My dad died from Covid-19 on Tuesday, September 7th at 11:50 a.m. I know because me and my brother were there at his bedside when that happened.
My mother was sick with Covid-19 and in a hospital bed for three weeks. By the grace of God she turned a corner and started to recover. Tomorrow, she starts rehab. Still not home yet, but not in her ultimate home with the Lord yet in Heaven either.
Our family's bout with Covid has caused me to re-examine my life, and I've decided to focus more on the Lord and live my life for Him.
It's amazing where the pursuit of the creative life will take you. Back in late July, when I was trying to settle into life in Tennessee I decided to try writing a "slasher" horror movie to be my 26th completed spec. I knew some elements of it would be dark. Even when so far as to listen to some Rob Zombie songs, and follow horror fan on Twitter as part of my quest to write a horror-slasher movie. But then when my family got deathly ill, I knew I had to drop that script.
For the briefest moment that notion tortured me that MY CREATIVE dabbling might have brought trouble to my family. BUT as a man of faith, I then realized that was letting the devil have more territory than he deserves. Now, I give that notion no credence; and give glory to God.
My creative pursuits led me to chase Taylor Swift too. Thought being: IF I could get her to "like" one my scripts, she had the funding to make it, herself! Never connected with Ms. Swift however.
So now in light of what happened to my family, I'm turning to Jesus again. New goal is to make God smile. E.C. Henry wants to make: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit happy!
Not so consumed with "making it" in Hollywood anymore. The Lord gave me a dream about the place many years ago, where I was off to the side of a parade which was marching into the asphalt. Among them I saw a tortured Jim Carrey.
Never want to turn my back on the things that the Lord shows me. My problem is that I wanted it (to get justification for 20 years of writing) so bad.
But what's more important: selling a spec. script, or making God smile?
May ALL of E.C. Henry's writings be like this:
Jesus reigns! I choose to follow the Lord. Not sure what that's going to look like. But for the past two weeks I attended church! Right now it feels like I'm doomed to be the Alfred the butler for my brother, his wife, and two kids. BUT I am looking to RESENSITIZE and be a better person. Let the Lord do a work in me, then let my light shine in this dark world.
I'm getting back to the heart of worship too. Putting on more praise and worship music and letting that minister to me, and change my perspective. I want my life to honor Christ. I want my creativity to honor Christ. Resensitize to be a better man of God.
Haven't posted since early May. Lot has changed in my life since then.
For starters, I took the plunge with my family, quite my job in Western Washington--and moved with them to Kingsport, Tennessee. It's in the NE corner of the state.
What's been going on for the past week and half has been some of WORST TIMES of my whole life. What's to blame, and outbreak of Covid 19 out here. My bother's kids came home with it a couple days into school, then eventually: me, my brother, his wife, my mom & dad.all got sick from it. Me, I just got a job in the heart of the town and tried to "muscle" through it. Made it until last Monday. Then I told the plant nurse about what was going on: my mom, dad, and brother were all in the hospital from it; and the job ended then.
My mom and dad haven't returned from the hospital yet. My brother did come back a couple days ago. My dad is critically sick. From what I'm hearing he's may not make it. My mom seems to be doing a little better--she's not on a ventilator; but I haven't seen her since last Monday.
My brothers two kids were pretty sick for a couple days, then got better. Me, I've notice Covid made Budeweiser taste sour. Through my stomach off and gave me me 100+ degree temps. For days I would come home from worked drained.
The last week has been an awful holding pattern for all of us here. Is my 76-year-old dad going to make it or not? THAT'S the big unknown. He's on a respirator at 91 oxegin. On Saturday he had a procedure done to remove water off his lungs. On Sunday he had urine in his kidneys and temperature.
As for Tennessee. I think it's safe to say, I HATE this state. For starters the restaurants our here are really, really bad. The Waffle House, Hardees, and Stoneys are big staples out there, and their food sucks. The Waffle House signature idem is bad. Hardee's kid's chicken nuggets is like dog food. Besides all that many, many restaurants out here have went out of business. The Crazy Tomato, which is about a block from my brother's house went out of business the 2nd weed in August.
