Nobody Knows

 

I finished a TV pilot this month with an old friend, Mark, and we entered it into SeriesFest to see if we could get some bites - or bliss. It is a pretty interesting story. Mark and his wife, Arlene, moved to Mexico to find their bliss. In this picture (left) is our cousin, John, Mark and his wife, Arlene. Our TV pilot is based on Mark's comedy book Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak. I got the coverage on it back this month, and it is fantastic!

"The writer has created an absolutely fantastic premise. The concept of Americans (from Portland) moving to Mexico to realize some idealized dream that is far from ideal is great and will provide endless setups for future episodes. I could see this done as a single-camera or multicamera show, though the format is very much a single-camera show. It's a concept that also has wide audience appeal, especially depending on how much you dig into cultural discussions and commentary.  I also love your three main characters, Charlie, Marty, and Adele. The dynamic between Charlie and Marty feels reminiscent of ALL IN THE FAMILY, though with completely different archetypes that fit contemporary audiences. They each have a very distinct personality with its own quirks, positives, and negatives. You do introduce a few locals into the pilot, but it would be great to see them even more so we get a sense of the regulars within this world that our central family will be interacting with from week to week."

Getting back to Mark, decades ago, we found that we liked to write and were both going to the Willamette Writers Conference that summer. We agreed to meet in the big tent for lunch. When Keith and I walked in, I said, "Isn't that your cousin, John, sitting next to Mark?" Yup, in Portland, a town of 2 million+, the only two people we knew - were friends with each other!  Mark and I stayed in touch over the next few decades, and it was Mark who told us when Cousin John died this year. John was an LA lawyer who moved to Portland to find his bliss and write plays. That is also Mark's bliss, writing plays, although he's quite the accomplished comedian and has written for shows like Leno. But his book has been on my Kindle all these years and has been my "go-to" book when I'm feeling sad - which has happened a few times this year. After I read it again this fall, I knew it could be a TV pilot and convinced Mark to take a leap of faith with me. He gave me the option on it and agreed to co-write the pilot.  

I changed "Mark and Arlene" to Marty and Adele - fictitious characters and then merely told Mark's story. He and Arlene have moved to San Miguel de Allende three times! They are now back in Portland. I made a fictitious city, too, to protect the huge expat community in San Miguel "where if you swing an artist, you'll hit a writer and if that writer ducks, you'll hit a jazz musician." In addition, the locals speak Spanish with the speed of a particle accelerator.
So that is what I've been knee-deep in this past month. Here's the Nobody Knows Pitch Deck.

Now, I'm starting on a horror movie, writing it with a famous artist, Guy Vasilovich, based on Edgar Allan Poe's last living relative, titled Last Poe —more on that next month!

A Hallmark Christmas

This month, my best friend, Laura (right,) visited me for a week. There aren't that many people who knew me as my mother's daughter, so we talked a lot about our mothers. 

My mother loved Christmas – every inch of our home was decorated. She made a magical bonbon – and I'm often asked for the recipe. One problem – I don't have it. My mom never wrote it down before she died unexpectedly, and we lost more that day than her secret ingredients.

As kids, I admired Laura's mother; she was a professional woman and they lived in an immaculate house. When I asked why their sewing machine was in the master bedroom when they had both a family room and a rarely used living room, Laura laughed. Appearances were important in her family and nobody touched their formal living room. In our home, the sewing machine was on the dining room table because we ate in the kitchen. For my family, everything was about functionality. Eating was number one; my mother was an amazing cook - in fact, my maiden name was Cook. Mom's dining room and kitchen looked like a Hallmark movie set during a bonbon contest.

Last month, we welcomed a dashing young man, Luis, from Ecuador into our family when my scientist granddaughter, Vrinda Jerome, became Vrinda Silva. He loves to cook! While up in Jacksonville for the wedding, I watched a marathon batch of Christmas movies. A few months ago I had finished writing my Hallmark-like movie, Christmas Bonbons, which is being shopped by the same Hijacked producer Autumn Bailey (On a Wing and a Prayer with Dennis Quaid.) Hijacked was an adaptation from a true book about the heroes of flight 705. Christmas Bonbons was my first Hallmark structured movie. I loved writing it. The 9-acts and Hallmark "rules" are like catnip to a former programmer like me that loves structures.  For those of you considering a career writing Hallmark Christmas Movies, here's the most common format;

Act 1 -  Setup. The heroine has a happy life, but something is missing.

