Allison Burnett

Why did Allison Burnett take a break from his career as a successful screenwriter to write an acclaimed novel? He explained it all to JC Parrish in an interview last year:

I began in Manhattan as a playwright, then I wrote short stories and, eventually, a couple of unpublished novels. On top of writing 35 hours a week, I also worked 35 hours a week as a legal proofreader and as an SAT tutor. By the time I was 30, I had EARNED only a hundred bucks as a writer and I was ready to drop. I began to write screenplays largely as a response to this exhaustion and misery. I suspected that it might be the quickest way to liberate myself from the nightmarish grind that my life had become. I decided to move to Los Angeles. Soon, I was making a decent living as a screenwriter, and not long after, I was making a really good living, and for a while that was more than enough. Then I turned 40. I was being hired by the studios, but I had seen my scripts either made into failed movies (Autumn in New York) or, much more frequently, into no movies at all. They languished on studio shelves. The only film of which I was proud was Red Meat, but that was only because I had directed it myself. Who knew if I’d ever get another chance to direct. Also, a Writers Guild strike was looming, or so many of us thought. It was time take decisive action to reclaim the impulse and aspirations that had made me want to write in the first place. I decided to write a novel.

Read the rest of the interview.

Help Allison cast the lead in his next movie and learn more about his latest novel, The House Beautiful.

--Marshal Zeringue