Veronica R. Tabares's Blog, page 11

Squirrelly

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Cute little fella, isn’t he?

I thought so, until I heard strange noises in my attic.

Further research has uncovered holes this little critter and his friends chewed through my roof. Big holes.

A grand entrance on one side of the house, and a private entrance on the other. I fear my attic is being used as a party house along a scenic highway.

This squirrelly little critter is no longer cute.

He’s just another destructive nut.

Screenplay placements (to date)

Since I had to compile this list anyway…

Braumaru :
2014 ScreenCraft Family-Friendly Script Contest Quarter-Finalist 

Haunt for Hire :
2019 Screenwriting Staffing Query Letter Contest Finalist
2018 Emerging Screenwriters Shoot Your Sizzle Top 100
9th Annual StoryPros Awards Screenplay Contest Quarterfinalist

Jupiterians :
2019 Filmmatic Pitch Now Screenplay Contest Finalist

Spencer, 1928 :
2018 Nashville Film Festival Semi-Finalist
2018 Emerging Screenwriters Shoot Your Sizzle Top 100

Stone Woman :
2020 Northwest Screenwriters Guild script reading
2019 Screenwriting Staffing Query Letter Contest Winner
2018 Quarterfinalist ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship (Fifth Annual)
2016 WeScreenplay Diverse Voices Semi-Finalist
2014 ScreenCraft Family-Friendly Script Contest Quarter-Finalist
2014 ScreenCraft Action & Thriller Script Contest Quarter-Finalist

True Story of the Perfect 36 :
2019 Screenwriting Staffing Query Letter Contest Winner
2019 Scriptapalooza Screenplay Competition Quarterfinalist
2019 Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices Screenplay Competition Semi-Finalist, Family/Holiday Top 25

Wormhole 276 :
2017 Family Best Scene Screenplay   2017 Female Written Best Scene Screenplays
2017 Teen Stories, Novels, Films, Screenplays (January-June)
2017 Time Travel Stories, Novels, Films, Screenplays (January-June)
2017 Sci-fi/Fantasy Best Scene

Governor Inslee

Arbitrary is as arbitrary does, and Governor Jay Inslee is the most arbitrary man I’ve ever had the displeasure to see give a press conference.

If the rules he dictated for the state made sense, I might not mind so much.

But they don’t.

Instead of data, he uses a fear-based method of making decisions. Some might call it gut instinct, but unfortunately, his instinct is to hide from any hint of danger, save himself at all cost, and drag the entire state into the dark ages if it will make him feel safer.

So he closes churches, shutters businesses, and forces schools to remain closed.

All in the name of safety. His safety.

And whenever he sees a spark of life among the citizenry, he panics and creates a new arbitrary rule to snuff out that spark.

Like the new rule he just instituted that workout centers must maintain 300 square feet per person. Throw out that old, tired, 6 feet apart rule. We now need 300 square feet each to be safe.

Where did that come from?

Obviously, from a fear-troubled tummy. It certainly has the aroma fear. A fear that someone might workout and get healthy.

Can’t have that. Even if it is suggested by the CDC.

Governor Inslee is in charge, by gosh, and everyone’s gonna know it.

A Christmas script is born

I’ve wanted to write a Christmas script for a while. I particularly wanted to write about some little creatures that populated my dreams. They’re clear to me, as well as cute, nice, intriguing, and in some indefinable way, connected to Christmas.

So, a few months ago I got out my computer and began a beat sheet. It’s usually one of the first documents I create when I’m working on a new screenplay.

I got the entire first act worked out, then got stuck. And by stuck I mean nothing, absolutely nothing, past the first act would come to me.

I was complaining to my youngest daughter about being stuck. She wanted to help me brainstorm and asked for more details about what I had planned.

“I want it to be exciting,” I explained, “like a thriller, or maybe a-“
“Oh,” she jumped in, “like 00Santa!”

Those words were magic. My brain whirled, there was a loud click, and just like that my head was flooded by music, scenes, and more potential ideas than I could ever possibly use.

I scrapped the first act I had written and started over. This time the flow of ideas continued all the way to the end. In two days time I had a completed beat sheet that mapped out my script.

Funny thing, though. While creating the beat sheet 00Santa became 00MrsSanta, and research revealed that there were no consistent descriptions of the woman, or even a consensus of what her name might be.

Bonus! That gave me a LOT of room to play. And play I did!

I had a few more bumps and swerves as I wrote the actual screenplay, but I finished the rewrites two days ago. As soon as I copyright the script, create a logline, and write the synopsis, I’ll reveal more details.

By the time I complete a novel or a screenplay I know it so well that it becomes real to me. Familiar. Sometimes too familiar.

I had the sudden fear that the screenplay might be too similar to other Christmas movies.

So, I did a deep dive into Christmas flicks.

I found nothing, absolutely nothing, that even remotely resembled this new Christmas movie that I wrote.

And that feels very good.

Like I have been given a gift. A Christmas present.

In the middle of summer.

