Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen

Today on Unedited, three authors of historical fiction join us to parse the state of modern entertainment and ponder whether we’re really living in a uniquely stupid era.We as creatures have been weaving epic fictions since at least the Iron Age—and authors have been called out for their overuse of sex and violence since at least Herodotus. But with millions of books being published (or self-published) each year, and a disproportionate number of those books trying to out-Scoville each other, can any prior century claim as stupid a literary legacy?Writer of historical thrillers Marjorie DeLuca, master of Golden Age mysteries Christopher Huang, and award-winning Western novelist and returning Unedited guest Chase Pletts help us understand what publishing houses today are asking for, why we don’t remember much of the stupid fiction from prior eras, and how stories set in other times can help us more accurately understand our own.

If you, like Theseus, got trapped in a maze with a Minotaur, how would you escape? Except in this case, the maze is made of video games, nonstop TV, and the 3.5 million books published on Amazon KDP in 2025. And you don’t have a ball of string to retrace your steps.Last week on Unedited, we began a discussion of stupid. Where have all the smart books gone, and, maybe more importantly, where has the appetite for smart gone? This week, Adam diagnoses our entertainment culture sickness by examining a string of symptoms: the fall of boredom, the saturation of stimuli, and the erosion of institutional guardrails. But guard rails against what? Is stupid something with an actual lineage, or just a matter of changing tastes? To answer that, we explore the “thought-terminating cliches” of our time and contrast what the authors of today are trying to do when compared with those of yore. Join us, if you dare. 

After a kickoff discussion of sequels last month, we’re pivoting in the next few Unedited episodes to a debate around what happened to good fiction and why so many of the novels we read these days feel, well, stupid. Is it nostalgia talking to say that the novels of fifty or one hundred years ago felt smarter than the stuff getting praised in the (increasingly decimated) newspaper reviews of today? Or that the books kids once read in school presented better lessons, better stories, and just better writing than the BookTok trends of the month? We don’t think so. In this episode, Noah gives a brief introduction to the subject of “stupid” by asking what, ultimately, fiction is, and how the novel’s adaptation to changing times and technologies turned it from a canonical artform to a beehive of buzzwords. To cap it off, we ask how (and why) to recover smart in an age of stupid.

Last week, we jumped into sequels—what are they, and why are they everywhere? This week, Noah gives us a different spin on the subject by asking, where did sequels come from? How did they develop? Which books and movies turned sequels into the ubiquitous format we’re surrounded by today?From caveman campfires to the books we curled up with as kids, stories with a “part two” are so common we almost forget that aren’t innate to the artform. Or are they? Are sequels as natural as sunrise and sunset? And if that’s the case, is there any difference between the three Lord of the Rings novels and the thirty three Hercule Poirot mysteries? And do the serialized stories we gobble up as kids prime us for a story landscape that’s all sequels all the time? Tune in as we weave all these threads.

This month, Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen returns. Adam — accompanied by a surprise guest, his youngest daughter — kicks us off with an introduction to the topic of the next several episodes: sequels. Here at Inkshares, we’ve been thinking a lot about sequels as we work on follow-ups from authors like Scott Thomas, JF Dubeau, and Christopher Huang. Pretty much all of our favorite books and films have sequels of some sort or another. But what is a sequel? And why is a sequel? What purpose should a sequel serve? What separates the good ones from the bad ones? Did the book series we read as kids condition us to consume sequels? And in an age where it seems like everything is an extended universe, is it time for sequels to die? Equally importantly, has our real world itself become nothing more than a sequel...

In episode 26 of Unedited, we continue with Part 2 of our Jurassic discussion, this time joined by writer, podcaster and returning guest Will Gish. Together, Gish and Gomolin take a magnifying glass to the techniques Crichton uses to rope readers into his story, from the authoritative and academic introduction, to the pulse-pounding prologue, to the deceptive lull of the first chapter and the gradual unfurling of the plot. The G gang also unpack the Hollywood of it all, pondering how the latest entry in the franchise matches up against the first and whether a story that so elegantly balances cerebral and spectacle would—in today’s cultural climate—break out like it did thirty years ago, as either a book or film.Will / William / Bill / Who? Gish is a novelist and screenwriter living in Los Angeles whose work has appeared nowhere and received zero accolades. Growing up in both New Jersey and Vermont, he was drawn to theater, earning awards for playwriting before graduating high school (full disclosure: he gave himself most of these awards). Will has a BA in Art History and Japanese Language & Literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an MFA in Feature Film Screenwriting from Loyola Marymount University. He is the writer of an untitled Mexican sci-fi family dramedy film (sounds fake but it’s not!), currently in post-production and White Devil, currently in editorial with Inkshares. He likes dogs and knows nothing about wine. 

