November 17, 2025 • 28 mins
“Written from the point of view of one character and then another scene from the another character. Now, we would never shift point of view within a scene, but each scene, each segment of the book is from a different point of view.” - Lawrence Connolly
In this How To Write the Future episode, “Building Character-Driven Action Adventure Stories with Lawrence Connolly,” podcast host Beth Barany interviews author Lawrence Connolly, where they explore his upcoming exciting projects, including a feature film with his brother and his new novel. They also dive into using deep POV to create characters that are emotionally compelling to draw a reader into the author's world and share advice for writers working on film adaptations.
ABOUT LAWRENCE C. CONNOLLY
Lawrence C. Connolly’s books include the collections This Way to Egress, whose titular tale of psychological horror was adapted for the Mick Garris film Nightmare Cinema; and the Bram-Stoker-nominated Voices, which features Connolly’s best stories from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Twilight Zone, Year’s Best Horror, and other top magazines and anthologies of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
A third collection, Visions, was praised by Publishers Weekly for featuring an eclectic mix of “entertaining and satisfying” SF.
His novels include the eco-thrillers Veins, Vipers, and Vortex. World Fantasy Award winner T. E. D. Klein called Veins “a crime thriller as intense and fast-moving as a Tarantino movie.”
This fall, Caezik Science Fiction will release his new novel Minute-Men: Execute & Run, a globetrotting adventure that combines elements of military science fiction, gaming, and medical suspense in a thrilling reinvention of the superhero genre. He is collaborating with brother Christopher Connolly and Academy Award-winning producer Jonathan Sanger to develop a feature film based on Execute & Run.
He is also the writer of Mystery Theatre, a podcast produced by Prime Stage Theatre, who premiered his adaptation of Frankenstein in 2022.
His newset commission, a play based on the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe, opens in November 2025 at Pittsburgh’s New Hazelett Theatre.
More at MinuteMenNovel.com.
Website: https://lawrencecconnolly.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawrence.c.connolly.9
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawrence_c_connolly/
- SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
- SHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade
- EDITORIAL SUPPORT by Iman Llompart
c. 2025 BETH BARANY
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Episode Transcript
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BETH BARANY (00:01):
Hi everyone.
Welcome to How to Write theFuture Podcast.
I am your host, Beth Barany,science fiction and fantasy
author.
Also a creativity coach, editor,and teacher and speaker, and
obviously podcaster andfilmmaker.
I do a lot of creative things.
And I host this podcast becauseI really believe that when we
(00:21):
envision what is possible, wehelp make it so.
I love science fiction offantasy.
I write it, and I loveinterviewing authors who are
working in that space because wecan learn so much from each
other's visions.
So I am very pleased today towelcome in special guest,
Lawrence Connolly.
I just wanna say welcomeLawrence.
(00:42):
So glad that you're here.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (00:43):
Great to be here, Beth.
Thanks for having me.
BETH BARANY (00:45):
And I was hoping that you could share with
everyone a little bit about you,what you do, what you're up to,
and then we're gonna dive intosome fun questions.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (00:53):
All right.
Well, I got started on this backin the eighties and, I started
writing for the science fictionmagazines and, it was an
exciting time.
Now, I remember back then that alot of the established writers
were bemoaning the fact that,the market was not as good as it
used to be, but it was prettydarn good.
There were a lot of magazines, alot of science fiction
(01:14):
magazines, and, a young guystarting out could send to the
magazines and, if, writing ahalfway decent story, get a
reply back from some of theeditors and those replies that I
received from my first batch ofstories, they were kinda like my
MFA program and that's how Ilearned how to write.
Within a year I was writing forthe magazines.
(01:35):
I was writing for AmazingStories.
Rod Sterling Twilight Zonemagazine came out and I began
writing for them.
My stories began getting pickedup by Years's Best Horror and
for various Martin HarryGreenberg anthologies.
and then I began getting callsfrom, Hollywood.
To, to option some of thosestories.
So it was, it was an excitingtime.
That's how I got started.
(01:55):
And, I, I had so much fun doingit.
I, I'm still doing it today,and, not complaining at all.
It's a great life.
BETH BARANY (02:01):
That's so wonderful.
And you seem to, specialize inthriller action, adventure,
horror, sci-fi, cop, that kindof thing, action adventure.
Would you say that's about thehalf of it.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (02:12):
I say that's pretty good.
You know, I have done, somefairly quiet, creepy, weird
stories too.
I do like those.
as a producer, in LA was justtelling me recently, what is hot
now, the things that are goingnow, that are being optioned now
really are the action adventureswhereas a novel, a novel is
going to be, is going to need tobe translated into another
(02:33):
language, but an actionadventure film that pretty much
plays anywhere.
And so, writing action andadventure novels and stories is
a good way to make sure.
Or to, you may try to make surethat, somebody calls up or, gets
in touch with my agent and says,we would like to option this
story, this novel.
(02:54):
And, so yes, lately I have been,doing things that I would
consider action at Adventure.
And, the new novel that's comingout certainly falls into that
category.
BETH BARANY (03:03):
And actually, we're here today to highlight your new
novel, which, by the time thisairs will probably already be
out.
So for those watching onYouTube, you'll be able to see
in Lawrence's background part ofthe cover.
I was, really enjoying thatcover.
Can you tell us a little bitabout this novel that's coming,
and hopefully we'll be out bythe time we go live and yeah,
(03:24):
give us the short, pitch onthat.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (03:27):
Yeah, sure.
It's titled Minutemen (03:28):
Execute and Run, and it is about a team
of wounded warriors who arefrom, who were maimed in the
most dangerous places on earth.
They were there serving, theywere trying to help, but they
were maimed in the process andthey became forgotten, but.
They then get a second chancethrough a biotech firm that
(03:52):
offers to rehabilitate them, butinadvertently imbues them with
these incredible powers.
Now, here's where we step awayfrom the comic book world and
try to get into the sciencefiction world because in a comic
book, Superman can fly and hecan, use his x-ray vision and he
can do all manner of things andnever get tired.
(04:14):
But the human body, if it everhad superpower, it would burn
out really quick.
And that's what happens withthese guys.
That's why it's called theMinutemen, because they can't
sustain their powers for muchlonger than a minute.
And that's the crux of thestory, because these people from
different walks of life anddifferent parts of the world,
they've gotta set aside theirdifferences and learn to work
(04:36):
together.
Because when they're behindenemy lines on a mission and one
of them uses his power and thengoes down, that person is
counting on the others to notonly carry on with the mission,
but to get him out of there.
