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We were on CBS News today, and not because they found out about the bank we robbed to finance our freelance writing careers.

If you follow that link, you can see that The Early Show used some of our six-word memoir party footage. Even better, the video features the work of three graduates of The Publishing Spot's Grad-School of Hard Knocks: scriptwriter and memoirist Allen Rucker; and Smith Magazine editors, Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser (you can see their interview here).

I thought I'd take this chance to index our complete interview with Allen Rucker. His book just came out in paperback, after all. Follow these links for some quality writing advice from the man who wrote this six-word memoir: "Alas, a farewell to legs. Next!"

Allen Rucker taught us How To Keep Writing Despite Personal Disasters.

Then gave a primer on How To Write For Hollywood.

Followed by a lesson on How Hardboiled Novels Can Improve Your Writing.

Then he showed us How To Structure and Revise A Memoir.

And finally, he gave advice on How To Pitch A Non-Fiction Book.

"We owed money ot the IRS, Citibank Visa, Washington University, the Wilshire Credit Corporation, the family, and fourteen other people. And after years of uncertainty, we thought we had struck it out, weathered the storm, seen the light at the end of the dark tunnel of a hundred strokes of bad luck and stupid life decisions. And the big payoff?"

That's the darkest moment from Allen Rucker's new memoir, reflecting on his life as a Hollywood writer after a life-altering disorder left him paralyzed. 

While The Best Seat in the House (in hardcover now, look for the trade paperback in January 2008) focuses on recovery, it also provides a practical, honest look at the world of screenwriting. Today, this once struggling television and film writer shares some more Hollywood wisdom.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

 
Jason Boog:
Your book also features some harrowing descriptions of your life as a young, struggling writer with a family in Hollywood. Do you have any advice for young writers looking to move to movie and television writing? Are there any mistakes you would urge them to avoid, especially while raising a family?

Allen Rucker:
My mistake was probably ever coming to Hollywood in the first place, but we’ll save that for Dr. Melfi. Continue reading...

Too many people expect the job of "writer" to mean one thing--sitting around quietly working on your novel. Those people will get very hungry. 

Author Allen Rucker's writing career reads like a vocational manual for writers: he's written a comical television book (The Sopranos Family Cookbook), co-written non-fiction books for celebrities (Hollywood Causes Cancer), and most recently, a personal memoir about paralysis (The Best Seat in the House (in hardcover now, look for the trade paperback in January 2008)).

Today, this television and film writer explains the books and writers who influence him, giving us a big long reading list for the weekend.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
You have a deep love for crime fiction. Do you have a reading list for aspiring crime writers? Who are the writers, generally, who inspire you? Which websites, magazines do you read for material?

Allen Rucker:
I’m not a crime-fiction writer, just a crime-fiction reader. I read the literary stuff, too, and a lot of the current entries – like Ian McEwan’s Saturday, for instance – has its share of criminal activity. Continue reading...

"I hate being paralyzed. I hate every minute of it. Everytime it dawns on me that I can't do something like swing on a passing tree limb or take Blaine or Max down for a three count in the backyard, it's like a stab in the gut."

That's a vivid couple sentences from Allen Rucker's memoir about his paralysis, The Best Seat in the House. The book takes an unexpected, often entertaining, look at a tragic subject, avoiding all the clichés that rule the memoir genre.

This television and film writer brought a whole new toolkit to the memoir, and today he tells us how spice up our own non-fiction. Rucker is our guest this week in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions.

In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
Your memoir has this amazing sense of organization, encapsulating each step of an overwhelming journey inside thematic chapters. How did you take this utterly bewildering event and shape it into a coherent written story? How did you craft (and revise) deeply emotional events into such easy-reading, humorous prose?

Allen Rucker:

The story had an obvious “inciting incident,” to use screenwriting jargon – I woke up one day and was paralyzed. Continue reading...

Can a book deal save your life?

Author Allen Rucker's life derailed in his early 50's when he woke up paralyzed by a rare disorder. According to his new memoir, The Best Seat in the House (in hardcover now, look for the trade paperback in January 2008), one of the things that helped him recover from this devastating loss was a contract to write The Sopranos Family Cookbook.

That comical book became a bestseller, giving a once struggling television and film writer new work as a non-fiction writer. Today he tells us how he pitched his most recent book.

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
Your memoir ends with you getting a contract to write The Sopranos Family Cookbook--an inspirational conclusion to the darkest time in your life. Landing a contract and writing your memoir must have been a similarly intense experience. On a practical level, how did you conceive, pitch, and finally land a contract for The Best Seat in the House? Any advice for fledgling writers looking to pitch a non-fiction book?

Allen Rucker:
As I said, I knew I wanted to write the paralysis book right away, but I waited, for two things: one, to figure out what I wanted to write, and two, to get to a place in the publishing business where I had a chance in hell to sell a book like this. Continue reading...

"Here is my life the day I became paralyzed. I was fifty-one, married with two sons, one in college and an eight-year-old at home, living in a big house in West Los Angeles, and pursuing my so-called craft as a writer of television specials and documentaries." 

That's the opening of Allen Rucker's memoir, The Best Seat in the House, a book about a freak medical condition that left him paralyzed after an afternoon nap.

Rucker spent most of his writing career toiling away in television and film, and has lifetime of writing craft to share--but today, he teaches us how to survive personal disasters and keep writing.

Rucker is our guest this week in my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality interviews with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
Your book is about recovery, following the process of getting to where you could write again after you were paralyzed by the rare disorder, transverse myelitis. Among other things, it's a handbook for learning how to write despite anxiety, depression, and difficult situations. What is your advice for young writers swamped by life?

Allen Rucker:
Anxiety, depression, and difficult situations are, as often as not, why you write in the first place, or at least why you write the ubiquitous form of first-person memoir writing prevalent today. Continue reading...