Episode 25 of Unedited is a special one. In Part 1 of 2, Adam sits down with current Inkshares editor Noah Broyles and former Inkshares editor (and accomplished novelist) Matt Harry to discuss one of the most successful book-to-film adaptations of all time, Jurassic Park. Noah brings first impressions of the film, while Matt shares a lifelong appreciation of each version of the story. Throughout our discussion, we contrast the artistic choices of the book and the film and, as the latest installment storms into theaters, ponder why dino DNA spawned one of the most successful franchises in story history. Noah Broyles was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He started out writing in a notebook, upgraded to a typewriter, and finally graduated to a laptop. At the age of fourteen he sat down to write his first novel and at the age of twenty-three his debut novel, The House of Dust, was published by Inkshares. He has been a member of the Inkshares publishing team since 2021.Matt Harry has been writing since he was a middle grader. He learned to make movies at the University of Southern California, which was the closest he could get to attending Hogwarts in the real world. He has worked as an editor, screenwriter, director, producer, college professor, and pizza delivery technician. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two sons, both of whom (thankfully) like to read.

Unedited is back, and so is BookCon. In episode 24, Adam, Sarah, and Noah survey the return of NYC’s biggest book event, which has awoken from a five-year covid coma. This time around, the Javit’s Center will host a convention with special focus on those readers romantasy-inclined: signings, meetups, workshops, and a “fantasy ball” are on offer. Less love is being lost across the pond, however, where a coalition of Dutch authors are decrying private equity firm KKR’s ownership of publishing conglomerate VBK via Simon & Schuster, in part because of KKR’s investments in Israeli companies. What lies beneath their complaints, and does authors refusing to publish send a message or do they silence their own most salient means of expression? In happier-ish news, a bankrupt Village Roadshow goes to a good home (Alcon) for the diminutive adoption fee of $417.5 million (#adoptdontshop). What does this mean for the future of two studios which have, separately, made some of the best films of the past twenty-five years, including Insomnia and The Matrix? And what does any of this have to do with FedEx? Note: Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx and an investor in Alcon, died last week between our recording of this podcast and its publishing; rest in peace, Fred. Sarah Elizabeth Hill is a writer, digital strategist, and the founder of Bobi Media, a boutique social media agency based in New York City. Before launching Bobi Media, Sarah co-founded Bookstr.com, a digital media platform for readers which she grew from zero to 3.5 million global organic followers. She secured ad or content partnerships with all five major publishers and has hosted over 100 live author interviews, including conversations with Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Sarah’s earlier work included global campaigns for brands like Nike, HBO, Oracle, and Google Politics. She hosts The Login Podcast and is working on her debut lifestyle nonfiction book that she is not allowed to mention yet… Noah Broyles was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He started out writing in a notebook, upgraded to a typewriter, and finally graduated to a laptop. At the age of fourteen he sat down to write his first novel and at the age of twenty-three his debut novel, The House of Dust, was published by Inkshares. He has been a member of the Inkshares publishing team since 2021.

In Episode 23 of Unedited, Adam, Sarah, and Noah, alongside a special returning guest, take a bite at the apple and discuss whether Original Sin by Tapper and Thompson is actually that original—and whether the real sin isn’t the timing of this safely after-the-fact account? Whatever the answer, it is a truth universally acknowledged that an audiobook company in possession of large fortune must be in want of more fortune, so we break down Audible’s announcement of an all-star cast recording of Pride and Prejudice for Jane Austen’s 250th. Does this signal a sea change in romantic tastes? Speaking of sea changes, we also examine who stands to benefit from the magic-lamp potential of AI in filmmaking. A world where visual spectacle is cheap heralds a new era of storytelling for everyone; but what will that storytelling look like?Grant Bayliss served eleven years in the British Army, completing two tours of Afghanistan and two tours of Iraq with the elite 4/74 Special OP Battery. Throughout his career, he has read non-fiction, philosophy, geopolitics and literary fiction, but he tried his hand at writing his first novel while stranded in the British Embassy in Baghdad in 2014. Grant later became a finalist in the 2018 Inkshares’ Horror/Mystery competition with his third work, The Old Believer, which is also in development for film.Sarah Elizabeth Hill is a writer, digital strategist, and the founder of Bobi Media, a boutique social media agency based in New York City. Before launching Bobi Media, Sarah co-founded Bookstr.com, a digital media platform for readers which she grew from zero to 3.5 million global organic followers. She secured ad or content partnerships with all five major publishers and has hosted over 100 live author interviews, including conversations with Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Sarah’s earlier work included global campaigns for brands like Nike, HBO, Oracle, and Google Politics. She hosts The Login Podcast and is working on her debut lifestyle nonfiction book that she is not allowed to mention yet… Noah Broyles was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He started out writing in a notebook, upgraded to a typewriter, and finally graduated to a laptop. At the age of fourteen he sat down to write his first novel and at the age of twenty-three his debut novel, The House of Dust, was published by Inkshares. He has been a member of the Inkshares publishing team since 2021.