And I say him, although the men,men team is men and women.
(04:56):
And so regardless of whetherit's one of the women who are
down or one of the men who aredown, the others have got to
carry through with the missionand protect the ones who are
down and get everyone out ofDodge alive.
BETH BARANY (05:09):
I love the team element that you have here, as
well as you've got such a greatsetup for, the team having to
work together and then all theproblems that can happen because
their power's only a minutelong.
What a great premise.
I love that.
As you were working on thisprocess or even, it sounds like
you've got this cutting edgescience and technology, and then
(05:31):
how do you make sure that the,your characters are compelling,
emotionally compelling, that thereaders can really attach to
them and not get lost in thewhizzbang tech?
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (05:40):
Thank you for that question.
I, I should go back to theorigin of this project, which,
involves my brother ChristopherConnolly and, and Chris is an
artist and he was working onthis idea for, a screenplay or a
novel.
he's a writer, but he is not aprofessional writer, so he
communicates through imagesmostly and.
(06:03):
I should probably just prefacethis by saying there's one thing
that writers often say.
There's often advice thatwriters give to younger writers,
and that is if anybody comes upto you with an idea, says, I've
got an idea for a story, all youhave to do is write it.
That's not really a deal becauseBeth, we've got tons of ideas.
We've got more ideas than we'reever going to write in our
(06:23):
lifetime.
But my brother was differentwhen he came to me and said he
had an idea, he didn't just havean idea, he had a portfolio of
sketches, of character sketchesand character profiles, and he
laid them all out on the tablefor me.
And there was a pile for, uh,for, for a character named
Daniel Hayes and a pile for acharacter named Christian Chase.
And I looked at all of this andthese characters were so fully
(06:45):
realized that I said, I want in,I wanna write a story about
these guys.
And so.
Your question really doesanticipate or does point me to
what got me into this project inthe beginning, and it wasn't so
much the idea of the one minutesuperpowers.
It was these people won me overthese characters that he spread
out on the table and, So I tookthis and I began working on it,
(07:10):
and because I always had thosepiles of sketches in my mind, I
determined very early on thatthis had to be an ensemble piece
where we would have a scene.
Written from the point of viewof one character and then
another scene from the anothercharacter.
Now, we would never shift pointof view within a scene, but each
(07:31):
scene, each segment of the bookis from a different point of
view.
Not first person, but very closethird person.
And so that's how I like to getthe character's in shape to
appeal to the reader.
I like to put the reader veryclose to the characters, let the
reader hear the character'svoice because these sections are
(07:53):
in slightly different voicings,and these sections deal with
different.
Points of view, and they seethings from different angles and
they know different things.
So there might be a scientistwho really knows the mechanism
that has transformed these guys.
But there is another personwho's not a scientist, she's
just a young woman.
She's, she's right out of highschool and what she knows is
(08:15):
what she can see.
And so we get to see, the storythrough her eyes in a very
different way.
short answer, make themappealing by putting the reader
close.
BETH BARANY (08:25):
I love that so much.
And for anyone listening to thepodcast for a while will know I
have resources for this.
I have two resources I justwanna point out to folks.
I have a whole Plan Your NovelLike A Pro book where I teach
people how do you develop yourcharacters, how do you really
develop a plot, out of them.
And I'm very character centric,like, so I love hearing how you.
(08:46):
Evolved this story starting withyour brother's, amazing art.
And then the second resource Iwanna offer folks is, is how do
you do close third person pointof view?
And I have an offering that oneof the few books I published
that isn't mine called MasteringDeep Point of View, that gives
you the tactical way on how youcould actually craft wise do
that in your fiction.
(09:07):
And I just have to say, I lovethat you are doing that because
I know as a reader.
I love that.
I love getting deep into theheart of my characters as a
reader and also as a writer, butwhere I get to know what they
think and how they feel, theirperspective, their take on
things, their morality, their,what they really value.
So it sounds like you're reallygiving us a story from each of,
(09:31):
and it's four main charactersright in your story.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (09:34):
That's right.
And it's a great opportunity todo something and I, I'm excited
about it because, as some of thecharacters are channeling or
processing some of the thingsthat are happening to them, some
believe certain things abouttheir powers and how their
powers.
Function.
And, so the scientist in thegroup has a different view of
how things work than the personwho's never, you know, studied
(09:57):
science.
And this gives me theopportunity to really present
the science fictional aspects ofthe story through a number of
different points of view, andlet the reader kind of
experience it and see it.
Draw their own conclusions as tohow things are actually working,
because, sometimes a scientistdoesn't fully understand as well
(10:17):
as the person who is goingthrough, the superhero
transformation.
So, the very close third personnarration are what drives this
story and really, I think, makethe science fiction aspect, easy
to understand without any, longlectures.
But we just get the chance tosee it in process and in
function and see how peoplethink about it.
BETH BARANY (10:38):
You alluded a little bit to this, but the
perspective that the team willbe having on what they're going
through, it might not always beeasy.
and there might be some ethicsbehind it, the right and the
wrong of it in your story world.
So I was wondering if you couldshare with us how are you
weaving real world ethicaldilemmas into this, into the
(11:00):
world that you've created herefor the minute story.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (11:03):
Yeah, they're, they each have had
experience in some of the mostdangerous places on Earth.
And so we see this novel astaking place in the day after
tomorrow.
It's not our world, but it is aworld that has inherited some of
the consequences that we aredealing with today.
And so we're talking aboutwriting the future.
(11:25):
this is a story that.
Takes some of the things that weknow are going on in the world,
imagines what they will be likea little bit farther in the
future, and then has thesecharacters contending with them.
And so how do I take the thingsthat are happening today and use
them to drive the story andminuteman execute and run?
(11:48):
I just extrapolate to the verynear future.
Try to imagine how things willbe then, and then try to portray
them as realistically aspossible.
BETH BARANY (11:58):
What are some of the ethical dilemmas that your
characters have to deal withthat maybe reflect today's
world?
when is it Okay?
as soldiers have the mandate to.
They can kill, right?
It's ethically mandated.
Murder essentially, to put ablunt name on it.
But The arena of war, there'sanother term for that.
(12:19):
It's accepted, it's acceptable.
And and so I don't know howyou're dealing with that in your
story,
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (12:25):
This character right here, the
character right behind me, thewoman who is dominating the
picture behind me, that's Dr.
Christian Chase and she is adoctor.
She is served with Doctorswithout Borders.
she does not like using herpower on people.
