Lost time

Realized that I didn't post my usual Thursday blog,  first time ever I missed a blog. The reason?

I am/was rushing to finish the Ghostkeeper screenplay in order to begin passing it around to people that can help fund it. I actually finished it Tuesday but had some polishing to do and stretched it until today. Always like to end projects at the end of the week.

Besides that I'm traveling to Santa Barbara Saturday morning, taking the train rather than driving. It's a 2 hour trip, much the same as a drive but I get to sit back, have coffee, read more of Keith Richard's bio and relax.  Driving the 101 highway can be stressful if traffic is bad. 

I'm going to Santa Barbara to meet some people who want to option my Chaser screenplay, a story about memory and the idea that everytime you remember something, it changes a little until you're not sure what you think you know. All capsulized in one man's pursuit of a potential kidnapping victim.

There's another reason I'm taking the train, it's also a chance for me to experience a short dose of train travel for my next screenplay, The Christmas Train, which I haven't started yet.

A 2-hour trip isn't really a train trip, but it's a good start. Later this spring I am considering a train all the way to Seattle. 

Is all that necessary? Can't I just make it up?

I am one who needs to know everything I can about what I write, every possible little thing that can make it more real. And the only way I know how to do that is either read everything I can find - or - experience it.

I wrote a mountain climbing script after I took climbing lessons for 2 months and actually climbed a formidable 5000 ft mountain in the Rockies. Okay, it's not the Eiger but it was a 5 and a half hour climb on sheer cliffs as well as cracks and I did it.

And for Ghostkeeper, my mountain experiences in the Rockies, where I lived for 5 years helped greatly seeing that the story is set in an old hotel in the heart of the Rockies.

What I did need to learn was more about Native Indian mythology and I spent a good total of 2 weeks finding out as much as I could.

So today I send out my Ghostkeeper screenplay to several people, all by email attachments. Long gone are the days when I would actually print and bind a screenplay and mail it.

Everyone reads pdfs now, at most most of the people. Some still want a hard copy and I can do that if they request.

Then, I wait.

And hope they like it. At least a little.

Maybe even more.


(Mon: Status of Ghostkeeper 2)