This and that

A little boy's postcard.

I've spend pretty much doing a lot of nothing, having handed in the screenplay I was assigned for, the one for the actor. He liked it alot and we even came up with a great title, which I would love to share but not until the screenplay is registered.

I don't usually register my screenplays, but sometimes, if you think you have something really unique, it's best to do that.

I know everyone says "they're gonna steal your idea", but in the last 23 years I've lived here nobody's stolen any ideas from me. And I pass around my screenplays to anyone who'll take it. 

Hell, I'll stand on a streetcorner and hand out the damn things.

Some writers I know, and don't really give a damn about, always say they never show their spec scripts to anybody except the big guys.

Well, the big guys don't give a damn and if you don't show your screenplay to a lot of people, you just might not get it read.

And never get it made. 

The last week of January is always the time I try to get something going. I usually get at least two or three deals by now, of which they will mysteriously fall away within a month or two.

There is the possibility I might get an actual writing assignment for a story that's just been published but it's not certain so I don't hold my breath.

But there's always the bear.

Yes, Gentle Ben, that bear movie that some of you cringe at, but the one who consistently brings me a few bucks now and then. Usually around $500-600 a year, sometimes more, in residuals. That money for free as I always say.

In fact I'm thinking of doing another, hell, the bear is ready for a new version. So towards this I'm finding out who has the copyright and then try to make a deal for an all-new Ben.

But another year is here, and another year for disappointments and great things and maybe I get to make either Ghostkeeper or Emperor of Mars. 

The great thing is, you never know.

So what's the photo above? 

I recently found it, it's a post card that I never mailed, but wherein I wanted to find out the name of a pretty actress in a movie with Hal March, a 1950's comic. So many years later, I read it and found some comfort in the fact that I was doing what I was doing years ago.

Trying to get into the movies.