In Episode 22 of Unedited, Adam, Sarah, and Noah—like Odysseus, Aeneas, and Dante before them—plunge into the netherworld. Instead of Virgil, though, we follow the spectre of AI ghostwriters and “reverse harems” through a discussion about the state of self-publishing in the age of LLMs and what this means for the very act of storytelling and editorial collaboration. At the bottom of hell, we encounter “book boyfriends” and ponder a broken dating culture that is wreaking havoc on the literary landscape—has the pendulum swung from playmates to fae-mates? And what books should we be reading to escape the whole paradigm? Speaking of escape, we are joined by a special guest to break down perhaps the biggest casting news of the decade and to decide if we should be excited for HBO’s invitation back to Hogwarts.Sarah Elizabeth Hill is a writer, digital strategist, and the founder of Bobi Media, a boutique social media agency based in New York City. Before launching Bobi Media, Sarah co-founded Bookstr.com, a digital media platform for readers which she grew from zero to 3.5 million global organic followers. She secured ad or content partnerships with all five major publishers and has hosted over 100 live author interviews, including conversations with Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Sarah’s earlier work included global campaigns for brands like Nike, HBO, Oracle, and Google Politics. She hosts The Login Podcast and is working on her debut lifestyle nonfiction book that she is not allowed to mention yet… Noah Broyles was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He started out writing in a notebook, upgraded to a typewriter, and finally graduated to a laptop. At the age of fourteen he sat down to write his first novel and at the age of twenty-three his debut novel, The House of Dust, was published by Inkshares. He has been a member of the Inkshares publishing team since 2021.Spencer was born and raised in New York. He has served as BOBI Media’s media coordinator and strategist since the company’s inception, helping to shape the digital voice and content approach to all clients. He is also the founder of The Holy Goofs, a multimedia platform dedicated to film, television, and pop culture commentary. In addition to his work in media strategy and content creation, Spencer is an occasional writer with a passion for storytelling across formats.  

In Episode 21 of Unedited, Adam is joined once again by Sarah Elizabeth Hill of Bobi Media and Inkshares editor Noah Broyles to unpack the news that is shaping the global story economy. Audible’s feet-first leap into the AI space leads our discussion, causing the group to ponder what it will mean for aspiring narrators, translators, and listeners around the world to have LLMs telling stories. Speaking of worldwide phenomena, the biggest author and the biggest YouTuber on the planet are teaming up for an as-yet untitled thriller. Is this the “final boss” of gimmick fiction, or a potential inception point for millions of young would-be readers? We close by using some of the major book-to-film events of the year—including two from Stephen King—to consider what it takes to get adapted in today’s climate—and what gets lost in the shuffle. Sarah Elizabeth Hill is a writer, digital strategist, and the founder of Bobi Media, a boutique social media agency based in New York City. Before launching Bobi Media, Sarah co-founded Bookstr.com, a digital media platform for readers which she grew from zero to 3.5 million global organic followers. She secured ad or content partnerships with all five major publishers and has hosted over 100 live author interviews, including conversations with Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Sarah’s earlier work included global campaigns for brands like Nike, HBO, Oracle, and Google Politics. She hosts The Login Podcast and is working on her debut lifestyle nonfiction book that she is not allowed to mention yet… Noah Broyles was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He started out writing in a notebook, upgraded to a typewriter, and finally graduated to a laptop. At the age of fourteen he sat down to write his first novel and at the age of twenty-three his debut novel, The House of Dust, was published by Inkshares. He has been a member of the Inkshares publishing team since 2021.

