Keeping Track of Things. Losing Track of Time.

It is hard to believe it has been nine months since my last post here. There have been a few things worth reporting (thank you to all of my subscribers) but when put in context of the past year’s current events in this increasingly on-fire (figuratively and literally) world, everything ‘creative’ seems inconsequential and small. I struggle to remain hopeful while all around me I feel like I’m watching a classic Greek tragedy where, as is the case with Greek tragedies, everyone can see calamity approaching, but no one seems capable (or willing) to stop it. This is definitely not the kind of mindset you want when you’re trying to ‘be funny’ or write comedy.

But I have been working.

I’ve done an extensive re-write on my horror feature script and given it a new title, because every trusted friend/reader that read it for me absolutely hated the original title “SeaBird.” So now (or “for now”) I’m calling it “Thirsty AF.” So far, the response to the new title and rewrite has been good, here’s the initial report from the Slamdance Screenwriting competition:

“This is a lean and mean script, a page-turner of great storytelling and descriptive action. The setup is simple, but the slow decline of the characters is fun (and awful) to observe a la OLD or THE TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (the visual of burning money for warmth is a great one). The most genre-surprising element is the order of deaths—there are no niceties to the deaths and the ones who die first are unexpected (much like Eli Roth’s CABIN FEVER). The ending is a clever cliffhanger ending that hints for the first (real) time that there could be a supernatural power at work, a curse of sorts. The best part of that element is that it is left unexplained. Overall, this is a fun, wild script that could play really well at genre festivals!”

I’ll take it. No contest results yet though; those will be coming in the next few months. In the meantime, I have been trying to get the script in the hands of horror producers/companies. This is especially difficult when, like me, you no longer have an agent. Regular readers here will recall that my agent died from COVID in 2022 and finding a new agent has been its own frustrating journey so far. I’ll spare you all the details on that.

Speaking of writing things that definitely are not comedy, last fall I did finish the previously-mentioned “memoir” project I was working on last summer. The draft, and it is definitely a first draft, clocked in at 88,000 words. I’m not anywhere near satisfied with it or with myself, because I definitely edited (censored?) myself in a few areas, but it was still a valuable and helpful personal experience. I wrote about and wrestled with some issues that have always taken up a lot of space in my head and just getting them on the page helped me work through some mental stuff. No one else has read it yet and I don’t know if anyone ever will, but I’m glad I wrote it and I will, at some point, dive back into it. …actually, that wasn’t quite accurate. A few hundred people have actually read the “memoir” because I wrote it in a series of 70+ daily anonymous blog posts on a popular online publishing platform. Writing it “in public” even though it was anonymous was an important aspect of the project. I had to commit to facing difficult material and topics (ie: my actual life & history) every day for nearly 3 months and to push through the hardest parts whether I wanted to or not. Even if I wasn’t always completely successful and didn’t always go as far as I could have, the heartfelt reader comments and messages definitely made me brave enough to go further than I thought I could/would. I deeply appreciate all the time those people spent reading and responding to my real story.

I’ve always tried to keep the focus of this website on my own little life of creative work and creative engagement with the world but, like everyone else I know, these days the precarious state of the world and the country intrudes on my thoughts 24/7. In spite of my complaints, I know I’ve been insanely lucky on so many levels. I know that every tragedy, setback or disappointment I’ve ever endured has not been unique to me. This world is a grinding wheel that eventually wears everyone down to dust. I’m not different or special in that regard. I make a point of reflecting on gratitude every day. I continue to, or at least try to, face every morning with the hope that people will come to their senses before it is too late, and regrow that sense of empathy that all people are capable of when they’re not being manipulated by sociopaths with other agendas. I try not to contribute to the vitriol, while still standing up for what is right, what is human and what is humane in a world where the volume of hate is getting cranked to eleven and repeated lies warp the reality of too many people.

Good luck everyone.

Screenshot