And as you can see, her power isquite dramatic, quite violent.
And, she also has a problem withusing it because, you can't do
(12:47):
this.
And of course, this is a, agraphic, rendering of what she
does.
she has this ability of,bioelectric, pulse and she can't
use it without hurting herself.
She doesn't wanna hurt otherpeople, but she also doesn't
wanna hurt herself.
And every time she uses it, shescars, she disfigures her face,
as a result of this.
She will often push back againstthe other men of the team, the
(13:11):
other people in the team andsay, I don't want to do that.
I don't want to use my power forviolence.
And they might say to her, well,you just don't want to hurt
yourself.
That's all that's about.
No, it's not about that.
It's not about me.
I will hurt myself to save youguys, but I will not use my
power against people.
But.
Because things are never thatcut and dry.
Things are never that easy.
(13:32):
She finds herself in situationswhere she does crossover.
You talked about the fog of war,the violence of war.
And when she is in the thick ofit and her people are in danger
and the people coming at themare very dangerous and very bad,
she will.
She will actually cross overand, and invest in it fully.
And then afterwards she will paythat price.
(13:54):
She will think about what shehas done.
And there is another characterwho is very young.
She's never been in war.
she was a, a kickboxer in highschool and, she knows her power
as it was.
Before she was transformed.
She doesn't fully understand itnow, and there is one scene
where one of the soldiers, oneof the, a former Marine, goes in
(14:18):
to get her after she has dealtwith a situation and realizes.
She has just killed the peoplewho were coming at her.
Now, she thinks she's disabledthem because that's what she's
used to doing as a kickboxer.
But he, and he decides not totell her, I can't tell her this
will destroy her.
if I tell her that she, becausewhen she wakes up, because now
she's down, her power is out.
(14:38):
She has to be carried out of thewar zone.
she re she will.
maybe not perform the next time.
So he decides to keep that fromher.
So these are dilemmas that weface as people.
we are not, we don't want to beviolent.
We think of ourselves as, we maythink of ourselves as
nonviolent, but there aresituations that might push us
over and we might find ourselvesdoing things we don't expect us
(15:01):
to do.
And afterward we have to livewith this.
And this is as much a storyabout.
Where the characters are comingfrom before they acquire their
powers as it is to where thecharacters go after they begin
using their powers.
I hope that was a little more onpoint.
BETH BARANY (15:19):
Absolutely.
And I really love that.
It's very attractive to havefiction that explores this
because we all wonder, and youknow, I've read my fair share of
comics and I am a fan of thesuperhero stories, you know,
well, what would I do if I hadthat power?
What would I do if I had to livewith the consequence?
Of my power that was sodestructive.
And I think that's anexploration that fiction is such
(15:41):
a great place to explore thatin.
So I'm really, excited for yourproject and I could see how
attractive that is and makes mewanna go into that safe place of
reading a book that allows me towrangle with these dilemmas and,
oh, would I behave like thisperson or would I behave like
that person?
yeah, fiction is so great forthat.
I wanna ask you if you, nowmoving toward advice for genre
(16:04):
fiction writers who, Who areinterested in collaborating with
film producers to adapt theirwork for the screen?
I'm very interested in thistopic personally, as someone who
has done this, I've written,I've taken my own, series,
Henrietta The Dragon Slayer.
I wrote a TV pilot.
We took a part of that.
We filmed it.
Then I've gone on to write somemore.
I wanna film it.
(16:24):
I wanna make a TV show.
So the whole adaptation, workingwith filmmakers, working with
the film industry, and alsothings are changing dramatically
in that industry.
I've been paying deep attentionworking with filmmakers.
anyway, your take on that forwriters who are like, oh, what
if my book came to screen?
How do I make that happen?
(16:45):
What advice do you have towriters who are curious about.
Coming into this adaptationspace for film?
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (16:52):
Yes.
Good question.
the old adage that you've heardthat, that I'm sure a lot of,
our listeners have heard, isthat, Hollywood don't Call us,
will call you.
And so my advice and the onlyadvice that I can give is the
advice that comes from personalexperience.
And when I started writing.
I was just writing very visuallyand writing in a way that is not
(17:15):
like a movie because writing,because fiction is not like a
movie.
in fiction you might have ascene opens up and it's close on
a pair of boots that are walkingin and the boots go up the
stairs and then you pull backand you see the people.
You can't do that in fiction.
You don't do close on bootswalking up the stairs.
You're in the character's head.
So there's that big differencebetween, film and.
(17:36):
Fiction in that we are all aboutthe experience of the person in
the story.
Whereas in film, it's reallyabout the experience of the
viewer, the person who iswatching the movie and watching
people go through these things.
But that aside, using the thirdperson limited usually, which is
(17:57):
the way I like to write mystories.
I try to have the story comealive as visually as possible,
and this is just something I didbecause I liked doing it that
way.
it seemed right to me andfortuitously it is why I began
getting calls early on frompeople who wanted to produce my
(18:17):
work.
I did four stories for amazingstories, and then I did a number
for Twilight Zone and about twoor three years in to the writing
life I got a call for one of thestories that was in Twilight
Zone.
a producer in Hollywood wantedto produce it as a short
festival film.
And then the next week I get acall from the former editor of
(18:38):
Amazing Stories who has teamedup with a production company and
they want to option one of mystories that was in amazing
stories.
And what happens then is thatyou sign a deal and it's nice to
get an agent at this pointbecause the agent will really
help you, work through this.
But what you want to do is youwant to sign an option
agreement.
And the option agreement isnothing more than an agreement
(19:00):
that.
for a sum of money that thewriter receives.
The, producer gets to say, Irepresent this property.
And then as a writer, I kind ofjust sit back, work on the next
story, and let the producer callme back and say, Hey, we got
some money for a film.
or maybe never call back becausethe thing goes into development
(19:20):
limbo.
But, once you do begin workingwith someone.
Again, I can only speak frompersonal experience.
I've had very, very good, goodfortune to work with some people
that I admire.
I worked with Mick Garris, theproducer of Showtime's, masters
of Horror.
I worked with, uh, David Slade,the Emmy Award winning director
(19:42):
of Black Mirror Bander Snatch,and these.
People, these producers, Mick asthe, producer of Nightmare
Cinema and David as the directorof my segment, because Nightmare
Cinema is an anthology film, andso David and I co-wrote one of
the segments of that film.
These individuals just seem toshare my vision.
(20:04):
They seem to know where I'mcoming from, and so there were
never any real speed bumps alongthe way.