The News of the Global Story EconomyIn Episode 20 of Unedited, we shake up the format to bring you three bellwether news pieces from the global story economy. Adam, Sarah Elizabeth Hill of Bobi Media, and Inkshares’ own Noah Broyles sit down and unpack the rising phenomenon of publishers acquiring authors who are BookTok stars and what this means for non-viral writers hoping to break into a spice-obsessed industry. We also discuss the recent launch of Conduit, a UK publisher attempting to redress a gender imbalance in the literary landscape by publishing—initally—only male authors. Is this praiseworthy or patriarchal? To wrap up, we jump over to the Hollywood side of things, where Trump’s LA ambassador Jon Voight has penned a letter that calls for incentives but stays mum on tariffs. With leaders from screen entertainment's top organizations co-signing, what does this mean for the future of TV and film in America? Sarah Elizabeth Hill is a writer, digital strategist, and the founder of Bobi Media, a boutique social media agency based in New York City. Before launching Bobi Media, Sarah co-founded Bookstr.com, a digital media platform for readers which she grew from zero to 3.5 million global organic followers. She secured ad or content partnerships with all five major publishers and has hosted over 100 live author interviews, including conversations with Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Sarah’s earlier work included global campaigns for brands like Nike, HBO, Oracle, and Google Politics. She hosts The Login Podcast and is working on her debut lifestyle nonfiction book that she is not allowed to mention yet… Noah Broyles was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He started out writing in a notebook, upgraded to a typewriter, and finally graduated to a laptop. At the age of fourteen he sat down to write his first novel and at the age of twenty-three his debut novel, The House of Dust, was published by Inkshares. He has been a member of the Inkshares publishing team since 2021.

Sarah Elizabeth Hill joins us for Episode 19 of Unedited. Sarah is the founder of Bobi Media, a digital marketing and brand management company based in NYC. We chart Sarah’s path from six-year-old poet to anonymous college romance columnist to the world of media and publishing, starting with her time at Bookstr, which she grew to a community of more than three million. We discuss entrepreneurship and the fulfillment Sarah finds in promoting the work of others, and we trade opinions on the “hot as hell romantasy that is taking TikTok by storm.” We also hear Sarah’s advice for writers getting started in a very digital global story economy.Sarah Elizabeth Hill is a writer, digital strategist, and the founder of Bobi Media, a boutique social media agency based in New York City. Before launching Bobi Media, Sarah co-founded Bookstr.com, a digital media platform for readers which she grew from zero to 3.5 million global organic followers. She secured ad or content partnerships with all five major publishers and has hosted over 100 live author interviews, including conversations with Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.Sarah’s earlier work included global campaigns for brands like Nike, HBO, Oracle, and Google Politics. She hosts The Login Podcast and is working on her debut lifestyle nonfiction book that she is not allowed to mention yet… 

Grant Bayliss joins us for Episode 18 of Unedited. Grant was an elite military operator in the global war on terror, with fourteen years across four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and subsequent private protection for British diplomatic personnel. He is also the author of the forthcoming story and screenplay The Old Believer, which follows a group of disavowed British special forces operatives on a mysterious mission deep into the hinterlands of Siberia. On this episode, we discuss Grant's entering of the British military at fifteen and the fall of the Twin Towers two weeks later, including how that event drastically changed his future in the armed forces. We also discuss how Cormac McCarthy kept him company on one of the longest desert marches since World War Two’s Africa campaign. We learn how the diplomatic library in Iraq introduced him to the literature of the world. More than anything, we discuss what the mindset of an elite military operator can contribute to writers trying to break into a too-often hostile global story economy. Note: this episode was recorded at the end of a long London Book Fair in a too-quick thirty minutes. We will return with Grant for a longer episode later this year.Grant Bayliss served eleven years in the British Army, completing two tours of Afghanistan and two tours of Iraq with the elite 4/74 Special OP Battery. Throughout his career, he has read non-fiction, philosophy, geopolitics and literary fiction, but he tried his hand at writing his first novel while stranded in the British Embassy in Baghdad in 2014. Grant later became a finalist in the 2018 Inkshares’ Horror/Mystery competition with his third work, The Old Believer, which is also in development for film.