There is literally NOTHING is this fucking state that I want to see either, and we damn near drove the length of it at the end of July to get here. Lot of rolling hills, brick buildings and lawns that to be mowed. Most people out here have 1/2 an acre of property. Shocked that my auto insurance went DOWN here, as most of the roads are rural and narrow. Guess that's a product of how old this place is with many town going back to Revolutionary War roots in the 1770s.
Brick buildings: are ALL OVER THE PLACE in NE Tennessee.
I remember when we reached our first Tennessee rest stop. My mom and brother were so happy they were dancing. IF they were to go back to the moment in time, knowing what they know and went through now, nobody would have danced. Very somber times for the Henrikson household right now.
Being in a holding pattern isn't any fun. Especially when the stakes are life or death.
The only positive in all this, is that my parents bought a really nice home for my brother to raise a family. Outside of that EVERYTHING in Tennessee sucks! I like this place even less that when I knew nothing about it. When the black cloud lifts, I don't know if I can see myself continuing to live here. I just HATE Tennessee. The whole month of August was 90-95 degrees. And there is all kinds of traffic outside. Don't see many people outside. No, but they're in the cars driving around.
Creatively, before our health went to SHIT I was working on a horror/slasher to be my 26th spec. script. It was to be called GRAVESITE GROWS, and was part Creepshow 2, part Pet Sematary, part Halloween (1978) and part 28 Days Later... But with my parent's health so bad I couldn't look myself in the mirror and continue to write horror like that. Got to page 55 on the 1st draft, and then green filed it. Don't know if I'll get back to it or not, just know I can't write in that genre when my heart is so down. So it's back to Thars for me! Yeah, for the past 4 days I've been re-reading book 3, trying to get some momentum going. Looks like it's going to be 5 books in the series. The first three's prose is pretty good. Just need to get the last two books in shape.
Concerning Taylor Swift, I've pretty much given up on that. She's in her own world filled by stars who have "made it". I knew connecting with her creatively was a long-shot, and in the end NOTHING came of it. Sigh. What are going to do? So I'm doing to delete Project Taylor Swift. It's not that I'm ashamed of it, it's just got nowhere.
So what's next for ol' E.C.?
Right now one foot in front of the other. Praying my parent's health improves. May start looking for work again tomorrow. Need to take a Covid test. Thankfully they're free. Irregardless of what happens with my dad, this blog will go on. I'll try to crack out a pre-2021 NFL preview post in the next day or so. Still a Seattle Seahawk fan. Can't ever see myself warming up to the Tennessee Titans
Hoping everyone is having a better time in life than I am right now. This move to Tennessee has turned into a real nightmare.
This is what much of NE Tennessee looks like when you're outside the cities: rolling hill/gentle mountains with some evidence of a rocky surface underneath. #colormeUNIMPRESSED
Here's a video I made on Monday, May 10, 2021 where I talk about the great love of my life; my story in A Legend in Thars:
Here's a 2nd video I made about Thars on Wednesday May 19, 2021. Like "cute meets"? Well, I swung for the fences with this one boys. See if I hit a home run or struck out. This video delves into the epic romance that blossomsbetween Dale Evans and Reianne Helms that takes off in book two in the A Legend of Thars series: A Strange Sense of Divine Destiny:
Good evening y'all! Probably need to start breaking that in a little more, because I'm probably going to be moving to Tennessee soon.
I live with my parents and my brother and his family on 5 acres in rural, Bonney Lake WA; BUT my parents want to sell the house and move to Tennessee. They're quite serious about it and had a guy over this weekend to appraise the house. Now this was my dad's dream. But he's got Alzheimer's and his views on everything are changing.
So I've spent most of my time crying since Monday when I talked with my mom. From a previous video I tried to connect with Taylor Swift and explain where I was coming. I owed it to her. As I had posting things to her on social media trying to get her jazzed about a couple scripts I wrote.
Video I made for T.S. last Tuesday, 4-27-2021:
E.C. chat video made Sunday, May 2, 2021:
I have longed for years to "make it" and sell a script. Hasn't happened. Even when the economy was good it was VERY HARD for people without inside connections to get one of their scripts optioned or sold. Taylor Swift was my best shot at getting a sale. But she has shown no interest in that so that's pretty dead--pending interest shown by her.
