Contemporary Authors

• Scream All Night - 2018 Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, NYC

• IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2169977/

  Derek Milman was born on March 21, 1979 in New York City, New York, USA as Derek Andrew Milman. He is an actor, known for The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), The Rebound (2009) and Orange Is the New Black (2013).

  Filmography
  Hide Hide Actor (12 credits)
  2018 The Path (TV Series)
  Barry Klein
  - The Beginning (2018) ... Barry Klein
  2015 Orange Is the New Black (TV Series)
  1978 Jeff
  - We Can Be Heroes (2015) ... 1978 Jeff
  2013 The Wolf of Wall Street
  Audience Member #4
  2010 The Wonderful Maladys (TV Movie)
  Jeffery
  2009 The Onion News Network (TV Series)
  Tom Emmich
  - Police Still Searching for Missing Productive, Obedient Woman (2009) ... Tom Emmich
  2009 Law & Order (TV Series)
  Saul Cooper
  - Doped (2009) ... Saul Cooper
  2009 White Collar (TV Series)
  FBI Technician
  - Pilot (2009) ... FBI Technician
  2009 The Rebound
  Actor #1
  2008 John Adams (TV Mini-Series)
  Lieutenant Barron
  - Don't Tread on Me (2008) ... Lieutenant Barron
  2007 Law & Order: Criminal Intent (TV Series)
  Amos
  - Self-made (2007) ... Amos
  2007 The Sopranos (TV Series)
  Film Type
  - Stage 5 (2007) ... Film Type
  2006 Love Monkey (TV Series)
  A.D.
  - The One That Got Away (2006) ... A.D.
  Related Videos
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  Personal Details
  Other Works: National Wendy's TV spot as "The New Guy", 2002-2003 See more »
  Height: 5' 11" (1.8 m)
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  Did You Know?
  Trivia: Received an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama.

• The Suspense Is Thrilling Me - https://thesuspenseisthrillingme.com/2018/07/02/lightning-round-w-derek-milman/

  Lightning Round w/ Derek Milman
  July 2, 2018 The Suspense Is Thrilling Me

  Hello fellow readers and welcome to my favorite segment, Lightning Round! I’ve realized with the growing community of book reviews and related content posts that it’s difficult to fit in reading all of the things we want to. After brainstorming in an effort to connect readers with authors in a more personal way, I came up with the idea for these “bullet interviews”-think more of a get to know the person who’s writing the book rather than us trying to sell you a piece of merchandise. It’s a fun, fast segment, similar to the templates you currently see in Instagram stories. Today’s guest is Derek Milman, author of Scream All Night, out July 24th! (If you missed my review on Goodreads you can find it HERE!). Please join me in giving Derek a warm welcome and come chuckle along with me at his fabulous answers to my ridiculous questions. 😉
  ♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠♠

  Name: Derek Milman
  Birthday: March 21st.
  Birthplace: NYC
  Current Location: Brooklyn (Williamsburg)
  Firsts-

  Job: Summer camp counselor
  Car: Toyota Camry
  Pet: We just had a fish tank and then they all died (I know, I know)
  Crush: Fellow student, English class, sophomore year, High School
  Favorites-

  Color: Blue
  Food: Pizza
  TV Show: Cheers
  Song: There Is A Light That Never Goes Out/The Smiths
  Memories/Best Of-

  Vacation: Cape Cod
  High School Prom Theme: I think the theme was “mid-budget midtown hotel ballroom”
  Award/Honor: My first award/honor was winning a Battle of the Wits contest in high school
  Beloved Indie Book Store: Spoonbill & Sugartown
  Bookish Favorites:

  Book: Franny & Zooey
  Author: J.D. Salinger
  Genre: Coming-of-age
  Book to Movie Adaption: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
  This or That:

  Reading During the Day or Night: Night
  Comedy or Drama: Comedy
  Physical Book or E-Reader: Physical
  Road Trip or Plane: Plane
  Harry Potter or Lord Of The Rings: HP!
  Wine or Beer: Wine
  Sushi or Tacos: Tacos
  Early Riser or Night Owl: Night Owl
  Introvert or Extrovert: I’m an INFJ
  Breakfast or Dinner: Dinner

  Derek was born in New York City, and raised in Westchester County, NY. In grade school he wrote short stories about stuff like aliens and submarines and magical strawberries. He would frequently send story ideas to computer game companies, which would always result in an awkward phone call informing Derek that, at eight years old, he was too young to be put on their payroll. In high school, Derek published an underground humor magazine (sold in local stores) that caught the attention of the New York Times, who wrote a profile on him at the tender age of 14.

  Derek studied English, Theater, and Creative Writing at Northwestern University. He started off as a playwright and screenwriter–his first play was produced in New York City right after he graduated college–and went on to receive an MFA in acting at the Yale School of Drama. As a classically trained actor, Derek has performed on stages across the country, and appeared in numerous TV shows and films, working with two Academy Award winning film directors.

  Derek has taught at a film school in NYC, worked the front desk of a yoga studio, and had a very short stint as a DJ in a Lower East Side club (if you tipped him well enough, he would pretend to have that New Order B-side no one ever heard of). He began writing YA fiction a few years ago. Scream All Night is his debut novel. Night Flight, coming in 2019 from Little, Brown/Jimmy Patterson will be his second novel for young adults.

  Derek currently lives in Brooklyn, where he writes fiction full time, wanders the waterfront staring at the Manhattan skyline, plays video games, and buys lime green hoodies made out of locally-sourced hemp.

• My Peacock Books - https://mypeacockbooks.wordpress.com/2018/07/13/interview-with-derek-milman-author-of-scream-all-night-mpbooks/

  My Peacock Books
  Books, Art, Poetry & Peacocks!
  Interview banner Derek Milman
  Interviews
  #Interview with Derek Milman, Author of Scream All Night #MPBooks
  July 13, 2018 My Peacock Books & LivingLeave a comment

  Today I’m very pleased to announce an interview with Derek Milman, author of the much anticipated ‘Scream All Night’ a contemporary YA with a dark comedy twist. The book is out on the 24th July, I’ve already been lucky enough to read it and will be sharing my views (they’re very positive) very soon. But first an interview with the author himself 🙂

  Scream All Night book coverCan you tell us a little about Scream All Night, and what inspired it?
  It’s about a seventeen-year-old kid named Dario Heyward who grew up in a gothic castle that doubled as a B-horror movie studio called Moldavia. After being cast in one of the studio’s biggest cult hits, and abused by his father during production, Dario got legally emancipated and moved into a group home. Then Dario gets called back home just as he’s deciding what to do with his future (by his eccentric, much older brother Oren) because their 91-year-old father is now dying. Many things inspired the story: my love of movies, and horror, and my wild imagination which keeps me up all night with its wacky little ideas. Also, I always wanted to run a movie studio!

  How did your background in acting and working on movie sets help you in writing this novel?
  Being trained as an actor, you do learn a lot of things that parallel the writing process: working with language, developing an ear for dialogue, understanding the importance of conflict and stakes, but also learning how to design a fully-formed character, and immersing yourself in a fictional world.

  Is there any acting you’re particularly proud of and wouldn’t mind sharing with us? 🙂
  This is a while back now, but I did play someone who actually existed in history–a Lieutenant William Barron–in the HBO miniseries John Adams. What was so amazing to me was that they cast me in kind of a heroic, swashbuckling role, which is…not really me. But I worked a lot on the role in terms of research, physicality, and dialect, and I did get to die in Paul Giamatti’s arms. Plus, the miniseries won every award there is!

  Scream All Night definitely has a lot of funny moments. Does writing humour come naturally to you?
  I think so! I am an intrinsically comic actor, and timing and beats come naturally to me. But I have a very off-kilter sense of humor, and my mind just works humorously, it’s always trying to spin things in a comic way, whether or not I’m waiting on line to buy Mozzarella at Whole Foods or at the dentist’s office. For instance, I just got my teeth cleaned a few weeks ago in fact, and the dental hygienist had that little plastic container of that awful stuff they use to clean your teeth. I thought it looked like one of those mini containers of jam you find at hotels during continental breakfasts. So I started asking her if toast and jam was a thing they do now, in between poking around your teeth, to try and relax their patients. I couldn’t tell if she was laughing, she had that mask on, but I couldn’t stop laughing about that idea. I wrote an underground humor magazine when I was a kid, and wrote sketch comedy in college, and started writing comedy sketches again in my mid 20’s, so I just enjoy writing funny stuff, but I never would have guessed I could successfully weave that into a YA novel.

  I really liked Oren’s character, he’s very funny and silly, with all his eccentricities, is he (or any other character) inspired by someone real?
  Oren was a riot to write, I mean, he cracked me up at times (and I also pitied him) but he’s someone who came fully alive on the page. He’s not really modeled on anyone real. If I had someone like Oren in my life on a daily basis, I’m not sure how I’d get through the day. I’d say that goes for all the characters in the novel, but there are certainly parts of me in every character I write, different facets of myself.

  Although Scream All Night has a lot of humour it’s also about a lot more and much of it is very dark like the mental health and abuse. Was any of that difficult to write?
  It was. The scene where Dario and Oren visit their mother was excruciating to get right, and I spent weeks dipped in it, soaking up its sadness, where a reader will maybe spend four minutes reading it.

  Did you have to do any research before writing Scream All Night?
  I read a ton of books and articles on mental illness, worked with sensitivity readers, and worked with an old friend who is a psychiatrist and teaches at Brown, to bring authenticity to Isabella’s mental illness. You might be surprised by this, but as an actor you get escorted around by PAs with headsets and walkie talkies. You only get called to the set when they’re ready–when it’s lit, when everything is in place. Everything is very regimented, and guided by the various unions. Actors can’t even handle their own props. So I had to research how movies actually do get made, and filmed, and I did research on horror movies, low budget filmmaking, and iconic B-horror studios like Troma and Hammer. I did not know all that stuff going in!

  If you had the chance to go live in Moldavia for a while, would you?
  That’s a tough question. Maybe for a short while, like a week or so, if there was a nice-sized suite available in the Whale Wing, so I could wander around at night and see some of the fake monsters being made. Just as long as I don’t accept any tea from Oren first.

  What do you hope people take away from reading your book?
  There’s a lot of hope in the book, embedded in the story, and I’d want people to have a great time reading it, but also know it’s possible to get through things; you may have to fight, and go through a hell of a lot, but it is possible to come out the other side whole, and wiser than before.

  Can you tell us anything about your next book Night Flight? And/Or are you working on anything else at the moment?
  I am currently editing Night Flight! It is about a gay teenager named Aidan who goes on the run from cyber terrorists and government agents after he winds up in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s a Hitchcockian thriller, but it’s also a dark-humored adventure story.

