Riding the Whirlwind
Dear friends,
This is the season to be thankful. Which means actually slowing down enough to think about what has been going on recently. It is strange, sitting here in England a few minutes after midnight on what will become Thanksgiving five thousand miles away, and taking this moment to do what I haven't had much time for recently – reflect.
I have managed during this intense period to maintain my sports, and today went for a 30 mile bike ride in the Cotswold hills, along a route I've never taken before. With everything else that was going on today, I carried this thunderous noise along with me in my head. It's only now, sitting here in the dark, wanting to make note of this time of thanks, that I actually 'see' the calm and the quiet and the hills and the colors that pretty much escaped me while I was out.
'Unlimited'
It has been a while since I wrote a blog post, and it may be Christmas before I can do another. The UNLIMITED film project appears to be taking off. The full funding is now in place, two million dollars, and a tentative start date for production has been set for late March of next year. For the past five weeks I have been pushing hard to complete the revised screenplay, and tomorrow I will start inserting the major changes requested by the producers and the director. I have just five days to complete this work. Because after Thanksgiving, they will begin to approach the stars.
Lifeway has now agreed to promote this film, this little project of ours, and we have been given the September 2013 release-date slot which the 'Courageous' film took this year. It is just so hard to believe this has come together as it has, after nine months of work.
Oxford
On top of all this, I am approaching the end of my first term as a full lecturer at Oxford University. I have seventeen students in my creative writing class. My actual lectures ended two weeks ago. I teach the first-year fiction section of this new degree program, then there is a lecturer on screenplay and another on poetry and songwriting.
Anyway, Oxford has a method of grading that is shared only with Cambridge in all the world. The students must write the first three chapters of what will become a full-length novel. This was submitted to the examiner – me – yesterday. Next week I will meet one-on-one with all seventeen, going over their work, pointing out what must be altered to bring them up to publishing standards, and assigning a grade. Everything but the actual grading I'm really looking forward to. That and the time commitment, coming as this does in such a hectic period, as I must read their work and then find seventeen hours for these tutorials.
Book Project
And then there is the minor matter of my current book project, which is due to the publishers at the end of December. This is a very tight date, because they have been selling the book for three months already, and the publishing date is set for next September. Which means I can't let them down. And I have really, really enjoyed working on this story. Even with this extra work on the screenplay, along with everything related to moving the entire film project forward.
So I probably have been busier at some point in my life, but just now I can't remember when that was. And being here in England it's all too easy to forget about Thanksgiving entirely. Or think about it in terms of missing the family time, along with the turkey and football.
Awards
And then, out of the blue, two amazing bits of news just fell into our lap. We have just learned that two of my recent novels have gained national awards. The Damascus Way was named one of the Ten Best for 2011 by Booklist.
And Lion of Babylon was named one of their six 'Best Christian Novels of 2011' by Library Journal.
Gratitude
So here I sit, now approaching one o'clock on Thanksgiving morning, carving out my moment of just pausing, taking a smooth breath, and knowing the pleasure of gratitude. And hoping that in the middle of everything going on in your lives, you are able to find your midnight moment and do the same.
Warmly,
Davis