Having no friends, girlfriends, or love interests is a HARSH reality for me. I dealt with it for years by just LOSING MYSELF in the writing. I mean when your personal life really sucks, that's what you do; you find something else to focus on. For me, that is writing; because I can't stand my life. I don't like being alone. I don't like NOT going on dates. I don't like being a loner. I wish I had friends. The last guy I really palled around with was back in 2000 - 2002. We would go to Christian concerts together. He was in an accident and had speech problems and was on a disability.
How do you go 30 years without a social life? We'll for starters I never really had one. Back in high school I rode motorcycles with a couple "friends": Tom Cumpston and John Ware. We were good friends through our sophomore year, then our friendships ebbed. When Tom got married he didn't even invite me to his wedding, I found out from word-of-mouth and attended. John went off on his own, got involved with drugs, did some time in jail, then got out and his dad helped him get started in the air conditioning business.
I had a good friendship going with a guy, but then I graduated tech school and moved to Boise, Idaho for a job. In Boise I had church people I did things with but never made any close friends.
When I moved back to Washington, I had a slew of jobs. Gradually the "tech" jobs dried up and I went into warehouse work, which is what I'm doing now.
It's just so sad how my life unfolded. I am so empty inside. Devoid of meaningful friendships. Girlfriends and just normal stuff. I know I need that, but I don't know how to get it... I guess I need friendships more than I need a sexual interest. I just need people to love.
Maybe my fortunes will change when I move to Tennessee. I am so ready to have a social life and be part of someone else's life. E.C. Henry is a very, very lonely person.
Okay, I've blabbed on about my sob story long enough. Hoping this week to get in some good writing on the 2nd book in the Legend in Thars series, AND I'm going to start work on So Back & Get Him too. Yep, E.C. Henry is going for yet another franchise:
Kathy Smith Conquers Duboose High School: the prequel that delves into the Kathy Smith character when she was a pretentious 14-year-old girl.
So Go Back & Get Her: A raunchy romantic comedy about a sexually charged couple who's relationship gets challenged with appearance of a childhood sweetheart and a fancy dressing charmer who takes issue with the guy in the sexually charged relationship.
So Go Back & Get Him: This is where E.C. Henry "completes" the Kathy Smith character. Once again she will be the focal character as she must deal with her out-of-control sexuality and new love interest who in new stage director and writer on morning show that Kathy Smith headlines.
Things are a'changin' in my world. So stay tuned! Talk to you again soon.
NOW would be good time be CERTAIN that you have oil in your lamp.
Did you know it's Easter this Sunday?
That makes it Good Friday THIS Friday!
Significance: Easter is the time Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, while Good Friday is the somber day Christians acknowledge the crucifixion and death of Jesus.
Given how dark things are in our world today I WANT to be raptured out of this world. I'm very sick of it, and have no reason to believe are going to get better until Jesus comes back. Sure I'd love to see one of my scripts produced and see my epic fantasy novel series be made into books; but I love the Lord more than the things of this world.
Read: Matthew 25, 1 Thessalonians 4:17, Luke 17:34 - 17:37, Matthew 24:31
The Holy Spirit is the giver of oil for your lamp. What you need to do is have a love for the Lord, accept as your Lord and Savior, and ask the Holy Spirit to fill your lamp. Don't let the rapture happen, and find yourself unprepared and be left behind.
This world is passing away, and when it you don't wanna be here for that.
So ask the Holy Spirit to fill your lamp today!
Jesus is Lord. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord. Love the Lord with ALL your heart, He deserves our best! Oh, and don't forget to listen for--
At the time of the writing of this post I am 35 pages into the writing of the 1st draft of Kathy Smith Conquers Duboose High School. This will be my 25th spec. script--when I write FADE OUT: THE END.
O-kay, so what does this have to do with Taylor Swift?
Well, she is BACK to be my mews again...
I mean, you can't tell me there isn't a MOVIE with this picture.
I mean is there ANYONE better to be a MALE WRITER'S MUSE when that aforementioned writer is writing a teen comedy centered around the story of a 14-year-old, feisty freshman. So far 35 pages in I'm not in automatic mode writing like I got after about page 68 of SO GO BACK & GET HER, but there is still hope for its prequel: KATHY SMITH CONQUERS DUBOOSE HIGH SCHOOL, because I've got some solid set pieces for this story. A couple that I've written in the first 35, hopefully for many more in the remaining pages.
