Making the new year count

We're off to a good start for 2012. And let's face it, we've got to make it count with the advent of the whole Mayan calendar - zombie apocalypse on the horizon.

Speaking of the zombie apocalypse, I just received word that my zombie short - Body and Blood was a first round finalist in the 2011 Table Read My Screenplay Competition.  This is the second time I've done well when entering this competition... I like this competition.

But what I really should be focusing on is the necessity to broaden our horizons. For years, I stuck to my guns and focused solely on features, and predominantly on horror features. It's my niche, and it's where I'm comfortable, and let's face it, Body and Blood is a horror story. But it's not a feature. And if my friend Jay Costelo hadn't put faith in me and convinced me to try and write a few shorts, I probably wouldn't have written this.. So thanks, Jay!

And if my friend Jeff Brown, a writer who I believe has a promising future, hadn't convinced me that Supernatural was a show I needed to watch, I wouldn't have tried my hand at writing a couple of TV specs. So thanks, Jeff for inspiring me to broaden my horizons.

And while we're at it, thanks needs to be sent out to other writing friends of mine - Judith Watson, George Lee and Sharon White who, as a group, participated in a writing exercise with me that inspired me to write Turf War, an animated feature with no horror whatsoever in its content. I still think it's better than Gnomeo and Juliet. Turf War was a top 100 Table Read finalist last year.

One last thank you, to Greg Goyins - another writer, director, producer and a man with many hats - who has inspired me to tackle another short.  I'm working on it, Greg. I'm working on it.

Thanks to all of you, and to anyone in my life who may not be mentioned here, for helping me broaden my horizons and see the potential of the future. Have a good 2012!

The out of the loop writer's dilemma

Today was not a good day to be an occasional writer, full time mother. As I caught up on the news posted in the latest edition of The Hollywood Reporter, an article about the new Miramax caught my eye. One of the first productions to be released under the (re)new Miramax banner will be an animated gnome picture called GNOMEO AND JULIET.

Oh, please no! You have got to be kidding me! That animated piece that I just finished, that I've been excited about all summer long has just been blown out of the water. How I sooooo wish I could claim plagiarism, but it's obvious I can't. It's just another example of a great idea drifting through the ether that multiple people 'discovered' at the same time. And I'm kicking myself because I missed the news. With a 2011 planned release, GNOMEO AND JULIET must have been in the works for, at minimum, a full year.

There are differences. The multiple writers of the piece used Shakespeare as a template. I didn't. My only hope is that mine (titled TURF WAR) would have been better. As far as pitching the material? I already know it's a lost cause, because all of Hollywood will compare it to GNOMEO AND JULIET just from the logline. No one is going to want to put forth effort on a script whose idea alone is so close to a new release, no matter how good that other script might be.

But this is one of many dilemmas for a writer in such a high turnover industry. Am I sorry I wrote TURF WAR? Do I chalk it up to wasted time? No! I'm proud of my work, and hope it will, at the very least, showcase my talent. I guess what I'm saying is, don't stop writing! How many times can they remake Romeo and Juliet? Apparently, too many. How many times can we see battles between Vampires and Werewolves? I know, they're on the decline, but they'll return again. They always do.

So, for me, I hope that TURF WAR will at least do well in competition. And in the mean time, I'm off to write that next great idea that seems impossible to have not been tackled by someone else. Wish me luck! And keep writing!