Marcus Gipps joins us for Episode 17 of Unedited. We trace his career in books, beginning as a sales manager at the flagship Blackwell’s store on Charing Cross Road, followed by his journey up the publishing ladder at one of the UK's oldest and most venerable sci-fi/fantasy houses, Gollancz, which is approaching its centenary. We also recount some of the authors he has worked with, including Andrzej Sapkowski (of The Witcher fame), Joe Hill, Michael Moorcock, and Stephen Baxter. We discuss whether romantasy is a new genre or simply old wine in new (and much, much bigger) bottles, what the commonalities and critical destinations are between North American and British publishing, and why writers shouldn't follow the market and should instead write from a place of personal passion.Marcus Gipps is a British books editor. He joined Gollancz in 2011, where he divided his time between working on classic sci-fi/fantasy—including the complete update and republication of Michael Moorcock’s body of work—and publishing original novels. Marcus was identified as a 2012 Bookseller Rising Star, and became Publishing Director of Gollancz in 2020, where his authors included Andrzej Sapkowski (The Witcher), Joe Hill, Stephen Baxter, and Stephen Donaldson. Marcus joined The Broken Binding as part time publishing director in April 2025, while remaining as Editor-at-large at Gollancz, also part time.

Nigel Newton, founder and CEO of Bloomsbury Publishing, joins us from the floor of the London Book Fair on Episode 16 of Unedited. We discuss his journey to the top of the book world, from his days at Cambridge, to his time as a graduate trainee at Macmillan, to landing a job as a sales manager at Sidgwick & Jackson. We dive into the birth of Bloomsbury, the business plan for which Nigel wrote while on paternity leave, and we revisit the story of how Nigel’s then 8-year-old daughter Alice played a part in the original publication by Bloomsbury of Harry Potter. We also flash forward to the hottest commodity in today’s book market, romantasy, which Bloomsbury brought into mainstream publishing with A Court of Thorns and Roses. And we find out Nigel’s advice for young (in career terms) writers hoping to break out in an ever-changing world.Nigel Newton is the Founder and Chief Executive of Bloomsbury Publishing, which he conceived in 1984 and started in 1986, launching the company with three other experienced publishers. Well known for his part in signing J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, Newton’s innovation and foresight across genres has led Bloomsbury to creative and financial success for four decades. He is a recent past President of the Publishers Association, past chairman of the British Library Trust and past chairman of the Charleston Trust. Newton received the LBF Lifetime Achievement Award in publishing. In 2021, he was awarded a CBE for services to the publishing industry in The Queen’s New Year Honours.

Rick Nicita and Bob Bookman join us for Episode 15 of Unedited. For nearly three decades, Rick and Bob were at the top of CAA's world of talent and book to film. They represented actors including Tom Cruise, Al Pacino, Nicole Kidman, and Sir Anthony Hopkins, and namebrand authors like Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, and Thomas Harris, to name only a few. We discuss how books matriculated through one of the major agencies during the apex motion picture era of Hollywood: the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. We also discuss the decline of readership culture in both Hollywood and America broadly, and the increasing tech-giant domination of Hollywood represented by Amazon’s recent full control of 007. Despite all of this, we discuss why art matters and why the book remains at the heart of Hollywood and top of the global story economy. Rick Nicita is currently a producer and consultant to the entertainment industry. In 1980, he joined CAA, where he went on to co-head the Motion Picture Department and head the Talent Department before being named Co-Chairman of the agency in 1995. Over the years, he has represented many of the world’s leading actors and directors, including Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Al Pacino, Anthony Hopkins, Jeff Bridges, David Lynch, Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell, and Rob Reiner, to list only a few. After leaving CAA in 2008, he went on to be the Co-Chairman of Morgan Creek Productions and later produce films including Hacksaw Ridge and Freud’s Last Session.  Bob Bookman is one of the most influential book-to-screen agents of the last fifty years. He has worked at and run the book divisions of some of the most powerful agencies, beginning at IFA, later at ICM, and eventually at CAA. He has represented some of the 20th Century’s most prestigious talent, including Michael Crichton, Tom Wolfe, Anne Rice, Graham Greene, Nora Ephron, Thomas Harris, and Ken Follett. He has also represented screenwriting and directing talent including Paul Greenglass, Jonathan Demme, Cameron Crowe, Jose Eszterhas, and Brian DePalma, among many others. In addition, Bob has worked at some of the highest levels in the feature world, including at Columbia Films and ABC Motion Pictures, where he worked on enduring films including Stand By Me and Moscow on the Hudson. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Yale Law School. Bob now continues his production activities under the banner of Smarty Pants Ventures based on the Sony Lot in Culver City. 

