“What’s it like to destroy the world?”

That’s the question my literary agent, Joyce Keating, asked earlier this year when I flew

to Manhattan to deliver Cataclysm to her agency.

RJ with his New Novel

“Destroying the world is a nasty business,” I replied. “For one, you have to find a reason to end everything man has worked so hard to build, and second… I have to leave some people behind or else nobody will read the book.”

She laughed, and then. “Mankind is doing a pretty good job of ending life on its own.”

It was  a joke, of course.

Or was it?

                                                      I still question this.

RJ at Faces & Names in NYC

Sitting in the elegance of Faces and Names on West 54th Street, I wondered if Joyce wasn’t far of the mark. With all the talk of global warming and polar ice melting… I knew storms were getting worse, earthquakes we more frequent and floods would eventually submerge Manhattan, Kill Devil Hills and eventually, all of Florida.

Everything was going to hell in a hand-basket.

What might the end of the world look like?

How would humanity behave during the finality of it all?

I’d just spent the last twelve months pounding out Cataclysm and knew the nuts and bolts of evacuation procedures. There was a mountain of natural disaster research crammed into my head.

I knew U.N. code-words, understood the science behind societal collapse, and yet, the end of the world seemed something out of a Hollywood Production.

But it’s not just talk anymore.

RJ in Times Square

There is something happening.

Last year the National Weather Service met to discuss one of the catastrophe’s facing the East Coast of the United States, and  some scientists now believe the CATACLYSM I describe in my book is sure to happen at some point.

The end of the world may not happen tomorrow, next week or a year from now.

But it will end, and the question I pose is this… are you ready?

RJ SMITH is a Hollywood Screenwriter and the Author of three novels

RJ Cruising the Atlantic (May 2013)

Hello friends and fans! Welcome to FALL!

It’s been a LONG FALL.I have suffered an accident in June 2013 and writing has been extremely difficult, as sitting at my desk for any period of time is painful. Deadlines were pushed back to allow rehabilitation and an upcoming back and neck surgery, but soon I should be able to get back to the business of creating entertainment.

Soon, the leaves will change color, TWISTING themselves from  branches, they’ll tumble to the chilled ground welcoming spooky teenage kids ringing  doorbells for TRICKS OR TREATS.

I recall growing up AND feeling that hallow chill as nightfall crashed and ghosts lurked along the shadowy streets.

BOO! 

But like all sadistic holidays of history, the horror ends, fright wanes and we return to a false sense of security ..

And, the terror of Halloween gives way to  the chill of Thanksgiving.

The poor fat bird is slaughtered and thrown into double racked ovens across our ravenous country —– nice, huh?

A bunch of barbarians is what we are — hungry, feasting, slaughtering humans — oh, well, one day the aliens will come and maybe… we’ll be dinner.

Until then, winter will continue to blow in, tossing an occasional horrendous blizzard across the northeast … but, lets not get ahead of ourselves.

First, there is a long transition to cold

I’ve been on holiday for much of the year, cruising the Atlantic, touring the country and promoting the release of The Santa Claus Killer.

First, I laid back for a five-day get away, spent hot days lounging in the Bahamas and cool Caribbean nights writing next summer’s blockbuster – Cataclysm.  Then, after drinking myself into a stupor with cruise ship Margaritas,  I hopped back on a plane to New York for a meeting with my literary agent, Joyce  — yes — again!

Three visits in one year… and boy, was it hot! 

After New York, I was off to Los Angeles for a two day event promoting The Santa Claus Killer — the book was a 2013 Emmy Award Swag Bag novel pre-loaded onto Kindle Fire HDs awarded to celebrities.

Of course,  being a screenwriter as well as an author, the interest for me is adapting the book for film and getting the SPEC SCREENPLAY to studio execs — but that has to wait for the novel to hit the bestseller list this winter.  YOU WILL MAKE THAT HAPPEN.

That’s where you come in… once you read it, love it and are craving for more… leave a review on your retailer’s website…

And — that brings me to this…

Getting the book to you, the public!

The Santa Claus Killer Goes To The Emmys

It’s been a LONG 18-month project, working with agents, in London, Hollywood and New York.

We’ve been busy promoting, advertising and gathering the necessary reviews.