  What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
  Oh, that sounds nice *wonders what that is like*. I’m kidding! I am a bit of an art freak, so I clear my head by going to museums and all the chic galleries. Also, the movies of course, and I love catching up with friends over long dinners at great restaurants.

  Do you have a favourite animal? – I won’t be offended if it’s not peacocks 😉
  But what if it is peacocks?! I’d say I love all animals equally. And I really do. Except for possums. They freak me out, and they’re kind of mean.

  Do you have any tips for aspiring authors?
  You have to just keep writing, and build up your confidence and patience. Writing is very hard. Publishing is very hard. If you truly love the world and the characters you create, chances are someone else will too. You just have to keep at it. Tenacity is key.

  And finally, if you could live in any novel, which one would it be and why?
  Okay, I’m just going to come out and say this: I want to enter the Oasis in Ready Player One.

  Thank you very much for your time today Derek 🙂
  About the Author

  author Derek MilmanDerek Milman has worked as a playwright, screenwriter, film school teacher, DJ, and underground humor magazine publisher. A classically trained actor, he has performed on stages across the country and appeared in numerous TV shows, commercials, and films. Derek currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Scream All Night is his first novel.

  Connect with Derek: Website ~ Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Goodreads

  About the Book

  Scream All Night book coverDARIO HEYWARD KNOWS ONE THING He’s never going back to Moldavia Studios, the iconic castle that served as the set, studio, and home to the cast and crew of dozens of cult classic B-horror movies. It’s been three years since Dario’s even seen the place, after getting legally emancipated from his father, the infamous director of Moldavia’s creature features.

  But then Dario’s brother invites him home to a mysterious ceremony involving his father and a tribute to his first film–The Curse of the Mummy’s Tongue. Dario swears his homecoming will be a one-time visit. A way for him to get closure on his past–and reunite with Hayley, his first love and co-star of Zombie Children of the Harvest Sun, a production fraught with real-life tragedy–and say good-bye for good. But the unthinkable happens–Dario gets sucked back into the twisted world of Moldavia and the horrors, both real and imagined, he’s left there.

  With only months to rescue the sinking studio and everyone who has built their lives there, Dario must confront the demons of his past–and the uncertainties of his future. But can he escape the place that’s haunted him his whole life?

• Real Clear Life - http://www.realclearlife.com/books/how-to-publish-a-young-adult-novel/

  Behind the Scenes of Getting a Young Adult Novel Published
  Young adult books are wildly popular with readers of all ages. A debut YA novelist explains why.
  Books By Sean Cunningham

  3 months ago

  What is a young adult novel?

  “It’s a good question,” Derek Milman says when asked to define the genre. The basic definition is simple: It’s typically a book with a young central character that is, at least theoretically, aimed at young readers.

  Except when it isn’t: “Some books do skirt that line.”

  He cites Emma Cline’s 2016 debut novel The Girls: “That’s technically a YA book but it was marketed as literary fiction.” (Its central character is a teenager, but it follows her as she meets up with Charles Manson.)

  Growing up, Milman recalls one side of the divide being far more appealing than the other. He felt young adult novels were something to be avoided, recalling the “cheesy-looking books in this really tiny section of my library” and seeking more mature reading material.

  Now? “There’s definitely a lot of adults who read YA.”

  Indeed, there are massive numbers of YA readers. Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series sold over 100 million books and its film adaptations racked up more than $3.3 billion worldwide. (It also inspired another publishing sensation and then film franchise, albeit one aimed at adult adults: 50 Shades of Grey.)

  Twilight was Meyer’s first published novel. (Much as The Outsiders was S.E. Hinton’s, Harry Potter Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was J.K. Rowling’s and To Kill a Mockingbird was Harper Lee’s.)

  Obviously, successes of this magnitude are absurdly rare…but when lightning does strike, it tends to happen with YA novels. Witness Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series.

  Collins is also representative of the fact that women largely dominate the YA genre. “I’m in a debut group and out of 200 people, I’m one of maybe 15, 20 guys,” Milman says. He doesn’t have a concrete answer for the gender disparity, but speculates: “I think part of it is that girls tend to read more than boys.” Of course, YA books don’t only appeal to girls nor are the successes exclusively female. (Witness The Fault in Our Stars author John Green.) But no one should be surprised that women excel at producing books that come from what Milman calls a “place of truth” and resonate with young female readers. Nor should it be a stunner publishers find this appealing.

  To dig into how YA novels go from an author’s mind to the bookshelf, RealClearLife looks at how Milman’s debut, Scream All Night, came to be. (This is not to say those looking to get published will have the same experience—like any great story, publishing has a knack for strange twists.)

  The Beginning. “I just had an idea of a kid who inherited a horror movie studio,” Milman recalls. It first occurred to him “many, many years ago,” but he didn’t have time to explore it because of his chosen profession: acting.

  The Motivation. One of Milman’s favorite memories of his acting career also illustrates why he wound up writing. He got a call about a new job: “I would have to improvise with Leonardo DiCaprio in 48 hours.” Not only that, but he would have to do it in a New Zealand accent. (His agent had already assured Martin Scorsese this was something he could handle.)

  Frantic, Milman tried to avoid “sounding Australian” as much as possible for the 14-hour shoot of what turned out to be the final scene of 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street. (He’s one of the Kiwis attempting to sell DiCaprio a pen.)

  Milman recalls there being “400 extras behind me” and generally having a wonderful time: “Both Scorsese and DiCaprio were really warm, personable people.”

  This was also reflective of his dissatisfaction with the profession. Milman had already auditioned for the film “like a million times for all kinds of roles.” (Having seen the finished product, Milman suspects he may have lost out on bigger parts because he “didn’t come off as enough of a douchebag.”) His hiring came so late in the process that he’d mentally moved on: “I totally forgot that movie existed.”

  Even a great experience couldn’t fully distract Milman from a deeper frustration. He was fed up with the feeling of being “perpetually not in control.” (He would suddenly hear he was a leading contender for a role in The Hobbit or another project that could change his life overnight, only to have the part slip away just as abruptly and mysteriously.)

  With writing, it was different: “I’m in control of this. This is mine whatever happens.”

  Take One. “Around 2012, 2013, I wound up writing my first young adult manuscript, which was this horror/sci-fi mash-up.” A friend liked it enough to take it to some publishers: “Harper Collins got interested and an editor took me under their wing and that’s how I got my first agent.”

  The Agent Arrives. Representation entered the picture at the end of 2014: “My agent emailed me a whole set of notes. We spent several months getting [the manuscript] in shape.” Finally a sale happened… almost. “Harper Collins and Penguin tried to buy it, but it got shot down at acquisitions.”

  Take Two. “When you submit a manuscript and when there’s interest and you get an agent, people are like, ‘What else are you working on?’” Spurred on by the inquiries, Milman began to flesh out that old idea and started his second manuscript, Scream All Night.

  Acquired. Again publishers were contacted. In the spring of 2016, success: “I got a double offer from Harper Collins, which meant I was able to choose my imprint and editor.”

  Announced. This information wasn’t shared with the world just yet: “We didn’t announce it for another seven months.” This proved consistent with the slow road to publication: “[Publishing] Scream was a drawn out process. Not that the editing necessarily took that long. It was the waiting in between.”

  The Big Picture: “I got an editorial letter from my editor, which was an overview of broad stroke changes that they want.” Milman says it was fairly short—“I think it was just two or three pages”—and gave guidance on how they wanted to “sculpt” the manuscript. “That took three months.”

  The Specific Stuff: “Those were more line-by-line notes,” Milman says. This could be grueling: “I found that to be the most challenging phase, because you could spend nine hours on a single page. On a single paragraph.”

  The Sensitivity Read: In Scream All Night, the main character’s mother is schizophrenic. Two sensitivity readers who had experience with mental illness were brought in: “The publisher suggested it, arranged it and paid for it.” Milman is grateful they were part of the process: “They really added depth to the character and the story.” (Notes were typically less don’t write that than pointing out a “need to create a little bit more of a story in terms of the character’s delusions.”) A professor from Brown also served as a reader, leading to moments when all three had a different opinion on, say, a word choice. (At which point Milman tried to “be as truthful as I can” and reach the decision on his own.)

  These two stages took “maybe a month or two.”

  Some More Specific Stuff: “There was another batch of line note revisions,” Milman recalls. “At that point my editor left for a different job.” This was unnerving, as a new editor could have a profoundly different take on the book than their predecessor. Milman says it worked out surprisingly well, with the publisher doing “what they could to make it a very smooth transition.” (Not everyone is so lucky, as will be explained.)

  Everybody Chimes In. After a “couple months,” an electronic document arrived, filled with input from all sorts of people. “There are comment bubbles from your editor, the copy editor, another copy editor, all these people responding.” This phase proved both relatively brief (“Like a week and that was done”) and surprisingly enjoyable (“I actually found that really fun”).

  A Preview of the Final Product. In the “late summer, early fall” of 2017, the advance reader copies arrived. ARCs are “paperback versions of what the book is going to be, but it’s still uncorrected.” These “go out to reviewers, newspapers, magazines and a lot of bloggers.”

  (Advance notices can be a reminder that we live in highly aware times. A generally positive Kirkus Review of Milman’s book includes the observation: “Most characters are presumed white, but there is a diversity in age and socio-economic status.”)

  At last the finish line was visible…but it was only a hazy vision in the distance because there were three more passes to go.

  Pass #1. Around December, Milman received the “giant stack of pages” making up the book. They came with a new set of comments from the publisher he needed to address by hand in the margin. In particular, this pass was filled with resolving “little things with the timeline” as well as random details that suddenly needed to be addressed, such as determining how to best describe removing boxing gloves.

  Pass #2. Having gone through this meticulous editing process once, the second time was easier. (“There was less stuff.”) Even so, there remained an awareness that any change can alter not just that page but the rest of the work as well: “Ripple effects are terrifying.” Quite simply, the small alteration can have major, unintended continuity implications. (“If I take one word out, is he suddenly going to be an android?”)

  Pass #3: “The third pass was more technical: Can we close the space here? Can we do something with this font?”

  This is also when it became nearly impossible to see the book with anything approaching “fresh eyes” and Scream All Night finally broke him: “I can’t read the book again. The third pass, I went, Okay, I’m reading the book one more time…”

  And at last…

  Publication! (At Some Point!) Scream All Night was supposed to be out by now. But it is not. “It got pushed two months,” Milman explains.

  While Milman doesn’t know the exact reasons for the delay, he isn’t particularly surprised by it: “It happens.” Indeed, he knows someone whose book just came out and was originally announced back in 2014.

