Monday, May 30, 2011

PRESS RELEASE

The novel GREEN DARKNESS by Anya Seton is a #2 Bestseller on Amazon.com!

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D23&field-keywords=reincarnation&x=14&y=17#/ref=sr_st?keywords=reincarnation&qid=1306777436&rh=n%3A283155%2Cn%3A!1000%2Cn%3A23%2Ck%3Areincarnation&sort=salesrank 

This is great news for the screenwriters  (A Falkowska and MJ Hayes) who have optioned the book and written an adaptation, PREORDAINED, that is now being read by producers and managers!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

The Brass Ring's Romantic Workout

When we set sail on this journey to get our adaptation written and  produced, we knew full well that it was going to take time. Are we not dealing with swamped professionals who get tens of thousands of queries every year? I know I wouldn’t want to be in their boat. But our dinghy is pitching as well (pardon the pun).

The creative urge doesn’t stop when you’re in 'waiting-mode', it just sloshes around in your brain every waking hour and makes you irritable and not fun to be around. It’s not as if anything else even comes close in interest, except family, maybe. And it’s enough to make you give you a migraine from the keel up!

I can now fully understand why our mentor, Hal Croasmun, always said, “Forget the small talk. There’s nothing more interesting than the biz.” On the other hand, he also said we should try to find some shared interest with people in the biz. Sigh. Another conundrum to contemplate as I’m swatting the sheep popping over the fence—aka falling asleep.

What we realized, but chose not to think so much about, was how much luck would have to do with it. If we had, we’d never have begun and would not then be more than halfway to our goal! One of our query letters was refused because the manager had another client with a very similar project and he felt taking ours on would create a conflict of interest. Now that’s hopeful. The idea of past lives is certainly out there in the mainstream by now, and someone is capitalizing on it. Bravo!

Our goal is to find a producer (at least one) who likes our query enough to request the script and then has a reader with the same sensibilities (one would hope that’s the case anyhow) who loves our script enough to champion it. And that this producer will also then read and love our script and champion it to his bosses and financiers, who will in turn also adore the concept enough to invest their money. A lot of things have to fall in place just to make the deal.

Fingers crossed for the next wave, we sail onward toward the brass ring!! Even if, at times, we have to blow in our own sails to move an inch!

And so it goes~~

Til next time
Angela

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Going For The Passion!


It’s been a long week of waiting and moving on. Our GREEN DARKNESS adaptation is in the hands of many producers at this point. Help us visualize multiple positive responses.

We've had one response so far, a positive-negative, from a producer who said, "All in all, this was a well crafted and strongly written project." He just didn’t feel “passionate” enough about the material.

We’re not disheartened. After all, not everyone liked GREEN DARKNESS the novel—only those who read and re-read it! It’s all a matter of taste…and we need someone who feels the same way as we do about this story.

Meanwhile, we’re both looking for a new project that we can be just as passionate about!

Life is all about the passion. You get out of it what you put into it, she typed passionately.

Feel it, live it! Til next time~~

Angela 

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Mother Hen and The Roosterlady Are Not Chicken!


Brooding mothers unite! We are so well matched, Marla and I, like sisters who were separated at birth. But I’m taller than she is and she’s younger than I am.

People call Marla “Mother Marla” and just for the record, I have been dubbed a mother hen on many an occasion, but I am far better known as the “Roosterlady”, because of all the rooster paintings I did before I discovered screenwriting.

Through our combined valiant querying efforts, Marla and I have pushed 10 eggs (our script, 10 times, ouch!) out into the world to be incubated by 10 companies, mostly producers but a couple of managers too. We hope they will help hatch out many viable chicks by their “yes” responses to our script.

There are too many fowl puns we could use to describe the torturous process of sending out queries to companies. Those stomach butterflies pale in comparison to querying our preferred actors’ managers, however! Let’s just say we’re not chicken….  

I admit it, yes, we’ve cracked (each other) up! 

My apologies to those who aren't up to a blog of puns, blame it on the stress if you must.

Later~~

Angela

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Saints, Digits And Paws, I Swear!


It’s been some week. “Hellish” sprang to mind -- just like “that”-- without even trying!

We hear wonderful words of encouragement from GREEN DARKNESS fans, who swear to cross their digits, paws (!) and even pray to the saints if only that will help us get this film made! We are so very grateful!

Seems like we may need some heavy-duty prayers—because we’re providing a good deal of our own swearing. Half kidding. LOL

Our initial foray into marketing hasn’t achieved the projected targets. We had planned on a far higher (perhaps unrealistic?--we are only human after all) rate of “Yes, send it. We’d love to read it” than we got.

Sigh. Back to the keyboard, to tap, tap, tap our brains for more persuasive pitching materials and then we’re off again, at a more modest pace.

Dang, if this marketing stuff isn’t enough to make a person mosey up to a bar and ask for a bottle! Sure, we've marketed scripts before, but this time we're doing it semi-publicly...

Hooray! We’re now getting  more script requests with our amended synopsis and query letter. Whew!

As those of you who are screenwriters know, "just" getting the script into the hands of a producer, agent or manager doesn’t guarantee a sale, nor a speedy response. It can take a year and occasionally even longer for busy execs to get to their pile of scripts.

What’s a person to do? We hang in, we keep our heads and stay away from those bars!

Never wait. Thus we start on the next project. I’m turning one of my comedy scripts into a novel; Marla’s working on her rewrite of a comedy.

If you hear of any sanity for sale, think of us, would you? And pray, pray, pray….:)

Till next time~~

Angela