Although, I will tell you thisand I'll share this with our
listeners so that they will notmake this mistake.
I didn't make it, fortunately.
I almost did.
We were on set.
For Nightmare Cinema.
And I was watching the monitorand I was standing beside Mick
(20:27):
and David is in the other roomdirecting and directing the
scene.
And I said to Mick, I said,that's not right.
That's, but I'm not gonna sayanything.
Okay.
I'm gonna trust the vision ofthe director.
And Mick says, you know, that'sa real good idea.
So I just keep my mouth.
(20:47):
And it turned out it was right.
I mean, everything that we putinto our stories doesn't
translate to the screen, butsometimes the things that do end
up on the screen.
Are just right for the screen.
And you have to trust theprocess.
So you have to work with peoplethat you believe in.
And right now I'm working with acouple of guys.
I'm working with, JonathanSanger, who is the, academy
(21:09):
Award, winning producer.
he produced the Elephant Man andVanilla Sky and Flight of the
Navigator, some really terrificfilms and his producing partner
m Jones.
And last year Jonathan and mJones had a film out.
Biopic called Cabrini, which wasreally terrific and a beautiful,
beautiful film.
These guys have a great, whatshall I say?
(21:32):
they have a great range and I'mvery excited that working with
'em and, and, and working with'em so far has been a pleasure.
And, uh, so we are hoping.
That, um, that this film goesthrough a development and that
we will someday, I hope verysoon, have an adaptation, a
Minuteman (21:47):
Execute and Run produced by Jonathan Sanger and
M.
Jones.
That's what I'm hoping for.
So I've been very fortunate.
I haven't bumped heads with anyproducers or any, any directors.
maybe I haven't had enoughexperience in it, but, uh, my
advice to the writers is trustthe process.
Trust the producers, trust thedirectors.
Get a good agent, get a goodoption agreement.
(22:09):
And then after the film goesinto production, get a good
contract.
make sure your agent's watchingout for you.
But, uh, but beyond that, trustthese guys that you've signed on
with because they know theircraft.
BETH BARANY (22:20):
And it sounds like also you were very lucky with
having people who really gotyour story and got your vision.
And you know, I've heard somehorror stories of people who got
optioned.
A big example is MichaelConnolly.
He got optioned, it allowed himto step away from his day job of
being a, a crime reporter andjust be a full-time novelist.
But then the projects that cameout of it weren't always exactly
(22:42):
to his liking.
And then he was able to pair upwith the team that he works with
now who've done Bosch andBallard on Netflix.
Yeah.
And, I'm just a huge fan.
That's all.
That's why I know these thingsas I've been a fan for a very
long time.
and he said that it became morecollaborative.
It became more working withpeople who really understood him
and included him in the process.
and that was more of a positiveexperience for him.
(23:04):
So, and I only know it from theindie side because I'm the
writer, director, producer, andI have to say that I allowed my
team to give me lots and lots ofinput.
If they had a better idea, Itook it.
If they could solve a problemand that I didn't have the
answer to, I took it becausethey have experience in film and
I'm over here as the writer andthe one kind of wrangling the
(23:24):
behind the scenes.
And then I got to be in the roleof director, which was totally
new, totally unexpected, learneda lot.
Still wanna understand that rolemuch better, but probably would
offload that if I could.
Just because there's so muchelse going on as the other two
hats of of writer, producer.
so as we wrap up today, I wannaend with, a question that I like
to ask my guests because of ourpodcast name, which is How to
(23:47):
Write the Future.
And I was wondering what itmeans for you, to, to write the
future.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (23:54):
Yes.
To write the future.
I think it's important to keepin mind that That the future
that we write about is thepresent for our characters.
You see, the future is not aplace to inhabit, a place to be.
It's a place to live through.
You get through this future, youdo things in this future.
(24:16):
So this is why, Dystopia don't,does not work because, it
doesn't work for me anyhow.
Dystopia is characters living ina place that is, um, it, it's,
it's done in it.
It's over.
we are struggling in thisterrible world and, and utopia,
is, we are living in a placethat we'd like to be.
But we, you've talked about thisbefore, and this is something
(24:38):
that, let's see.
Rupert Reed in 2017 coined thisterm, Thrutopia.
Right, and Thrutopia is thefuture that we live through to
get to the utopia or if we messup to get to the dystopia.
But more fascinating to read anaccount.
(24:59):
Of characters struggling to makethe world better in a world that
is imperfect than to read astory about characters who are
living in a perfect world, orcharacters who are living in a
doomed world.
The way I see it as writers,it's our job not only to write
(25:19):
the future with a W but to writeit with an R to show how we can
get there and make it right.
And that's what, I'm hoping thatMinute Men, the Minute Men
series of books will do because,um, even though our characters
have to go through a lot ofstuff to get where they're
going, our plan is that whenthis series runs its course,
(25:41):
they will get there.
At least I hope so.
BETH BARANY (25:44):
I hope so too.
Oh, that's wonderful.
I love what you said.
And we will be dropping somelinks in the show notes to our
previous episodes aboutThrutopia.
I interviewed at least twowriters, who I met through the
course I took on Thrutopia andwho are working in that space
also as creatives.
so as, we finalized today'sepisode, I wanna, uh, invite you
to let people know where canthey find you.
(26:04):
Where can they, uh, learn moreabout Minute Men and get on your
list and be, notified of thisincredible series that's
dropping?
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (26:11):
the best place to go is lawrence c
connolly.com.
and that's, Connolly with,C-O-N-N-O-L-L-Y.
There's not a whole lot ofdifferent letters in there.
You know, there's no e in thereanywhere.
So, Lawrence c connolly.com.
you can find, uh, just abouteverything.
That, you need to know about methere.
I am also, I'm a novelist shortstory writer.
(26:33):
I also have, I am a playwright.
I have a new play opening, thisNovember.
I did an adaptation of FFrankenstein just a couple of
years ago.
You can read about those on mywebsite.
And, um, not to spread myselftoo thin, but I'm also a
musician and there's a music tabthere.
You can go there and listen tosome of my music.
So, uh, lawrence c connolly.comis probably the best place.
(26:54):
And the next place that peoplemight want to go is, um, con,
that's CON as in Connolly, COMas in communication, COM.
Con comentertainment.substack.com
because, there, my brother and Ihave the newsletter for the Mint
Men book, and it's got a lot ofcool stuff in it.
(27:15):
This is no run of the millnewsletter.