Film executive and content innovator Liesl Copland joins us for episode fourteen of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. Over a glass of grenache, we discuss her winding road from Mickey Drexler’s GAP, to a brief stint as a cruise director, to the heyday of magazines, and her rise through independent film. As Netflix’s first chief of original content, a fifteen-year veteran of the Endeavor Companies, and most recently head of strategy at Participant, Liesl shares her seasoned perspective on media innovation. In Part 1 of a conversation we will return to with Liesl, we get deep into how the streaming wars and streaming cooldown has shaped the lives of story creators and story consumers alike. Liesl Copland has worked in the specialty film sector for most of her career, with the goal of democratizing distribution for unique, independently produced projects. She is a founding member of MATR Labs, and was formerly the Executive Vice President of Content Strategy at Participant. Prior to Participant, she was a thirteen-year veteran of the Endeavor Companies, where she served as an Executive Vice President of Content and head of Documentaries at Endeavor Content. Prior to joining Endeavor in 2008, Copland acted as the Head of Red Envelope Entertainment, the former original content division of Netflix, where she oversaw the acquisition, marketing and distribution of close to 100 films a year during their three years in existence. Across her entire career, Liesl has built in a double bottom line approach to her practice and has a deep focus on social justice reform and impact focused content.

Lawyer by training and a writer by compulsion Michael Bennett joins us for episode thirteen of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. We discuss where funny comes from, what it means to be funny to different people, the evolution of satire from Don Quixote to the present, and whether, in a realm of seven-second Instagram reels, political satire still has a meaningful place in longform literature. As a father of two, former investment banker, and flight-hopping operator in international economic development, Michael gives us his thoughts on how to maximize creativity in small blocks of time. We also talk books, both expected and unexpected—from Hardy Boys to Planet of the Apes.Michael Bennett is a lawyer by training and a writer by compulsion. After growing up in California, he graduated from Wesleyan University and Columbia Law School. Michael has lived and worked in New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris and Washington, D.C. He has published articles in numerous legal and financial journals around the world and is a dedicated supporter of the Yakult Swallows baseball club. He is the author of the political satire Young Donald.

Manager and producer Brooklyn Weaver of Energy Entertainment  joins us for episode twelve of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. We discuss why books remain the bedrock of Hollywood but how other forms of literary material from comic books to short stories are taking increasing market-share in underlying IP. Having managed and worked with top talent from Rob Liefeld to Christian Bale to Stephen Spielberg, Brooklyn takes us into the hay day of the 1990s and what it was like to write coverage as a young assistant on projects like The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Family Man, and The Sixth Sense. Looking ahead, we talk about why underlying IP will remain critical and how today’s writers should think about what their books need to deliver to readers and to Hollywood.Brooklyn Weaver is a manager, producer and the CEO of Energy Entertainment. He has represented elite literary talent, sold top IP-based packages to all major studios, networks and streamers, and produced series and features including Out of the Furnace starring Christian Bale and Casey Affleck and Run All Night starring Liam Neesen and Ed Harris.

Screenwriter and aspiring novelist Will Gish joins us for episode eleven of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. Over a glass of Grenache, we discuss the road from Philadelphia to New Jersey to Vermont and eventually, via Mexico City and Tokyo, to LA. We break down the ebbs and flows of humor in publishing, television, and cinema, and ponder whether, in an increasingly dark world, humor has come back around as a more important staple on our storytelling food pyramid. We compare pathos and bathos and we discuss the many reasons writers write and finding the right attitude for collaboration with editors and executives. Will / William / Bill / Who? Gish is a novelist and screenwriter living in Los Angeles whose work has appeared nowhere and received zero accolades. Growing up in both New Jersey and Vermont, he was drawn to theater, earning awards for playwriting before graduating high school (full disclosure: he gave himself most of these awards). Will has a BA in Art History and Japanese Language & Literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an MFA in Feature Film Screenwriting from Loyola Marymount University. He is the writer of an untitled Mexican sci-fi family dramedy film (sounds fake but it’s not!), currently in post-production and White Devil, currently in editorial with Inkshares. He likes dogs and knows nothing about wine. 