  Four years ago? While such delays are fairly common in Hollywood—Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret with Anna Paquin and Matt Damon underwent a six-year legal battle—why with a novel?

  “An editor could leave. A marketing thing. They have too many books coming out at that time. Who knows? That gets filed under the mysteries of publishing, which is a very large file.”

  Meanwhile the next one currently moves forward at a much faster rate: “My second book is coming out from the JIMMY Patterson imprint at Little, Brown.” (It’s the personal imprint of the absurdly prolific crime novelist and children’s author James Patterson.) “That’s scheduled for spring 2019 and I haven’t even started editing that yet.”

  Scream All Night will be published on July 24. (At least, that’s the current plan.) You can order a copy here.

  It will be a great day for Milman, provided no one expects him actually to read it: “I really can’t do it again.”

• Sarah Scoop - http://sarahscoop.com/author-interview-review-the-scoop-on-derek-milman/

  Books • Interview • The Scoop On
  Author Interview & Review: The Scoop on Derek Milman

  Derek Milman is an up-and-coming young adult author who is ready to take on the world! This actor turned writer is now writing fiction full-time and not only has a novel coming out this July, but also another book coming out in 2019!

  We were lucky enough to get a sneak peak of the novel coming out this summer, Scream All Night. You can check out what we thought about his debut novel below:
  Review of Scream All Night by Derek Milman

  Being absurd is quite a hard thing to pull off. Most of the time when someone is trying to be a bit out there, it’s without reason, usually meant to be an attention grabber. That being said, Scream All Night by Derek Milman is one of those gems that is not that. Instead, the craziness is purposeful and quite entertaining. It’s a bit wacky, funny, and all in all, a pretty great summer read.

  Scream All Night is focused on relationships more than anything else. The novel follows Dario, the emancipated son of a somewhat acclaimed horror film director. Besides the relationships, the novel is very much focused on a specific location: Moldavia Studios, a castle that had regularly been used as a set for plenty of lower-level horror movies. Although Dario has promised himself to never return to Moldavia, he of course does in fact go back to the castle and is forced to revisit every part of his past that he’s trying so hard to move on from.

  Derek Milman’s background as an actor is represented throughout the entire novel. With excerpts from scripts, to random background knowledge that the regular Joe Schmo wouldn’t really know about, this guy is writing from experience. Of course, he’s also writing from a place of creativity and humor.

  This novel balances both real and not-so-real demons. While there are some very serious issues placed on the table, there’s also a lot of silliness. It’s one of those books that will make you understand and contemplate tough issues… and then cause you to burst out laughing.

  Scream All Night is a novel that you won’t forget, nor a novel you’ll ever want to put down. All you will want to do is keep reading more and more. You’ll be sucked in during both the good moments and the bad. The book is kooky. It’s real and not-real all at the same time. So just be ready for a rollercoaster ride of emotions with this one because there’s just so much to it, your emotions will be all over the place once you’re done.
  Q&A with Derek Milman

  After reading Scream All Night, we were able to chat with the author himself: Derek Milman! We learned about his theater background, how his latest novel was conceptualized, and why he believes people shouldn’t be so hard on themselves. Check it out here:

  Just to start, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

  Sure! I’m a classically trained actor, former playwright, Brooklynite, and a YA author.

  Your debut novel, Scream All Night, will be released this July! Can you tell us about this novel and what inspired you to write it?

  Many years ago I had the idea for a story about a kid who inherits a B-horror movie studio, but it seemed too fantastical. Over time, it began to marinate. I had to write other YA manuscripts first and develop my voice. When I started getting attention for my writing, and got the question from people in publishing: “What else are you working on?” I would tell them this idea, and people would freak out. So, I realized I had to write it. While certainly fantastical, many aspects of my own life (training at Yale Drama, growing up in a competitive suburban environment and not quite fitting in, spending time on movie sets…) as well as research (especially into Hammer Horror films, Troma films) grounded my ideas and further inspired the story. Everything coalesced, eventually a fuse got lit under this kooky, tremulous idea and the story just took off.

  You are already hard at work at promoting your next novel, Night Flight, which will be released in 2019. Can you tell us a bit about it?

  Sure, it’s a YA Hitchcockian thriller about a gay teenager who, through a case of mistaken identity, winds up getting chased by a pernicious terrorist organization, and government agents, who all want to exploit him to different degrees. It moves at a furious pace, is also very dark-humored, and I’m just wild about it.

  You have degrees from both Northwestern and Yale which also led you to a career in acting. How were you able to transition from acting to writing?

  While not every actor can write, it’s not as hard (or as shocking) a transition as you may think. As an actor, especially at Yale, I worked closely with writers, worked with language, developed an ear for dialogue, an understanding of a character’s psychological profile, and a sense of emotional conflict, and stakes.

  When did you first realize you had a passion for writing?

  I wrote some stories in second grade about an alien who visits a kid and my classmates were rapt. When I was thirteen, I had a bunch of funny ideas, so I launched an underground humor magazine and sold it in local stores. Some people tell me now it was the world’s first “zine,” which it… obviously was not, but my mind is always whirring and writing is a way of keeping my mind stable. I’ve journaled since I was 18. I have a separate journal entry for every single day of my life since I was 18. I can go back, find the appropriate journal (most are in a stack, left behind at my parents’ house), and tell you what I was doing ten years ago today. It was a great writing exercise that I did for years, and still do: summing up every single day of my life.

  Can you tell us a bit about your writing process? How do you like to create?

  My writing is very visual, so I’m inspired by images. I will go to museums, galleries, buy books of photography and art. I like to take loose notes in a Postalco notebook in a coffee shop and then I will write at home on a computer. I immerse myself in a world, which is also a parallel to acting, in the method approach: read books, watch movies, look at images, saturating my own world with the world of the book and the characters so the lines get blurred.

  Is there a fun fact about yourself that might surprise our readers if you were to share it with them?

  I know how to sword fight.

  Is there another fun fact about yourself that might surprise our readers if you were to share it with them? I have this strange feeling you might have more than just one interesting fun fact about yourself…

  For a year or so, I had a night job as a DJ at a club in downtown New York. I started my own dance party, with a friend, and we would play indie rock, New Wave, post punk… It was fun, nicely distracting, but not my world at all! (*laughs.) I wanted to be in bed reading.

  Who inspires you the most to write?

  Other authors and their glorious creations, as well as my close-knit circle of family and friends who always want to read something new from me.

  What is your 2nd favorite book and why? You’ve probably been asked about your overall favorite book a countless number of times, but has anyone asked about your 2nd favorite book before?

  No, they haven’t! That’s a tough one. I think I’ll pick The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

  What do you want teens (and anyone else who reads YA) to gain the most from your novels?

  An insight into themselves, a sense that they are not alone in the world.

  What advice would you give to struggling writers out there who are trying to accomplish their dreams?

  Just write: there are no hard and fast rules. You don’t have to write every day OR YOU’RE A FAILURE; you don’t have to publish a book by a certain age or YOU’RE A FAILURE. Write because it makes you happy, the process itself, and you enjoy getting lost in your own creation, this world you’ve dreamed up… That’s such an amazing thing in its own right. Persistence is always key. And confidence.

  Your career has just begun and you seem to already be thriving! Where do you see yourself going from here?

  Thank you! I’m going to keep writing YA novels for the time being, while trying to challenge myself, and hope that people, and readers, keep enjoying what I do. People spend money, and invest a lot of time, in a book. I just don’t want to let anyone down.

  Do you have any final words of wisdom that you would like to share with our readers?

  Go easy on yourselves! It’s a tough, brutal world. Find what you love and stick to it. Find the people you love and take care of them. Try to focus on the things that make you happy, not the things that enrage you.

• Hypdable - https://www.hypable.com/derek-milman-scream-all-night-horror/

  Derek Milman discusses how his favorite cult horror movies influenced ‘Scream All Night’
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  Derek Milman did a lot of research into horror movies in order to make Scream All Night authentic. Which ones are the best? The worst? The best of the worst?

  Not everyone likes horror movies, but there’s a lot of variety out there for all kinds of fans. In order to write Scream All Night, author Derek Milman had to take a deep dive into the weird and wacky world of terrible horror films. This is a transcript of our conversation on the topic, slightly edited for the sake of clarity.
  Tell us all about ‘Scream All Night.’

  Scream All Night is about a 17-year-old kid named Dario Heyward who had a very unusual childhood. He grew up in a Gothic castle called Moldavia, which doubles as a B-horror movie studio. When he was a boy, his father cast him as the main zombie kid in what would go on to become their biggest cult hit, Zombie Children of the Harvest Sun. But his father physically and emotionally abused him during the production, which was fraught with other tragedy as well, to try to get this perfectly monstrous performance out of Dario for the movie. And Dario was already kind of a sensitive, nervous kid.

  There was just a lot going on in this zany, zany castle, and no one was really looking after him. So he got legally emancipated. He moved into a group home where he befriends Jude, who’s this amateur boxer who becomes his best friend. And then at the start of the novel he gets a call from his much older, very eccentric brother, Orin who informs him that their father — who’s actually 91 — is terminally ill, and to come back to the estate for the live burial. Because his father has requested that he be buried alive as an homage to the first movie they made called The Curse of the Mummy’s Tongue, where the heroine gets entombed in a sarcophagus. It does not go well! And Dario winds up inheriting the estate to his complete and utter shock.

  These are some spoilers, but I’m putting them in for the sake of the book — he has been accepted to Harvard, so he’s not sure if he wants to reclaim a new future or sort of get closure on his past and his childhood and sort of reclaim his family legacy in the world of underground horror, cults, midnight movies, and all their fans. And there’s a lot of people who live and work at the castle, including his long lost love Hayley who he grew up with them but then left, and he reunited with her. So there’s a big conflict in terms of if he’s going to accept the terms and sort of try to lead this really wacky place back to solvency because it’s failing, or if he’s going to move forward and claim a different future for himself. So that’s really what the book is about.
  That sounds interesting to say the least!

  It’s definitely unlike anything that’s been out there, I’ll tell you that! That pretty much everyone’s first reaction.
  Well that’s definitely a good thing. And I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that you’re interested in the horror genre in general given the topic of the book, but what first got you into that?

  It’s interesting you’d ask that. I, as a boy, as a young kid, I was very into books and I was very into movies. Not necessarily horror, but real cinema stuff. And I had long lists of books that I had to read, what I considered the classics: the novelists that I needed to get to by the time I was 18. And I started this when I was 13 or 14. As well as films. Everything from The Deer Hunter to Kurosawa. Long lists. I was really just wanting to experience art in all these forms. I remember not going to some sort of dance I had in middle school because I really wanted to watch The Deer Hunter! Saying this sounds so ridiculous! It was a very uplifting evening, as you can imagine.

