I am rarely comfortable offering literary advice. I am not someone who was an insatiable reader, nor had I harboured a rage to write. How I have come to be delivering this very piece is because there was gap on my shelf for a book that didn’t exist, so I wrote that book to fill the gap. Indeed, I was rather enamoured with the work of filmmaker Tom DiCillo and I yearned for a tome which would tell all I needed to know about him and his films. Every time I visited the Irish Film Institute I would scan the shelves hoping to find it. I would ask the assistant behind the desk, ‘any sign of a DiCillo book coming out?’ ‘Nothing!’
Rather than be discouraged, I defiantly thought, ‘I’ll write it myself!’ I didn’t know how to write a book, but I knew Film and I had opinions, so that was my arsenal. It was the perfect time for me to not give a damn about any rules and protocols of the literary world. I was already aggrieved at having been turned down from every college I applied to for studying Film or Literature. For years, ever since I finished school, I was told “no” by these institutions; I was not “a suitable candidate” they said. But I resolved to not let bourgeois gatekeepers dictate what I could do with my life, so I reached out to my film hero and prospective subject, Tom DiCillo, and pitched my idea for a book on his career and asked if I could interview him for it; he was most receptive to my plan and to my passion. Thus began a five-year journey.
All throughout the process I knew exactly which publisher would be ideal for this book: Columbia University Press. I had been collecting their series of “Directors’ Cuts” books for some time, they were the gold standard: dense, detailed, and critically sound; they also looked beautiful and distinctive with their formalised typeface and design. To have a title published in their catalogue would be a dream come true. But the prestige of the publisher and the highly-accredited, vastly accomplished authors behind these books didn’t exactly give me confidence of being considered. I had zero credentials: no college, no experience, nothing. Naysayers whispered that I was wasting my time, I would never be published, and there would be no interest in my project. As always, I didn’t listen, I endeavoured on and submitted the book to a random “info@” email address I found on the publisher’s website. I had no idea what I was doing, I assumed my manuscript would end up in the Junk folder of some office assistant. And then about six weeks later I received a letter from a commissioning editor at CUP imprint Wallflower who said they loved the manuscript and thought a book on Tom DiCillo would be ideal for their “Directors’ Cuts” series. My first thought was “is this for real?!” and then: the fear. Surely after they have at this thing I would receive lengthy editorial notes on how to really write it. But they didn’t change a word, saying it was perfect as is, only suggesting that I add an additional introduction to put DiCillo and his films in an academic context. Done! The Cinema of Tom DiCillo: Include Me Out was released by Columbia University Press as part of their “Director’s Cuts” series in September 2018.
When the book came out I felt that expected sense of elation, but also an emptiness. I wasn’t writing. I discovered that I wanted, nay needed, to be writing again. I had found what I was meant to do with my life, but the question was what my next book would be. My debut was born of pure passion for my favourite filmmaker and I knew I could thrive on that same energy, so I decided I would write about my favourite movie star: Burt Reynolds. And that is my approach to every book ever since, the foundation has be that level of enthusiasm and love for the subject. If that exists then the book writes itself. The difference going forward would be the fact that I would be approaching publishers with a proposal rather than a finished manuscript, and I would be under a deadline. As per my CUP contract, I had to offer them my next project, but they weren’t interested in Burt Reynolds and I knew they wouldn’t be, but it was a formality that I had to honour. I knew exactly where I wanted to go with it: McFarland Publishing. Their catalogue of film titles is superb, so I suspected that may be a most suitable home for the project. And it was. I have been with McFarland ever since, and am currently working on my fifth book while anticipating the release of my fourth.
The act of writing that first book changed everything, opening doors that were closed to me and which would have remained closed had I considered myself an “unsuitable candidate” forever. Nobody needs a degree or anybody’s approval to write; what you need are words, and thankfully that is something we all have and which no college administrator can deny us with the stroke of their pen. Having a computer also helps, I guess. But because of that first book and my successive work, I’ve become an educator in Film. It has been a thrill and an honour to be a recurring guest lecturer at Dublin Business School, teaching students things that I was denied being taught. I have given masterclasses in colleges I couldn’t study at, and have brought major Hollywood veterans to classrooms and theatre stages around the country, sharing my passion with the next generation of Irish film writers and filmmakers. And I wouldn’t have done any of this without the drive to fill that gap on my shelf with the book that I wanted to read but couldn’t buy. So I wrote it myself.
(c) Wayne Byrne
This is an updated version of an article first published in 2021.
About Walter Hill: The Cinema of a Hollywood Maverick
This is a comprehensive journey through the long career of auteur Hollywood filmmaker Walter Hill, director of The Driver, The Warriors, Southern Comfort, 48 Hrs., Streets of Fire and many more. The book covers every motion picture that Hill directed, with historical detail and critical commentary on each, and discusses Hill’s overall cultural relevance and industrial impact. It includes candid conversations with producer Larry Gordon; actors Nicholas Guest, William Sadler and Michael Paré; cinematographers Lloyd Ahren and Matthew Leonetti; composers Van Dyke Parks and David Mansfield; screenwriter Larry Gross, and others who worked with Hill throughout his prolific career.Pre-order your copy online here.
