I had an entry here yesterday and right when I went to save it, my webpage management app froze up on me. Finally get around to fixing it today and ended up having to delete the app and reloading it before it worked. Find that yesterday’s entry disappeared. So I will give you a cliff notes version here.

2019 is going to be awesome. Debts are going to be paid off, family vacations and mommy vacations are happening. My husband might go somewhere cool for work too. I’m jealous though, as I’ve always wanted to go to Japan, where his job might send him for a couple months. We will see what happens with that though. It would require us getting help with the kids though if he left. We have learned that I am just not equipped for three kids on my own. My stress level just can’t manage. Especially if I want to do the writing I plan to do, as well. Again, that’s all up in the air right now.

What is 90% sure is Disney World in the Spring, life long dream right there. Screencraft Writers Summit just before that. And the Austin Television Festival in June and the San Diego Comic Con in July. I haven’t been to SDCC in many years with a badge. If I get a badge this year, awesome, but I really enjoyed what I did last year too, outside of the convention center. I had so much fun there too. Meeting all sorts of new people. Coming out of my shell in some areas. I can’t wait to get back there. I love my kids, and I know it will be hard to leave my youngest for the first time, but mommy needs to be more than mommy sometimes. Traveling and writing is a part of being that “more.”

Right now I am trying to pep talk myself for handling the kids for New Years Eve. My oldest is the only one who is aware of the fireworks and I think I will just make a big deal out of some Netflix ball drop countdown for kids after dinner tonight. Maybe a little bit of popcorn to celebrate. Then off to bed at the regular time. Because Parents don’t have time for that. LOL

Happy New Year, everyone! May it be awesome for you all!

Truth: Winter break is the worst time for any stay at home parent to get work done. Laundry isn’t even something that gets done is a realistic manner. My husband left for Florida on Wednesday morning, so we are going on 4 days of him being gone. I have three children, and my seven year old is home from school for another week. The two younger kiddos, 3 yers and 7 months are a chore on it’s own when we leave the house. Add my seven year old daughter and nope. We are all recluses. I refuse to set myself up for failure by taking them all out of the house on my own. Thank god for my parents for taking the older kiddos during my baby’s morning nap time. But the baby was cranky and refused to sleep until I had about thirty minutes of quiet time left to myself. I think I have completed four loads of laundry since his departure and only two of them have gotten put away in drawers. I hope to get the other two put away today to clear room for the load that is waiting in the dryer. Then I get to start the whole process over again in a day or two.

With all that said, writing at this time is just crazy business. I just want to relax and collect myself every quiet moment I get. I had a quiet night last night and I spent it watching DC Universe’s Titans on the floor of my kids’ playroom. It’s a long story but that’s the only room it would play in. It was worth it. Such a good show. I got two episodes knocked out and hope to finish it with before Arrow-verse returns to the CW after their winter break. In the mean time I have updated my website and updated my Film Freeway profile to reflect awards and such for Summons.

Side bonus, I figured out (Self diagnosed, more like) that I need a corrective surgery after having my youngest. Nothing serious, but who wants surgery? Looks like I might have some down time in a few weeks. I hope to have the first draft of Across the Veil done so I can work on editing and entering it into film festivals while I’m laid up.

If you are a stay at home parent who works or heck, just does house chores around the house, I applaud you. When it was just me and my older two, writing was no big deal. My husband was deployed when I wrote the most. Oldest was at school and the my son was taking good 2-3 hour naps after we both went to the gym. Now I’m hoping on hope that my son gets into the preschool program for his speech and communication issues so, not only can he get assistance there, but so that I can get a little more of a break. I love my kids, but lets be real, mommy can’t handle all three, all the time. I don’t like being JUST mom. I want to be mom, writer, traveler, wife, friend, gym rat and comic geek. Everyone will be happier once he gets to go to school. LOL Truth bomb right there.

Since I started doing screenwriting, I’ve found myself picking apart certain movies. If I do, they have to either be really boring, or so good I wonder where that person thought about certain scenes and give mad props. Most recently, my husband and I were able to watch Annilation without any interruptions from the three children sleeping upstairs. As a parent, that is very rare. Anyways, this movie had been on my “to watch” list for a while now and finally we found it on some expensive movie channel for “free” and tucked in with our adult beverages and watched.

