Inside the Brain of E.C. Henry

The Rebound Girl; Exploring Issues in Rom-com Movies: Volume 54

It's been a very crazy week for me for reasons I can't really get into right now because some of the crazyness is still going on, though one big issue did go a long way to getting settled today--but that a story for a later post...  I was debating whether or not to even bother doing a post today, but I don't wan't to start getting out of the habit of doing at least one post a week so today I thought I'd do a follow-up post to last weeks.  So this week I think I'll dive back into my rom-com frame of mind and go into a corollary topic I was thinking about as a result of the topic I talked about last week.  So for this weeks' post we're going to get into the subject of "rebound girls", their place in the romantic comedy landscape, and my own personal feeling about that subject.  

Let me start off by saying I think the term, "rebound girl". gets a bad rap for no good, real  reason.   Personally, I think a rebound girl, or guy for that matter, is a GOOD THING.  But before we get into that, let's define what a "rebound girl" is. 

A rebound girl is someone you take to fill the place of a person in a relationship that has recently failed in your life.

Whaddya think?  Did E.C. nail it, or is is he off his rocker again?  Notice how in my definition of the term I took the sexual orientation of the person filling the place of someone else off.  I did that purposely because their rebound guys too.  

Basically why I think rebound guys or girls are such a good idea is because I know what it's like NOT to have a rebound girl when I've been hurting, and I think it prolongs the pain of something that looked promicing that went south. 

Get where I'm coming from?

Look, the way I see it we're all learning how to love.  I don't get to down of people for failed romanit relationships, because at least at one point they were trying, and that's admirable.   I know how hard it is to put yourself out there in the first place.  You risk being embarassed, you risk your reputation, you risking getting your heart broken.  But love is always worth the risk.  Yes, Taylor Swift in the responce to the question you pose in your smash hit, "Blank Space"; the high is worth the pain.  

But what happens when you love someone, and it ends as product of the other person?  You've got needs and romantic feelings, and those need and feeling now are in need of being expressed to another person.  A.k.a. you need a rebound girl.

The first time I really fell in love, it ended about as poorly as it can.  Fuck, I litteraly watched another man hold up the girl's panties that I was in love with.  That is TOTALLY FUCKED-UP!!  I don't care how you try to spin it, that should have never happened.  So did ol' E.C. Henry get a rebound girl right after her?  Well, kinda.  I do remember shortly after my first foray into love ended, that I got attached to a 2nd girl .  She came in to the restaurant I was working at and hit on me.  I aked her out and we went out. She was a farm girl who had got into body building, but now was staring to want to get out and try new things--like smoking!  For some reason was VERY WILLING when it came to going out and letting me do whatever I wanted to do with her.  Yes, I could have had sex with her--if I'd wanted too.  BUT me at that stage in my life and my naive nature acutally thought you needed to hear that person say, "I love you" BEFORE you screwed them senseless.  Sorry, don't mean to be crass, but at somepoint those are the thoughts the 19-year-old men have.  I think a lot of it is peer pressure induced, but in all honesty at some point you have to share some of the blame.

I'm not sure if that girl was a true "rebound girl".  I don't think at the time I was thinking along those lines.  The thing was I never loved that girl.  Sure it was fun making out with her and all that, but the spark of a lasting love was never there, and I knew it.  The crazy thing is, I can't even rembember what that girl's name is.  Now, the girl before her; I'll never forget her name; I loved her, bu I know I didn't love the girl that came after her that I was briefly romantically involved with.  

The only rebound girl situation I can remember in the movies was Aimee to Sutter in The Spectucular Now (2013: Shailene Woodley, Miles Teller), I'm sure there are other rom-com examples out there, it's just none ring a bell with me right now.  Doing an Internet image search on that phrase I did stumble on a movie with Catherine Zeta Jones in it that looked like it dealt with some kind of romantic rebounding relationship as the movie itself is named, "The Rebound" (2009); but since I haven't seen it, nor do I remember this as being much of a splash at all, I'll delay all comment other that to say, if a girl as hot as Catherine Zeta Jones was my rebound girl, I'd have a grin on my face from ear to ear.

Just sayin'.

So does "rebound girl" issues deserve a place in the rom-com landscape?  You bet it does!  Why?  Because the issue is ripe with issues to delve into, and places where creative writers can have a ball.  

Remember, it's always the CONFLICT that fuels a story and generates interest.  Love story movies don't work unless their is an complelling obsticle for the potential lovers to overcome so that their relationship can bloom.  A rebound girl relationship is only possible AFTER a first romantic relationship has failed.  This sets up the drama of an other love interest involved setting up the potential for two people fight over the same guy or girl.  And from a writer's perpsective, that's a good thing!  Not so in real life, but as a dramatist, that's the kind of stuff you look for, because off that you can play it many different ways.  

There's a big difference between what you want in a romantic comedy movie, and what you wan't in real life.  In real life I don't wan't anything even remotely resembling a romantic comedy, because if you really study those movies and what makes them work or not, a big part of that is the conflicts the lead pair has to overcome to finally realize their great love.  And in my life, I've seen enough fuckin' pain, I want some pleasure, and not shy about saying that.  

I think in today's landscape "rebound" guys or girls really take off in the celebrity gossip arena.  People like Jennifer Anniston, or Kim Kardashian, and maybe Gweneth Paltrow to a lesser degree.  People are curious about celbrities and like the romantize who they would be good with.  