  So I was really into movies and I was really into books. I had the idea many, many years ago about a Gothic castle where there’s a horror movie studio and a kid who inherits it. But I didn’t know what to do with the story. I had loved movies, not specifically horror, but I had seen the classics as part of my whole regime of watching classic movies. Everything from Jaws to Rosemary’s Baby to The Exorcist to Deliverance. And then a lot of them came later in life. The ones that were a little bit along the edges, like The Omen or The Sentinel. The ones that were in the ’70s. Like Black Christmas. The ’70s had this great period of just really wacky horror. Jamie Lee Curtis is in 90% of them. I don’t know how she stayed this busy. It’s like every other movie, she’s in! I’m like, wow how did she do all this?!

  So when I started talking about the idea to people and people in publishing, everyone was like, “I love this idea, you have to write this!” I started doing more and more research into the horror — specifically Hammer films — which I had not seen before I started the process of writing this book. And that became an inspiration because they did actually move all their production to a English manor house called Bray Studios. And they did have a repertory company of actors. Like Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing — who would go onto Star Wars — and Oliver Reed. All of these actors who would become more famous later but they kinda started in these schlocky creature features. They had a deal with Universal. So they were churning out the classic Universal monster movies. And they were in this house for a while just making these things! Until they used every angle that they could. Used every room. And then they left. Which I found fascinating. And that research sort of rounded the story. So then I really started looking at tremendously weird horror movies. They made — and this might feed into your other question — it’s called The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires or something? And it’s like a King Fu vampire movie. And I just — the fact that it exists in the universe — it’s amazing to me. I can’t promise that you’d get through the whole thing. But there’s something comforting that that’s a thing in the world.

  So I also looked at Troma films, which is a very different vibe. They did The Toxic Avenger. More exploitative kind of stuff? Rather than the creature features of Hammer, but I wanted to get a sense of different kinds of famous, iconic underground cult horror movie studios. So I dug very deep into those worlds and learned a lot about more and more strange and weird horror movies. But I had been watching some strange ones — things that I would hear about. I was like, I have to see this! I have friends and people in my life who are very, very much into horror movies. So I started watching a lot, probably post 2000, I got very into the strange fringe horror movies that I had never really heard of before. If that answers your question. I hope so.

  Yes! And I know you said that the premise of the book is pretty unique, but if somebody reads your book and loves it, given your proficiency for all different kinds of movies, is there a few that you could recommend that they should watch if they wanted to kind of get the same vibe out of it?

  There’s a real really kind of creepy, again Jamie Lee Curtis, slasher movie that I don’t think people know about, all set on a train, called Terror Train. This could have been a Moldavia movie because it’s all on a train. The set is very contained, and there’s some sort of frat party or something, but it’s all on a moving train… And there’s this mass killer that’s going around killing people on the train. And it’s kind of freaky. There’s some parts of it that are really scary. So Terror Train is one.

  Then there’s one that I saw called Mystics in Bali. It is maybe the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t — it’s so hard to describe. I just know that there are what they call Leyaks chasing people? Which are these disembodied heads with the entrails and blood dripping. And they’re sort of floating around. If you see it you just fall to the floor laughing. It’s not very scary. It’s just like the strangest thing you can possibly think of. If you can find it, Mystics in Bali is something that should be watched by everyone in the world.

  There’s another movie called Happy Birthday To Me. I can’t remember if Jamie Lee Curtis is — I don’t think she is in this one. Again it’s hard to describe, but there are many creepy little things that all add up into this strange sort of cannibalistic climax. It’s a very strange and interesting B-movie that has a lot of artsy little quirks to it. I’m not sure if this is necessarily considered a B-movie since they’re now remaking it, but Suspiria, the original Dario Argento movie, is wild. It’s about an American dance student. She goes to a ballet school in Germany and it turns out to be a witch’s coven. And there’s just some really amazing creepy imagery. Argento films things in these very intense candy-colored hues where everything is saturated in these bright primary colors. And I’ve never seen anything like it. It was very theatrical. The imagery is unforgettable. And the director of Call Me By Your Name is making the remake.
  Oh!

  Yeah, I was shocked by it!
  That’s an interesting jump!

  Quite a 180 yeah. So I’m very interested. Apparently the trailer, which focused on body horror type stuff, was very shocking for people, as it would have been for me. Because I remember that from the original. The original was mostly about witches. But there’s this terrifying scene — there’s a blind man walking a dog — he’s done something to piss someone off, and then they put a spell — he’s in this sort of piazza… Or I guess Argento is Italian and this is in Germany, so I guess it’s a plaza. And then his own watchdog starts attacking him — seeing eye dog, whatever — and starts eating his throat out. It’s really horrifying. That’s a great sleepover movie if you want to get some chills. It’s really fun and very strange. Just, who came up with these ideas and these camera angles and these colors and the idea of this? And the costumes are amazing. The sets are amazing. It’s very lush. Definitely one of my favorites for sure.

  I mentioned Black Christmas earlier. It’s a classic slasher movie from the ’70s. Margot Kidder is in it. She’s wonderful. I’m not a huge fan of that subgenre. I find slashers to be very repetitive and not as scary. This one is scary. There’s something entirely creepy about it. I think the killer is living in the attic of the sorority house. And he’s there the whole time. And you’re like, ‘Oh no, a slasher movie with a sorority house,’ it’s very cliche, but actually this movie invented those tropes that not many people realize. Same with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, also a B-movie, invented many, many tropes. Enormously innovative and influential movie. Still looks like something you shouldn’t be watching. It invented everything from the idea of unconventional weapons, to a masked, faceless killer who’s seemingly unstoppable.

  Everyone should pay attention to the ones that sort of upped the game. Night of the Living Dead is another one. There were zombie movies, but this one black and white movie, it’s really scary. It’s not cheesy. From the late ’60s and it’s actually really, really disturbing. And we would not have zombie movies or any zombies if it weren’t for Night of the Living Dead. Which is just a brilliant film.
  All of my friends know that I love terrible movies, without any shame. But I wanted to ask you — because that was the original pitch for this interview — is we were going to talk about some of your favorite terrible horror movies and all of that, but what about the fact that they’re so terrible really draws you in and makes you love them?

  That’s a good question. There’s one we watched recently, I think it’s called Witchboard. I think it was from the ’80s. Tawny Kitaen, she was like a model, she’s the lead… And what I think is so fun is their attempt to try to make things scary, and then it doesn’t work. Something goes wrong. And there’s so much effort and attention into this, and there’s so many people who thought this would be a good idea. And yet nothing works. Everything is deeply deeply funny instead of scary. So then it lends itself to sort of a camp value, which is its own kind of thing. And if you see these random movies, like Witchboard, which no one has probably ever heard of — they get cult followings because literally everything has gone wrong. No one can act, the script makes no sense, there are plot holes, the deaths. People getting killed, nothing is scary. So it just becomes very, very funny. Those can be a lot of fun.

  Burnt Offerings is another one — the amazing Karen Black is in that one — I think it’s about a house. It’s such a stupid idea! I think it’s about a house that is haunted, but it does bad things or it makes people do bad things. Somebody was like this is what we should do! I just remember there’s a scene where they try to go swimming in the backyard pool and the pool starts boiling and it’s so campy, it’s so over the top that this pool just starts boiling. But there’s another really good actor in that actually. There’s a real actor and I can’t remember who it is.

  A real actor?!

  It’s not Gregory Peck. I mean, Karen Black is! But she was like a B-horror [actress]. She could definitely be considered a scream queen. But there’s a major actor in that movie. I can’t remember off the top of my head. But that might be skirting the line between actual horror and one of these sort of campy complete and utter failures of the genre that’s just not scary and doesn’t work at all. But Witchboard is definitely one I saw recently that I can’t get out. Same with Hocus Pocus, for instance. That’s become a Halloween classic, but it’s not a scary movie. Just brilliant people in it. It’s not a bad movie — I mean it is kind of a bad movie — but it’s become like this sort of comforting Hollywood Halloween thing that we all have to watch. We all love that movie. Nothing about it is scary. It’s deeply silly. But it’s also very charming and it sort of warns everyone’s hearts. It’s like this is a movie that people continually come back to now.

  I feel like this is a very recent thing. When Hocus Pocus came out — I remember because I was a kid — it came and went. But now it’s like, years and years and years later, I just find that fascinating, that now it’s a traditional Hollywood movie. And then it does actually have a really good cast. Bette Midler… I went to this restaurant this last October. It was right around Halloween. And Bette Midler was sitting behind me having dinner. She was sitting at the bar. And I was like, ‘Oh my god, I want to go up to her and just have her quote Hocus Pocus at me!’ She was wearing a turban, and I was very intimidated and I didn’t want to bother her, so I asked Twitter and I was like. ‘Should I?’ And everyone was like, ‘Yes, do it!’ And I was like, ‘No, no I’m not going to bother her. She’s wearing a turban that has a scarf wrapped around her throat. I’m too intimidated by this.’
  This is my daily plug for the Tremors franchise because it’s one of my favorites of all time and I think that’s why I love terrible movies, especially terrible monster movies, because they are so over the top that they’re not scary. And as a kid who was literally afraid of everything, being able to watch a scary movie and not be scared by it was like, ‘Yes! Just give me more these.’ And I think I kind of just fell into that genre because of that.

  Yeah I think I’m similar to that. I’d say a lot of things scared me as a kid. And so coming back to these horror movies and being able to laugh at these things now is — I don’t know — a source of comfort in a very dark world. Which is kind of what the book is about. People escaping the horrors of reality to make these fictional horrors. Escaping the monstrous sides of real people by making these papier-mâché monsters. That’s kind of a theme in the book, and I think especially now that’s why horror is having a moment now where we have a whole new type of horror coming up. These sort of art house horrors, from Get Out to Hereditary to It Follows, that are these new genre filmmakers are coming and kind of doing new things with the genre. Which is interesting. I just think it has to do with the world we’re currently living in. I really do. Why we just want to escape into some fictional horrors. But you can’t ever forget those classics like Tremors, you know?! I love that you love that movie!
  Yeah, and I think horror is very cathartic in a way because you watch it and it’s very scary, it feels very real in the moment, but then the movie ends and you survived. And I think that — regardless of how dark the actual world is, which there doesn’t seem to be an end to all the horror that’s out there — this little bubble that you can be in for a couple of hours just makes you feel better in the weirdest kind of way. It shouldn’t work. But it is very cathartic.