We are not Borg

My last post talked about fermenting in lock down and suggested a tea party.

Just to clarify, what is happening currently is NOT what I meant.

The violence and idiocy in the streets is no tea party, it’s an attempt to overthrow our entire way of life to make room for communism.

Funny how quickly it all happened. First, socialism was held out like a carrot. When enough people accepted it as a possibility, WHACK, down came the stick.

Communism.

It’s hard to believe how uneducated these looter are. How can they not recognize Marxist doctrine when they see it? Can this many people really be ignorant of what their lives would be like under a communist run state?

No freedom of religion – the all powerful leader is god.

No freedom to rise to a better life – all belongs to the state.

No freedom to create, grow, invent, express oneself – unless it falls within narrowly defined, state approved strictures.

Communist regimes allow no freedom of thought. Citizens belong to the government, mind, body, and soul.

“Resistance is futile. Prepare to be assimilated.”

Nope! I have no intention of becoming a Borg.

It doesn’t matter how much the riotous bullies burn buildings, topple statues, and act like complete idiots, there are enough non-idiots out here that we can stop this.

And I know we will.

We are Americans. We are not the assimilating type.

Fermenting in lock down

I can feel it, deep inside, brewing.
A bubble pops, releasing the foul aroma of frustration that expands and grows until it surrounds my heart.
Time passes and the fermenting continues. Bubbles of frustration continue to pop until my heart is surrounded by more frustration than it can bear.

My heart, fully aware of the danger and needing to protect itself, sends its own ingredient into the mix – a burst anger.

And as forced inaction lengthens into eternity, I finally recognize what is brewing in my chest.

REVOLUTION

I am a grown woman.
I’ve been married more than 35 years.
I’ve successfully raised 4 children.
I have a good education (a bachelor and two masters degrees), 10 published books, and more than a dozen screenplays under my belt.

Yet, I’m being told that I don’t have the mental capacity to wash my hands and keep germs at bay.

“Don’t worry your pretty little head about it,” they say. “We’ll do the thinking for you.”

As if!

I am, by nature a rule follower. It feels right.

But, for the first time in my life, I TRULY understand how the American Revolution came to be. Once that fermentation process is in full swing everything changes. Nature takes over.

And nature does not like being locked down.

Anyone in the mood for a tea party? You know, like the kind they had in Boston, oh, so many years ago?

Goodbye tree

I love this tree.

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It is a beautiful tree, a glorious tree.

Until the constant battles got too onerous. No matter how many times I cut the branches away, the tree was determined to take out my roof.

So, I took action. Or, at least, I hired someone to take action.

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Now that the tree is mostly gone, I’m amazed how much sun was hiding behind its branches.

Bonus!

Look out summer, here I come!

DTA series review

All three books in the Department of Temporal Adjustment series in one review!

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Nice, very nice.

Here’s where you can find the entire review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3254731696

It begins with “A fresh, funny twist to time travel, Tabares’s outstandingly hilarious series tells the story of a time-traveler mother of four who gets entangled into a set of hilarious situations while attempting to fix the timeline shift.”

And ends with “A must read.”

With a lot of good reviewing between.

Check it out!

The books are best read in the following order:

1. Department of Temporal Adjustment
2. Time Without
3. True Story of the Perfect 36

See ya!

New review – True Story

A new review for True Story of the Perfect 36 was just posted.

Let me tell you, “this story is a lot of fun” and “I laughed out loud quite a few times” are probably some of the best compliments the reviewer could give.

Love it!

You should check it out for yourself.

https://www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/true-story-of-the-perfect-36-by-veronica-r-tabares

Go on. You know you’re curious. What are you waiting for?

True Story book review

Yipee! Feathered Quill Book Review posted a fantastic review! I’ve shared the end of it below, but to read the entire review, please visit Feathered Quill here.

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—
Tabares has created a crazy ride, not just by boxcars in the 1920s, but through the past and future, her vibrant panorama of events heralding the centennial in 2020 of American women’s right to vote. The two teens are forceful, funny, and sneaky when they need to be, making this a rich read for young adults. And the author has clearly done careful research on the events of that critical Tennessee vote – it being the 36th state to ratify – or not – the suffrage amendment – so older readers will appreciate her treatment of historical fact. She has also devised a devious villain, someone with power to deny women’s suffrage, fueled by his frustration at having learned, through Philip’s ill-timed blunders, that Vanessa’s daughters will one day be credited with the invention of time travel, a distinction he is determined to gain for himself. Balancing these minute-to-minute changes are the gradual changes in the teens, who are growing up as they learn to cope with intrigue, politics, social issues and a strange but still quite human visitor from the future. Tabares is a screenwriter and one can easily envision the cinematic possibilities of this history laden, girl-and-woman-themed, rollicking, action-filled adventure.

Quill says: True Story of the Perfect 36 is an action-packed melting pot of near misses, might-have-beens, time travel glitches, thwarted planetary disasters and coming of age revelations that make for an engaging read.