For my $$ 2 issues stand out when I think of the issues posed by "rebound girls"

1. Can you really love a "rebound girl"?  I contend, yes, you can!  One never really knows where their great love is going to come from.  Consider the movie "500 (Day of Summer" (2009: Zoey Deschannel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Autumn was Tom's "rebound" girl that he found at the end of the movie who is hinted at being Tom's great love after an elongated, heartbrake over his failed romatic relationship with Summer Finn (Zoey Deschannel's character)
2. Is "rebound girl" disinengenous loving?   Is it fair to start going out with someone your not totally sure about JUST because you're hurting so much inside?  I contend, no, it isn't disengenuous to start dating someone you're not sure of on the heals of a relationship that didn't work out.  That's the whole purpose of dating in the first place: to see if your feeling grow or not for someone over the cource of some outtings.  

The truth of the matter is, we're all learning how to love.  We learn and grow from our failures.  Probablly the biggest mistake I've made in my life was being too afraid that by putting myself out there I wouldn't be able to endure the heartbreak if the romantic relationship went south.  

The WORST thing about being coy is it gives a false signal about how you really feel.  And that's probably the biggest lament in my life; the girls I had the strongest feelings for I never took a shot at for fear of being rejected and then not being able to cope with the ensuing aftermath.  Being coy is for pussies!  And my that I mean the male version of being a pussy.  NOTHING meant about inferring anything about the female species there, this a guy thing, when guys don't have the balls to put themselves out there for love.  And that's where I've went the most wrong in my life: inactivity and being paralyzied by fear.

The older I get in life, the more I value the power of romantic comedy movies to instill the desire for change and take chances.  Going after a "rebound girl" is just one of those chances out there.  And who knows maybe it's the end-game to find your true love and break the cycle of heartache which definately part of living the romantic comedy.

The Value of the Romantic Pursuer; Exploring Issues In Rom-com Movies: Volume 53

Ah the value of that someone who initiates the chase.  As pertains to common romantic endeavors normally that's the guy.  But in some circumstance it can actually be the woman.  Such is the case in one of my all-time favorite romantic comedy movies of all-time, "13 Going on 30" (2004: Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo).  I was re-watching this movie for what must be about the 20th time last week, when it dawned on me just how important the romantic pursuer is.  

So what does the romantic pursuer do?  A romantic pursuer is the one in a potential pairing that intiates contact between the two parties with a romantic intent.  

 In "13 Going on 30" Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner's character) is the one who intiates contact with Matt Flemhaff (Mark Ruffalo's character).  At first Jenna Rink initiates contact with Matt Flemhaff because a 13 year-old-girl has awoken in the body of her 30-year-old self, and wants her former childhood sweatheart and best friend to help her make sence of what's happened to her.  Later, Jenna has the idea of using Matt as photographer to help her with a re-design of the NY-based magazine that she works for.  Finally, Jenna initiates romantic contact with Matt when she crashes his wedding, meets Matt in his bedroom and confesses her love for him.  All throughout this movie, Jenna is the agressor in this potential romantic pairing.    

Anyway, once I recognized this truth, I knew I had to do a post about in my "Exploring Issues in Rom-com Movies" series.  Why?  Because this is an important issue that is worthy of being discussed.  

I am a big PROPENT of the life-lessons that people can glean from romantic comedy movies.  I think rom-com's CAN help people learn what works and doesn't work when endeavoring to have relationships with members of the opposite sex.  Too bad for me I only started really seriously considering the themes and issues that "good" rom-coms pose untill I was already in my early 20s (I'm now in my mid-40s, btw).   

As I can personally attest to real-life experience may well not prepare you at all for potenial romances, and sizing things up and having your head in the right place so you succeed in your own romantic undertakings.  

My friends growing up in high school talked very crassly about girls, and sadly a lot of that rubbed off on me and stuck in the back corners of my mind.  There was almoast no talk about what should and shouldn't be said to girls that you liked so as to potentially go out on dates with, and normal stuff like that.  After a while I developed a mindset that the girls I liked where angels, demi-gods that I needed to tread lightly around.  But there was something even worse I devoloped over time that doomed me far worse than the bad seeds my friends sowed and my putting women up on a pedastal; I had a false idea of what romance between a guy and a girl should be, and it was one that DIDN'T involve effort from me.  Rather, it was serpendipuous, a "we were just meant to be" mentallity.  If I was to be with a given girl God, the fates, or circumstance would magically bring us together, then things would just click.  

THAT erroneous pie-in-the-sky mentality has kept me on the sidelines for waaay to long.  I have no one to blame.  It's my fault.  BUT FINALLY I 've come to something that I believe to be true:

The guy is meant to be the romatic pursuer in a given actual or potential romantic pairing

For YEARS I feared that if I didn't do it exactly right I would blow my one and only chance with a given girl.  This lead to me waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the the "right time" to spring something special on a girl I was interested in.  This too is a grevious error.  Why? Because romance is supposed to be a little spontanteous and clumsy.  But the victor (or pursuer) gets the prize.  Even if the girl totally shoots you down, IF you lay yourself out there only good things can happen.  For starters, you're not waisting time.  

Being coy--especially if you're a guy--is the WORST THING you can do if you want to be romantically active with someone    

For YEARS I tried to be aloof and exhude an aura of being ca-ule (cool with an attidude), but I think this serpindipuous mindset of mine was wrong.  "O, I'll just play hard to get.  Be ca-ule, and eventually the forses of romance will work on the other party to the point where they'll do the work for me."  Growing up, after I became romantically intereted in a member of the opposite sex, I was always looking for clues from them that they liked me, then hoping a crescendo of feelings would build in them which drew them to me.  