  Going off what you said, it also makes you feel smart. ‘Cause horror is the only genre where you’re like, ‘What are you doing?! Why are you going down those stairs? Are you kidding? You can’t be going down those stairs! You’re going in the attic?! You can’t go in the attic alone!’ You definitely feel smarter than the people in the movie. That’s the genre where you shout at the screen. You’re like, ‘What are you doing?! Why are you going in that room where the poltergeist is?! Just go in another room! You’re not going to make it out of this.’ I just think it makes you feel a little bit smarter, too. And you’re kind of like, no. And it has certain rules and you can sort of count on those rules. Even though a lot of horror is famous for breaking rules. Psycho, for instance, totally broke the rules and reprogrammed audiences for generations by doing so. But it has tropes. It hangs onto those tropes a little bit to comfort audiences. It’s exactly what you said, yeah. And you know you feel a little better. It’s a cathartic experience because you came out of it and you’re okay and you can laugh about it.

  My last major question about the horror genre is, I’m curious what you have to say about how the genre has grown and changed over the years. ‘Cause you were talking about Get Out, which is a horror movie, but it’s a very different kind of horror movie. Not only in the form and the way that it’s talking about social injustices today, but we also have to consider all these movies coming out that rely so heavily on social media and how social media can be corrupted. And I just think it’s interesting to kind of look back at, like you were saying, all those classic tropes and everything and how they’re still applied today, but how we’re kind of seeing that through a different lens because of the modern era.

  So a couple of things happened. I think one thing that happened — this is not that recent — but The Blair Witch Project was the first horror to really start to use what was not quite social media but was the internet. Just the internet at the time. To sort of build up this myth that this is a real movie, and it also created the subgenre of the found footage thing that they’re still beating to death. But they used this idea of the internet — I really do think that this was the first movie that did that — and had websites, before there was Facebook and before there was even MySpace or Friendster, to build up this myth that actually no, this was a real thing that happened. And the movie is actually really scary. We see very little. And it’s this low budget thing — I still think… I’m not quite sure — but I think it’s one of the most successful, in terms of their budget and what it wound up making — they made everyone millionaires — it’s a legendary, legendary story.

  What also happened is that you also started having these new billion dollar franchises. Like the Saw movies. Which I actually never saw. Pardon the pun! And like the Conjuring franchise. That’s essentially a billion dollar franchise. So you started having these CGI-led franchises — which when I originally conceived Scream All Night, I’m like, no there’s a studio that’s still making these gentle antiquated creature features in the era of the CGI, very violent — what they call torture porn — type movies. Like Saw. Which I can’t watch. Or Hostel! Sort of where Eli Roth began. He’s actually supposed to be a great guy and I actually think he’s a brilliant director and producer.

  But then Cabin in the Woods came along and sort of marked a little bit of a snarky change. It poked fun at the genre. And then you had a little bit of a movement, which is what we’re talking about with Get Out, where it’s like these aren’t quite necessarily horrors, these are more social commentary. They’re just sort of artsy movies that are taking the genre and stretching it and sort of creating new rules and breaking them. Get Out is technically horror, but it’s a lot of things. It’s not just a horror movie. Although it is considered to be a horror, and I hope it is, because it’s definitely one of those — or maybe the only horror — that won an Oscar for its screenplay. I could be wrong about that, but that was a big big deal that that happened. And obviously it’s a very deeply intelligent movie. Very well paced. Brilliantly thought out.

  And you have a bunch of other ones around that time, like The Witch was one. Which people still quote. It’s very chilling. It evokes imagery from of Goya and all these painters. It’s a very beautiful movie. Even though I had a hard time understanding it because they speak in this kind of 18th century dialect. I had trouble understanding what they were saying. But it was a really good movie.

  It Follows, which I mentioned, I thought was brilliant. I loved the setting of Detroit. They sort of used these burned out looking dystopian wasteland type settings to set this movie in, and I thought the idea — which does follow the conventions of the typical slasher movie — but it was done completely differently, where the creature sort of symbolizes a sexually transmitted disease, follows the person who gets affected. It’s really scary. And there are other ones like Unfriended, which is a ghost story. That takes place on a computer screen. I’m like there’s no way this is going to work, but it worked! I had not heard much about it and I was like this is really clever. And it was actually really scary. And the entire movie is on someone’s computer screen, in videos, through iTunes, through text messages. I mean, at the end of the day it’s a ghost story. I thought it was really brilliant and very, very clever.

  So I think where [the horror genre is] going is people are still finding new ways to sort of revamp the old ghost story or the slasher movie or — I mean Get Out is basically psychological horror with some social commentary now. And horror has a long tradition of having social commentary — maybe more than any other genre of film. For instance, The Night of the Living Dead. In the era where Martin Luther King had been assassinated, and Malcolm X, they cast a black actor as the lead. Which at the time was very daring. And I found it very moving and powerful within that time period. All the white people in the movie are making the terrible decisions. He’s the only one who’s clearheaded. And George Romero said he didn’t set out to make a racial commentary; he said the actor just happened to be the best in the audition, which I totally believe. Because the actor’s great. He’s an unknown theater actor and it’s just brilliantly done. A great performance. But I just found that so interesting and I did see it as social commentary. As well as Invasion if the Body Snatchers, which is a terrifying movie. Terrifying idea. But that is also an allegory of McCarthyism, which I found fascinating and so, so creepy. So horror has a tradition of breaking rules and also funneling fear through social commentary and where the times are. Maybe the Purge movies now are doing that a little bit. In our age of Trump.
  Yeah.

  Although I think the first one must have come out before he was elected. I can’t remember. I think so. But now they’re evolving to sort of mirror this age. I think I saw the first two. But that’s another example. So I think that we’re seeing those massive franchises. Also, It was one of the most — I read that book as a kid, it was one of my favorite books. I can’t believe it took this long for them to actually make an It movie. They made a TV mini series that wasn’t great. But that became one of the most successful horror movies ever made. And also the most successful movie out of a Stephen King book. Like, it’s all happening NOW. So there’s definitely something in the zeitgeist. I think we’re seeing these big budget movies, these big franchises like It, like Saw, like The Conjuring — but also these indie movies that are also trying to take the tropes and remold them.

  Hereditary, which I wasn’t a huge fan of, did sort of take a Rosemary’s Baby type story and rip it apart and put it back together in a different way, to try to tell the sort of a possession tale. This is a little bit too much like Rosemary’s Baby — you don’t want to mess with that movie, it’s kind of a perfect movie — and also social commentary in terms of that time period. Feminism, and the fact that this woman was sort of betrayed by her husband, this deeply, deeply disturbing theme at the time and it really shocked people. Jaws even was a giant. It created the whole thing of the summer blockbuster, which is now apart of our culture. And it changed the world because people stopped going to the beach for a while! My parents tell me this story. No one was at the beach. People wouldn’t even go in their swimming pools. It freaked people out to that point, where the beaches were empty! Like no one had ever thought that something could come up from the depths of the ocean when you’re just swimming. I think no one ever got that out of their heads.

  I think there’s just so much going on with the genre. And also it’s expanding into television with American Horror Story and Walking Dead. There’s a lot of serialized horror that’s happening in that format as well. Which is interesting. And some of it is quite scary. As well as video games, which can also be quite [scary]. The whole thing of video games… Like Resident Evil, which is quite scary. The last Resident Evil — I’m not a huge zombie fan, so I didn’t really play those, but I did play the last one, which is called Biohazard — and it owed a big debt to Texas Chainsaw Massacre I thought all through the game. Like, wow, this is still influential. You can see The Shining everywhere. So many movies and theater, I’m like, ‘Oh, The Shining. Here it is again.’ We’re still being influenced by The Shining. Which I think is amazing. It’s so interesting to me that that’s the case. I hope I didn’t go on too many tangents there.
  No, no! That was perfect. Honestly, like I have a 1,000 more questions for you, but I’m just going to wrap it up here because I think that was a really great discussion. Your book ‘Scream All Night’ just came out July 24. What about any upcoming projects? Is there anything you can talk about ?

  Well it’s not formally announced yet, but there will be some exciting Hollywood news coming about Scream All Night. I did get some attention in that regard. So hopefully that will be formally announced soon. In the TV regard. So that’s going to be a really exciting thing. My second book is coming out in 2019. It’s an LGBTQ thriller about an openly gay teen, in a sort of loose homage to Hitchcock and North by Northwest, gets caught up in a case of mistaken identity and goes on the run from cyber terrorist and from the feds who are all trying to use him to their own purposes. He’s a broken kid. The sort of puzzle of his psychology unfolds and comes together through the course of the story. But he’s had a very checkered past and everyone sort of knows it and is using it for their own purposes. And he gets involved with a gay terrorist organization who are trying to take down the Alt-Right people who are the homophobes, and you’re just like, who are the bad guys here?! It’s a very gray area he sort of skirts between. And it’s a fast-paced thriller.

  It’s definitely influenced by Hitchcock and that whole notion of mistaken identity. Identity itself is a big subject when you’re that age. James Patterson has an imprint at Little, Brown called Jimmy Patterson. That’s coming out next spring. I believe spring/summer 2019. So I’ve actually been finishing my revisions for that — I had an August 1 deadline while promoting Scream, so my head is spinning around! This is a very crazy time! But I got in my draft early because I knew I was heading out to L.A. So that’s done! For now. There will be more edits. We’re still working on it and they’re coming up with the cover and we’re changing the title. There’s all this stuff going on. But that should be coming out next year! My second book. It’s also young adult.

• A New Look on Books - https://anewlookonbooks.com/2018/06/13/meet-derek-milman/

  Meet Author Derek Milman
  June 13, 2018 A New Look On Books

  Meet Derek Milman.

  Milman_Derek_336 copy.jpg
  Derek Milman has worked as a playwright, screenwriter, film school teacher, DJ, and underground humor magazine publisher. A classically trained actor, he has performed on stages across the country and appeared in numerous TV shows, commercials, and films. Derek currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

  Social media.
  Twitter: @DerekMilman. IG: @DerekMilman. Website: derekmilman.com.
  Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32928987-scream-all-night
  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQoAdyBP_jvSwWmPGvDALg/featured
  Here’s the interview!

  Wow. Your writing journay started young from age 8 to 14 when you caught your first big break with a profile in the NYT. Did you always know you’d become published someday? What made you keep trying?
  Oh no, no no I did not. No idea. Plus, I should emphasize the quality of my writing at 8 years old was questionable. No one was going around saying: “this dude is an 8-year-old Cormac McCarthy, watch out.” I would write intensely for periods of my life and then I would stop. I started out as a playwright, out of college, but I wasn’t much of a playwright, I think. I went to grad school for acting and just stopped writing for a few years. I think I needed a break. I started writing YA a few years ago because I had a story idea I couldn’t shake, and felt maybe I had developed my voice, and actually had stuff to say. Fiction freed me in a way; I wasn’t constrained as much by the structure of writing works for film, or the stage. There was lots of rejection at first. It was a long road for me.

