Linda Boroff

About Me

Here are some of my successes. My failures are voluminous enough to gum up the Internet.

I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with the requisite degree in English. My stories have appeared in in Epoch, Prism International, Cimarron Review, Hobart, Eyeshot, and other places. There are links at the bottom of this section and some awards.

I started writing screenplays a few years ago and have been fortunate enough to sell some of them. My first feature, "Murder in Fashion," which I was hired to write, was released January 22 2010 to theaters in NYC, LA, and San Francisco. It's been exciting, so forgive the digression into film here. Several more of my short stories have been optioned by producers.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0834961/
Link to Web site and trailer: http://murderinfashion.com/
Link to Regent Releasing: http://www.regentreleasing.com/murderinfashionpress/index.html

Here's a link to the New York Times review by Jeanette Catsoulis: http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/movies/22murder.html?scp=2&sq=Murder%20in%20Fashion&st=cse

And an excerpt from the L.A. Times review by Kevin Thomas:

“Murder in Fashion,” written by Linda Boroff and directed by Ben Waller, is a straightforward, well-paced, resourcefully made account of handsome but crazed Andrew Cunanan’s 1997 serial killing spree that culminated with his fatal shooting of Gianni Versace in Miami Beach. Cunanan had long been obsessed with Versace, dreaming of becoming a model or even a lover of the famed designer. Jonathon Trent’s alternately charismatic and monstrous Cunanan is convincingly the ultimate hustler from hell, and James C. Burns as a shrewd, seasoned FBI agent whose insight is tragically dismissed also stands out.

***
And here is a link to an interview of me discussing the writing of "Murder in Fashion" that appeared in The Canyon News, a Los Angeles film aficionado magazine, "Serving Bel Air, Benedict Canyon, Beverly Hills. Brentwood, Laurel Canyon, Los Feliz, Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Melrose, Santa Monica, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Topanga Canyon, Westwood & Hollywood Hills."

http://www.canyon-news.com/artman2/publish/Film/Murder_In_Fashion_Exclusive_Interview.php

Here are my movies in development:
· Teen coming-of-age script, "Lifters," based on my short story “Light Fingers” originally published by Cornell University. Producer is Ira Besserman of Adventures in Film, Director Brad Furman is attached.
· Screen adaptation of the book, "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story" by John O’Dowd, currently under option to producer Barrett Stuart.
· Screen adaptation of the novel "Cult" by Warren Adler (The War of the Roses, Random Hearts).

My story "The Spirit Upweling," published in JMWW, won a literary fellowship to the St. Petersburg, Russia summer literary seminar sponsored by Walrus Magazine. I won first prize in The Writers Place Short Story Contest. My novella "Road Kills" was a Chesterfield Film Writers Project semifinalist.

Here are links to my short stories:

JMWW Magazine
“The Spirit Upwelling” (selected for Sirenland 2008 and anthologized in 2008)
http://www.jmww.150m.com/Boroff.html

Word Riot
“A Shoo-In”
http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1500

Storyglossia
“Dinner at the Bigelows’”
http://www.storyglossia.com/seven/lb_dinner.html

Hobart
“Lawrence Welk’s Last Erection”
http://hobartpulp.com/fiction/nov05boroff.html

Stirring Magazine
“Light Fingers” (won several awards, selected “Best of Stirring”)
http://www.sundress.net/stirring/archives/v2/e10/boroffl.htm

The Linnet’s Wings (Ireland)
“Pink Slip”
http://www.thelinnetswings.com/run/?stn=7000&mpageno=20&pageno=20

Flask and Pen
“White Cat”
http://flaskandpen.com/?p=449

Riverwalk Journal
“A journey from which many do not return”
http://www.riverwalkjournal.org/vol2iss3/boroffjourney.html

Eyeshot Magazine
“All Her Bridges Burn'd”
http://eyeshot.net/boroff.html

Showcase of Scottish author, Laura Hird
“The Hundred Thousand Dollar Suit”
http://laurahird.com/showcase/lindaboroff.html

Outsider Ink
“Auto”
http://outsiderink.com/03/summer/boroff.php

Pig Iron Malt
“Poison Pill”
http://www.pigironmalt.com/boroff.shtml

Ducts Magazine
“Angie Gets a Job”
http://www.ducts.org/12_04/html/fiction/boroff.htm

The Summerset Review
"Doctors"
http://www.summersetreview.org/03summer/doctors.htm

24:7 Magazine
“Cataclysm”
http://zineweb.com/2003/winter/prose-cataclysm.html

Stickman Review
“Mighty”
http://www.stickmanreview.com/V4N2/contents/boroff.html

In Posse Review
“Learning to Sew”
http://webdelsol.com/InPosse/19_fict_boroff.htm

The Pedestal Magazine
“Everything I Have is Yours”
http://www.thewritersplace.org/contestwinners/shortstories/Everything_I_Have_Is_Yours.shtml

http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/gallery.php?item=54

In Posse Review
“Going Broke”
http://webdelsol.com/InPosse/boroff12.htm

SunOasis
“The Departed”
http://www.sunoasis.com/boroffstory.html

Artisan Magazine

“Euphoric Recall”
http://members.aol.com/artisanjnl/boroff.html

Pulse Magazine
“Sunnyside” (also a 100-page screenplay)
http://web.archive.org/web/20001101202801/http://heartsoundspress.com/archivestories2.htm#sunnyside

“The Appendage That Nobody Talks About”
http://www.farmhousemagazine.com/12Sboroff.html
Anthologized in “Best of Farmhouse Magazine” in 2009

Why do you write?

I write because stories occur to me that need telling. Once I start to write, my craft interposes itself, and I truly don't know where it all comes from --- why I choose one word over another or punctuate in a certain way. But I do seem to "hear" each sentence; its cadence and the music of the words all together delivering the effect and emotion I want. I'm quite perfectionistic. Sometimes it's hard to let something go.

When I write fiction, I consider only my need to write and the story's need to be told. But when I write screenplays, I consider also the audience and 2-hour time limit, budgetary concerns, recent trends in screenplay sales, producers' and directors' preferences and styles, demographics of appeal and so on. Screenwriting is a commercial art, if that's not an oxymoron, and I approach it on its own terms. I do put my own voice into my scripts --- but I accept that screenwriters are subject to the visions and tastes of producers and funding entities. Should that bother me? It hasn't, of yet. On the other hand, I've also had my short stories edited by the magazines that accept them and had to acquiesce if I wanted publication. So I keep an open mind.

Any favorite authors? Books?

Let's see --- I.B. Singer, Colette, Zola, Cheever, Edith Wharton, Annie Proulx, Graham Greene, Maugham, Grace Paley, E.M. Forster, James Dickey, Roth (earlier stuff), Salinger, Joyce, Fitzgerald ...I'll add to this...