Get to Know Lisa Rosman Through Her Various Works

Self-Published Adaptations

This summer, it was announced that “Wool,” a dystopia about an underground city on an otherwise-uninhabitable Earth, was finally under way three years after Twentieth Century Fox nabbed the rights to Hugh Howey’s eponymous book. The project now comes with stellar credentials: “Guardians of the Galaxy” screenwriter Nicole Perman is rewriting “The Fifth Wave” director J Blakeson’s original script, and Steven Zaillian (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “Moneyball”) and Ridley Scott (“Alien,” “Blade Runner”) are producing. Not bad for a book that got its start as a series of self-published novellas. But that’s the thing about all self-published book adaptations. No matter how they fare at the box office or on Rotten Tomatoes, they qualify as cinema’s Little Engines That Could. The sheer fact that these stories have defeated so many odds – that they made it to the big screen at all given that they initially could not find a niche in the literary world – is amazing. And some of the films in this category may surprise you. Continue Reading →

Packing My Cannoli

Once Sadie stopped being a long-distance car, I bought the world’s smallest suitcase–pink and black leopard print, a carry-on no matter how stringent the airline regulations, something even my bad back could handle on public transportation. It’s basically a school backpack on pretty silver wheels, the Zoolander mobile phone of satchels. The only downside: packing has become tres Sophie’s Choice. Which explains why, at 11pm after an extremely long day, I’m sitting here muttering, Mz. Rosman, you are heading to Boston, fer Christ’s sake. Keep the corduroys, lose the cute dress. Yes, I am laughing at myself (and regretting that 9pm coffee). But I also am quite serious. Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

Charming Monday

The laundry list of this day extends out the door. The Monday anxiety is already screeching its high-pitched aria, the myriad things that could go wrong a metallic tang on my tongue. My bruja energies–invariably Carrie-style when I’m on high alert–have broken two glasses, popped one lightbulb, shorted out a pair of headphones. But I’ll take each step, one in front of the other, in the cutest shoes I can muster until I’ve done everything I can today. (G-d knows the universe has sent plenty of good wind on my back.) Given the options–busy living, busy dying–I’m, like, super in favor of the former.

"All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love."
― Leo Tolstoy