The first girl I ever worked the courage up to asking out I waited like 6 to 9 months before I did so.  We were both working at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. I was 19 and going to a community college, and she was a junior in a near by high school.  The girl I liked was pretty and flirty, a little heavy set, but a sexy kind of heavy set.  She was a long haired blonde.  I was attracted to her, though I was NEVER really sure what she thought about me.  O, and she had just come out of rehab for cocaine.  THAT should have been a red flag, but when you're smitten with someone you oftentimes overload key details. 

Like I said I waited a LONG TIME before I worked up the courage to actually ask this girl out on a date.  We went out, had a couple kissing make-out sessions, one in which I think I could have slept with her if I just went into her house, BUT I wanted to hear she love me before we had sex so I backed out.  Because of her drug past, her parents were monitoring her pretty good, so she had a lot of built in excuses not to see me.  Still, because of the kissing I thought she was my girlfriend--untill another guy rolled up the restaurant driving her car holding up a pair of her panties for her to come and get.  She was all smiles and playfully went out to her car and got her property from the this guy who looked like a total logging hick.  Later, when I could get her alone, I questioned her asking why she thought she could do something like that when she was my girlfriend.  At this point this girl said something to me that I will never forget, "I don't have boyfriends, I just have friends."  Holy fuck, I didn't think such rationale existed!  I thought boyfriend/girlfriend was the norm, and that when you reached that point your relationship was safe and that your guarded it.  Anyway, I knew I loved hit girl she was was my first love, and I ASSUMED, in my naive mind, that she felt the same.  Obviously I was seriously wrong.  

This is a huge romantic fallacy: the belief that because you believer and behave a certain way, others will as well

This girl saw absolutely nothing wrong with screwing other guys and not telling me what she was doing.  She never gave any thought about what my reaction to one her "friends" rolling up in car with a pair of her panties in his hands would have on me.  I needed to a have a "where exactly we stand" conversation early on, long before the panties-in-the-glove-compartment incident.

So what ended up happening?  I started looking for a new job, got one, then had a couple more encounters with my first, real crush--that actually led to something, then never saw her again.  I got a job at another fast food restaurant, she came up to the drive-up and wanted some freebees, which I actually gave her!  Then on one other occasion she frequented the dining room area of the restaurant I worked at with a guy who I think was her steady boyfriend; I think she was trying to show me that she COULD have a steady boyfriend, but I'm not sure.  But what I do know for sure is that my first foray into romance came YEARS later than it should have, it ended poorly, and I handled it badly.  

"It's better to have lost at love, then never to have loved at all"

Actual lyrics sung by Brett Michals of the heavy metal band, Poison on the song "I Won't Forget You" which was released in the late 80s but was never a big hit for them.

 

So why bother bring up my personal expecience?  Maybe my life-lessons on proud miss-display, can help someone.  My first real crush and how poorly it ended hit me very hard, and it really shouldn't have.  If I only had more romantic exchanges with other girls this very bad experience wouldn't have been so devastating for me.  

I so wished I had the guts to be a more confident romantic pursuer when I was younger--and even now.  But alas I never had a good gathering of friends so I was always negotiating the terms of my love-life from a severe disadvantage.  Going out from a group of friends to pursue a girl is a lot more easier to do that the go-it-alone way I was forced to endure because I had either very bad friends or no friends at all.  But at least now I'm mature enough to see some of my romantic missconceptions, and TRY to form a more healthy view of what romance should be.  I just wish I could have reached this state much earlier in my life.  Hence, some of the reason why I watch romantic comedies so much: I'm trying to learn and pick up tips, myself to make-up for the real life experience I'm denied in day-to-day living, and never got from the friends I had in my past.  

The crazy thing about myself is that as I look back and see what I did and the reasons why I did them, I realize how error-filled my thinking is and was about women and romance.  

Romance is supposed to be messy.  It's better to be clumsy and fumble about, than to wait for the perfect chance to strike (which may never come),  and will certainly led to unneccary heartache and waisted time.  

The best way to get over having your heart broke is to have another romance with someone else.  Don't stew over the failed relationship, move on and overwrite that bad experience with a fresh and new love interest.

Be active in your love life.  If you have feelings for someone, act on them.  Even if they shoot you down, at least you know where you stand, and aren't waisting your time.  

 

So in conclusion, going forward am I going to be this suave guy who just sweeps women off their feet?  Naw, that's not me.  I'm just going to give myself a little grace and hopefully put in a better effort and try.  I now think talking is the key to romance.  I think I just need start conversing with girls, try to build up some kind of repetore and go from there.  Unfortunately when you hit your 40s the pool of availble and willing females is really dries up.  So I totally realize a lot of this self-improvement talk is probably a little to little, and a little too late. 

Evaluating a Writer's Strengths; Challenges in Writing a Novel: Volume II

O boy, here goes senior Pretentious yet again, eh?  What's with this whole "Challenges in Writing a Novel" series about anyway?  Does crackpot know anything about anything!?

Well, self-doubt, I'm sorry but at least for today I'm going to put you on the shelf, and rave about the things I'm good at, or at least think I'm good in my self-dilusional ways.

