Paul Kyriazi's Blog (8)

I've used these movies over the years when my career was in a slump and I needed that extra push, extra excitement, extra drive, to get me to the next level. "When a man stares into the abyss and sees nothing but darkness, this is the time that he finds his character. And it is his character, that keeps him from falling into the abyss." These movies have helped to keep me out of the abyss. Rocky 3 The "Eye of the Tiger" song and opening montage, will get you into the success mo… Continue

Most people want their fantasy's to descend on them "naturally," like some sudden miracle, just like they see in the movies. The problem with this is that fantasies usually don't come by chance. (But when they do, savor them.) So something has to be done is to create the fantasy yourself. At first, this seems to kill the very idea of a natural fantasy because you have to deal with the mundane realities of the arrangements. Arrangements like the expenditure of "hard earned" money and finding a… Continue

I get a lot of questions about how to get a publisher. I have strong feelings about this. You will send your manuscript to publishers that you can convince to receive it. It will sit there for months, even years, and nobody will read it. And if they do, they will want you to completely re-write it. And then they will tell you, it's still not good enough to publish. Or if you are very lucky they will print five thousand copies, with a bad cover design, send you twenty copies, promise you a perc… Continue

In the new bio-pic Walk the Line, we see young Johnny Cash singing a gospel song to record producer Sam Philips. Sam stops him and says: "I don't believe what you're singing. But if you were hit by a truck and were lying out there in the gutter dying and you had time to sing one song. One song people would remember before you're were dirt. One song that would let people know about how you felt about your time on earth. One song that would sum you up. Something real. Something you felt. What wou… Continue

You know Edd Byrnes from the John Travolta movie Grease where he played Vince Fontaine, the star of "National Bandstand" for the dance contest scene. Or if you were around in the 60's he became a household name playing "Kookie" on TV's 77 Sunset Strip. His recording of Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb, earned him a gold record. He went on to many movies, TV roles, and stage plays. I worked with Edd on my audio-book McKnight's Memory. Edd was great playing the part of "Floyd" the henchman to He… Continue

At age 30, I had directed two feature films. One I financed by going into debt and one I was hired to do, that gave me a salary, but no sharing in the profits when it became a hit. The credit for writing and directing Death Machines was more important. But now it was three years later and even though I tried, I couldn't get another feature film going, only some independent TV directing on small documentaries. I had written a great action script. A script that had all the swashbuckling action s… Continue

When James Bond is under pressure he doesn't fold. He focuses. He can call up his talent at will when dismantling a ticking bomb or when talking with an interesting woman. Want to do this too? There's only one way. Start taking gentle rulership over your personality (body,mind,feelings). But your personality will fight the real you with "pulls" distracting you from your goals, and with "blocks" which stop you with fear. Your individuality is perfect. But the personality is not. The body gets ti… Continue

Fear is the key on a new project. You stay scared, you stay alive. There is never a right time to start a new venture. And you will always feel like an outsider trying to get in. Embrace the fear and use it's energy. Here's how I came to understand that: Nine years ago I was driving down highway 5 from San Francisco to Los Angeles to record my first 90 minute audio-book that I believed strongly in. 'How to Live the James Bond Lifestyle'. A course that I had made up myself, using the ideas I ha… Continue