Act 2 -  Inciting incident. She has to travel somewhere; maybe home for the holidays or a  project for work. Often is is snowing when she gets there.

Act 3. Meet Cute. She arrives - and by chance, she encounters the romantic interest, who can be her long-lost first love or involved in her work project. But it can also be a family friend, or the friendly town vet, or even a guy that sells Christmas trees.

Act 4. Debate - as her situation gets more challenging and that frustrating romantic interest is always just there, resulting in many more encounters where the guy makes himself useful, and sometimes frustrates her and she wants to leave, but she has to finish something first.

Act 5. Almost kiss -  they begin to enjoy spending time together. This is also where they touch accidentally, or look into each other's eyes - and then,  one of them says awkwardly, "I should go..." something isn't right about them being together as they almost kiss.

Act 6. Fun and games. They finally get over that reason why things are awkward, find themselves in a snow ball fight, or trying to decorate a tree, or make cookies, and get interrupted right before their lips meet. Sometimes there is a town contest for the best decoration of some sort and they compete.

Act 7. BUT - something is wrong; he said/she said - misunderstandings, rumours, and she thinks she should go back home because she's afraid - or he doesn't seem to feel the same way about her..

Act 8. Finally – one of them, has the courage to tell the other how they really feel thanks the classic mentor who often is wearing a Santa Hat. Feelings are real, they are falling in love! She maybe decides to move back home, or he's going to move to where she lives. A new life is beginning. Their life together matters.

Act 9. They live happy ever after and the whole family (or town) joins them around the Christmas tree for a group picture or singing a Christmas carole.

There are also some of the Hallmark traits and rules;

1. No words like crazy, hate, NO profanity

2. Christmas in almost every scene

3. NO religion

4. Must decorate a Christmas tree

5. Theme uplifting

6. Make Christmas food like cookies

7. No sex scenes

8. Few displays of affection

9. One snowball fight

10. One kiss at the end

11. Must have a happy ending.

I'm not sure my Christmas Bonbons is a perfect script yet, I probably have some rewrites it its future, but I also and I haven't given up trying to recreate that bonbon recipe of my mom's. The difference between a writer and a professional writer is that a professional never gives up. I'd write more this month, but today I'm getting down my Christmas decorations from the attic. I love Christmas.

Reverse Adaptation Mama Dallas and Augie

  “And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” — Sylvia Plath

In August this year, I did one of my hardest projects, adapting a book based on a true story into a screenplay. I love to write stories and make up new characters and story worlds, but since all the characters were real and living, my creative license was restricted. I read the book four times to learn about the characters and what happened so I could write dialog and defend it with "I think he could have said this," but I couldn't add fictitious characters or make the existing characters into something they were not. For example, five of the six pilots were men, and although I'd like to have more than one female pilot, I don't think real-life Andy would like to be played by Andrea.

When I've watched movies, I used to be puzzled by the amount of producers and wonder "How many producers does it take to make a movie?" This movie, Hijacked, started as a book option by the first producer, who is now my friend, Melissa. We have two interesting things in common. First of all, she used to own a manufacturing plant in Detroit, supplying parts to the car factories like Ford, GM, etc. I used to own a technology company that supplied software to dealers to enable them to run their car dealerships and submit warranty claims and other data to the factories. Our other connection is my manager, who owns Little Studio Films and recommended me to Melissa. Melissa and her company Helicopter Productions is now developing my series, Last Hand, set in Las Vegas - and she is co-writing with me the pilot episode. The third producer mentioned in my August blog is sending Hijacked out to 20-30 studios, streamers, etc. When one of them bites, that will mean a fourth producer and finally, another producer will actually get the movie made. In order to get certain talent involved, they might want producer credits (and a share of the profit involved.) That is how a movie ends up with dozens of producers.