The truth of the matter there are A LOT of things that I think I'm good at as pertains to writing a novel, and just plain old writing in general.  So let's dive right in and explore what E.C.Henry thinks about himself as pertains to being a writer and what he thinks he's good at.

Things E.C. Henry thinks he's good at as a writer:

1. E.C. Henry is GREAT at writing in the 3rd person omnicient point-of-view.  And what does that mean?  That means I can functionally jump arround and get you, the reader, inside the heads of the characters in my stories beter that most--if not all--writers you will run across in your lifetime.  
2. E.C. Henry is tenacious and never gives up.  I don't let problems stand in my way.  Rather, I choose to acknowlege their existence and look for possible solutions.  Case and point writing and bringing to completion, "A Heart Built on the Sand", this dark urban drama was SUPPOSED to be the easiest story I ever wrote, as it it loosely based on a woman I worked for, and what COULD have happened to her given the pressures I figured she was under.  The world of "A Heart Built on the Sand" was one that I knew very well.  But the subject matter of a woman pushed to the edge, who ultimately succumbs to the pressure and goes on a shooting rampage was a world that I had a hard time staying in.  It was like two poles of the magnet that repell each other.  BUT, though it took 3 times the time I thought it would to write, I saw it through and brought this story to completion.  E.C. Henry is a finisher.  Believe it!
3. E.C. Henry is willing to spend a lot of time devoping the characters of his stories.  I do not believe that great characters are born overnight.  Sure there are times of great inspiration, and other times where it's a total grind.  But I believe in a mult-tiered approach to character building.  I'm a big believer in character bio.  That's a GREAT place to start: what does the character look like, what's their backstory, ultimately what do they want and what's their goal.  This is however a staring place.  Afterwhich time I like to exlore how these characters interact with each other, and how that changes them, OR how they want to change other characters.  Great characters are the life-blood of a story, this in making them I believe each character needs it's own magic point: the time and place where they become alive in the mind of the writer, then hopefully alive in the mind of the reader.  Life is the ultimate end-all as I see character develpment being.  I think I do a very good job at pulling that off.
4. E.C. Henry is GREAT at delivering a vision.  You may not like what I have to say, but I honestly believe that by the time I set a story down and say it's ready to go, it's ready to go.  I have a finalized vision to present, and I think I can articulate that vision to anyone who asks it of me.  One caveat: please realize that the writer's mind is in the moment of what he or she is in process of writing RIGHT NOW, thus if someone were to show intererest in any past story I've written it's going to take me a moment to readjust my mind to address that story once again.  Case and point: "The Judas Project", it's been YEARS since I did anything with that dark urban drama.  I know what it's about, and the feelings in conjures up in me, but to discuss it's intimate details would require me re-readig the story myself, and refamiliarizing myself with its details.  
5. E.C. Henry goes the extra mile to do every story he commits to the justice it deserves.  I do not believe in JUST doing one draft.  I tend to go a little overboard and write, and rewrite, and rewrite some more untill I push myself to a point of burnout where any more writing actually hurts the final product.  The first instance of burnout I remember came with the completion of "Revenge of the Fat Chicks".  I wrote, and rewrote that story untill I was blue in the face.  Finally, I started to realize that the fatigue of beating a dead horse was hurting the story more that in was helping, and I had to set it aside.  Still, I don't believe in one and done; I think great writing and great story ONLY comes when a writer really pushes him or herself to the point to burnout.  First drafts only layout the basic narrative.  It's in the later drafts that great description is found.  
6. E.C. Henry writes great bad guys.  I think I have a knack for crafting a good, original vilian.  Part of the reason for that is that I NEVER look at what's been done before, but rather try to let the vilian emmurge on his or her own.  Best villian I think I've ever created.  Hmmm... That's a good question.  The one that jumps to my mind the quickest is Orin Bjornson, a.k.a "The Brick" from "The Commune."  I liked Orin because at the beginning of the story I feel as though he's set-up to be the hero, but then by the end of the story he's cleary the main vilian, and a new new hero has emerged. Besides that, I just like spending time with the vilian, and getting to know what makes him or her tick.  I try to make my vilians so that though the audience has a rooting interest against them, they also understand why they feel led to do the things that they're doing.  
7. E.C.Henry is great at being able to move on from a writing project that he's fully vested in, and creating something new and original.  Look, I LOVE romantic comedies.  If I could I thinks that's all I would write.  Yes, I love them that much.  BUT that's not the healthiest way for a writer to behave.  I think a good writer needs to be diverse and be willing to write in different genres.  Why?  It keeps you fresh.  Sure, you may have a knack for writing well in a given genre, but eventually the creative mind wants to be stimulated in a new way.  I am of the mind a writer needs to be fearless and willing to branch off and try someting new, otherwise you risk the quality of your work going down as your mind bores with a given subject.

Okay, so that's me.  That's how E.C.Henry sees himself as a writer.  Am I off my rocker or what?  That's what the comment section is for, you dipshits!  And if you don't feel comfortable with that you can always hit me up on that e-mail link.

Notice a lot of things I didn't site: mastery of the English language, writiing great poetic lines, writing good guys, mastery of a given genre.  The truth of the mater is, there's a lot of things I struggle with--but I'm resolved to get better at.  A long time ago when I was in college my English skills were sited as being sub-standard.  I had to take a rememedial class in college for English.  That's always stuck with me.  BUT their is more to being a writer than getting stuck on English.  

