On My Shelf: We’re Getting On

Thanks to the July/August 2010 issue of Poets & Writers magazine, a couple of days ago I bought a copy of a book entitled “We’re Getting On” – about people who attempt to withdraw from a technologically-obssessed world into a more nature-driven experience – by a young author named James Kaelan.

I decided to buy the book for two basic reasons:

1. Poets & Writers featured an excerpt from the novel, and I really enjoyed how casual, unobtrusive and readable Kaelan’s writing was.

2. The press that published the book is based in Sacramento! So I wanted to show some support to a local, independent press, as well as a young and upcoming author.

One thing that’s quite neat about Kaelen’s book, from a physical standpoint, is that it has spruce-tree seeds inside it!  (Try planting them!) The decision to include seeds in the construction of his book seems like a fitting choice for an author who seems most passionately concerned with environmental themes, such as will be demonstrated this summer:

Kalen’s novel is part of a larger environmental effort. From July to August, he will eco-tour along the coast as part of his  “Zero Emission Book Project.” As a part of his project, the 23-year old will travel on his bicycle  from Southern California to Vancouver, making various stops along the way to read excerpts from the book.

His stop in Sacramento will be July 20 at Pangaea. I won’t be able to make it, but perhaps Kaelan’s book and project may interest you enough to attend a reading.

Visit Flatmancrooked’s site for more. You can read more about, specifically, the tour here.

Interview: Sacramento Filmmaker Moves From One Dark Ride to Another

Sacramento independent filmmaker Greg Stechman found his passion for film making at age eleven.

“The moment my father gave me use of his video camera, I made films of everything, including the family dog,” the 31-year old director and screenwriter says. “I would even make my own fake credits with construction paper.”

Nearly fifteen years after his youthful efforts at making movies, Stechman has directed four feature films.

Though perhaps most known for gore and horror, Stechman’s first film was, of all genres, a romantic comedy. Made in 2004, the project, called Michael and Claire: A Portrait of Love and Dreams, was filmed on a budget of $10,000 during his senior year in college. The premise? A love story about the relationship between an insomniac editor and narcoleptic virgin.

“I am a huge Wes Anderson fan and wanted to make sort of an offbeat love story,” Stechman says. “We had a crew of ten, not including the actors, so [the cast was] relatively big for a small film.”

The film was never distributed, but was screened at California State University, Sacramento, and was shown in eleven film festivals.

Two years after his directorial debut, Stechman directed what, to date, has been his most monetarily successful film, This Hollow Sacrament, based on the story of four Sacramento murders that occurred in the 1990s. The film, which Stechman also wrote the screenplay for, won Best Picture at the Texas Frightmare Weekend Film Festival in 2008.

Though Stechman admits he’s disappointed with the final studio cut of the movie, it still caught the attention of horror film director Eli Roth who, most notably, directed the 2005 horror film, Hostel.

“[Eli’s] buddies with my cousin, and I guess he watched a copy of Hollow Sacrament,” Stechman says. “He’s in the process of putting together an ultra-low budget film studio and asked me to make some screenplay submissions. It was very cool.”

But for now, Stechman, who has appeared in three Clint Eastwood films, has his own work cut out for him as he prepares for his next major project, Dark Ride, based on the horror novel of the same title by author Michael Laimo. The adaptation will consist of four short films and one feature film.