Now, it’s time to sit back and watch reactions from you. This year, if you’re seeking something different, yearning for an edgy, clutching read… one of those rare, dramatic, thrilling, scare-fests … then this is the big adventurous novel you’ve been craving.

The Santa Claus Killer is the whole package, detectives, crime, murder, twists and turns… plot shifts, and the ultimate surprise on Christmas day in Times Square.

This  is a mind-movie that springs to life in your grey matter.

It’s a SLAYRIDE!

And, will keep you awake!

Cringing at every sound in the dark house!

After all, you never know what lurks in the closet…

– OR –

Down in the basement behind the water heater.

So, this holiday, as a blizzard blows through town and the bitter wind bites into your tender flesh, throw kindling into the fireplace, heat up  hot chocolate and curl up with The King Of Christmas.

He’s waiting, just inside the pages of this new thriller.

COMING NEXT SUMMER, author RJ Smith, an investigative journalist, screenwriter and author of horror, suspense and action will release his new mega-thriller based on science. In October 2000, the BBC transmitted “Mega-tsunami; Wave of Destruction”, suggesting a future failure of the western flank of Cumbre Vieja would cause a mega-tsunami. Its hypothesized that during an eruption the western half of the Cumbre Vieja will catastrophically fail in a massive gravitational landslide and collapse into the Atlantic Ocean, generating a mega-tsunami.

Computer modeling indicates the initial wave will attain HEIGHTS in excess of 2,000 FEET and peak to 1-MILE traveling at 620 mph — approximately the speed of a jet aircraft. This will inundate the African coast in an hour, the southern coast of England in 3.5 hours, and the eastern seaboard of North America in 6 hours.

The initial wave will subside into a succession of smaller waves, each about 100-200 feet high.

This is the author’s fictional account of what might happen should that cataclysmic day occur.

In his second uber-commercial, INTERNATIONAL thriller, RJ Smith takes his audience on a whirlwind ride of seat gripping terror during what might be the end of life for many.

Rooted in reality, the story follows SAMUEL MAY as he strikes an alliance with the international community to try and save as many people as possible.

RJ at the Griffith Observatory in LA

It is January 2013, and this month has been busy. It started out with a trip to Arizona where I met with some of the best UFO researchers the world over.

Then, on to Los Angeles where I met my friend, Carol, a film producer and writer.

We had drinks in Marina Del Rey. It was there, sometime during my third margarita, where were spoke of future movie projects.

RJ & the Walk Of Fame Hollywood

The next day, I stalked the  Hollywood Walk of Fame,  where the pulse of the crowd sent electricity through the air.

If you’ve never been to L.A., I highly recommend you  add the experience to your personal bucket-list.

It is there, along the storied sidewalks, where I found myself at home.

I love Hollywood Boulevard. There’s something magical about it.

RJ in Hollywood

That sense which courses through the veins that whisper anything might happen.

Up in the hills, surrounding the Walk of Fame, that’s where the stars reside, and I could imagine them peering down the ridge where we ordinary folks get caught up in the celebrity of it all.

Hollywood, its a place where dreams are envisioned and then sometimes find themselves shattered along the path you traveled.  Thousands come here to find stardom, but unfortunately, most return to their hometowns with their tail between their legs and failure in the heart.

Making it big in HOLLYWOOD has nothing to do with talent. But rather, attaining success in the land of broken promises must come by making the right connections.

Capitol Records, LA

It’s all about who you know, and then, you must have a bit of talent.

You  must have a strong will within your soul to succeed,  a desire to never to give up.

YOU HAVE TO WANT IT!

RJ in LA

The doors to the kingdom are locked tight, but there are keys to the locks… hidden throughout the valley – in the deep pockets of power-people who seek out new special projects.

Big shots are looking, seeking the next big thing. Yet, what that next thing is… well, nobody knows what lingers in the minds of those with the power to expand the dream.

RJ @ Randy’s Donuts – LA

As a writer of screenplays and novels, I stalk the shadows. I lurk back behind the curtain where plots are birthed. I pen the tales, and then savor  twisting the knife deep in the muscle of my story. I give life to my characters and set them free to roam the streets in search of their destiny.