Pretentiousness can go a long way.  FUCK my weaknesses, I'm moving forward, man!  Don't like my roll, don't read my shit.  I don't care.  I'm looking for people and an audience who likes me.  Sigh, I may be looking my whole life for that, but that's how I roll!  Pretentious as all fuck.  Get used to it!  I can't let me doubters get the best of me.  Why?  Because I have gifts to share with the world.  Wonderfull stories that only I am capable of delivering.  Regardless of what you may think of me, I have some great attributes that make for a great writer of great stories.   A little self-confidence can go a long way.  And that's what this post is about.

Sure, there are a lot of challegnes in writing a novel, but I am up to that challenge and will deliver a novel that is second to none.  Why?  Because E.C. Henry has a lot strengths that he can draw off.

 

Jesus Wins: The Fine Art of Humbling One's Soul

Jesus Wins.

This is NOT an original E.C. Henry quote, but rather was one that I heard a person that I highly respect chose to answer his phone at one time.

NEVER doubt the affect your words can have on another person.  Even in brief interactions with other people you'd be suprised what they choose to remember you for.

For Darren Brock, how I choose to remember him is the guy who answered his phone, "Jesus wins."

Darren Brock was a guy I knew from my days in high school.  He was one grade level higher than me, and his brother actually was in my grade level.  The Darren I knew in school seamed troubled, even when I was in school it seamed to me that other people said that too.  I never knew what that trouble was, still don't.  

Flash forward to my post-fishing boat life, I nearly committed suicide, then gave my heart to Jesus.  THEN I re-meet Darren Brock now as a fellow Christian. I never got Daren's testimony of how he came to Christ, but after I got saved and started attending some church functions Darren talked to me a lot.  He was a carpet layer, that was his trade.  It's what he did for a living.  But what I remember the most about Darren was what a bold speaker he was.  Dude wasn't afraid to say anything.  He had a confidence unlike any Christian I'd ever met before.  Darren Brock was a modern-day David, and now as Christian there wasn't any Goliath he was afraid of.  

It's been over 20 years now since I had regular talkings with Darren Brock, but on one occassion we were talking (I can't remember exactly if it was Darren or his brother Tony) but one of those Brock brother told me about a time that they were listening Iron Maiden's song "The Number of the Beast" and he looked under his bed and saw a demon!  That freaked him out so bad he ran out of the room.  

But what really stood out to me about Darren Brock and what I respected the most was the fact that he was a working Joe, and could still be a fine, upstanding Christian.  That always struck a chord and earned a lot of street cred. with me: could you be successful in a job AND yet still be successful in your faith?

The other thing that really stood out to me was someting Darren said about when things get real stressfull at his house (where he was starting over with a new wife and seveal kids) Darren said sometimes he would pick up the phone and start the conversation by saying, "Jesus wins."

How cool of a way is that to BEGIN a dialog on the phone!?  

Like I said, it's amazing what some of your take-home message from some people is.  For me, I remember Darren Brock as the guy who would pick up his phone and start by saying, "Jesus wins."

And He does.  I think I loose sight of that a lot.  But even before the day begins, Jesus wins.  And it brings my heart great joy to share in what Jesus has already accomplished.  Now I'm not going to go into the Christian message.   It's in the four gospels, and a lot has been said about that already.  But what I am going to focus on is the underlying truth of it all, and that is Jesus wins no matter what comes next.  

I love the Lord.   Once I gave my heart to Jesus a lot of things changed for me.  Sure now I have a lot different ambtions than I did when I first got saved.  After I got "saved" back in 1990 I was coming off a carnal year living on-and-off a fisher processor boat in Alaska.  After I got saved I needed to have a new focus, get back into school, and get back on the college track so I could get a good job.  That led me to go to a tech. school where I studied to become an electronics technician.  I graduated from the that.  Had a hard time finding work.  Did a few electronic assembly jobs, then FINALLY got a good paying job--but I had to go to Boise, Idaho to get it.  Later that job started to wind down so I moved back to the state of Washington and the last major electronic job I had.  Then after that ended and tech. work was drying up I started doing warehouse jobs, pick-and-pack kind of stuff.  It's taken me about 15 years and now I'm finally at a good place.  And you have NO IDEA some of truly bad places I've been, and dark experiences I've been through.

I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this now.  Maybe it's because a part of me is writer with big, lofty dreams.  Dreams that for the most part haven't come true.  BUT I'm learning that I gotta be who I am, whether or not that's accepted or not.  Dream of Taylor Swift as I might, at the beginning of the day to the end of the day, I belong to Christ.

Jesus wins!

More importantly, Jesus wins my heart.  That commitment I made to him when I got saved is still the most important one of all.  I'm here for a short period of time.  Jesus is here forever!  He trumps eveything I want, everything I desire.  Sometimes you just hafta be willing to humble your heart and admit where you belong.  Whether my Hollywood dreams come true or not, I belong to Christ.  Jesus wins.  

I don't know if you've ever said that yourself--and meant it!  But I think it's so cool because it takes all the onus of us and puts where it belongs, on Jesus.  When you think about all He achieved and what He was willing to subject Himself to, by coming here to Earth to die for our sins, IF you believe it humbles and empowers you.  

I highly encouarge you to read the bible.  It's just so full of who God is.  Sometimes I just read the bible to marvel over God's character.  I LOVE the Old Testament especially.  I LOVE where you get the insight of where, when and under what circumstances God speaks.  It seams to me like most times God is recorded of speaking is under times of distress; when Israel had gone astry and changes where needed.

