Holi-daze 09 – Spring Edition
The holidays have gone by in a blur so far this year. I think our 4:45 am wake up time is causing the days to feel shorter somehow. I did have a couple of Harp Lager on St. Patrick’s Day. And before you make with the gee you don’t look Irish, it’s my mother’s Feast Day, okay? However on that note, we do have a rather large block of family so fair of skin and freckled of face and even naturally red of hair that there’s some links in there somewhere. I lived in neighborhoods and went to schools in Philly where there were scads of Irish-Americans. That is why I know how to do an Irish jig. I learned it in High School gym class. I can also Polka and square dance. I’m not sure what the origin of teaching those were other than perhaps, The Lawrence Welk Show. I’m not kidding here. The school administration foisted a big band on us for our Prom. We had to fight for a DJ to be included. At any rate, I had some beer and corned beef and cabbage. Not all at once though. We didn’t do much for Mardi Gras. It’s hard to have a raucous street festival with two really tired people. We did have some lovely seafood though. President’s Day was a lovely day off for writing. And then, the last holiday before Memorial Day, Cesar Chavez Day. UCLA celebrates it. This year, the official holiday fell on a Friday, so we had a three-day weekend. Sweet! I remember helping with the grape boycott as a child, but I had no idea until we started working at UCLA that there was a holiday. Again, we used it to work on projects. I also rested my back as much as possible (when not writing or cooking). Alas, It’s back to a full week’s schedule starting tomorrow. Easter looms, but we have to jam all those festivities into a regular weekend. No fair.
Craig Update
I’m making progress in persuading Craig to write memoirs. He’s considering the title, I Craig. I pointed out that could also be a new and disturbing verb. He liked that thought as well. He’s come to peace with Juan Epstien being a neighbor. Craig even looked at his Web-based series, The Venice Walk. Craig and I agreed that some of the acting may be high on histrion
ics, but the basic premise is certainly worth of producing as a series. It has young, attractive people in a state of constant personal crisis and Juan Epstien as their unconventional – some say obsessed – parole officer. Sounds like the CW to me. Save for the cursing. That may make it more suitable for FX or Spike TV. With peace in the neighborhood, Craig has been left to obsess with Winnie the Pooh. That began when he found out that a business associate of one of his family had the nickname Vinnie the Pooh (I am not clever enough to make this up). Craig was so tickled by that that his girlfriend thought it would be fun to give him a book full of Winnie the Pooh and friends stickers. Everyone else who knows Craig knew that idea would lead to disaster and some sort of obscenity. And it has. My present was a very happy Winnie the Pooh sticker on a page filled with foul-mouthed rantings on disemboweling Christopher Robin. I had to crop the image. Craig doing readings of his memoir will have to be at bookstores with no children’s sections.Blood Oath
I finally finished the draft two-part pilot. When I say finished, I mean it’s written in longhand on legal pads. That’s how I roll. Thus, when I input the script into Movie Magic, it’s really a draft and a half. I refine the longhand version as I input. I’ve been writing that way for a long time. I have a lot of trouble creating directly into a keyboard. I’m not sure why. I wasn’t even planning on writing full scripts (I’m up to episode three). I was only going to do treatments with enough detail that we could do character, location and set breakdowns. But once the guys started doing things, I couldn’t help but write the dialogue as well. My mutant soldier boys love attention. It also helps that the concept is as fully developed as possible so that the budget reflects the actual demands of each episode.
Again, I’m finding surprises as I write the scenes that weren’t in the first book. There was Jenn Saxl’s revelation to Vincent that she never thought he should have been Altered. Of course, Vincent is confused by this attitude. He didn’t have a real choice. The alternative would have been institutionalization. Vincent realizes that she never really saw him as he was even while they were children. This is important to show the audience why Vincent didn’t want lodgings with the Saxls upon his return from the portal despite Bobby being there. I’m getting much better at cinematic. I’m sure it’s 80 percent Jon and 20 percent Battlestar Galactica. I have to show things that I would handle as interior monologue in my fiction but not make it look like exposition. Vincent’s personality helps. He has such colorfully worded tirades. Getting out the information is fairly easy. All of this new material begs the question of writing a prequel. I’m not going to do that, because there isn’t enough material for a whole book. And I have clear plans for two more sequels (I told you, the boys really love attention). However, I’ll probably do some online short stories or novellas.
Post on the pilot presentation is slow going. We’ve got a handle on the art work, but we need to resolve some equipment issues before Jon can take on doing the composites to replace the green screen. We expect to resolve those issues this week. Meanwhile, the new version of the website is up at: http://bloodoathseries.com/. We’ll be adding to it as the art work is finalized.
Unfortunately, there are no updates on the other projects.
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