Mike Holz joins us on the tenth episode of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. We discuss the shift from a producer-led Hollywood to a streamer-led Hollywood, the breakdown of the global-licensing framework in television, and how the “gourmet cheeseburger” is becoming a dangerously popular order on our television menu. Having spent the last decade working in international television at Paramount and other top companies, Mike brings both a book-lover’s and an international-television insider’s perspective on hits from Gorky Park to A Gentleman in Moscow. Mike Holz is an independent producer who spent the last six years at Paramount as part of their international television studio. His slate covered the UK, Latin America, and Europe. He worked on scripted and unscripted content for Paramount+, Showtime, and other key networks, including Sexy Beast with Sir Ben Kingsley and the adaptation of Amor Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow starring Ewan McGregor. Going further back, he was at Ben Silverman's Electus, with a stint at CAA, and even some quality time spent working on Steven Seagal direct-to-DVD movies.

Noah Broyles joins us for the ninth episode of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. Having sat down at fourteen to write his first novel, Noah dipped into several genres and took inspiration from some unique places before his debut novel, The House of Dust, landed on our desk at Inkshares. We discuss his journey into reading, his journey into writing, his experience being published at the tender age of twenty-three, and the eye-opening opportunity of working as an editor at a small press in the midst of a very big (very global) story economy. Noah Broyles was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He started out writing in a notebook, upgraded to a typewriter, and finally graduated to a laptop. At the age of fourteen he sat down to write his first novel and at the age of twenty-three his debut novel, The House of Dust, was published by Inkshares. He has been a member of the Inkshares publishing team since 2021.

Fires began burning in the Palisades on the morning of the 7th of January, ten days ago. They spread. Last Wednesday night, when the Hills lit on fire, it looked like Hollywood was literally going to burn to the ground. We are joined by our Episode 2 and 7 guests, Bob Bookman and Chase Pletts, to find out what the last ten days have been like for them and how they think this is going to affect a Hollywood already in a great deal of flux.  

Chase Pletts joins us for the seventh episode of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. We discuss his journey from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and from a young reader of Jack London to a winner of not one but two SPUR awards from the Western Writers of America. Chase also discusses the path from screenwriter to novelist (and then back to screenwriter) and the imperative of mining the pain of one’s own life to suffuse the fictional with reality.At seven years old, banished to the bedroom during an adults-only holiday party, Chase Pletts discovered a videotape of The Exorcist and popped it into the VCR. The nightmares only lasted a few years, but his fascination with storytelling has lasted a lifetime. A screenwriter and Spur Award-winning author of The Loving Wrath of Eldon Quint, Chase also moonlights with an AI company, doing everything he can to prevent Skynet. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and son.This podcast was recorded before the fires devastating Los Angeles, including the Glendale area in which our guest, Chase Pletts, lives. So many of our writers, friends, colleagues, and even family are in or around the path of the fire. Hoping for low winds and containment soon.

Scott Thomas joins us for the sixth episode of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. We discuss the road from smalltown Kansas to Beverly Hills, from family television to horror novels, and what Midwestern gothic means to him. As the earner of top praise from the New York Times to National Public Radio to Joyce Carol Oates, Scott also discusses the craft of writing and why writers should think of themselves as master furniture makers rather than muse-blessed artists. Scott Thomas is the Stoker-nominated author of Kill Creek, which was selected by the American Library Association's reader committee as the top horror book of 2017, Violet, which was praised by NPR, and Midwestern Gothic, which was praised by Library Journal. Originally from Coffeyville, Kansas, Scott attended the University of Kansas where he earned degrees in English and Film. He is the Creator and Executive Producer of Disney Channel’s Wizards Beyond Waverly Place. He is also the Executive Producer/Showrunner of Disney Channel’s Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja, Best Friends Whenever and Raven’s Home, Netflix’s Malibu Rescue and Syfy’s Day of the Dead. Scott has been nominated for Emmys for his work on R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour, Raven’s Home, and the Disney Original Movie, The Naughty Nine.