Okay, so the writing life is going well now. 35, 1st draft pages in less than 3 days IS a good start. And don't worry: Kaya Jones (muse for the past year); I still LOVE you, and hope to connect with you some day on other scripts... But Taylor Swift is special. Very special. And it's not that I'm that enamored with what music she's been cranking out lately, but her work taken collectively as a whole, is PHENOMENAL. Won't lie I'm a MUCH BIGGER fan of T.S. when she's displaying her lighter side, as evident by --
E.C. Henry's Top 13 songs by music superstar Taylor Swift:
Love Story
22
You Belong with Me
How You Get the Girl
Getaway Car
The Other Side of the Door (Taylor's Version)
We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
Style
Shake It Off
Mr. Perfectly Fine (Taylor's Version)
New Romantics
Jump then Fall (Taylor's Version)
... Ready For It
Delicate
That's When (Taylor's Version)
Me!
Wildest Dreams
Look What You Made Me Do
(Added more songs to my original list after hearing Getaway car, and listening to Fearless (Taylor's Version))
Notice any trends in E.C.'s top 13? It's domiated by Taylor's more happier songs, not her darker or newest stuff. I remember watching Taylor Swift on a Late Show with Jimmy Fallon interview years ago, where Jimmy Fallon was lightly poking fun a Taylor Swift for her song: We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together; and based on her reaction, Taylor looked a bothered by it all--so Jimmy didn't persist. That got me to wonder, was that song really that bad? Heard it for the first time about a week ago and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was:
I had to search i-tunes for that song. Even when I saw T.S. in concert in 2018? Well, it was the concert where she had pillars with scary snakes on them, which I thought was in very bad taste given the fact that her target audience is girls aged 9-20.
Can't really say Taylor Swift doesn't get the credit she deserves because EVERY YEAR she's a favorite with Grammy people, but what I can say is that her earlier stuff was MUCH BETTER that I thought it would be. I'm not a country music listener. Some country songs are o-kay, but as a whole the genre isn't for me. Taylor Swift started off in country music. So IF you like her today, go back and check-out these two of her earlier albums before she broke into superstardom with 1989: Fearless and Red; have some hits on them too! Don't miss this gem:
My spec. script soundtrack for Kathy Smith Conquers Duboose High School currently has 17 songs in it--and 4 of them are by Taylor Swift!
Muse indeed. Rock on, T.S.--and PLEASE go back to your fun-loving days, because that's when you are your best; and that's when your true fans are most pleased with you.
Okay, enough of the Taylor Swift lovefest time to eat a little late dinner, then go back for another round of writing on Kathy Smith Conquers Duboose High School. Next post coming at ya AFTER I finish the 1st draft of my latest spec. which I hope to have done BEFORE the end of the month. See ya then!
NOW is always the time for a little romance. Romance makes the heart feel good. Sad to see so many people these days "down" on romance. Talk to most people about this subject and the brush it away. Not me! I may not be romantically active, haven't been in a long, long, long-long time; but that doesn't mean I'm dead to it. Quite the opposite, E.C. Henry thinks about chasing tail. All. The. Time.
Why not?
Girls rock!
Maybe this one's looking for a little romance too...
Just kidding, that Taylor Swift, and if romance is ever dead to her
The rest of us are in big trouble.
Huge fan of females and what the bring to the table. And THIS winter I'm getting in the Valentines spirit with help ofScribophile. Scribophile is a critique site. I've been there two week now. Most useful thing I've found there so far is group called "MUSE". At the prompting of one of their contests I wrote a short story, which may lead me to a 3rd script off the SO BACK & GET HER vine. But mostly I'm using Scribophile to help me edit and improve the prose on the Thars series of novels I'm working on.
Will E.C. EVER get Thars done?
That's a good and fair question. I don't know. It's so massive, and I want it to be good. The newness of the story is long gone, and now I'm left with MASSIVE amounts of editing. All of which I have to do. BY. MY. SELF. So, yeah it's a grind. BUT I am making progress, just not the breakneck progress I was hoping for. So far the critiques on Tharshaven't helped much. A lot of the writers there are hobbiests like me. Even the one who "technically" write in the genre I'm in focus their stories on vampires and demons. That's not me. It will never be me. I've critiqued several of that color of fantasy story and it's really not my cup of tea, nor are those stories I'd wanna edit in mass in a novel exchange arrangement.
