for Community Media-Central States Region. The piece, an affectionate homage to low-budget UHF horror-movie shows, was written by Paul and co-produced with Brian Cox; it took top honors in both the Entertainment and Original Teleplay categories. This marked the second time in as many years that an Unplugged-derived video by Brian and Paul took two first prizes in ACM-CS competition.
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Bill Nolan's Ships in the Night William F. Nolan - award-winning author of the best-selling novel Logan's Run, of 70-odd other books and of a most gracious blurb on the back of Unplugged - recently asked me to write the Introduction for his new, multi-genre short story collection. It was my great honor to accept! Ships in the Night is an engaging, eclectic story cycle - highly recommended. For more information or to order a copy [ISBN#1-59266-020-7], go to www.caprapress.com. "Characters defined through their actions; storylines that unfurl with alacrity and grace; expository description as concise as it is complete...This is an ambitious book, for in Ships in the Night Nolan tackles no less a topic than humanity itself." - Paul McComas, from his Foreword. |
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Bookstore Events! Erin Walsh, Paul and Heather Mell (pictured at right) performed Dayna's songs at most of the bookstore events for Unplugged. |
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| At most Chicago-area performances for Unplugged, Heather Mell and Paul were joined by drummer David Rothenberg (as pictured at right). |  (photo by Laurie Starrett) |
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Rockin' the Rockies Kyla Baruch and Michael Whiting join Paul at Fact & Fiction Books in Missoula, MT, Sept.12, 2003.
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Another Interview with Paul Here's a link to an interview conducted by Charles Shaw (editor-in-chief of Newtopia Magazine) that appeared in 3am Magazine....
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Paul & Jake During a December 2003 retreat to the Badlands (where he wrote Chapter 11 of Planet of the Dates), Paul visited Jake Sharp, owner of Badlands Ranch & Resort and partial inspiration for the character "Drake" in Unplugged. The closest you can come to riding horseback on Drake's land is to do so on Jake's -- and he has the horses to make it happen! For info, go to www.badlandsranchandresort.com.
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 (photo by Judy Sharp) |
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RAINN-ing in D.C. At a November 2002 Washington, D.C. event presented in cooperation with the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, (from left) RAINN Projects Coordinator Kerry Naughton and D.C. vocalist Nikole Yinger helped drummer Chris Kozlowski and Paul present a rousing bookstore performace (the tour's inflatable mascot was in attendance as well). |
 (photo by Lee Salawitch) |
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Symmetry At the 2003 Alliance for Community Media/Central States conference in Akron, OH, Paul and video producer Brian Cox accepted First Prizes in the Inspirational and Performing Arts categories for their short-form video "Symmetry," adapted from pp.132-133 of Unplugged. The video was also a Finalist for Original Teleplay. |
 (photo by Christine Cox) |
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Together again The cast and crew of Paul's 1994 movie Desert Slacks reunited for a 10th anniversary screening at CapriCon 2004 (an international science fiction and fantasy convention). From left: Neal Katz, Eric Diekhans, Pattie MacKenzie, Paul, Mark Mallchok and Bernadette Burke. |
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