Project Update

4/1/2023

This week, I took the difficult step of separating from my literary agent after he was unable to place my book with a publisher and had fallen out of a communication with me since late last year. I did not take this step lightly, but going forward, I realize that I need more aggressive and supportive representation for my manuscript if I am to make a success of it. My now-former agent said, in his parting message, that he surveyed other agents who agreed that publishers are not interested in the “Americana” field and have difficulty seeing a book about celebrity as “serious,” which tells me that my agent was probably not selling my book on its strongest or most relevant points. I have some potential plans and options for moving forward, but in the meantime, I will be taking some time to revise the manuscript to make it the best-documented book about James Dean every written, not least so no one can challenge my conclusions on the facts.

Note: This blog post also appears in this week's weekly newsletter.

12 Comments

Jim

4/2/2023 12:53:23 pm

This is the way.

Alphard Grape

4/2/2023 01:54:48 pm

Good luck with the agent dilemma. Sounds like a process with multiple intricacies. Sounds like major headache.

"I will be taking some time to revise the manuscript to make it the best-documented book about James Dean every written, not least so no one can challenge my conclusions on the facts."

I have no doubt about best documentation. You have proven to be a very tenacious researcher to most subjects you set your mind to. As a follower of your blog, I check in often daily just to read your tweets near the bottom of the page. Although you have found some interesting stuff, I could personally care less about the sexual orientation of an actor who died long before I was ever born. Mummies are bad but sexual orientation of the dead is okay??? I see the cultural context you are making throughout your tweets. As a straight man, or the somewhat offensive "Cisgender" as the Gender Pronoun Crusader puts it, I find the sexual orientation of actors, dead or alive, irrelevant to me. I do find it interesting from a psychological point of view how some actors like Steve McQueen were given a pass and others like Rock Hudson were not. Had Dean lived, would he have ended life in homophobic AIDS mockery like Rock Hudson, or chasing immortality like Steve McQueen in a foreign hospital??? That would actually make an interesting read, I have to admit.

I can most certainly understand the "so no one can challenge my conclusions on the facts" part. That's exactly what I've been doing myself. Have been sharing some of the conclusions for free on your blog. If for some reason it ever does start making money, I'll stop posting. I only post free.

Good luck to you, Jason. Break a leg!

Jason Colavito link

4/5/2023 04:26:06 pm

I did not write a book *about* anyone's sexual orientation. I told a story about a period in history, and part of that history is the way society worked to repress and suppress non-heteronormative identities. The purpose isn't to care about someone's sexual orientation but to understand the trauma and damage of a time when even slight deviations from the norm faced ruthless punishment. For better or worse, James Dean's life is one of the best-documented from that era in this subject, and also important because of the impact on later generations of queer men.

Alphard

4/7/2023 08:41:57 pm

"The purpose isn't to care about someone's sexual orientation but to understand the trauma and damage of a time when even slight deviations from the norm faced ruthless punishment."

If Dean was into having people put cigarettes out on his body, I would look into the trauma of his childhood. The time you're talking about is when people could freely beat the hell out of their kids and face little to no consequences. From my perspective no one started saying anything until 1980. That's when everyone stopped spanking their kids in public. I'm talking pull down your pants, bare ass public beating with hand, belt or shoe. I remember seeing a couple of kids get it with their mother's purse strap.

"James Dean's life is one of the best-documented from that era in this subject, and also important because of the impact on later generations of queer men."

I understand the documentation but you lose me after that. I don't understand what it is or like to be gay. I had my own teen angst growing up. I can't even begin to imagine how tough it would be for someone with different sexual orientations.

With the exception of Steve McQueen, most of the gay actors I've seen mentioned have always been treated as common knowledge from my perspective. Especially various TV dads. I only learned of Steve McQueen being gay when I broke up a fight over it in college. I have never understood how or why some actors were given a pass and others received nothing but ridicule. How does an actor dying after making three movies have a greater impact than any other gay actor who's since become an icon of television or movie screen? Some of these TV actors have essentially never left the screen since first becoming icons due to reruns, syndication and now streaming. I would argue some of these actors have had a much greater and longer lasting cultural impact than James Dean.

On a side note, I've also never understood how Groucho glasses became anti-Semitic. When I was a kid Groucho Glasses were everywhere and clearly marked with Groucho Marx and a picture of him holding a cigar. Somewhere along the line they quit putting Groucho's likeness on the package and changed the name from "Groucho Glasses" to "Funny Noses". Guessing they quit paying royalties to the Groucho Marx estate. Then all the sudden one day these glasses went from representing one man to all Jewish people and were suddenly considered offensive. Would these glasses still be considered offensive if Groucho Marx's estate was still getting paid? Doesn't make sense how something representing one specific man can become offensive to an entire group of people once the original specific man has been taken out of the equation.

Another Book by Daniken

4/2/2023 03:29:03 pm

Erich von Däniken, Enoch and The Return Of The Gods

E.P. Grondine

4/3/2023 01:49:38 pm

James Dean is a long way from your usual subject matter

Good luck with it, although I do not understand the market for him

kent

4/6/2023 12:09:56 am

Man on Man Impact in the Americas. You don't get to dictate, Debby Beedees.

Steve McQueen was a wifebeater so eff that guy. His best role? The one he's playing now.

Dames Jean

4/6/2023 02:56:30 pm

Have a word with Nick Redfern or David Hatcher Childress about getting books published.

Norma Jean Sweet Jane Dean Martin Milner in Route 666

4/8/2023 01:39:45 am

But if you talk to Redfern be prepared to travel the world and fvck your fans. And threaten people with beatings that never have happened and never will happen. Oh yeah, that first thing never happened either.

A.M.

4/7/2023 12:15:37 pm

I have to say, every used bookstore has tons of Americana and celebrity books on the shelves. It was obviously a huge topic in the 20th century. I don't know how to judge your agent's comments, but it is remarkable to me how the American public is perhaps losing interest in our country's own history.

Kent

4/14/2023 06:38:01 pm

If we take "Americana" as meaning pop culture and not Howard Zinn's nonsense or U.S. Grant's autobiography, Larry McMurtry's Booked Up in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington DC never did.

Harold Edwards

4/12/2023 08:01:46 pm

Good luck.

Knock'em dead!