I will say, it’s a slow movie, but it in no way takes away from the impact of the story. In fact, if it went any faster, I probably would have been disappointed. Lena, Natalie Portman’s character, is forcefully enlisted to take on a reconnaissance mission with four other women, of various backgrounds, following the mysterious and unexpected return of her husband. After a year MIA from a top secret (not so much anymore) mission, her husband, Kane, returns and in the same hour, or so it seemed, has major organ failure, after which a government research facility takes her into custody. It didn’t seem like they had to do too much convincing for her to accept and go along without a fight. She wanted to know what had happened to her husband, and all the other multiple people who has gone into this massively growing cloud they call The Shimmer. On this expedition the women find multiple plants and animals with altered DNA. Later on, they discover that their own DNA is being effected as well. It makes some of them a little batty. A couple of them die, not telling who, this isn’t a Cliff Notes of that. You want that, you can do what I did and read Wikipedia, true story. If you’re paying close attention, you can see how Lena changes through the story as well. They were only in The Shimmer for a few days but subtle changes begin to occur if you’re watching. It gave me shivers, kept me glued and the ending blew my mind. No joke. At the beginning, there’s a scene where Lena and Kane are talking about the moon, God and growing old. He’s religious, she’s a scientist. She doesn’t necessarily say God doesn’t exist, she just doesn’t give him credit for some things. I thought for sure this movie would end with a religious message. After it was all over, credits are rolling. I came to the conclusion, without picking the brain of the original writer of the story, that I wasn’t half wrong. I don’t want to discuss it any further in case anyone reading hasn’t watched it. If you haven’t, I encourage you to do so. Go! Go now and turn off the phone and watch it start to finish. Then come back and tell me what your theory is, or if you feel it’s just a story.

I am genuinely curious what some people felt about this story, even if it was just that it was a good story and didn’t find any hidden message.

​Happy watching!

It’s been over a year but I didn’t just drop off the face of the planet and chose to stop writing. Due to a sudden death in the family, my husband returned early from his last deployment. It was soon after that that we found out we were pregnant with our third. Followed by the expected and dreaded Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG - Severe morning sickness). On top of that, I was sick with a virus that refused to go away until I was about 8 months pregnant. The stress of it caused heart issues, dizzy spells, energy levels to a zilch level and more puking. Once my daughter was born, there was adjusting to having three children, two with special needs, and the baby having some minor health issues herself, I continued to put writing on the back burner. When my new baby was 5 months old, my husband got a new job and we moved four hours from where we were. Now that we’ve gotten established, the baby no longer has any health issues herself, I can take some time out to write during nap and evenings after bed time again.

It was just a few days ago that I logged back into my FilmFreeway account and saw that I had won an award from the Canada International Film Festival for my TV Pilot screenplay, Summons. It was a semi-finalist award, one that landed my name and script title on their awards page, but it was an unexpected and energizing surprise. I only logged in to see what was out there, I had completely forgotten that I had one more festival that hadn’t come in with their results just yet. Along with surprise, I also felt a sense of “yes, I’m not crazy.” Last summer, with my husband away,and endorphins running high from my daily gym visits, I decided I wanted to try something new. It was seriously on a whim. But I ended up loving it. I still do. Writing comes more naturally to me in this form. I’ve written stories, novels, short stories, a ton of Buffy fanfic when I was a teenager. I’m talking 400 pages in a fanfic series. I’m not ashamed to admit it. At the time, Buffy and Angel was THE ship to ship.

I will never forget the day my high school librarian suggested I write screenplays, though. I shook my head right away, without hesitation. It sounded so empty. Where was the character development, the detail, the description? Since then, I’ve written two novels, a few short stories and I get it. The novels take me forever it feels. My OCD gets lost in the details. But with screenplays, I can leave out the descriptive and leave it for the set maker. Forgo the character details and leave it to the director and costume designer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fully aware there is still descriptions, character detail, but not nearly as in depth as a novel.

So, as of right now, I am entered into five more festivals. Why so many? Simple answer, variety. There’s a lot of feedback that comes with these contests. I also get a feel for my editing. I made a lot of changes to my script, I’d like to see what different judges have to say on it. Am I wasting my money? I don’t feel I am. I think, in any business, as a self employed individual, you have to put money out to make money. As I get awards, if I’m lucky to get any more on this script, it gives me confidence to pitch it for production. If it doesn’t, it means my editing missed it’s mark, I should go back and make changes accordingly.

I’m also about two-thirds done with a feature screenplay. It’s definitely something I’ve always wanted to write as a novel, but only got as far as a few notes on scratches of paper. Just this week I added about 7 pages. Which is amazing as I’ve also been sick with a cold, managing my three crazy kids and running around town to various doctors appointments. Three kids, flu shots, vaccines, therapy, evaluations, it can be tiring, for sure. After next month though, I expect things to settle just a little more. For now, I’m taking it one day at a time. If I get even just half a page done during a nap, I call it a win.

That’s it for now. But I look forward to adding more to my blog more often again. It helps me sort stuff out. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!