As soon as Hijacked was done, I got a job to write a screenplay as a sequel to another movie being made, Mama Dallas - Five Points. I had that screenplay as a guide, along with a treatment by another writer. But the best thing was the actual person whose family this story was about. We talked and emailed, and then I researched her family and the era. I read six different books that were about this time and place and watched the Godfather series again - probably for the 4th or 5th time.  I started a Google Docs file of the newspaper articles and facts from Ancestry.com (I'm a hobby genealogist) and, at one point, commented that I could write a book about the Del Gaizo family! Guess what? I wrote a book and the author's proof arrives today!

This was sort of a reverse adaptation. Studios and streamers like to make projects based on existing IP, but so far, the reviews have been great. It was a tough project, I first got a greenlight on September 3rd, then on September 19th, a big "stop, stop!" The text said firmly,  "Don't write the book of Augie; no activity beyond the script." I was sort of fired.

But since I was still writing the sequel script at the same time as the book, I kept making my notes and writing chapters. But I had a deadline. It was my deadline only - I wanted it done before the AFM - American Film Market November 5-10th in Las Vegas, where they planned to feature the two movies. A book would show the whole story, both screenplays and if they read the first few chapters, even a prequel!

I finally got the full green light again to write the book and signed the contracts on October 22, 2024. I sent the book off for Author proofs the next day. I had already had my amazing cover guy working on the cover for a few months. It was a difficult cover because the story involved NYC, trains, ships, and five key characters. I wanted them all on the cover. I had grown to love each one.

But the fun part was that everyone was dead. Okay, that might seem morbid, but unlike Hijacked, nobody is going to say, "Augie would never say that!" In fact, my co-writer and the actual descendant of this family wrote this to me;

"Your creative license was a big jump but so intriguing. It makes the story so much deeper...for me, watching you put all the pieces together is horrifyingly wonderful! I mean that as a compliment. Fabio becomes so much more disgusting with his entitled wealth. You are a marvel." - Jody Fasanella

That one word, "marvel," meant the world to me - but I call her a jewel because she's had this jewel of a story inside her all these years, and she is truly a jewel. Although painful at times to work with everyone involved, in the end, I hope I've made a long-time friend of my co-author, and I hope she can play Mama Dallas someday or the mother in Last Hand. I need her to meet Melissa at AFM!

What's next? I'm adapting my good friend Mark Saunders's book, Nobody Knows the Spanish I Speak, into a comedy pilot with 6-8 episodes, which means I go to bed each night exhausted and laughing. Stay tuned for more!

Tap, Tap, Tap

 "Tap! Tap! Tap!" Those are the first three words of the new hardback book that I got for Christmas. It was Nancy Drew 16: The Clue of the Tapping Heels. I don't know where my mom bought it, but I remember that it had that new book smell and it was mine! I didn't have to return it to the library.

Escondido didn't have a bookstore back then before the Escondido Mall was built in 1964. I asked where my mom could have bought it new on a Facebook Group page, "I Grew up in Escondido." Mom isn't around to remember. The consensus was the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew could be purchased at drug stores, grocery stores and even through the Sears catalog, which was a big thing at our house. I'd get my new underwear each year from that catalog and maybe one new school dress (we sewed the others.) 

 

But a new book was a treat, and I still remember this first new one about Nancy tapping out Morse code to get out of a basement. She was a smart girl detective, and I decided to become a detective after reading that. It was a short-lived goal. I was a farm girl, raised out in the countryside of Escondido and belonged to 4-H. I loved animals and wanted to be a large animal vet. My dream college was CalPoly, and I stayed on that path until one revealing day when my lamb got sick, and I needed to give it a shot. 