But I want hear God speak when He's happy.  You ever thought about that?  What it would be like to God speak at a time of awards.  A time when He speaks about the things that please Him.  In my heart of heart I want to live for God.  I want to bring God pleasure.  I want Him to be happy that He made me.  I'm going to be real honest with, I feel like I'm living on borrowed time.  Heck, back in 1990 had I made a different descion, of which I was very close to make I'll have you know, I could very well have blown my head of with a 30-30 gunhshot to the head.  That was and still is my hunting rifle, and it nearly became the impliment of my end back in 1990.  But...

Jesus wins!  I'm still here, by His grace.  Darren Brock may have been the first to say it in my life experience, but he won't be the last.  I believed it then, and I believe it now:

Jesus wins! 

Dreamtime Pollinators

This world needs more rich people in it.  This world needs more patron of the arts who have money to fund moviemakers' dreams so that worker bees like me have a payoff to look forward to.  Pre-pro screenwriters can have amazing dreams and projects, but with out the right pollinator those flowers never bloom, those seeds never get the chance to grow and see what they can become.  

 And that's the crux of this week's main post: dreamtime pollinators and the dire need for them. 

 Unlike some dipshits out there I NEVER begrudge rich people.  Why?  Because rich people make the world go round.  I've worked with alot of people in my 45+ years (I'll be 46 in June), and so many of them are down on rich people.  They think "the man" is bad, that somehow they're being unfailrly deprived because someone out there has it better than them.  From my way of thinking these people are complete idiots who have a very selfish and unmatured view of the world.  Rich people are the ones who give poor people like me the jobs that they have, which support themselves.  Basically rich people drive the economy and provide the structure for the rest of society.  And for that, I am grateful. 

Why bring this up?  Well-p, because as a pre-pro/undiscovered screenwriter I dream of one day finding my pollenator who can make the projects I've penned come alive.  All those scripts I've writter are seeds.  Yep, I'm sitting on matchbox filled with seeds.  Seeds which I hope someday get planted, and grow and mature into movies that can be seen by the rest of America and beyond.  

 
But what it takes is vision, I can...

But if there is no reciprication on the other side, nothing's going to happen with the seed ideas for the movies I've created.  

Which brings me back to MY need for a pollenator.  That's right.  Ol' E.C. is getting any younger. 46 on June 10th--so don't be lax and procrastinate with that upcoming b-day shopping.  Anyway, E.C. Henry needs some help to launch his dreams and entertain America and greater world abroad.   

I would LA-OVE to hook-up with a pollenator like Peter Jackson.  O yeah, me and Petey boy could do some cool things--if he were ever so moved.  Lately I've set my sights on a pollenator who's easy on the eyes.  That being Taylor Swift.  I've got TONS of seeds that in her exquisite hands could turn into beautiful works of art.  Of cource for that day to ever come she'd hafta show a desire and willingness to star in some feature films.  BUT I totally think she could pull that off IF she ever set her mind to that.  And who knows maybe even that file I've got burried with all those dance moves for thd Diamond Mine: that Christian dance ministry dream I had; could find a use of some sort in the budding career of the music diva that is Taylor Swift.

Is my heart ready to be pollenated?  Naw, dude I'm content living in utter obscurity, having no friends, no social life, no girlfiends, no prospect and no onbe but my immediate family who really isn't into story creation and the world that can be with power of good imagination.  And drag my sorry heart around like this all the time...

And press on.  Hoping against all hope that someday I'll find my pollenato, all-the-while having to cope with a heart that's as empty as Sahara Desert.  But that's the trade-off right?  Isolate yourself to create great imaginative things for a great payoff later in life...  It's WAAAY beter and WAAAY beter to do this journey with friends.  Sure their are times as a writer you hafta get alone to "hear the voices" and feel your work come alive, but prolonged states in near complete isolation is not good for man, and with a woman more obvious and inhertant need to be social, I don't know how they can pull that off.  Anyway what I'm getting at is I TOTALLY want to break ouf this, and become a more fully-realized person, and experience the benefiut of social interaction with people who are into the same things I am.  

Where I go to church CONTSTANTLY talks about the benefit of being in a "life-group", but what they almoast ALWAYS leave out is commonality.  Dude, I'm 45 and single, and at least 80% of the church members are MARRIED WITH CHILDREN.  I WANT to be part of the process making feature films.  See any differences there?!

But what good does it do to complain?  And so I press on, empty heart and all.  Wanna know why I get drunk more than I should?  It's because at some point regaurdless of who disciplined you intend to be you need to relax.  Maybe I need a beter release.  Yeah, maybe I should turn to execrise.  Take my angst and shit that's not going right and try to reapply it make it work in a positive way.  Get more flexable.  Get stronger.  Start practicing my dancing and screwing off so that IF I can ever connect with Taylor Swift or somone who's willing to plant the seed and see what becomes of "Chimpy" I'm in postion to play, and not just be a screenwriter who turns in a draft.  "Give It Up for Chimpy" has a zanny side to it.  A zanny side with dancing involved!  Yeah, maybe I could help Taylor and the rest of the gang to help bring Chimpy to life?  Or maybe I could infuse and bless her with some of the dance moves I put down YEARS ago for that Diamond Mine ministry/outreach that was unpollinated, thus is still at the seed level.  Maybe even become part of Taylor's enterage.   See with a lot of girls.  Where are the guys?  It's not boys vs. girls, Taylor.  Just think of fun dynamic you could have in the mix IF you brought in some guys to pall around with you and your friends.  Doesn't even have to be me girl, though I think I 'd be a great wild-card addition to your posse.  And THAT would certainly bring a little joy into my Sahara desert of a heart.

