August already? This is the time of year when results start coming in for all those screenwriting competitions we all submitted to back in February and March. I didn’t have a lot of new stuff to submit this year, so it is nice to see the two new-ish things I did submit get a little recognition.
My Ireland-themed sitcom pilot “Gotta Be McGee” added “PAGE Awards Semi-finalist” to its list of accolades, making it now a “Top 5%” script on all of CoverFly, while my horror feature “SeaBird” also made it to the semi-finals in the “Creative World Awards” screenplay contest.
This is all good news. Especially since I haven’t been doing much/any actual “screenwriting” this year. Oh… I’ve been plenty busy writing other stuff though. I just don’t know how much of that will see the light of day: Earlier this year I cranked out two short fiction eBooks (about 15k words each) and in just the past 3 months I focused on writing just one thing: a highly personal/autobiographical project that I just finished today, which is clocking in at 80k words. I don’t know about you but 80k words in just under 3 months is, for me anyway, a lot of writing. I don’t know what to call it exactly, “memoir” seems a bit overblown, but it is definitely an autobiography… and one that wasn’t easy to write.
Actually, it was beyond “not easy,” it was actually difficult and a bit painful to write but, it just felt like it was time to write it… whether or not I ever share it with anyone or not. I think most writers know that feeling: Of being unable to write anything else until you get one. specific. thing. out of your head and onto the page. …that’s where my head was at. And now it is done. I’m not sure what I’m going to focus on next, writing-wise, but I finally feel free to choose among other projects.
In other news, my time at the LA Connection Improv Theater in Burbank is already ending. This is very disappointing news but I guess it couldn’t be helped. The group I was part of just sort of disintegrated with too many people not showing up for rehearsals or dropping out of the theater altogether. Those of us remaining were offered slots in other groups (that met on different nights) but I just couldn’t make any of those new choices work with my schedule. But damn, it was very nice to be on stage again and more importantly, be back in a rehearsal/class atmosphere with a lot of lovely, kind, and funny people. I’m going to have to find a new improv option soon because I definitely feel re-bitten by the bug and want to get back up-to-speed the way I was back when I was doing improv 5-6 nights per week. — In related news, there might be an improv teaching opportunity for me soon. THAT would be spectacular. Sometimes I think I miss teaching even more than performing.
PLANET O'CONNOR 