There's a whole bunch of artthat my brother created.
We've got videos, we've got someof my music there.
We've got interviews, we've gotreally cool stuff there.
I hope that our listeners willgo check it out, and I hope
they'll check out the book whenit comes out.
October 14th.
BETH BARANY (27:29):
Absolutely, and we'll be sure to put a book
cover on the screen.
And I just wanna say, shout outto your substack.
I subscribed.
I love it.
It was so fun looking at thevisuals that you have, and you
have wonderful engagementquizzes and opportunities to win
things, and it is just fabulous.
that's so wonderful.
Well, thank you so much,Lawrence, for being a guest
today on how to write thefuture.
(27:49):
I really love what you're up to.
Your enthusiasm is so vibrant.
You have so many helpful thingsto say to writers and our fellow
creatives, so thank you so muchfor being a guest today.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (27:59):
You're welcome, Beth.
It's been a pleasure and maybeI'll see you in LA next year.
BETH BARANY (28:03):
That would be so fun.
Take care.
Alright everyone, take care,Lawrence.
That's it for this week,everyone, write long and
prosper.
Hi everyone.
Welcome to How to Write theFuture Podcast.
I am your host, Beth Barany,science fiction and fantasy
author.
Also a creativity coach, editor,and teacher and speaker, and
obviously podcaster andfilmmaker.
I do a lot of creative things.
And I host this podcast becauseI really believe that when we
(00:21):
envision what is possible, wehelp make it so.
I love science fiction offantasy.
I write it, and I loveinterviewing authors who are
working in that space because wecan learn so much from each
other's visions.
So I am very pleased today towelcome in special guest,
Lawrence Connolly.
I just wanna say welcomeLawrence.
(00:42):
So glad that you're here.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (00:43):
Great to be here, Beth.
Thanks for having me.
BETH BARANY (00:45):
And I was hoping that you could share with
everyone a little bit about you,what you do, what you're up to,
and then we're gonna dive intosome fun questions.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (00:53):
All right.
Well, I got started on this backin the eighties and, I started
writing for the science fictionmagazines and, it was an
exciting time.
Now, I remember back then that alot of the established writers
were bemoaning the fact that,the market was not as good as it
used to be, but it was prettydarn good.
There were a lot of magazines, alot of science fiction
(01:14):
magazines, and, a young guystarting out could send to the
magazines and, if, writing ahalfway decent story, get a
reply back from some of theeditors and those replies that I
received from my first batch ofstories, they were kinda like my
MFA program and that's how Ilearned how to write.
Within a year I was writing forthe magazines.
(01:35):
I was writing for AmazingStories.
Rod Sterling Twilight Zonemagazine came out and I began
writing for them.
My stories began getting pickedup by Years's Best Horror and
for various Martin HarryGreenberg anthologies.
and then I began getting callsfrom, Hollywood.
To, to option some of thosestories.
So it was, it was an excitingtime.
That's how I got started.
(01:55):
And, I, I had so much fun doingit.
I, I'm still doing it today,and, not complaining at all.
It's a great life.
BETH BARANY (02:01):
That's so wonderful.
And you seem to, specialize inthriller action, adventure,
horror, sci-fi, cop, that kindof thing, action adventure.
Would you say that's about thehalf of it.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (02:12):
I say that's pretty good.
You know, I have done, somefairly quiet, creepy, weird
stories too.
I do like those.
as a producer, in LA was justtelling me recently, what is hot
now, the things that are goingnow, that are being optioned now
really are the action adventureswhereas a novel, a novel is
going to be, is going to need tobe translated into another
(02:33):
language, but an actionadventure film that pretty much
plays anywhere.
And so, writing action andadventure novels and stories is
a good way to make sure.
Or to, you may try to make surethat, somebody calls up or, gets
in touch with my agent and says,we would like to option this
story, this novel.
(02:54):
And, so yes, lately I have been,doing things that I would
consider action at Adventure.
And, the new novel that's comingout certainly falls into that
category.
BETH BARANY (03:03):
And actually, we're here today to highlight your new
novel, which, by the time thisairs will probably already be
out.
So for those watching onYouTube, you'll be able to see
in Lawrence's background part ofthe cover.
I was, really enjoying thatcover.
Can you tell us a little bitabout this novel that's coming,
and hopefully we'll be out bythe time we go live and yeah,
(03:24):
give us the short, pitch onthat.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (03:27):
Yeah, sure.
It's titled Minutemen (03:28):
Execute and Run, and it is about a team
of wounded warriors who arefrom, who were maimed in the
most dangerous places on earth.
They were there serving, theywere trying to help, but they
were maimed in the process andthey became forgotten, but.
They then get a second chancethrough a biotech firm that
(03:52):
offers to rehabilitate them, butinadvertently imbues them with
these incredible powers.
Now, here's where we step awayfrom the comic book world and
try to get into the sciencefiction world because in a comic
book, Superman can fly and hecan, use his x-ray vision and he
can do all manner of things andnever get tired.
(04:14):
But the human body, if it everhad superpower, it would burn
out really quick.
And that's what happens withthese guys.
That's why it's called theMinutemen, because they can't
sustain their powers for muchlonger than a minute.
And that's the crux of thestory, because these people from
different walks of life anddifferent parts of the world,
they've gotta set aside theirdifferences and learn to work
(04:36):
together.
Because when they're behindenemy lines on a mission and one
of them uses his power and thengoes down, that person is
counting on the others to notonly carry on with the mission,
but to get him out of there.
And I say him, although the men,men team is men and women.
(04:56):
And so regardless of whetherit's one of the women who are
down or one of the men who aredown, the others have got to
carry through with the missionand protect the ones who are
down and get everyone out ofDodge alive.
BETH BARANY (05:09):
I love the team element that you have here, as
well as you've got such a greatsetup for, the team having to
work together and then all theproblems that can happen because
their power's only a minutelong.
What a great premise.
I love that.
As you were working on thisprocess or even, it sounds like
you've got this cutting edgescience and technology, and then
(05:31):
how do you make sure that the,your characters are compelling,
emotionally compelling, that thereaders can really attach to
them and not get lost in thewhizzbang tech?
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (05:40):
Thank you for that question.
I, I should go back to theorigin of this project, which,
involves my brother ChristopherConnolly and, and Chris is an
artist and he was working onthis idea for, a screenplay or a
novel.
he's a writer, but he is not aprofessional writer, so he
communicates through imagesmostly and.
(06:03):
I should probably just prefacethis by saying there's one thing
that writers often say.