And so the search for "my tribe" continues... Still looking for people who like godly, epic fantasy in the vein I write in.
For Valentines Day I posed a couple romance entries from book II in the Thars series, A STRANGE SENSE OF DIVINE DESTINY:
Gotta NAIL the segment. Stories have highlights that require extra attention. The segment where Dale and Reianne connect has to be good. (Dale is the Thars series main protagonist, while Reianne Helms is the Elfin king's daughter that Dale falls for)
You can also see the genesis for SO GO BACK & GET HERspin-off in my writing sample at Scribophobe.
So love and stories of love live on in the heart of this romance enthusiast. It may be dead in society today, but I'm going to do my best to bring it back, because in my heart-of-hearts I believe it's a noble pursuit.
Celebrating women in games of courtship.
That's what I see as a bed-rock belief of romantic comedies, and I still stand for that belief. Romance lives on--even in the dead of winter!
Ahhh... Allegra Cole visited me in my dreams last night. And we swam together in a swimming pool, no less!
Okay, BEFORE we get into my dream, and how a "hottie" like her got in my dream I'll bring you up to speed as to who Allegra Cole is...
Allegra Cole was the love interest of Albert Brennaman (Kevin Jame's character) from the 2005 movie, HITCH; which stared Will Smith and had Eve Mendez as his journalist love interest, Sara. I ranked HITCH, 24th in terms of my favorite rom-com movies of all-time. From this post, here was my quick summary justifying my feelings about the Hitch (2005: written by Kevin Bisch, directed by Andy Tennant):
"I wasn't real sold on the main love storyline between Hitch and Sara (Will Smith/Eva Mendez) but the Albert and Allegra (Kevin Smith/Amber Valletta) B romantic storyline made me smile a lot."
So in MY opinion HITCH had "something" with the Albert/Allegra romance, but was lacking something with its central romance between Hitch and Sara. I'll go a little more into why Hitch (Will Smith)/Sara (Eva Mendes) didn't work. You talk about contrived! A romance fixer falls for a skeptical journalist feels unreal and totally contrived. Now IF you have strong enough set pieces a romantic comedy CAN overcome that sand in your shorts, but alas; imo Will Smith and Eva Mendez DIDN'T pull that off. I didn't like either of their characters and the scenes they were in weren't funny enough to overcome their character and they way they played them.
Here's Hitch's logline (which I cut and pasted off IMBD):
A smooth-talking man falls for a hardened columnist while helping a shy accountant woo a beautiful heiress.
Here's a trailer put out to promote an audience going to see this romantic comedy:
I would classify HITCH as an Ego-com. Remember that gem from August of 2011? I thought not, hence the link reminder. HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS (2003) being the gold standard as to how to overcome a two contrived leads through great set pieces. Anywho, now that you're acclimated as to who Allegra Cole is let's delve into how she got be in one of E.C. Henry's dreams...
My dream last night was an unexpected delight. I was in a swimming pool with Amber Valletta. There was a Hollywood party going on around us, and Amber's boyfriend was watching us from his table. As we treaded water together Amber said that she was a screenwriter too, we connected and talked about that. She smiled at me, and then I kissed her... She then looked at me funny, and did not reciprocate further lovey-dovie stuff. Then the dream ended.
Will Albert and Allegra kiss or not?! (Gotta rent the movie to find out)
Not much of a dream, but in all honesty I don't dream about romantic escapades with women very much. Can't ever remember dreaming of Jennifer Love Hewitt (my first female "muse" as a writer 2001-2009), nor Taylor Swift (muse status 2014 - 20018), nor Kaya Jones (muse status 2020). Just so you know I use my female "muse" as my inspiration, the ideal female for romantic exploits in rom-com applications. Only girl I ever had "pinned up" on my wall was --
I bring my "muses" up, because the "dream" of swimming with AllegraCole really came out of the blue. You'd think I'd be dreaming about some other girl from my past, but I didn't I dreamed of treading water, trying to connect with someone in the pool with me, then getting romantically rejected.
