Next Saturday it would have been 100 days since I last heard from MM. When I reflected on this last week, I realized he had never been completely silent for that long.

Today I received the sad news our dear friend passed away.

I had the honor and the privilege of corresponding with MM behind the scenes regarding the re-publication of his 101 Best Of on The Story Department. In the few communications we had, he struck me as a passionate, generous man with a big heart, completely consistent with his online persona.

I missed his regular blog posts after 2009 and when I asked his permission to republish the Best Of as Mystery Man on Monday, he didn’t just agree; he offered to write a whole new article every month.

He only managed to write two.

Mystery Man’s writing could have hardly been labeled as ‘musings’. They were thorough analyses, merciless rants or declarations of unconditional love. He showed a razor sharp vision, a disregard for ego but above all: a big, warm passion for the craft.

I’m humbled that the last new article Mystery Man published on the web, was here on the Story Department. His very last tweet on 4 March was a link to that article.

You can still see his last tweets on the front page of his web site www.mysteryman.org, which he only launched late last year. All his original blog posts still reside at Blogspot.

In honor of MM, and as agreed with him, I will continue to publish his Best Of articles here every Monday.

Meanwhile, more than I have ever anticipated any publication before, I look forward to reading MM’s free screenwriting book.

Let’s all make that book the new standard in our industry and finally start that much needed Screenwriting Revolution! When this happens MM will be smiling, while smoking a big fat Havana.

“Hehehe…”

Karel

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UPDATE:

Scott Myers is paying tribute to Mystery Man this weekend.

REMEMBERING MM:

Mamet Speak: A Blog talk with Josh James

Mystery Man’s 7 Scripts You Gotta Read on mypdfscripts.com