Facing Reality

How far must you go to make it in Hollywood? Paul Franti is in debt, and his film masterpiece is half done. To hide from bill collectors and repo men, he moves in with Maggie, his best girlfriend ever. But Maggie gives him an ultimatum: get a job, pay his debts and commit to her or get out. Paul takes a job doing sound on a reality TV movie-of-the-week, directed by Dwight Werner, an insane documentary filmmaker, and Joel Cuvney, a young producer who will do anything to get ahead. Dwight is shooting a small "tribe" of four homeless kids who live in an abandoned brewery. Dwight is recording their grinding poverty for his artistic glory. All Paul wants is to survive the gig, but he gets sucked into the lives of the troubled kids. Should he intervene? Meanwhile, Maggie sees that Paul is changing, and not for the better. Will they make it? Ian Bull is also the author of the noir crime thriller Liars in Love, which is the first book in the California Noir collection. He also wrote the thriller series The Quintana Adventures. The Picture Kills and Six Passengers, Five Parachutes are the first two books in the series, and The Danger Game is out now. He has also written several books of nonfiction.