But when I woke up, that's when it dawned on my the significance of "a woman's choice". Ultimately it's the woman's choice who her "man" will be. Paulina chose Ric Ocasek of the pop band the Cars fame, Jennifer Love Hewitt is married with a least one kid now, Taylor Swift's current beau is Joe Alwyn: an English actor who has yet to hit it big, and Kaya Jones has a love interest that she's committed to, I THINK the guy's name is Derek.
So where does that leave ol' E.C.? Well, for starters I'm not in the same league as Paulina, JLH, T.S., or Kaya. These were all people who had a fan base and were popular public figures at one point. Me, I'm just an undiscovered "little guy". So, YES, I do know my place in the grand scheme of things...
But this dream got to to think about how cool it is when a woman does commit to a guy. I wrote about this a LONG TIME ago in the script, "CUPID'S HELPERS", a rom-com from yours truly 2005/2006, my 6th spec. script written (as remember from a couple posts ago I said I also wrote a Planet of the Apes spec. script which I'm not allowed to share for copyright reasons). Anyway the logine for CUPID'S HELPERS is this:
An award winning romantic comedy writer experiences romantic foibles of his own after a business associate, who has a secret crush on the writer, joins him on a trip back to his hometown for his high school reunion. There, at the reunion, the writer reunites with his own secret crush, who was the inspiration for the writing that made him famous.
A while back, when I updated my rom-com sub-genre post to include the spec. scripts that I had written I classified CUPID'S HELPERS as a Destiny rom-com. I slotted CUPID'S HELPERS this way because it's central question revolves around a writer coming to grips with a crush he had in his past and LETTING HER GO, and in fact in the story actually helping her save her marriage. Destiny over ego in this one. Yes, various aspects of working careers were played with in CUPID'S HELPERSbut in the end its about people coming to peace with their own hearts and the romances that they're engaged with. That's the fun thing about writing romantic comedies is that you can delve into issues like that.
The older I get, I'm 51 now will be 52 on June 10th, the LESS I think about romance and stuff like that. I think that's true of most other people too. Gotta find your mate when you're young. Get older and don't have that person and the pickings get fewer and your drive lessens. Maybe that's why so many people divorce when they get older... Their sex drive lessens, and they evolve into something else that they weren't when they first get married. BOOM! Welcome this blog, remember it is called INSIDE THE BRAIN OF E.C. HENRY. And here that's what you get my musing for better or worse.
Wish I could have seen more of Amber Valletta -- acting & as a model when she was younger. Wow, what a hottie! But eventually Father Time catches up with us all.
Still, the movies we see DO have an impact on our psyche and our lives. My dream last night proves as much. HITCH (2005) wasn't a great movie, YET one of its characters and storylines made it into my dreams! How cool is that?!! Amber, you're welcome come visit me in the pool anytime! And if you want to reciprocate the kiss I gave you (in my dream) even better!! Until, then I will, as I've always done, RESPECT a woman's choice. Maybe someday somoene will choose me! I think that's why cavemen had those clubs, too many of their romantic foibles need a more physical approach. (Just kidding, that was a joke)
Romantic Comedies are for people like me. People in the pool who have yet to have their romantic overtures reciprocated, and so we tread on...
P.S. I'm probably going to start work on SO GO BACK & GET HIM starting tomorrow. It's my sequel to SO GO BACK & GET HER -- only with a different protagonist. So be expecting a FRESH POST from yours truly in the next couple days on that... I may be rejected by the world of women, but I haven't rejected them.
The idea for this post today came to me while I was editing the Thars manuscript. I felt like it was slog. Felt like I was slogging through wet snow and everything was harder than it should be. And that got me to thinking about an actual dog sled race that I remember from my past. The Iditarod dog-sled race.
Back when I was living in a suburb outside of Anchorage, Alaska (in the winter of 1980/1981) I vaguely remember going to that city during the Fur Rendezvous to see to dog sleds as teams were preparing for the upcoming race. They didn't impress me much back at the time, but I was awfully young at only 12 years old.