  I also have to ask… did you keep any of your underground humor magazine? Will it ever see the light of day again?
  I was told recently one of my younger brother’s friends, this kid I grew up with, had a copy, and he showed my brother and my sister-in-law. I wasn’t there. Apparently it was all wrapped up in plastic and protective paper like it was the dead sea scrolls. Maybe he thought it would be worth something one day? Maybe it will! Some people say it was THE WORLD’S FIRST ZINE. Who am I to argue with that? I think my parents maybe kept a few copies–in storage somewhere or something, wherever people’s parents store things.

  I think it is safe to say your experience in acting shaped your debut novel Scream All Night? Primarily since Scream All Night is about a young actor struggling with his past. Did anything that happened in real life make its way into the novel in some way?
  Oh, absolutely, more than people could ever guess. Definitely meeting certain writers and directors while working on TV shows, or in plays. Most are fine, actually. A few are bullies. But I guess a lot of what seeped into my novel was my time at Yale Drama; we were living a very unnatural existence–this extended family constantly performing for each other, pretending to be other people. It was a strange, insular world that no one can really understand unless you’ve been through the experience yourself. The infamous Yale Cabaret, where we’d meet once a week to regroup and perform for each other in this underground theater, definitely helped inspire the Crepuscular Dusk scene in Scream All Night–although if you haven’t read the book yet you probably have no idea what I’m talking about.

  Don’t laugh… because you probably get asked this a lot. But, what is your favorite element of B-horror and cult films?
  Probably the sheer weirdness factor of cult films, and how things could fail on all cylinders, but at the same time there was a group of people–the investors, the producers, the creatives, who all agreed this was a good idea. I think that’s pretty fascinating. Maybe it’s just collective hope. But some of these low budget films are beautiful in their own right. Night of the Living Dead, which is a quintessential B-horror, pretty much changed the world. No one had heard of zombies before. Nothing was the same after Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which I think is a work of art.

  Let’s finish with something fun. If Dario Heyward found himself stuck on an island for a month what would he smuggle with him?
  Dario’s most valuable possession at the beginning of the novel is a smashed iPhone 6. He doesn’t have a cell phone plan, but he downloads Miles Davis records. He’s really into jazz, and Miles. So I’ll go with that.

  Is there anything else you’d like to share or say?
  People keep asking me if Scream All Night is scary, if it’s actually a horror novel. Nope! The backdrop of the story takes place at a B-horror movie studio, but the story is really a dark comedy. There are creepy elements here and there (how could there not be?), but the beating heart of the story is Dario (my MC) and his relationship with what’s left of his family, his family legacy, and the people he once loved and lost, with everyone living in unnatural seclusion, in a place that really shouldn’t exist, but somehow still does.

• Author's site - https://www.derekmilman.com/

  Derek was born in New York City, and raised in Westchester County, NY. In grade school he wrote short stories about stuff like aliens and submarines and magical strawberries. He would frequently send story ideas to computer game companies, which would always result in an awkward phone call informing Derek that, at eight years old, he was too young to be put on their payroll. In high school, Derek published an underground humor magazine (sold in local stores) that caught the attention of the New York Times, who wrote a profile on him at the tender age of 14.

  Derek studied English, Theater, and Creative Writing at Northwestern University. He started off as a playwright and screenwriter–his first play was produced in New York City right after he graduated college–and went on to receive an MFA in acting at the Yale School of Drama. As a classically trained thespian (Derek’s favorite word), Derek has performed on stages across the country, and appeared in numerous TV shows and films, working with two Academy Award winning film directors (who probably have no recollection of working with Derek).

  Derek has taught at a film school in NYC, worked the front desk of a yoga studio, and had a very short stint as a DJ in a Lower East Side club (if you tipped him well enough, he would pretend to have that New Order B-side no one ever heard of). He began writing YA fiction a few years ago. Scream All Night is his debut novel. Night Flight, coming in 2019 from Little, Brown/Jimmy Patterson will be his second novel for young adults.

  Derek currently lives in Brooklyn, where he writes fiction full time, wanders the waterfront staring at the Manhattan skyline, plays video games, and buys lime green hoodies made out of locally-sourced hemp.

  FAQs

  Q: What is your favorite word?
  A: Okay, see, you clearly haven’t read my bio. It’s THESPIAN. That is the best word.

  Q: What is your favorite color?
  A: (Derek rolls his eyes, looks around the room, seemingly picking a color at random) uh, blue? Blue. Let’s go with that.

  Q: What is your favorite book?
  A: Oh, cool, great question! Actually, when I was six or seven, I was sick in bed and my grandfather, Peter Falk, started reading me this amazing story about this pretty farm girl named Buttercup–

  Q: That’s the…sorry, that’s what happened in The Princess Bride.
  A: What?

  Q: And your grandfather was not actually Peter Falk.
  A: (Derek glares) How do you know that? How do you know who my grandfather was?

  Q:…
  A: (Derek throws up his hands) Fine. FINE. When I was a little kid, and everyone called me Bastian, I had to hide in this bookstore from these awful pesky bullies, and there was a crotchety bookseller…his name was Mr. Coreander! Great guy! And he had this cool book with a snake on the cover–

  Q: That’s The Neverending Story.
  A: What?

  Q: No one called you Bastian! Why would anyone call you that?
  A: I don’t know…they just did.

  Q: Just tell us what your favorite book is!
  A: When I was 7 years old, my dad came home late one night and handed me a paper bag. And inside was Franny & Zooey, Nine Stories, and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. That was my first introduction to J.D. Salinger. I never got over him. I must have read his stuff in the opposite order most kids do. I read Catcher in the Rye last. By the time we circled back to that book in high school I was like: been there, done that. I also love: Nabokov, Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, Donna Tartt, Bret Easton Ellis, Lorrie Moore, and John Irving.

  Q: What is your favorite film?
  A: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. There’s nothing before or since that mixes tragedy and humor so beautifully. It has the greatest modern screen performance of all time–IMO. And the best escape scene. And the best ending.

  Q: What inspired you to write Scream All Night?
  A: Partly, I think, my whacked out time at Yale Drama. And also my (fairly limited) time on movie and TV sets. But I always loved movies, I’m a real cinephile! I was inspired by Hammer Horror. They were this British production company that made classic monster movies in the 50’s and 60’s (although, technically, the company still exists). Hammer introduced the world to actors like Oliver Reed, Peter Cushing (from Star Wars), and Christopher Lee. Christopher Lee would always play Dracula wearing this cheesy silk cape. He was great, though. Very moody, but not particularly scary. He always looked more like the maitre d’ at a steak house in New Jersey than a vampire.

  Q: So Hammer Horror inspired Moldavia Studios from Scream All Night?
  A: Yes! For a while, Hammer moved all production to Bray studios, a manor in the English countryside, where they had filmed Rocky Horror Picture Show. They filmed at Bray, until they had used every angle in every room, and then decamped. So I thought: what if there’s a B-horror movie studio, set in this crazy castle, where they still make these creature features? And everyone lives and works there. Except there’s a kid who grows up there who can’t deal with it—he’s surrounded by these fake vampires and ghouls and ghosts, but he’s becoming a victim to the monstrous sides of real people, so he has to leave. He gets legally emancipated. But then he winds up inheriting the studio, so he has to return home to face his demons—literally and figuratively.

  Q: Does having worked as an actor inform your work as a writer?
  A: People ask this a lot. I guess that’s why it’s an FAQ, right? Sure! You have an innate understanding of conflict, high stakes, you understand the structure and rhythm of dialogue, and the complicated, tangled psychologies that make for great characters.

  Q: What are your favorite horror movies?
  A: I think the scariest ones to me, and my personal favorites, are the ones that are already the most celebrated: The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, The Shining, Jaws. But I’ve seen a ton of great ones, across many sub-genres, that not everyone knows about: Eyes Without A Face, An American Werewolf in London, The Sentinel, Suspiria, The Omen, Terror Train, Happy Birthday to Me, to name a few.

  Q: And finally, Derek, have you written any other books?
  A: I have! My second YA novel will be out in 2019 from Little, Brown/Jimmy Patterson.

  Q: Thank you for agreeing to this interview.
  A: No, thank you! It was an honor to be interviewed by you. I love your work.

  [Derek stops speaking into the medicine chest mirror, and resumes brushing his teeth].

• Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Milman

  Derek Milman
  MilmanDerekGENERAL.jpg
  Born Derek Andrew Milman
  March 21, 1979 (age 39)
  New York City, U.S.
  Occupation Actor, writer
  Years active 2002-present
  Website www.derekmilman.com

  Derek Milman (born March 21, 1979) is an American actor and novelist.
  Contents

  1 Early life
  2 Acting
  3 Writing
  4 References
  5 External links

  Early life

  Milman was born in New York City, and raised in Westchester County, NY.[1] He wrote an underground humor magazine called Wasting Time in his youth, and sold it to local stores, prompting a profile in The New York Times. Milman attended Northwestern University, then received his Master of Fine Arts in acting at the Yale School of Drama. Milman began his career as a playwright; his first play, "A Visionary Drowns", which he had written while a student at Northwestern, premiered in New York, Off-Broadway, when he was 22.
  Acting

  Milman has numerous stage credits, including originating the role of Bill Wade in the 1999 New York premiere of Never Swim Alone, by Daniel MacIvor, and the role of Reed Williams in Cats Talk Back, which was a success at the New York City Fringe Festival, in 2002. Milman has also worked at the SoHo Repertory Theater, Yale Repertory Theater, and twice with playwright Israel Horovitz at the Gloucester Stage Company. In 2003 Milman gained wide exposure as "The New Guy" in the popular Wendy's Television commercial.

  Milman's television credits include roles on The Sopranos, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and the short-lived Love Monkey.[2] In 2007, he appeared in the HBO miniseries, John Adams as the ill-fated Lieutenant William Barron. In the spring of 2009, Milman was cast in the pilot episode of The Wonderful Maladys for HBO, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Milman went on to appear in The Wolf of Wall Street, and on television in Orange is the New Black. Milman will appear in the upcoming season of HULU's The Path.
  Writing

  In late 2016 it was announced[3] Derek's debut Young Adult novel, Scream All Night, will be published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins. The novel is set for release on July 24, 2018. It is about a young man, legally emancipated from his eccentric family, who inherits their failing B-horror movie studio and must save the family legacy, even if that means facing the monsters—both on screen and off—that have haunted him since his escape.