I woke up after fainting, and being the logical person that I was, I switched to plants and decided to focus on teaching the starving world to grow food. During college, they started killing Americans in Central America, so I changed from International Agriculture to Agribusiness and then to business with a focus on accounting and, later, computer programming. But I never forgot Nancy and my dream. My first solo novel was Murder in the Magic Kingdom, which combined my love of everything Disney and mystery. That title was taken, so it was published as Pixie Dust Death, A Wilma  Wallaby Genius Girl Detective Novel. 

This month, I signed an agreement with a UK production company that wants to develop Wilma Wallaby into an international kids TV show.  As a modern-day Enola Holmes, Wilma Wallaby is an aspiring kick-ass detective who thinks her bully of an older brother is always trying to murder her. You might remember a previous blog where I shared my childhood struggles growing up with a tyrant of an older brother. I still have a cap on the broken tooth from one of our fights that he won. I had a tiny closet in my room, and he'd stuff me in there for hours when my folks weren't home and lock me out of the house at other times. I hated being home alone with Stan. He'd hit me hard and threaten to do worse if I told Mom and Dad. He's dead now (no, I didn't kill him,) but I spent most of my childhood wishing I was an only child.

Getting back to Wilma Wallaby, there was one problem with my book; it was set in Disney World. Trying to get Disney to sign off on a murder mystery set in the happiest place on earth would take years. This month, I had to rewrite it to be set at a fictitious theme park in Florida, which I called Castle Country. It was fun; I invented rides, lands, restaurants, and hotels. There is Medieval Castle Land, Fairy Castle Land, The Swiss Alps and rides like Troll Trek and Screaming Sleds through the Swiss Alps. I think my Viking Cruise trip starting in Switzerland through the Rhine River castles last year finally paid off.

The new title is Wilma Wallaby Castle Caper - A Genuis Girl Detective Novel.

You can read for free with Kindle Unlimited or order it on Amazon. It opens similar to my favorite Nancy Drew - with a tap, tap - enjoy!

Amazon Link - https://us.amazon.com/dp/1736034863

"It had to be snakes," from Indiana Jones

I like snakes. When I find one in the yard, I follow it around, making a lot of noise so we both know who is the bigger animal. I grew up with good and bad snakes. The bad were the rattlesnakes in Escondido. My dad showed me how to always put my bicycle in between the snake and myself to catch the strike in the spokes and to watch it coil. Like a hurricane, a rattlesnake lets you know that it is coming. Lots of warning as It rattles its tail and coils into a tight circle – ready to strike.

A few months ago, my manager did an episode of her podcast, The Heart of Show Business with with Andrea Crosta. The Italian-born, Los Angeles-based Crosta is the founder of Earth League International, a small conservation NGO that operates like a mini-FBI, using undercover operatives to infiltrate wildlife trafficking networks while feeding information to law enforcement about the key players and their modi operandi.

At one point in the podcast, Alexia mentions how Andrea looks like Leonardo DiCaprio - and I remembered how Leo was a villain -- who becomes a hero in the movie Blood Diamond.  Leo also produced Netflix's documentary 'The Ivory Game' about Andrea's work. A few days earlier, I met James Fox during Heidi’s Hage Saga's Virtual Workday https://hanesaga.com/2024-speakers and read James’ series opener, Revolution - The Sol Saga Book 1, where the evil Silas kills his targets and takes over their body and lives -  and thought, what if someone envied a person so much that they decided to take over their life?

Python Pursuit is about a handsome, passionate wildlife conservationist who breaks up one of the biggest exotic pet trade enterprises and creates an enemy that not only wants to take away our hero's life but his identity, too, in the most gruesome way possible. Yes, it had to be about snakes.

My manager is very excited about the script, but I got worried. I'm not a thriller/horror writer. I like writing about Christmas, love, kittens, soccer, and history. Uplifting stuff, funny, with happy endings. In addition, my new friend, Melissa, who is producing Hijacked (last month's blog,) is trying to get the film rights for one of my favorite books -- a SciFi. Over the past year, my manager has acquired coverage for my scripts from Heidi Stangeland, a former book editor – turned screenwriter. She writes Thrillers and SciFI. In addition, I've discovered that everything that Heidi says about my scripts is "spot on." I call her ideas –  the "magical touch" that my scripts needed. Then, it came to me. Why not partner with Heidi?