Over the years my family has had a lot of dogs. Mostly golden retrievers but a few spaniels (bird dogs) along the way. I used to enjoy going running I occasionally took the dog of dogs at the time with me. And I can tell you from experience that dogs like to run. Their is a wildness to animals. They like doing things outdoors. Its in their nature. So, no I don't think it's animal cruelty to have dog sledding team.
Writing is a lot like a long-distance race.
Its a long journey with a lot of dead times where your just getting through it.
If this picture doesn't make you feel the cold, then I guess you're just a better man than me!
January/February is my least favorite time of the year. Where I live in Washington it's grey, cold and usually quite miserable. Good time to write, I guess. Just wish I could get these novels completed. Guess I wish I was a faster writer, and was more on-the-ball. But most days I'm like --
Is that dog wearing swimming glasses like dork city or what?
Still you've gotta start and finish somewhere!!
See the start and the end of the race. That doesn't look so bad, right? (Except there's 880-1000 miles between these two places!) #Eeek
I was kinda curious how big the purse was. Did you know the top winner of the 2020 Iditarod dog-sled race ONLY won a little over $51,000 ? Not much drop off for #2 at $43,000, 20th place still got you 10 grand, with 21-34 after that getting you just over $1,000 -- but to get paid you had to finish. Sigh. I can sooo relate. I've gotten a dime off any writing I've ever done. Doing for the love of the sport, I guess, much like these mushers who are slated to compete in the 2021 Iditarod dog-sled race that is slated to start on March 6th.
After looking at several profiles it dawned on me that these were just dog lovers who were looking to fuse that with little test and competition. -- which is very relatable to MY OWN writing journey; I'm not doing this for wealth and fame, I'm doing his as a labor of love, yet with a type of long-suffering competition angle to it. E.C.'s Iditarod!
Don't know about you, but going across a lake of ice would make me nervous.
I don't know if my form of daring compares with the 53 mushers slated to compete in the 2021 Iditarod. But the stamina angle is definitely there. I've been working my Legend of Thars series since 1994, that's like 27 years, and now a days they're FINISHING the Iditarod race in about 10 days. In a way you can't help but admire these people's bravery. Out there in the freezing ass cold mushing a sled. Definitely something I wouldn't want to do, but then again writing novels is something that a lot of people feel the same abrasion towards, especially in today's microwave society.
27 years and counting I mush on until life ends. Some quests in life come easy. Others are grueling and have to be earned. Writing and competing in the Iditarod have a lot more in common than you would would think they would have. Both are lonely journeys!
Actual picture of ol' E.C. most days LOST in field of white pages!!
Western movies lend themselves to a exciting blend of outdoor cinematic shots
Conflict Studios updated their web site CONSIDERABLY in the last week. They now have a page where they announce the projects they're looking for. Their first film is set to be a western entitled, Trail Blazers, which Antonio Sabato Jr, wrote and plans to direct and co-star in as well.
So what's my angle? Well-p, I'm just looking for read. See what they think of a couple scripts I've written: Cowboy Alien Diaries and Indians of the Ancient Plains. Their genres being: Supernatural Western Thriller.
Looks like a great place to shoot INDIANS OF THE ANCIENT PLAINS to me!
I don't know if I'll get a script request, OR if either project will solicit any interest. I'm not sure what Antonio wants to do, as I've never talked to him, Kaya Jones, or Nix Tzekker about their plans. BUT I was pleasantly surprised by how broad of a net they were willing to spread, as the moniker "Christian movies" kinda has a negative stigma. When you think of Christian movies I think of heavy-handed dramas. The best "Christian" movie I ever saw was FACING THE GIANTS, I just bought into to the protagonist's journey of a struggling, high school football coach. Not filmatically even that movie was pretty boring, as most dramas tend to be. I like cinematic movies with great shots. I'm a sucker for that shot in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN when Josh Brollin's character is just just looking out over the Texas desert as a cloud changes the lighting on the landscape. Great movies aren't all about the script. A lot of greatness comes from the decision makers who PUT THE MOVIE TOGETHER. Gotta know what to put in a movie. Can't just be emotional set pieces all the time.