  Milman has said[4] the novel was loosely inspired by Hammer Horror films, during the period of time they were filming at Bray Studios.

• USA Today - Happy Ever After - https://happyeverafter.usatoday.com/2018/07/24/derek-milman-interview-scream-all-night/

  Interview: Derek Milman, author of ‘Scream All Night’
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  By: Joyce Lamb | July 24, 2018 12:00 am

  Derek Milman

  Joyce: Welcome to HEA, Derek! Please tell us a bit about your new release, Scream All Night.

  Derek: It’s about a teenager named Dario Heyward who grew up in a Gothic castle that doubled as a B-horror movie studio called Moldavia. After being cast in one of the studio’s biggest cult hits, Zombie Children of the Harvest Sun, and being abused by his father during production, Dario got legally emancipated and moved into a group home. He’s about to turn 18 and is trying to decide what to do about his future, when he gets called back home (by his much older brother Oren) because their 91-year-old father is dying. In a total shock to Dario, he inherits the studio and has to figure out if he should save his family legacy, which means confronting his figurative demons, as well as the ones made out of papier-mâché. Moldavia is a zany place, to say the least; there’s a lot of pain for Dario there. But also the broken remains of a family he never had, as well as Hayley, his one true love, who he had to leave behind when he fled at age 12.

  Joyce: What inspires your book ideas?

  Derek: Oftentimes, news articles, paintings, photographs or — and this is funny — mishearing things people have said. Someone will say something absolutely wacko, but it turns out I just totally heard them wrong. Then I think: That should go in a book. And guess what?

  Joyce: Is there an idea out there that you wish you’d thought of?

  Derek: Mary Shelley is obviously a genius to have come up with the idea of a mad scientist who creates a literal monster from mixed-up dead-body parts. It’s such a brilliant approach to some serious themes — namely, never mess with nature, the definition of life, and it’s a seriously heartbreaking and terrifying novel. So, yeah, that one — I’ll totally let myself be jealous of Mary Shelley!

  Joyce: What distracts you the most when you’re trying to write?

  Derek: Without a doubt social media, and my never-ending commitment to it.

  Joyce: Do you write by the seat of your pants, or do you carefully plot your stories?

  Derek: I take loose notes in a notebook, in a café, and then I will draft from those notes at a computer. I don’t work from a formal outline, but I have enough to go on that I’m not staring at a blank screen, and a blinking, mocking cursor, which is what writers fear the most.

  Joyce: What’s your favorite snack and/or beverage while you’re writing?

  Derek: I’ll take shots from a can of whipped cream — literally fill my mouth up like a little kid — and then swallow a giant gob. It’s a great sugar rush, and there’s something very satisfying about the physical act of it.

  Joyce: Do you listen to music while you write? What are some tunes on your playlist?

  Derek: I listen to a lot of atmospheric electronica and hazy Dream Pop when I write: Boards of Canada is a favorite, but also Aphex Twin, Beach House, Wild Nothing and The Radio Dept.

  Joyce: What would be your dream vacation?

  Derek: Exploring Tokyo, and eating the best sushi of my life in a hidden cave underneath some mall at the edge of a mysterious mountain, which seems to be what happens to anyone I know who goes to Tokyo. It just looks beautiful and fascinating to me.

  Joyce: What do you do in your spare time?

  Derek: I run, bike and go to see lots of movies and art exhibitions during off-hours, when the museums are quieter, echoing and nearly empty.

  Joyce: What’s coming next, or what are you working on now?

  Derek: I am editing my second Young Adult novel, coming in 2019 from James Patterson’s imprint at Little, Brown. It’s a Hitchcockian thriller about a gay teenager who gets caught up in a case of mistaken identity and goes on the run both from government agents and cyberterrorists, everyone trying to use him to their own ends.

  Joyce: Thanks, Derek!

  About Scream All Night:

  Dario Heyward knows one thing: He’s never going back to Moldavia Studios, the iconic castle that served as the set, studio, and home to the cast and crew of dozens of cult classic B-horror movies. It’s been three years since Dario’s even seen the place, after getting legally emancipated from his father, the infamous director of Moldavia’s creature features.

  But then Dario’s brother invites him home to a mysterious ceremony involving his father and a tribute to his first film—The Curse of the Mummy’s Tongue. Dario swears his homecoming will be a one-time visit. A way for him to get closure on his past—and reunite with Hayley, his first love and costar of Zombie Children of the Harvest Sun, a production fraught with real-life tragedy—and say good-bye for good. But the unthinkable happens—Dario gets sucked back into the twisted world of Moldavia and the horrors, both real and imagined, he’s left there.

  With only months to rescue the sinking studio and everyone who has built their lives there, Dario must confront the demons of his past—and the uncertainties of his future. But can he escape the place that’s haunted him his whole life?

  About Derek

  Derek Milman has worked as a playwright, screenwriter, film school teacher, DJ and underground humor magazine publisher. A classically trained actor, he has performed on stages across the country and appeared in numerous TV shows, commercials and films. Derek currently resides in Brooklyn, where he writes full time. Scream All Night is his debut YA novel. Night Flight, coming in 2019, will be his second novel for young adults.

• Medium - https://medium.com/@KidLitLollipop/interview-with-debut-young-adult-author-derek-milman-c8f1c7262231

  Interview with Debut Young Adult Author Derek Milman

  “Milman graces readers with a distinctive and immersive setting and an authentically hilarious voice. It’s the summer read you never knew you needed.” -Buzzfeed

  “Derek Milman bursts onto the YA scene with a completely unique concept and a delightfully quirky setting. It has all of my favorite things: plenty of absurdity wrapped in undeniable heart. SCREAM ALL NIGHT is not to be missed.” -Goldy Moldavsky, New York Times bestselling author of Kill the Boy Band and No Good Deed

  With less than two weeks until Derek Milman’s young adult debut SCREAM ALL NIGHT is published by Harper Collins/Balzer+Bray on July 24th, 2018, we asked the author to share some of his insights on getting published, the inspiration behind SCREAM ALL NIGHT, and what advice he has for aspiring kidlit authors.

  Question: What are you most excited about SCREAM ALL NIGHT being published right now?

  Derek Milman: It’s very surreal to think that a little piece of the inside of my mind will be up for public consumption, haha. I’ve been working on this book for years in my own little bubble, and now, finally, the rest of the world will get to meet these characters and enter the zany Moldavia castle, and there’s just something amazing and unbelievable about that.

  Question: What’s been most challenging to you with publishing SCREAM ALL NIGHT?

  Derek: The transition from the private joy of writing the book, to the anxiety of finishing it, sending it off, awaiting people’s reactions, and dealing with the commerce end of publishing. In a weird way, its similar to loving this band, listening to them alone on headphones for months before bed, but then going to their concert. Suddenly, there’s a gazillion people dancing to these songs you thought were just your own. Similarly, with publishing, there are a lot of books out there, and once your own book is done, it enters the fray, and it’s not your own anymore. It’s part of this larger bustle, so to speak, and everyone’s dancing to it now.

  Question: How did you come to write this story?

  Derek: Years of amassing tidbits of various things. Loving movies as a kid, then visiting Universal Studios, training as an actor at Yale Drama, working as an actor on movie sets. I had started off as a playwright, but what I wanted to accomplish as a writer wasn’t fitting into that structure. I was writing in the wrong medium. After I got attention for an early YA manuscript (this great sci-fi horror mash-up that I hope eventually sees the light of day) I got asked what else I was working on. (I had had this idea for years about a kid who inherits his eccentric family’s B-horror movie studio). Well, it floored anyone in publishing, whenever I talked about it. I was very much encouraged to write this book, which helped my confidence; research into Hammer Horror films and Troma films grounded the story, which made the rest possible.

  Question: What’s the one thing you hope a reader would take away from reading SCREAM ALL NIGHT?

  Derek: I would always hope a reader — especially a younger one — sees something of themselves in my book, and as a result has a better understanding that they’re not alone in the world. As fantastical as the world of SCREAM ALL NIGHT is, the characters, and the family dynamics, are kind of relatable, and I hope the story sucks them in and gives them a little shard of something they’ll hold on to forever. That’s happened to me with books I’ve loved over the years. They stay with me, I never let them go.

  Question: Since your book is about horror movies, what is the most random, out-there horror movie you can recommend that no one’s heard of?

  Derek: Mystics in Bali. There are Leyaks chasing people. I shall say no more!

  Question: For kidlit writers just getting started, what is the single best piece of advice you could offer them?

  Derek: If they’re literally just getting started: write the best manuscript you can; write at the top of your strengths, at the top of your intelligence, and focus on the fun of creating this amazing new thing. Then refine and polish, and get as much early feedback as you can. Refine, polish some more. Get the draft in tip-top shape before you send it out. A book is really shaped and sculpted in the revision phase.

  Question: What’s one thing you wish you knew earlier in your writing career that you know now?

  Derek: You’re going to laugh, but here goes: how to use Microsoft Excel, google docs, Canva, re-post on Instagram, pitch to media outlets, update a website on Wordpress, give a great phone interview: THERE IS SO MUCH I NEEDED TO LEARN IN THIS PAST YEAR. I could have saved some time if I had also trained as a graphics designer, PR specialist, media relations professional, website guru, printer, and marketing wunderkind.

  Question: What’s up next on your publishing journey?

  Derek: My second book, an LGBTQ Hitchcockian thriller, will be out in 2019 from James Patterson’s imprint at Little, Brown. I’ve just started editing it.
  Photo credit: Jordan Matter

  Derek Milman has worked as a playwright, screenwriter, film school teacher, DJ, and underground humor magazine publisher. A classically trained actor, he has performed on stages across the country and appeared in numerous TV shows, commercials, and films. Derek currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. Scream All Night is his first novel. His second novel for young adults will be released by Little, Brown / Jimmy Patterson in 2019.

Milman, Derek. Scream All Night
Jamie Hansen
Voice of Youth Advocates. 41.3 (Aug. 2018): p64.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
Full Text:
Milman, Derek. Scream All Night. Balzer & Bray/HarperCollins, July 2018. 400p. $17.99. 978-0-06-266565-2.

3Q * 4P * S

Seventeen-year-old Dario Heyward never planned to go back to Moldavia, the iconic estate comprising the set and studio where his father, Lucien, produced dozens of B-horror cult films. After all, Dario had escaped by legally emancipating himself three years earlier. An unexpected phone call from his estranged brother, Oren, persuades him to return home for a bizarre celebration and ceremony honoring their father. Perhaps a one-time visit would be safe enough--he can reconnect with Hayley, his co-star from his father's iconic film, Zombie Children of the Harvest Sun, even as he decides to confront his distressing childhood. Despite his best intentions, however, Dario finds himself reluctantly dragged, once more, into the warped world of Moldavia and its secrets.

