Approaching 25

Well. It’s Sunday again!

I hope everyone had a great week! Personally, I was able to cross something huge off my bucket list. I worked as an extra for the Thurgood Marshall Biopic.

It really was a fun experience; one I feel so lucky to have been a part of. Not to mention I got to spend over 15 hours next to Josh Gad and Chadwick Boseman. It makes their movies that much more enjoyable when you know they are genuinely good people. Josh could tell a few extras were a little uptight and cracked a few jokes to loosen them up. As for Chadwick, it was rare to find a moment he wasn’t smiling (when the camera wasn’t rolling). He was also quick to coach/encourage the extras after every shot to help generate the feeling/emotion he was looking for.

It really has been amazing to see the turnaround in Buffalo. I grew up in a city on life support, now life seems to gravitate to our returning downtown (I definitely made the right decision to return home).

But now I’m back to work, and back to writing. For the past month I have been editing a YA manuscript. It deals with typical high school struggles, and the search for self-identity. The protagonist, Jessica, finds wisdom from a woman named Maud (inspired by/paying homage to Harold and Maud). However, editing is a slow process, and no matter how much work you get done on any given day it just doesn’t give the same satisfying feeling as creating something from scratch.

That’s why, when I realized a few days ago that I turn 25 next month, I decided to put editing on hold. I want to complete one more project before I hit the quarter century mark; one more manuscript for the ever growing vault of rough drafts I can spend my 25th year on earth actually editing.

So I’m excited about this project. I’m aiming for a short 60 thousand word manuscript. One week in and I’m over 12 thousand words so far—so a little ahead of schedule.

It should be a lot of fun. I love the story so far, but I can’t tell if it’s actually good or if I’m just in the honeymoon stage where I could literally write “poop” 500 times and think I’m an innovative genius.

The working title is The Feast and it takes place in a halfway house for teenagers. That’s all I’m giving away! I don’t want anyone to tell me how stupid the plot sounds before I finish—nothing will deflate me faster.

Once again I would like to thank everyone who took time out of their day to read this post. It makes me feel pretty special and I very much appreciate it.

I would like to give a huge shout out to Arlo Guthrie! I’m sure he isn’t on this site, but if he is I just want to say I love your work. I saw you live at Jazz Fest this year and became an instant fan. In fact while writing this post I listened to “The City of New Orleans.” Your music always makes me smile and always reminds me just how beautiful the world can be. (Cheesy I know but why not end a post with a little cheese?)

For those of you who want to hear the song here is a link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMS_...

Thanks again!