59 Actors Narrate 59 Chapters!
As you read this, there are 59 different actors from all across the US working on the audiobook for non-Hollywood. A fun project meeting lots of new people. Many thanks to everyone who auditioned. Check back soon -- we'll be posting the info for the realease date here any day now...
About the book
non-Hollywood is the story of actors, indie filmmakers and musicians trying to make their way in L.A. It follows them through the auditions, student films, concerts with no audience, acting classes -- you know, the things dealt with by those who affix the word "Aspiring" in front of their titles.
Here's the description that you'll see on all the bookstores:
Living in Los Angeles, a few million strangers have one thing in common: they want to make it in the entertainment business. From actors to indie film types, from rock & rollers to models -- they can all be found in L.A. pursuing their dreams, working their day jobs and rallying behind the cry of "I deserve to be famous, dammit!"
With equal parts humor and empathy, Neal A. Yeager tells the story of four of these souls:
Sarah is a fantastic actress who, after 37 Hollywood auditions, hasn't landed even a small role. While absolutely killing it in those auditions and in acting classes, Sarah can't help but wonder if -- here in the land of glitter and beautiful people -- the fact that she doesn't look like a model is what is really holding her back.
Icon is a shy but brilliant independent filmmaker with a vision. She does the film school thing during the day, works on her own independent film projects in her free time and habitually pops antacids while wrestling the doubts and insecurities of a highly creative intelligent person.
Terrance has, for all of his life, been told that he looks like a movie star. By all accounts he has what it takes to be the Next Big Thing. Through years of struggling with odd jobs and family members both supportive and skeptical, he looks to land that role that will make him the star that everyone says he should be.
And Sean? Well, Sean is a musician who knows that it's all in who you know...
A novel for the fans of the underdog, non-Hollywood takes the reader through the life of the folks who are struggling on the outside and on the fringes of show business.
Those who appreciate the humorous and bittersweet work of Nick Hornby should definitely enjoy what non-Hollywood has to offer.
non-Hollywood, a novel by Neal A. Yeager
Chapter 1: Stabbed
Terrance had just been stabbed for being a vampire. Well, he wasn't really a vampire, he was an actor playing a vampire in a "film" that was so low-budget and God-awful that it would likely never see the light of day.
The fact that the movie would likely never be seen was unfortunate. More unfortunate, however, was that the whole "being stabbed" thing -- well, that was real. Terrance was making a movie. And Terrance had, in fact, just been stabbed.
"Holy Christ!" shouted someone -- the camera assistant maybe -- as the blood, real blood not movie blood, real blood, started to seep out of Terrance's chest.
Standing directly over Terrance was a moron. An overzealous moron. The actor who, while playing the Vampire Hunter, had just stabbed Terrance. Oblivious to his own idiocy, the actor said, "Whoa..."
The only thing Terrance had to say was,"Ffffff.... ffffff..."
*********
Later in the ambulance, Terrance, high on pain killers and blood loss, hoarsely sang "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and tried, through the haze of his mind, to focus his thoughts on his life. Not because he thought that he was about to die -- he didn't -- but because he wondered if this little episode might be telling him something about what his life had become because of this stupid dream of stardom.
Twenty years. Terrance was generally an optimist, but... twenty years? For the last 20 years he had been feeding himself to the Humiliation Machine that was Hollywood. And as far as he could see, the best that he'd gotten for his trouble:
1.) a near miss while acting alongside a guy who would eventually become a HUGE MOVIE STAR (and who, after becoming a HUGE MOVIE STAR had seemed to completely forget that Terrance had ever existed)
2.) being stabbed by a moron.
As he lay in the ambulance, Terrance couldn't help thinking that maybe a normal life didn't seem half bad.
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