The hectic plot, disturbing flashbacks, and hints of dark menace lurking in the outrageous culture of the studio will remind readers of the best and worst grade-B horror flicks. The author includes hilariously grotesque details of the making of Moldavia Studios's most beloved productions. While the style sometimes threatens to overwhelm the story, the narrative moves briskly enough. Some characters remain slightly shadowy, perhaps intentionally, and their motives are as unclear as those of most low-budget, direct-to-video movies. Older teen film fans will especially enjoy this dark and occasionally wacky tale of a young man coming to terms with his troubled past.--Jamie Hansen.

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Hansen, Jamie. "Milman, Derek. Scream All Night." Voice of Youth Advocates, Aug. 2018, p. 64. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A551167844/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=946a86ca. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A551167844

Scream All Night
Julia Smith
Booklist. 114.19-20 (June 1, 2018): p95.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Scream All Night. By Derek Milman. July 2018. 400p. HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray, $17.99 (9780062665652); e-book (9780062665676). Gr. 9-12.

Dario Hayward did his best to escape a hellish childhood by gaining emancipation from his family and leaving home at a young age. Unfortunately, Moldavia's tentacles have a far reach, and as Darios eighteenth birthday approaches, he's called back to the family castle and horror-movie studio for his father's funeral. Though floundering, Moldavia has a cult following for its B horror films, such as Dial W for Witchcraft, and Dario finds himself its new studio director with a six-month deadline to save the company. His return to the estate dredges up painful memories, but also reanimates a budding romance with Hayley and a strained relationship with his eccentric older brother. As Dario scrambles to pull together a money-making zombie flick, he comes to better understand his family and the direction his future should take. Debut author Milman loads his coming-of-age comedy with classic horror references in a way that will delight genre fans without alienating outsiders. Clever writing is anchored by a sensitive emotional core, giving Darios personal journey a relatable quality, despite its delectably bizarre setting.--Julia Smith

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Smith, Julia. "Scream All Night." Booklist, 1 June 2018, p. 95. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A546287671/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ec47e5dc. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A546287671

Scream All Night
Publishers Weekly. 265.21 (May 21, 2018): p75.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* Scream All Night

Derek Milman. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-266565-2

When Dario Heywood, 17, left Moldovia Studios at age 12, he never intended to return. After starring in the cult classic Zombie Children of the Harvest Moon and suffering emotional and physical abuse from his father, Lucien--the infamous auteur of all of the studio's B-horror creature features--Dario was legally emancipated. Lured back by his brother, Oren, and his first love, Haley, to attend Lucien's funeral, Dario must contend with his personal demons and a desire to keep the studio solvent. Debut author Milman's darkly comedic coming-of-age story seamlessly combines monsters--both real and imagined--with difficult subjects such as neglect, abandonment, and psychosis. Moldovia Studios is a refuge for those who don't quite fit in anywhere else, and the paradox of it being a safe harbor while simultaneously bringing to life the things of nightmares works on an emotional and a psychological level. Darios journey, though more extreme than most, is relatable, but the story's biggest lesson of all is that it is possible to go home again. Ages 14-up. Agent: Victoria Marini, Irene Goodman Agency. (July)

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Scream All Night." Publishers Weekly, 21 May 2018, p. 75. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A541012693/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a5716e98. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A541012693

Milman, Derek: SCREAM ALL NIGHT
Kirkus Reviews. (May 15, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Milman, Derek SCREAM ALL NIGHT Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (Young Adult Fiction) $17.99 7, 24 ISBN: 978-0-06-266565-2

A legally emancipated teen confronts derelict family dynamics, hoping for closure from a terrible childhood at a B-movie studio: Cue zombies and killer cauliflower.

Some kids come from broken homes. Seventeen-year-old Dario Heyward comes from Moldavia, a broken horror film studio. The mere thought of his peculiar 30-something brother, institutionalized mother, and abusive director father gives him hives. Despite this dermal aversion, he returns home for the live (yes, live) burial of 91-year-old dad. When the will names Dario as studio chief, he is forced to consider delaying Harvard while he evaluates his family legacy. Heavy-handed in its dark flourishes, Dario's first-person narrative avoids being lachrymose and lands somewhere both self-aware of the surrounding silliness and respectful in matters of mental illness and abuse. Moldavia is resplendent with wonderfully wacky details, characters and settings, but the gothic gets rococo-heavy with the weight of so many references to both real and imagined films and know-it-all filmmaking insights. Most characters are presumed white, but there is a diversity in age and socio-economic status. The number of Dario's conflicts gets clunky: past demons, long-lost mother, loss of innocence, dealing with an abuser, fearing mental illness, sibling rivalry, finding one's footing in the family business, academic aspirations, and burgeoning love.

A decent descent into the mad world of an imagined film studio with plenty of gory details to delight creature-feature and horror movie buffs. (Fiction. 13-17)

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Milman, Derek: SCREAM ALL NIGHT." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A538293838/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=69f3bc5b. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A538293838

MILMAN, Derek. Scream All Night
Blake Holman
School Library Journal. 64.4 (Apr. 2018): p136.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
MILMAN, Derek. Scream All Night. 400p. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray. Jul. 2018. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780062665652.

Gr 10 Up--Dario's dad, Lucien, is a tyrannical, nonagenarian filmmaker with a cult following and a vast oeuvre of B-list horror flicks, all produced at an isolated castle-like complex called Moldavia Studios. Dario, a former child actor in his father's films, is a self-emancipated orphan who broke from Moldavia to escape Lucien's abusive, dictatorial directing, intending to never return. But when Lucien ceremoniously buries himself alive, Dario inherits the financially and morally troubled studio. Dario has to decide how to handle the cast, the crew, and his family legacy. The appeal of the campy, creepy, and highly original setting may charm some readers. But others will be put off by an unconvincing romance and by the ineffective and occasionally sexist humor. Furthermore, the plot stalls under Dario's repetitive confrontations with his older brother--a character whose extreme eccentricity will strain the credulity of most readers. Psilocybin, marijuana, and swearing that is casual to the point of sloppiness makes this appropriate for older teens. VERDICT A strictly additional purchase.--Blake Holman, St. Joseph County Public Library, IN

Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Holman, Blake. "MILMAN, Derek. Scream All Night." School Library Journal, Apr. 2018, p. 136. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A533409102/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=283b384e. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A533409102

Hansen, Jamie. "Milman, Derek. Scream All Night." Voice of Youth Advocates, Aug. 2018, p. 64. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A551167844/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=946a86ca. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018. Smith, Julia. "Scream All Night." Booklist, 1 June 2018, p. 95. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A546287671/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ec47e5dc. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018. "Scream All Night." Publishers Weekly, 21 May 2018, p. 75. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A541012693/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=a5716e98. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018. "Milman, Derek: SCREAM ALL NIGHT." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A538293838/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=69f3bc5b. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018. Holman, Blake. "MILMAN, Derek. Scream All Night." School Library Journal, Apr. 2018, p. 136. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A533409102/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=283b384e. Accessed 30 Sept. 2018.

• Buffalo News
  https://buffalonews.com/2018/07/26/books-in-brief-scream-all-night-by-derek-milman/
  Word count: 626

  Books in Brief: Scream All Night by Derek Milman; Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead
  By Jean Westmoore | Published Thu, Jul 26, 2018

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  YOUNG ADULT
  Scream All Night by Derek Milman; Balzar and Bray, 389 pages ($17.99). Ages 14 and up.
  ...

  17-year-old Dario Heyward reluctantly goes home for the first time in five years, invited by his much older brother, Oren, to participate in an unusual sendoff for their Alzheimer's-stricken father: legendary B horror filmmaker Lucien Heyward wishes to be buried alive at Moldavia, the sprawling walled estate where he has produced dozens of cult-classic creature features.

  Lucien's burial goes spectacularly awry, in just the first of many over-the-top moments in this darkly funny, brilliantly written, heart-wrenching debut that sets a new standard for the coming-of-age novel. (The title comes from Lucien Heyward's catchphrase as he would begin a new film: "Scream All Night.")

  Dario is haunted by the ghosts of his dysfunctional family and the fear that his DNA will be his undoing, whether he follows in the footsteps of his delusional mother to a psychiatric hospital or his controlling, manipulative father who mercilessly bullied Dario at age 12 into an unforgettable performance in the starring role in "Zombies of the Harvest Sun." (The movie, Dario muses, became a cult favorite even though it got "such a low score on Rotten Tomatoes they had to come up with a new level of bad.")

  Dario had made his own plans for the future, but he finds himself getting pulled back into his father's world, trying to salvage the film production business and the jobs of the 100 people who live and work in the weird, self-contained world of Moldavia, including love interest Hayley, his co-star in "Harvest Sun." Dario's obligation to carry on the Heyward film tradition becomes painfully clear when his brother tries to take command, insisting on producing his terrible original script for "The Killer Cauliflowers" (aimed at the "Eastern European horror vegan market" and featuring a character named Justin Bieberman).

  Dario's struggle to confront the demons of his past and reconcile who he is against new truths he discovers about his dysfunctional family plays out against the wildly colorful backdrop of the castle at Moldavia, with its horror props, its "Romero wing," its cast of misfit characters like aging actress Mistress Moonshadow ("a sad, middle-aged Goth wearing too much makeup"). This is a spectacular debut from actor, screenwriter and playwright Derek Milman.

  CHILDREN'S

  Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead; illustrated by Nicholas Gannon; Feiwel and Friends, 201 pages ($16.99) Ages 8 to 12.

  ...

  Two shining lights of middle-grade fiction combine their talents in this lovely tale, of an unusual friendship, of family, magic and unbreakable bonds, set against a vivid backdrop of the Australian countryside suffering a terrible drought,.

  It's been five years since Livy last visited her Gran Nicholas in Australia, and nothing seems familiar. Suddenly she gets the weird feeling she has forgotten something important. When she opens the door to an upstairs closet, she finds "a small zombie wearing a chicken suit." It turns out Bob has been waiting five years for her to return (spending the time reading the dictionary, taking naps "some lasting a few weeks at a time," building a Lego pirate ship "63 times in the dark"). Bob can't remember where he came from but Livy has promised to help him find his way home. The authors have beautifully crafted this story, with plenty of humor and real emotion, the chapters told the alternating perspectives of Bob and Livy. The illustrations by the gifted Nicholas Gannon in delicate shades of brown are just perfect.

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