Greetings. In an effort to (for once) not bury the lead, I’ll let everyone know that the big news is this: One of my scripts has “advanced” through the competition in the Austin Film Festival’s top-notch screenwriting contest. My submission in the “Original Sitcom Pilot” category made it into the top 10% of entries (out of nearly 6000) which is, apparently, a big enough deal to land me an invitation to the festival along with some “special access.” Who can say no to special access? …so I’m now mapping out a late-October trip to Texas, my first-ever visit to the Lone Star State. And since I’m being a bit self-aggrandizing with all this, I’ll mention just one more thing: The script that did so well in this contest is a different “sitcom pilot” than the one that was a ‘finalist’ in the LA Comedy Shorts screenwriting competition last Spring… so that’s two respectable showings for two separate scripts in just a few months. Not bad, and I’ll take it… sooner or later, people are going to notice these sorts of things.
More than telling the world or blowing my own horn, the preceding paragraph was mostly written for my own benefit – I sometimes need to remind myself that I do know what I’m doing when I sit down at the keyboard. Lately I’ve been wrestling with a 3rd draft of a script that just isn’t working… and it seems that the universe itself is telling me that this particular idea/script just isn’t going to come together in a satisfactory way. These things happen of course, but they can really take the wind out of a guy’s sails… but we keep typing/rowing until the wind finally picks up again to launch us in new directions.
And finally: Check out the calendar of upcoming shows (to the right –>)
I’ve got another reading/essay show coming up on Friday 9/30 and I’m very psyched for it. Come on by if you’re in LA (but call ahead, this show sells out every time.)
PLANET O'CONNOR 