So in closing, dreamtime pollinators needed.  If interested checkout my "Script Loglines" sidebar and shoot me a responce e-mail.  In the mean time I press on.  I dream on.  I write on.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

P.S. Sorry for not posting on Sunday.  Watched a whole bunch of 2014 movies that were multiple Oscar contenders this last weekend: "Whiplash", "Nightcrawler" and "Foxcatcher".  "Whiplash" was pretty good (7 stars out of 10), "Nightcrawler" was good (6  stars), but "Foxcatcher" was downright AWEFUL, (2 stars). 

P.S.S. Did go to jury duty today.  Spent seven hours at the courthouse, only real action was roll call was taken like 6 times.  Then at the end of the whole I was given a number to call.  Our legal system is a JOKE, just ridiculous.  Now I've been atleast partially on the inside and can attest the infastructure and ways by which things are done is CRAP.  Can't talk about the case, but the system... TOTAL different story.  If you're ever asked to do jury duty, run away.  The only positive to the whole day was I did take some of my novel chapters and was able to get in some good work with the reverse beat sheet, some character work, and coming up with some solutions for problem in some story logic.

P.S.S. Also started work on a song I want to give to Taylor Swift someday.  I just want her to succeed and take some of the burden off her shoulders for coming up with new material.  Even if she rejects me, I don't reject her, and will always be pulling for her success.  She's just a bright star with a bright future.  The song I have in mind is playful, upbeat, and would make a good compliment to "Shake It Off."  Because with her its all...

 

The Cruise Edit

This was supposed to be a time where I'd be flying through things.  The hard work is done; I have a draft of the epic fantasy novel I'm working.  Know the beginning, know the middle, and I know how it ends.  So I'm in the editing phase.  But not just any ol' editing phase, I'm in what I call "the cruise editing" phase.  

And just what is meant when I say the "cruise" editing phase.  It implies this form of editing SHOULD be a breeze.  A regular walk in the park.  The hard part's done, you know the structure and where the story is going, now all you're doing is going back over the material looking for errors, which if you don't have any, should make for a nice even ride, like a day at the beach.  Like driving past the beach with your arms out just enjoying the breeze.  

But though that's where I'd like to be right now, that's not where I find myself.  Right now I want to cruise through eveything, but I'm finding error and poors writing galore.  If you don't think I'm hard on myself, you sir (or madame) are full of shit!  I am.  I'm very hard on myself, and my writing.  If it's not emmaculate, and doesn't sing, I'm not happy.  The problem is, that's final draft, end of the story, ready to be published, bought and consumed writing.  It's not writing in process.  

One thing that is very humbling about writing is going back over your work and seeing all the errors you make.  Grammatical, spelling, scrambled sentences that actually sound better when you move the parts of the sentence arround.

I thought that one you got that "inspiration" and recorded it once that everything was all honkey dorry.  Well, if you belive that, then you're not ready for the cold, hard facts of being a writer.  A lot of times I'll feel inspired and have a good time of writing something, only to come back to it a couple of days later and find it's litered wtih spelling, gramatical and basic sentence errors.  What happened to the inspiration?  I thought that covered all sins?

Nope.

A big part of being a writer involves editing past work and making it better. An earned excellence if you will.

And I'm getting sick and tired of slow of progress I'm doing too.  Listening to audio playback of your work then dinking around with it eats up the hours real quick.  But, my disgust has resulted in some changes.  

I'm going to start putting more of an onus on redline editing.  That's where you take a chapter, mark it up, type in the changes, THEN listen to it.  Bought $170+ dollars of ink for my printer to facilitate that.  AND starting next Monday I'm on the hook for two week of jury duty.  A guy a work told me to expect a lot of down time being a juror, so I'm hoping to use that time to do redline editing, AND reverse beat sheet breakdowns of the chapters to see how over story logic is.  For those out there who aren't familiar with that term, reverse beat sheet, a reverse beat sheet is when you take a chapter of fiction and put it back in outline form highlighting plot points (when key actions happen).  Reverse beat sheets are also a useful tool determining what areas of your story need to be cut.

Anyway, I'm working my ass on editing this epic fantasy story.  It's still a long ways off, but I am having fun with it.  

Really enjoying writing the three love stories in this epic fantasy story.  And YES, I am once again daydreaming of Taylor Swift staring as the love interest in the 2nd love story line or maybe a minor mentoring character.  But the 3rd love story that blooms beautifully in the 2nd half of the novel is really going to be fun for this rom-com guy to write.  Gunna kinda be close to "Romancing the Stone" kind of romance.  Lot's of action.  Okay, maybe the 3rd romance is more Hans Solo and Princess Leia stuff.  But it's going to be good, AND it's going to be unlike any other romance story I've every written.  It's already there in the 1st draft, I just need to make it sound and read beter.

So is ol' E.C. Henry in cruise control?  Hardly, I'm going full throttle at this thing, baby! 