That is what placed me aboard a Boeing-757 for the six hour plane ride across the country to New York City. I had come here to sign an OPTION CONTRACT for my 2012 screenplay, DESTINY/HARD KNOCKS.  It was the first piece of literature I ever wrote.

RJs Screenplay

The script follows my life growing up on the streets of Manhattan and explains how I found redemption and success in writing.

RJ outside The Late Show – NYC

My manager, Julie Stern, was the first person who  discovered my talent and prodded me to continue along this path.

It’s a path littered with broken dreams…..

So, there I was last week, two days after my visit to L.A., walking down Broadway in the heart of Times Square, ready to sign the deal which may one day become a motion picture.

Feelings of excitement filled my soul. I was home, I’d come full circle in a life torn by demons and monsters of every imaginable form.

I had vanquished the things which sought to slaughter me. I had made it, there was purpose in life, a reason to place one foot before the other and walk on… my head held high, a bounce to my step.

Ah, before me lay New York City in March.  Behind me, Los Angeles, and my prospects seem great,

RJ & his NYC Agent, Joyce

And then, at 3:30 p.m., I hailed a taxi (and grabbed by balls in fear of certain death) as the cab swerved and honked its horn. My body shook with the knowledge that at any moment the cabbie would crash into something.

RJ & Joyce – Paddy’s

But the disaster never came and I found myself at Paddy Riley’s for a meeting with my  Literary Agent,  Joyce.

I was a bundle of nerves, she had just read my new book, THE SANTA CLAUS KILLER, and we were scheduled to discuss the agency’s plan going forward to find a publisher.

We talked for hours, caught in the grasp of the story. And I found something out that day, I had a fan in addition to an agent.

And damn, what else could a guy ask for?

It is late January, 2013 as I write this. The time is 4:55 A.M., darkness surrounds me and the voices of the dead linger in the tunnels of my mind. I have just come off a ten-month writing frenzy – knocking off my 110,000 word 400+ page murder/mystery debut novel, which I am hoping to publish in fall.

Those voices I wrote about, they are sinister at times, whispering from the echoing hallways of hell. In that world, where the utterances spring from, there are demons and fiends of every imaginable shape and type. But there are hero’s and romantics there as well, they trounce through my mind, whisper their demands and move through my fingers and onto the screen before me. Alive, breathing, grasping for the life they so desperately wish me to give into them.

And so, I gave one of them what they desired. A voice of eternity, I complied with the role I was assigned. I told his tale, I stoked the flames of indecency and let the killer spring forth upon the blank page. For those sins of creativity and entertainment, The Santa Claus Killer became real. His blood was as thick and red as that which flows through my own veins – gushing through the heart of wisdom as a force to be reckoned with.

Richard Blake tramped through the city which never sleeps, he took his gifts of life and left a wreck of bodies in his path. Bloody, retched trails… they littered the Manhattan alleyways he stalked, a bone yard of bodies were piled along the avenues of Brooklyn. And in the end, well, in the end… he found something of himself in Times Square.

Now: He lives forever in the pages of that massive tale, forever holding his place as the King of Christmas.

And so I wait: The silence is deafening…

But there is a whisper, a boy named Michael is mumbling, the corners of my mind can sense his pleading. There is a ship, The Valencia: caught on the Atlantic Ocean and a tsunami is headed its way. On board is the pope, the ashes of an erupting volcano have caused birds to take flight and fly into the engine of his helicopter, Shepard One….  Now, it is headed for a crash-landing on the biggest cruise ship in the world.

And now, they are doomed in the path of a killer wave.

Perhaps I will save them, maybe I will heed the call and rush in with verbs and nouns to save the day. But perhaps, possibly… I’ll need a bunch of help from characters who have yet to make themselves known.

And yet, as I sit here considering the possibilities… I feel their presences surrounding me, waiting for me to type these simple words on the page: CHAPTER ONE.

And so I must go... into that dark night of a terrorizing CATACLYSM, to give my all to save the voices. For without me, they are sure to perish on the ocean floor. Their hopes and dreams will not be vanquished to a whisper, because I will listen and tell their tale.

I WILL SAVE THEM.

RJ Smith – February 05, 2013. 6:00 A.M.