One problem: I don't like partnerships. My hero, Steve Wozniak, wrote in his book, iWoz “Artists work best alone. Work alone.” I was able to get him to autograph his book with this quote for Keith's birthday and he added…"except with Sandi." 

“Artists work best alone. Work alone.”

― Steve Wozniak, iWoz

How can I consider having a writing partner who isn't the guy I married to? Simple, I figured out that it is a lot like programming. Rarely do programmers "collaborate" when programming. I decided that this could work in screenwriting. We'll get ideas from our manager or a producer who has an existing project or book option that we'll adapt. We can also use ideas of our own. Next, I'll do the the outline, using one of the best structures for the story like Save the Cat or the 8-sequence method that I learned in the Native American fellowship last year and write the screenplay. Then off it goes to Heidi, who will add what the story, characters, or dialogue needs. Character and dialogue are my weaker areas, and Story and Structure are my strong suits. The key in our process is that when I'm finished with the first draft – that is it. Heidi will make all the changes she wants without asking me. No collaboration or committee discussions. I like the saying that a camel is a horse designed by a committee.

Our process will greatly improve our timeline and hopefully prevent creative differences. My hope is that the next time I see the story is on the screen, I want to move to the next project. Speaking of projects, my screenplay from last month, Hijacked, has taken on a production company, Autumn Bailey of AB Entertainment. She produced On a Wing and a Prayer with Dennis Quaid and has been looking for another faith-based airplane movie. This happened by chance. I use a listing service called Inktip, where I have my scripts, and various producers put out "leads" of scripts they are looking for. With 12 feature scripts and another 7 TV pilots, I respond to about 5 leads a week, and finally, someone contacted me and asked to read one of my worst scripts! Yuck. 

But when I responded to her, I thought I'd do a little research and maybe find something nice to say to her - to make up for sending her a vomit script. Well -- I found she produced On a Wing and a Prayer, and  I complimented her and gave the link about Hijacked and told her I used On a Wing as a "comp" for our movie. She immediately emailed me -- "Call me!" I did - right away, and we spent an hour on the phone talking about Hijacked. She always gets asked by Netflix, Amazon, and Apple+ - if she has another airplane/faith movie. I connected her with our Hijacked producer, Melissa and my manager, and a lovefest started. Everyone was in a buzz - but the hold-up was the Coverage for the script. That is when the dreaded reader decides if my script is a Pass, Consider, or Recommend.  It came back as a Recommend (from Heidi) the best! She made some suggestions that I took before sending it off for the WeScreenplay coverage that Autumn likes. I think you can see how this came full circle as Autumn is now a producer of Hijacked, AND has 3 of my Christmas/faith scripts in a 6-month shopping agreement.  Fingers crossed that it will be a very Merry Christmas in a few years!  I have to end this blog and get back to my Python Pursuit - and yes, "It had to be snakes!"

 

Flying High

 

In my previous life - before I started a technology company, I worked for two guys who owned their own planes. I love flying, and it was always a treat to fly on a plane that left when the boss was ready. I like to sit up front and watch the pilot. When I first started writing, I wrote about the newest PC software, including Flight Simulator, and even wrote a chapter in my first book about that program. Later, I took ground school on the path to get my pilot's license, but a soccer injury to my eye meant that I lacked the depth perception necessary to safely fly a plane.

I got exciting news this month. I got a book adaptation gig!  It is a movie being produced about an existing book, Hijacked: The True Story of the Heroes of Flight 705. I never got asked to do this job - I aggressively pursued it. After my manager got back from Cannes, we had a Zoom where she updated me on all my scripts, the studios and producers that had requested to read and who she had sent to. I was so elated and toward the end, she mentioned that she met this amazing producer who was trying to get the rights to a book about a hijacking of a FedEx plane. I wrote that down and after we were done, I did a search on it and found the book on Amazon. I verified that was the story and went to bed reading the book (it was free with Kindle Unlimited.) 