So what will Antonio Sabato Jr. come up with? Don't know by I can't wait to see! When I had a Twitter account I followed him. And in hearing some of his interviews about Conflix Studio I was a little disappointed by how defensive he got, and the lack of clarity of where he wanted his vision to go. Combating blacklisting is a great side story, not a fun story to ride 24/7. No, as an ARTIST you've gotta come to the table with more than that. Antonio took a lot of bashing by people on Twitter. Almost all of it was unnecessary, and mean spirited. But now that he's the CEO of his own studio this is his chance to impose his vision on entertainment. To ride above the criticism and make his contribution in the wold of entertainment. And it can't be all about revenge for being blacklisted by corrupt Hollywood. No, at some point you have to make your own art and present it to the world.
I am not a very good entrepreneur. I know that. BUT I do like to write and craft stories. With my past four scripts: PREYORIUM, SO GO BACK & GET HER, THE COMMUNE III, and WHEN THE MOTORCYCLE CALLS, I worked a new style of spec. script. Started imploring the use of fonts, color and bolded and underlined, shot headings to make the read a little funner. I never went to school to screenwrite, all I ever did was read some books on it, and read other script to get the gist of how to write a script. I've never been a "disciple" of any one screenwriter or writing guru. Rather, I just wanted to see how they did it, then work on my own way of doing it.
It's been a LONG time since I did anything with either Cowboy Alien Diaries or Indians of the Ancient Plains, but now I feel it's time to modernize them a bit to my NEW way of writing. Cowboys was the 5th script I wrote. Indians was the 9th. Now if you check that math by reading my Script and Novel Logline sidebar you will see that my counting adds an extra tally. And that's because I feel deserve credit for writing one. Cannonogically that would have been my 3rd script, after writing REVENGE OF THE FAT CHICKS. But the script I can never sell WITHOUT 20th Century Fox's permission is BEYOND THE APES: my revisisualized, Planet of the Apes story in a feature length script. A V.P. at 20th Century Fox sent me a cease and desist letter on this so the kabosh is on it, still before I got that letter I did write a completed draft so I give myself credit for that one.
I've-read both scripts recently, and immediately found things I'd like to change. The bed rock story wont change with the 2021 edits, but I still hope to improve the greater "art" of the story.
This presidential election season was very trying for me. I watched our systems of checks and balances fail the American people. At the state level corrupt election officials stacked the deck so the election could be stolen: mail in votes, Dominion voting machines, unsupervised counting at the counting centers, changed election laws; then later refused to to look at the irregularites that they in large part were responsible for. Now our country is a state of tyranny, where the Democrats ideas are put to practice and their detractors are silenced and shammed. Kiss free speech goodbye. The only thing that can save us now is a military coupe. I don't think citizens rising up is the answer, it's gotta be the military. I feel the need to DISTANCE myself from politics now. Not that I'm capitulating to the Democrats, God willing I'll never do that. I just don't see a means to improve the situation. The Republicans had their chance, but they as a collective group FAILED to demand for election integrity, and in doing so SURRENDERED America over to the Democrats and their totalitiarian demands. I guess I'll keep an eye on politics, but my heart is in it anymore. Too corrupt. Not enough Ted Cruzes and Antonio Sabato Jr.s to rally behind.
So I go back to doing what I love, writing and puttsing around with creative stories that the Lord gave me to write. Will my dreams ever come true? Probably not. Hollywood is mess right now, and even before all this they were going the wrong way looking to make superhero movies with transexual protagonists, and imposing diversity quotas on film projects. It's like they're competing to show everyone how "woke" they are (was that PUKE purple I just chose? Well, that the affect I was looking for woke anything is complete garbage). The whole "woke" and injustice narrative is founded on false pretexts, siting injustices that no longer exists in order to instill unessary tension into our society. The civil rights movement ended a long time ago. It's only corrupt people who insist it never happened. Anyway, debating these issues is a joke from my perspective; these advocates are making monsters where they don't exist, all so they have an enemy to rally against. It's a failed mind-set, but that's they way the Left works.
I love being an entertainer. At the end of the day, that's what I'm endeavoring to do. And now it's time to spruce up to of my favorite stories: Cowboy Alien Diaries, and Indians of the Ancient Plains. Time to ride that horse into the woods of the unknown -- and come back with treasure.
Scribophile E.C. is putting pages of his Legend of Thars series here to be critiqued. This is a site where novelists get feedback on their work. I'm a member of THREE groups there.