There's often advice thatwriters give to younger writers,
and that is if anybody comes upto you with an idea, says, I've
got an idea for a story, all youhave to do is write it.
That's not really a deal becauseBeth, we've got tons of ideas.
We've got more ideas than we'reever going to write in our
(06:23):
lifetime.
But my brother was differentwhen he came to me and said he
had an idea, he didn't just havean idea, he had a portfolio of
sketches, of character sketchesand character profiles, and he
laid them all out on the tablefor me.
And there was a pile for, uh,for, for a character named
Daniel Hayes and a pile for acharacter named Christian Chase.
And I looked at all of this andthese characters were so fully
(06:45):
realized that I said, I want in,I wanna write a story about
these guys.
And so.
Your question really doesanticipate or does point me to
what got me into this project inthe beginning, and it wasn't so
much the idea of the one minutesuperpowers.
It was these people won me overthese characters that he spread
out on the table and, So I tookthis and I began working on it,
(07:10):
and because I always had thosepiles of sketches in my mind, I
determined very early on thatthis had to be an ensemble piece
where we would have a scene.
Written from the point of viewof one character and then
another scene from the anothercharacter.
Now, we would never shift pointof view within a scene, but each
(07:31):
scene, each segment of the bookis from a different point of
view.
Not first person, but very closethird person.
And so that's how I like to getthe character's in shape to
appeal to the reader.
I like to put the reader veryclose to the characters, let the
reader hear the character'svoice because these sections are
(07:53):
in slightly different voicings,and these sections deal with
different.
Points of view, and they seethings from different angles and
they know different things.
So there might be a scientistwho really knows the mechanism
that has transformed these guys.
But there is another personwho's not a scientist, she's
just a young woman.
She's, she's right out of highschool and what she knows is
(08:15):
what she can see.
And so we get to see, the storythrough her eyes in a very
different way.
short answer, make themappealing by putting the reader
close.
BETH BARANY (08:25):
I love that so much.
And for anyone listening to thepodcast for a while will know I
have resources for this.
I have two resources I justwanna point out to folks.
I have a whole Plan Your NovelLike A Pro book where I teach
people how do you develop yourcharacters, how do you really
develop a plot, out of them.
And I'm very character centric,like, so I love hearing how you.
(08:46):
Evolved this story starting withyour brother's, amazing art.
And then the second resource Iwanna offer folks is, is how do
you do close third person pointof view?
And I have an offering that oneof the few books I published
that isn't mine called MasteringDeep Point of View, that gives
you the tactical way on how youcould actually craft wise do
that in your fiction.
(09:07):
And I just have to say, I lovethat you are doing that because
I know as a reader.
I love that.
I love getting deep into theheart of my characters as a
reader and also as a writer, butwhere I get to know what they
think and how they feel, theirperspective, their take on
things, their morality, their,what they really value.
So it sounds like you're reallygiving us a story from each of,
(09:31):
and it's four main charactersright in your story.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (09:34):
That's right.
And it's a great opportunity todo something and I, I'm excited
about it because, as some of thecharacters are channeling or
processing some of the thingsthat are happening to them, some
believe certain things abouttheir powers and how their
powers.
Function.
And, so the scientist in thegroup has a different view of
how things work than the personwho's never, you know, studied
(09:57):
science.
And this gives me theopportunity to really present
the science fictional aspects ofthe story through a number of
different points of view, andlet the reader kind of
experience it and see it.
Draw their own conclusions as tohow things are actually working,
because, sometimes a scientistdoesn't fully understand as well
(10:17):
as the person who is goingthrough, the superhero
transformation.
So, the very close third personnarration are what drives this
story and really, I think, makethe science fiction aspect, easy
to understand without any, longlectures.
But we just get the chance tosee it in process and in
function and see how peoplethink about it.
BETH BARANY (10:38):
You alluded a little bit to this, but the
perspective that the team willbe having on what they're going
through, it might not always beeasy.
and there might be some ethicsbehind it, the right and the
wrong of it in your story world.
So I was wondering if you couldshare with us how are you
weaving real world ethicaldilemmas into this, into the
(11:00):
world that you've created herefor the minute story.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (11:03):
Yeah, they're, they each have had
experience in some of the mostdangerous places on Earth.
And so we see this novel astaking place in the day after
tomorrow.
It's not our world, but it is aworld that has inherited some of
the consequences that we aredealing with today.
And so we're talking aboutwriting the future.
(11:25):
this is a story that.
Takes some of the things that weknow are going on in the world,
imagines what they will be likea little bit farther in the
future, and then has thesecharacters contending with them.
And so how do I take the thingsthat are happening today and use
them to drive the story andminuteman execute and run?
(11:48):
I just extrapolate to the verynear future.
Try to imagine how things willbe then, and then try to portray
them as realistically aspossible.
BETH BARANY (11:58):
What are some of the ethical dilemmas that your
characters have to deal withthat maybe reflect today's
world?
when is it Okay?
as soldiers have the mandate to.
They can kill, right?
It's ethically mandated.
Murder essentially, to put ablunt name on it.
But The arena of war, there'sanother term for that.
(12:19):
It's accepted, it's acceptable.
And and so I don't know howyou're dealing with that in your
story,
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (12:25):
This character right here, the
character right behind me, thewoman who is dominating the
picture behind me, that's Dr.
Christian Chase and she is adoctor.
She is served with Doctorswithout Borders.
she does not like using herpower on people.
And as you can see, her power isquite dramatic, quite violent.
And, she also has a problem withusing it because, you can't do
(12:47):
this.
And of course, this is a, agraphic, rendering of what she
does.
she has this ability of,bioelectric, pulse and she can't
use it without hurting herself.
She doesn't wanna hurt otherpeople, but she also doesn't
wanna hurt herself.
And every time she uses it, shescars, she disfigures her face,
as a result of this.
She will often push back againstthe other men of the team, the
(13:11):
other people in the team andsay, I don't want to do that.
I don't want to use my power forviolence.
And they might say to her, well,you just don't want to hurt
yourself.
That's all that's about.
No, it's not about that.
It's not about me.
I will hurt myself to save youguys, but I will not use my
power against people.
But.
Because things are never thatcut and dry.
Things are never that easy.
(13:32):
She finds herself in situationswhere she does crossover.
You talked about the fog of war,the violence of war.
And when she is in the thick ofit and her people are in danger
and the people coming at themare very dangerous and very bad,
she will.
She will actually cross overand, and invest in it fully.
And then afterwards she will paythat price.