The next day, I got up excited and wrote a long treatment of how I'd handle the story - compared to how the book is sequenced. I realized that my manager had NOT requested this and might think I was silly, but instead, she forwarded this to the producer and that the option had not been secured. I knew my manager had two writers who did book adaptations, so the only way I'd get this gig was to be the eager beaver - early bird, etc. Needless to say, a few weeks later, my manager said that the option had been secured and that the producer wanted to talk to me and she set up a Zoom.

I ended up reading the book four times and made Keith read it and explain a lot of the technical stuff (the pilot inverted the plane at one point), and then I started learning everything about the producer and her production company. www.HELICOPTER PRODUCTIONS.com

We spent 2 1/2 hours on the phone - and had a real meeting of the minds. A few odd things - she used to own a manufacturing company is a supplier to Ford, etc. They make the little tubes for electrical wires under 1 inch that run to the visor, and windshield wipers. She is still in Detroit. I explained my connection to the automotive business. My two airplane-owning bosses were car dealers.

My manager and the producer saw this as a faith-based movie. There are a lot of funds for this type of movie. I agreed, but there was another issue – race. A big producer had optioned it before - and couldn't get past the race issue, especially right after the death of Rodney King. Since the hijacker is black and against three older white dudes - some might think of it as being about race. The book goes into detail about this, but I proposed removing his race - and even suggested removing his face, etc. It didn't have to be part of the story of how three pilots were able to beat all odds and land that plane after being critically attacked with hammers. This hijacker is a very evil man, did horrible things and had planned to crash a huge D10 into the FedEx sorting facility and kill thousands of workers - most of them black. He didn't care - he wanted to destroy his employer and get the 1.3 million life insurance for his kids because he was about to be fired (for good cause.) 

At the end, she wrote to my manager "Had a wonderful meeting with Sandi.  We discussed a lot.  This is our writer! We are so excited to get started and move quickly.  Sandi has amazing ideas, and with her strength in structure, and her aviation knowledge, will make this a winning script! She is on the same page with creative direction as an inspirational / faith-based film.  Nothing "in your face", but as Sandi confirmed, God is mentioned 16 times in the book."

So, I got the gig - not a huge fee, but a percentage that could be huge if it goes to a tent pole like Sully or Air Force One instead of A Wing and a Prayer. I've been dancing on air, taking more meetings - writing, writing, writing and loving it - flying high!

Here's the link to the pitch deck.

Chasing Chickens

How many of you can say that you have a picture of yourself holding a chicken?
 
My parents raised chickens, and I'd often be the "go-to person" to catch the chickens that escaped from the chicken house. It was an important job because if nightfall came -  the coyotes would get them. 

I was a fast kid with boundless energy - so my parents thought I was the perfect person for the job -- or they just wanted me out of the house!

I could either chase, chase after them until they tired - I've always been overactive, or I could surround them by making various mazes and traps. 

My parents owned an avocado ranch and there were hundreds of wooden boxes stored next to the chicken house. I was a smart kid, so after a few tries at outrunning the chickens, I started building traps to corner the intelligence-challenged birds. That worked. It was easier and more efficient.

I found in my first 20 years of screenwriting that chasing my dream of getting to see my name up on the big screen is a lot like chasing chickens. I've been writing and writing and not catching any producers, agents, or managers. I was getting tired. 

Two years ago - I had the resources I needed - a "fixed" income  after selling my software company, which meant I didn't have to chase after clients and investors, and I had the funds, although limited - to spend on my "boxes." 

Since I don't have unlimited funds, I create a budget each month of what I can spend. I've been using my children's book writing, screenplay contests, listing services, pitching fees, editors, marketing, experts etc., as my boxes and now with a manager - I think that chicken is almost surrounded! I'm very close to getting a writing gig for adapting an amazing book. 

Tune in next month to learn more.

Did I catch the chicken?  I like to think so, but upon reflection of my childhood, I think the fun was in the chase and planning, setting up my boxes - doing the work - and, of course, running. A big part of life is to always be chasing the chickens!