MY NAME IS WILL Coming Back Atcha

I've been a very busy dude the past few weeks. In addition to producing my own audiobook of MY NAME IS WILL for its publisher, Twelve Books, I'm doing a little bit of consulting for Disney, working on my second novel...

It's almost made me forget that the paperback edition of MNIW is coming out in three weeks. Featuring some corrected text, a Reading Group Guide, clips of all sorts of great reviews, and a recession-friendly price, it comes out July 3. You can order it now on amazon.com for $10.19. Remember that the New York Times Book Review made it a "summer beach read" choice last year. Mmm. Beach!

There's also a swell review of it out today in the Roanoke Times - which specifically notes that the book has enough layers to make it worth a second reading. Thanks, Roanoke!

Shakespeare? I Think Not

Since lots of folks have asked: I'm not sure I buy the newly discovered life portrait of Shakespeare. The subject of the painting looks much younger than the 46 he is if the date assignment of 1610 is correct. It also doesn't jibe well with the other extant portraits, which although posthumous, were agreed to have been good likenesses by Shakespeare's contemporaries. Thos images both portray a balding Bard; this new portrait asks us to believe that he went bald suddenly between his exceedingly outhful age 46 and his death at 52, when his likeness was erected in Holy Trinity Church.

At least one critic agrees with me on other grounds.

Although the "copy" they talk about at the Folger was staring at me while I was waiting in the Founder's Room to go onstage for my book tour appearance there, so that's cool. And I've met Stanley Wells, a very proper British chap indeed. He was kind enough to come and say hello to me when I dropped by the Birthplace Trust offices to do some research... he had seen me perform with the RSC in New York.

Media Page Redux

Some people had trouble starting the YouTube videos of the Brooklyn Book Crawl events on my site when using the Safari. They've been reloaded and should be functional now. To try again, click here. And note that it's a slightly different URL, so update your bookmarks.

One Stop Jess Media Shop

I've just added a new page to my website that I hope you'll check out. It's an A-V (audio-video) page: one spot where you can go see and hear recordings of my various media appearances. The page launches with one click access to my radio interviews for the New York Times Book Review and KQED's "Forum," YouTube videos of my record-breaking one man Hamlet, the complete Shakespeare Histories in Coffey Park, and more. If you missed my book tour launch event at the Los Angeles Public Library in July, there's a complete audio recording available. I'll be updating the site with both new interviews and some vintage video which I'll be converting to digital throughout the year. Just click here to check it out, and let me know what you think!

Readers Guide Questions

It's a rainy weekend in L.A. Rainy weekends are good for writers; well, for me, at least. I tend to get work done. I'm working on a Readers Group Guide for the paperback edition of MY NAME IS WILL. I'd love to have some actual questions about actual literary questions people might have about the book. You know, English class type stuff that you might have wondered about. Why did this character meet that fate, was there a double meaning to this or that phrase, was this or that character based on a real person. Please send me some; otherwise I'll have to make up the questions myself and then answer them, which feels a little autoerotic. Post your questions here as a comment or e-mail to jess@jesswinfield.com. I'll credit you in the book if I use your question; how cool would that be?

Picking Up, Dusting Off

Like the rest of the world, I spent this morning watching in awe as our nation took a giant step forward in race relations, and what we all hope will be a giant leap forward in our country's evolution. There is so much already said, and being said, and to be said, but I wanted to add a very personal note.

The last eight years have been both very successful and very difficult for me. I've tried to enjoy the highs: celebrating my 10th anniversary with my wife Sa, rescuing the cutest dog in the world Orson, winning two Emmy Awards, writing, selling, and publishing my first novel. But it has also been a tragic eight years, during which I lost my sister, my brother, my father, and far too many friends and mentors. I've wrestled at various times with alcohol, grief, and depression, and had some personal relationships suffer. And hey, the hardcover of the book came out during what we now know was the third quarter of a recession, so I'm not rich. The usual life stuff, I suppose. It has been hard, at times, to muddle through. But with the help of my friends and family, I've made it so far. I thank them for that.

I offer no thanks to the outgoing president, though. As I sit at my keyboard today, I feel intensely, literally, as though a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Looking back from the clarity of a happier day, I have the shameful feeling that since 2000, I've grown more arrogant, more cynical, snarkier. I suppose this could be attributed to any number of causes, personal moral failure among them. But I know that my way of relating to the world hasn't been improved by living under a regime that I truly believe to have been tyrannical. How could small-mindedness, stubbornness arrogance, and aggression help but seep down, over the course of eight years, from a leader to its people? How could a nation that violates the rights of its own citizens, bombs the innocent, tortures the suspected, and murders the guilty not, to some degree, desensitize its people to kindness and compassion?

I've mentioned privately to friends that I had a long list of New Year's resolutions, and I'm happy to say that so far they're going well. But President Obama's (how sweet it is to type that, for the first time!) speech has inspired me to add to the list. As he said, "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly."

So as I set to work on this year in my career, I want to publicly proclaim I am picking myself up, dusting myself off, and rededicating myself to honesty, integrity, and professionalism in my writing. I will endeavor to be civil, to be snarky only with injustice, not with individuals. (I think I owe an apology to Joan Baez and Billy Joel for a bit in My Name Is Will!) I will try to bring to my own, exceedingly humble work -- of telling little tales -- as much truth and wisdom as I can find. In my private life, I'm going to pet the dog and cat more often, bring my wife more flowers, and take better care of myself so that I can take better care of others. I will volunteer more. And I will do a host of other small, private things that I hope will make the world a better place to live in.

If that sounds exceedingly lofty, well, what can I say, it's an exceedingly lofty day. I hope you all share my great joy, and my great hope for not just a happy new year, but a genuinely happier four years to come.

Now... I've got a novel to write.

RSC Rocks Complete Works (Abridged) [Revised]

It's been a busy fall.  In addition to plugging away on my second novel, I finished up my adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest for Starz Film Roman... now comes the long process of trying to get it actually made.  I am, as always, cautiously optimistic.

I also had the time-warping experience of joining current Reduced Shakespeare Company mavens Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor for rehearsals of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] in L.A. a couple of weeks ago. The updated text is based on the work original RSC founder Daniel Singer and I did on the script for a twentieth-anniversary West End run last summer.  A few tweaks were required to make the show US-friendly, and Reed, Austin and I took the opportunity to play with a few new gags and refinements as well.  The RSC is now up and running with the revised text at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. Check out the excellent review of the revised show in the Miami Herald.

For those of you in the US who have never seen an officially-sponsored, author-approved, Reduced Shakespeare Company performance of the show, this and the RSC tour coming next year is the one to see.

You might want to check out episode #104 of The Reduced Shakespeare Company Podcast.  It features an interview with yours truly about the whys and wherefores of the updated script.