(13:54):
She will think about what shehas done.
And there is another characterwho is very young.
She's never been in war.
she was a, a kickboxer in highschool and, she knows her power
as it was.
Before she was transformed.
She doesn't fully understand itnow, and there is one scene
where one of the soldiers, oneof the, a former Marine, goes in
(14:18):
to get her after she has dealtwith a situation and realizes.
She has just killed the peoplewho were coming at her.
Now, she thinks she's disabledthem because that's what she's
used to doing as a kickboxer.
But he, and he decides not totell her, I can't tell her this
will destroy her.
if I tell her that she, becausewhen she wakes up, because now
she's down, her power is out.
(14:38):
She has to be carried out of thewar zone.
she re she will.
maybe not perform the next time.
So he decides to keep that fromher.
So these are dilemmas that weface as people.
we are not, we don't want to beviolent.
We think of ourselves as, we maythink of ourselves as
nonviolent, but there aresituations that might push us
over and we might find ourselvesdoing things we don't expect us
(15:01):
to do.
And afterward we have to livewith this.
And this is as much a storyabout.
Where the characters are comingfrom before they acquire their
powers as it is to where thecharacters go after they begin
using their powers.
I hope that was a little more onpoint.
BETH BARANY (15:19):
Absolutely.
And I really love that.
It's very attractive to havefiction that explores this
because we all wonder, and youknow, I've read my fair share of
comics and I am a fan of thesuperhero stories, you know,
well, what would I do if I hadthat power?
What would I do if I had to livewith the consequence?
Of my power that was sodestructive.
And I think that's anexploration that fiction is such
(15:41):
a great place to explore thatin.
So I'm really, excited for yourproject and I could see how
attractive that is and makes mewanna go into that safe place of
reading a book that allows me towrangle with these dilemmas and,
oh, would I behave like thisperson or would I behave like
that person?
yeah, fiction is so great forthat.
I wanna ask you if you, nowmoving toward advice for genre
(16:04):
fiction writers who, Who areinterested in collaborating with
film producers to adapt theirwork for the screen?
I'm very interested in thistopic personally, as someone who
has done this, I've written,I've taken my own, series,
Henrietta The Dragon Slayer.
I wrote a TV pilot.
We took a part of that.
We filmed it.
Then I've gone on to write somemore.
I wanna film it.
(16:24):
I wanna make a TV show.
So the whole adaptation, workingwith filmmakers, working with
the film industry, and alsothings are changing dramatically
in that industry.
I've been paying deep attentionworking with filmmakers.
anyway, your take on that forwriters who are like, oh, what
if my book came to screen?
How do I make that happen?
(16:45):
What advice do you have towriters who are curious about.
Coming into this adaptationspace for film?
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (16:52):
Yes.
Good question.
the old adage that you've heardthat, that I'm sure a lot of,
our listeners have heard, isthat, Hollywood don't Call us,
will call you.
And so my advice and the onlyadvice that I can give is the
advice that comes from personalexperience.
And when I started writing.
I was just writing very visuallyand writing in a way that is not
(17:15):
like a movie because writing,because fiction is not like a
movie.
in fiction you might have ascene opens up and it's close on
a pair of boots that are walkingin and the boots go up the
stairs and then you pull backand you see the people.
You can't do that in fiction.
You don't do close on bootswalking up the stairs.
You're in the character's head.
So there's that big differencebetween, film and.
(17:36):
Fiction in that we are all aboutthe experience of the person in
the story.
Whereas in film, it's reallyabout the experience of the
viewer, the person who iswatching the movie and watching
people go through these things.
But that aside, using the thirdperson limited usually, which is
(17:57):
the way I like to write mystories.
I try to have the story comealive as visually as possible,
and this is just something I didbecause I liked doing it that
way.
it seemed right to me andfortuitously it is why I began
getting calls early on frompeople who wanted to produce my
(18:17):
work.
I did four stories for amazingstories, and then I did a number
for Twilight Zone and about twoor three years in to the writing
life I got a call for one of thestories that was in Twilight
Zone.
a producer in Hollywood wantedto produce it as a short
festival film.
And then the next week I get acall from the former editor of
(18:38):
Amazing Stories who has teamedup with a production company and
they want to option one of mystories that was in amazing
stories.
And what happens then is thatyou sign a deal and it's nice to
get an agent at this pointbecause the agent will really
help you, work through this.
But what you want to do is youwant to sign an option
agreement.
And the option agreement isnothing more than an agreement
(19:00):
that.
for a sum of money that thewriter receives.
The, producer gets to say, Irepresent this property.
And then as a writer, I kind ofjust sit back, work on the next
story, and let the producer callme back and say, Hey, we got
some money for a film.
or maybe never call back becausethe thing goes into development
(19:20):
limbo.
But, once you do begin workingwith someone.
Again, I can only speak frompersonal experience.
I've had very, very good, goodfortune to work with some people
that I admire.
I worked with Mick Garris, theproducer of Showtime's, masters
of Horror.
I worked with, uh, David Slade,the Emmy Award winning director
(19:42):
of Black Mirror Bander Snatch,and these.
People, these producers, Mick asthe, producer of Nightmare
Cinema and David as the directorof my segment, because Nightmare
Cinema is an anthology film, andso David and I co-wrote one of
the segments of that film.
These individuals just seem toshare my vision.
(20:04):
They seem to know where I'mcoming from, and so there were
never any real speed bumps alongthe way.
Although, I will tell you thisand I'll share this with our
listeners so that they will notmake this mistake.
I didn't make it, fortunately.
I almost did.
We were on set.
For Nightmare Cinema.
And I was watching the monitorand I was standing beside Mick
(20:27):
and David is in the other roomdirecting and directing the
scene.
And I said to Mick, I said,that's not right.
That's, but I'm not gonna sayanything.
Okay.
I'm gonna trust the vision ofthe director.
And Mick says, you know, that'sa real good idea.
So I just keep my mouth.
(20:47):
And it turned out it was right.
I mean, everything that we putinto our stories doesn't
translate to the screen, butsometimes the things that do end
up on the screen.
Are just right for the screen.
And you have to trust theprocess.
So you have to work with peoplethat you believe in.
And right now I'm working with acouple of guys.
I'm working with, JonathanSanger, who is the, academy
(21:09):
Award, winning producer.
he produced the Elephant Man andVanilla Sky and Flight of the
Navigator, some really terrificfilms and his producing partner
m Jones.
And last year Jonathan and mJones had a film out.