P.S. Sorry about all this Taylor Swift talk.  All of that is congecture on my part.  I have NO IDEA what she wants to do with the rest of her life.  It's just I see her at a critical part of her career.  IF she wants to do movies--now's the time!  And I had this problem earlier with Jennifer Love Hewitt.  For a while I saw her EVERYWHERE in the love stories I had writen in my writing.  It was just very easy for me cut and paste her about in my mind.  But nothing ever came of that.  Sure I sent Jennifer Love Hewitt's production company an elaborate gift box once, but that got sent back to me unopened by them.  Likewise all attempts to connect with producer Lynda Obst proved to be unfruitful  Once I even bought her an Ipod with all my spec. script soundtracks on it, hoping to win her over with, but at the the event I was supposed to meet either her or a representative from her company, all were a no show and I had to eat that Ipod I bought, to this day it remains unused on my bookshelf.  Anyway, my life is filled with disappointment, always has been, probably always will be.  

Bianca Piper from The Duff (2015); Celebrating Characters in Cinema: Volume VII

Mae Whitman is a revelation!  I THINK she just delivered the best perfomance of a teenager in high school setting movie I've ever seen.  If you like good teen movies well then you've GOT to see, "The Duff" (2015: novel by Kody Keplinger, screenplay by Josh A. Cagan, directed by Ari Sandel).  It Mae Witman as Bianca Piper, who is the toast of this post.

I saw this movie last night, and then JUST finished watching it again at the good ol' Bonney Lake Multiplex, and just like "Birdman" last week I actually though "The Duff" was beter the 2nd time I watched it, which is a rarity for me.  

Let me just start off by saying how much I LOVE teenage stories, coming-of-age stuff from high school.  Next to the romantic comedy genre I think that's my 2nd favorite movie genre.  Not because Hollywood has a made a lot of great teenage-oriented movies, but because I recognize the impact they can have on our society.  Teenage movies give teenagers going through adolescence perspective.  Sure it's entertainment, but at the same time those movies are sowing into the lives of the those watching it.  I recoginze that need, and have a natural bend to want to watch teen movies just for that reason: influecing growing, impressionable minds.

So was "The Duff" a classic moive?  Hardly.  After watching it even the first time I couldn't believe this movie was actually based off a book.  The overall story just feel too weak to have been based off a book.  What hooked me was the Bianca Piper performance as played by Mae Whitman.  I bought her perforance hook, line and sinker.  Better than Lindsay Lohan in "Mean Girls" better that Shanene Woodley in "The Spectacular Now".

Mae Whitman can act.  Wow, can she ever act. She's the reason I went and saw "The Duff" two nights in a row.  

Sure there are a lot of laughs, and ha-ha performances that worked in this story.  HUGE fan of Romany Malco, who plays the principal in this story.  

As for Bianca's two girlfriends at school, I felt screenwriter Josh A. Cagan and director Ari Sandal did a GREAT job of establishing them early, with their into's with Bianca Piper voice over narration explaining who they were, but after that they didn't seem like real people to me.  Rather, it just felt like they JUST existed to be their for Piper.  

Another huge logic gaff, from my point of view, was how Piper never figured out that someone was in the auidence at that mall clothing store fliming her with their cellphone's camera when she was having fun making out with the department store dummys pretending like that was Toby, Piper's love interest/crush.  That gaff could have EASILY been rectified by having an instore security camera been taking footage of the people in the store, THEN having one of Madison's friends get a hold of that footage, put it on her iphone and boom go from there.  Madison (Bella Thorne's character) is the main antagoinst in "The Duff"; she the prettiest girl at school who lords it over eveyone that she's around.  

Most of the characters in "The Duff" are totally forgetable.  The only one who truely sings is Bianca Piper.   But her character is so mesmerising that it makes you forget about the other gaffs in the movie.  The facial expressions that Mae Whitman is capable of of making at crical times in the story is worth the price of admission.  Like I said earlier, best performace by an actress in a teenage role EVER!!!

Years ago I penned a script entittled, "Revenge of the Fat Chicks".  That script dealt with a theme similar to the one dealt with in "The Duff".  Knowing that was the case even before I went to see "The Duff", I was curious how similar our two stories were?  Well-p, nothing to worry about Kody Keplinger I'm not going to cause you any trouble, in fact I'll be praying future successes for you, as you do have good knack for handling teen stories.  "Revenge of the Fat Chicks" and "The Duff" are really quite different.

My story, "Revenge of the Fat Chicks" involves a cheerleader who defects from the rank of the popular to help the plight of her friends from her days when she was younger and was a "fat chick" herself.  It's a play on high school stereotypes.  But my approach angle is different that "The Duff" movie.  Sorry Kody as of the time of this post I haven't read any of your books yet, but after this movie I'm really leaning in that direction.  And I'm HOPING that the movie that was made off your novel opens the doors for movies like mine to ge made.

You see we're not all in competition here.  There's room for much more.  And hopefully following the release of "The Duff" Hollywood will want to make more movies with teen-based themes.  They're just so important.  Way more important, and can have more of an impact on society than the next "Transformers" movie, or the next "Avengers" installment.  

So go see Kody Keplinger's "The Duff" as see for yourself whether or not Mae Whitman's performace as Bianca Piper is memorable.  Hint-hint, it is!

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

P.S. Still hard at work on that whole epic fantasy novel re-writing thang.  That critcal chapter 2 re-write has ballooned from 26 pages to 70 now--and I'm loving it!  The new focus is starting to be the 2 major romance that kick off into high gear once the set-up is complete.  LOTS of work to do there, but I'm willing and in process of doing it.  More to come on that front in later posts...