We are pleased to welcome Andy Lewis of The Optionist to the fifth episode of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. Having been the first-ever book editor at the Hollywood Reporter, Andy has had a first-row seat at the fifty-yard-line of the book-to-film game, something he continues today with his widely read newsletter covering adaptable books old and new. He joins us to talk about: writing Stephen King’s (advance) obituary; whether New York publishing and Hollywood are as separate as they used to be; documenting (and defending) the rise of fan-fiction beginning with Fifty Shades of Grey; and what novelists should think about in crafting novels that not only command a reader’s attention but set up potential on screen.Andy Lewis created and runs The Optionist, a newsletter about available IP for Hollywood that is part of the Ankler network. He was the first Book Editor at The Hollywood Reporter, adding coverage of publishing to the venerable trade for the first time in its 80+ year history. Prior to that he was a professor of history at Wesleyan, Hamilton and the University of Richmond and earned a Phd from the University of Virginia. 

Mark Vahradian joins us on the fourth episode of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. Mark has produced adaptations from some of the biggest names in literature, including Lee Child (Jack Ryan starring Chris Pine), Stephen King (Paramount’s recent Pet Sematary features) and even William Shakespeare (Ten Things I Hate About You, a loose adaptation of the Bard’s Taming of the Shrew). Less obvious adaptations, including Transformers, are also discussed. Mark brings his wealth of insights from working with some of the best film talent in the world into a conversation about publishing and how features and book-to-screen has evolved over the last three decades. Mark Vahradian was born in Mission Viejo, California. He is a graduate of Duke University and the UCLA School of Law. He spent nine years as a senior film executive at the Walt Disney Company, where he worked to bring to the big screen such films as Flight Plan, Miracle, Remember the Titans, Gone in 60 Seconds, Con Air, Pearl Harbor, and Enemy of the State. Thereafter, Mark spent three years as president of Jerry Weintraub Productions. He is currently president of production for di Bonaventura Pictures.Vahradian most recently produced the animated film Transformers One for Paramount, starring Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Brian Tyree Henry. Other recent productions include Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Pet Sematary: Bloodlines for Paramount and Plane starring Gerard Butler for Lionsgate Pictures. He also produced Infinite starring Mark Wahlberg, Pet Sematary, Bumblebee and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit starring Chris Pine for Paramount Pictures, Deepwater Horizon starring Mark Wahlberg for Lionsgate and Participant, Man on a Ledge starring Sam Worthington and Red 1 & 2 starring Bruce Willis for Summit Entertainment. He has executive produced the Transformers film franchise (including Transformers: The Last Knight, Transformers: Age of Extinction, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and the first Transformers) for Paramount Pictures. The Transformers franchise has grossed a combined total of $5.26 billion worldwide. Other producing credits include Annapolis and executive producing Nancy Drew.

We welcome Sorcha Groundsell to the third episode of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. Sorcha is a Scottish actor who has appeared in some of the biggest series on either side of the Atlantic, including His Dark Materials, Grantchester, and Shetland. She was the lead of Netflix’s 2018 series The Innocents and is the star of the BBC’s upcoming Gaelic-language series The Island. She joins us to discuss her love of books, what she thinks makes for a compelling story, and what insights about drama actors can give to writers—including the number one thing writers should remember as they sit down to work.

We are pleased to welcome Bob Bookman to the second episode of Unedited: From Idea to Manuscript and Shelf to Screen. Having represented marquee novels like Jurassic Park and The Silence of the Lambs, Bob joins us to discuss the evolving role of books in Hollywood over the past fifty years.In his half-century career, still ongoing, Bob has represented Michael Crichton, Tom Wolfe, Anne Rice, Graham Greene, Nora Ephron, Thomas Harris, and Ken Follett, amongst others.He has also represented screenwriting and directing talent including Paul Greengrass, Jonathan Demme, Cameron Crowe, Joe Eszterhas, and Brian DePalma, amongst others. After some healthy digressions about the origins of French remakes like True Lies and The Birdcage, we explore with Bob why the book—including for all those commencing NNWM this week—remains the key driver of narrative IP, even in today’s world of incredible competition.

J-F. Dubeau joins us for the first episode of Unedited as we kick off on Halloween and kick into National Novel Writing Month. JF is a native of Montreal and the author of several books, including the bestseller A God in the Shed, which Barnes & Noble selected as one of the Best Horror Books of 2017—and which began its life in NaNoWriMo. A God in the Shed earned options from some of the most elite TV studios in the world, including Skydance, and attention from some of the top producers in the business, including Academy Award winner Akiva Goldsman. J-F. is the writer behind the popular podcast Achewillow, which will soon be published in novel form by Inkshares. On this maiden episode of Unedited, we explore the books that inspired J-F., his approach to horror writing, the process of adaptation, and his advice for writers, including those beginning the journey for the first time this November.