Biopic called Cabrini, which wasreally terrific and a beautiful,
beautiful film.
These guys have a great, whatshall I say?
(21:32):
they have a great range and I'mvery excited that working with
'em and, and, and working with'em so far has been a pleasure.
And, uh, so we are hoping.
That, um, that this film goesthrough a development and that
we will someday, I hope verysoon, have an adaptation, a
Minuteman (21:47):
Execute and Run produced by Jonathan Sanger and
M.
Jones.
That's what I'm hoping for.
So I've been very fortunate.
I haven't bumped heads with anyproducers or any, any directors.
maybe I haven't had enoughexperience in it, but, uh, my
advice to the writers is trustthe process.
Trust the producers, trust thedirectors.
Get a good agent, get a goodoption agreement.
(22:09):
And then after the film goesinto production, get a good
contract.
make sure your agent's watchingout for you.
But, uh, but beyond that, trustthese guys that you've signed on
with because they know theircraft.
BETH BARANY (22:20):
And it sounds like also you were very lucky with
having people who really gotyour story and got your vision.
And you know, I've heard somehorror stories of people who got
optioned.
A big example is MichaelConnolly.
He got optioned, it allowed himto step away from his day job of
being a, a crime reporter andjust be a full-time novelist.
But then the projects that cameout of it weren't always exactly
(22:42):
to his liking.
And then he was able to pair upwith the team that he works with
now who've done Bosch andBallard on Netflix.
Yeah.
And, I'm just a huge fan.
That's all.
That's why I know these thingsas I've been a fan for a very
long time.
and he said that it became morecollaborative.
It became more working withpeople who really understood him
and included him in the process.
and that was more of a positiveexperience for him.
(23:04):
So, and I only know it from theindie side because I'm the
writer, director, producer, andI have to say that I allowed my
team to give me lots and lots ofinput.
If they had a better idea, Itook it.
If they could solve a problemand that I didn't have the
answer to, I took it becausethey have experience in film and
I'm over here as the writer andthe one kind of wrangling the
(23:24):
behind the scenes.
And then I got to be in the roleof director, which was totally
new, totally unexpected, learneda lot.
Still wanna understand that rolemuch better, but probably would
offload that if I could.
Just because there's so muchelse going on as the other two
hats of of writer, producer.
so as we wrap up today, I wannaend with, a question that I like
to ask my guests because of ourpodcast name, which is How to
(23:47):
Write the Future.
And I was wondering what itmeans for you, to, to write the
future.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (23:54):
Yes.
To write the future.
I think it's important to keepin mind that That the future
that we write about is thepresent for our characters.
You see, the future is not aplace to inhabit, a place to be.
It's a place to live through.
You get through this future, youdo things in this future.
(24:16):
So this is why, Dystopia don't,does not work because, it
doesn't work for me anyhow.
Dystopia is characters living ina place that is, um, it, it's,
it's done in it.
It's over.
we are struggling in thisterrible world and, and utopia,
is, we are living in a placethat we'd like to be.
But we, you've talked about thisbefore, and this is something
(24:38):
that, let's see.
Rupert Reed in 2017 coined thisterm, Thrutopia.
Right, and Thrutopia is thefuture that we live through to
get to the utopia or if we messup to get to the dystopia.
But more fascinating to read anaccount.
(24:59):
Of characters struggling to makethe world better in a world that
is imperfect than to read astory about characters who are
living in a perfect world, orcharacters who are living in a
doomed world.
The way I see it as writers,it's our job not only to write
(25:19):
the future with a W but to writeit with an R to show how we can
get there and make it right.
And that's what, I'm hoping thatMinute Men, the Minute Men
series of books will do because,um, even though our characters
have to go through a lot ofstuff to get where they're
going, our plan is that whenthis series runs its course,
(25:41):
they will get there.
At least I hope so.
BETH BARANY (25:44):
I hope so too.
Oh, that's wonderful.
I love what you said.
And we will be dropping somelinks in the show notes to our
previous episodes aboutThrutopia.
I interviewed at least twowriters, who I met through the
course I took on Thrutopia andwho are working in that space
also as creatives.
so as, we finalized today'sepisode, I wanna, uh, invite you
to let people know where canthey find you.
(26:04):
Where can they, uh, learn moreabout Minute Men and get on your
list and be, notified of thisincredible series that's
dropping?
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (26:11):
the best place to go is lawrence c
connolly.com.
and that's, Connolly with,C-O-N-N-O-L-L-Y.
There's not a whole lot ofdifferent letters in there.
You know, there's no e in thereanywhere.
So, Lawrence c connolly.com.
you can find, uh, just abouteverything.
That, you need to know about methere.
I am also, I'm a novelist shortstory writer.
(26:33):
I also have, I am a playwright.
I have a new play opening, thisNovember.
I did an adaptation of FFrankenstein just a couple of
years ago.
You can read about those on mywebsite.
And, um, not to spread myselftoo thin, but I'm also a
musician and there's a music tabthere.
You can go there and listen tosome of my music.
So, uh, lawrence c connolly.comis probably the best place.
(26:54):
And the next place that peoplemight want to go is, um, con,
that's CON as in Connolly, COMas in communication, COM.
Con comentertainment.substack.com
because, there, my brother and Ihave the newsletter for the Mint
Men book, and it's got a lot ofcool stuff in it.
(27:15):
This is no run of the millnewsletter.
There's a whole bunch of artthat my brother created.
We've got videos, we've got someof my music there.
We've got interviews, we've gotreally cool stuff there.
I hope that our listeners willgo check it out, and I hope
they'll check out the book whenit comes out.
October 14th.
BETH BARANY (27:29):
Absolutely, and we'll be sure to put a book
cover on the screen.
And I just wanna say, shout outto your substack.
I subscribed.
I love it.
It was so fun looking at thevisuals that you have, and you
have wonderful engagementquizzes and opportunities to win
things, and it is just fabulous.
that's so wonderful.
Well, thank you so much,Lawrence, for being a guest
today on how to write thefuture.
(27:49):
I really love what you're up to.
Your enthusiasm is so vibrant.
You have so many helpful thingsto say to writers and our fellow
creatives, so thank you so muchfor being a guest today.
LAWRENCE CONNOLLY (27:59):
You're welcome, Beth.
It's been a pleasure and maybeI'll see you in LA next year.
BETH BARANY (28:03):
That would be so fun.
Take care.
Alright everyone, take care,Lawrence.
That's it for this week,everyone, write long and
prosper.
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