Friends, United

I have a friend getting married in a few months, and a friend who's working towards becoming a wedding photographer.  I made some introductions. The engaged friend now has a wedding photographer!  The wedding photographer has her first wedding gig!  There's nothing like unity. Unity in the family.  Unity among friends.  Unity for a mutually benefical cause.   I can't wait to see how it all turns out.  One thing's for sure, I am positive that the day will be a wonderful celebration and everything will be beautifully imortilized.  Stay tuned.

Freedom to Choose

Over this past Memorial Day Weekend, I thought a great deal about the men and women of the armed forces who selflessly give their lives and time in devotion to our country's freedom.

I text one of my military cousins to thank him for his service, and happened to take a look at some of our prior text chains.  One of the things he said to me was "just like the clothes God allows us to choose each day, He also gives us the choice to have a good attitude or a bad attitude."

Those words
got me to thinking about my career.  (It's an odd cross over, I know.) Ultimately I would like my career to be wrapped around the word 'Mogul'.  But for the entertainment part of my lively hood, I've been thinking a lot lately about getting back to what I marginally went into all this for: movies.

Somewhere along the way of pursing a career in film, I fell in love with TV and writing for TV.  I didn't fall out of love with writing films or making films or anything film related.  I just expanded my interests to include TV.  I wonder sometimes, if I should choose to focus on film over TV for the time being.

I've been told on numerous occasions that the writer is KING in television.  [And that's not an inaccurate statement, as MEN overwhelmingly hold the TV writing positions in this industry, but this isn't about that.]  I do enjoy TV, and so much of it is good; it's basically like watching an extended movie.   But is that why I'm so invested in TV right now?  Because it's the 'hot' thing right now?  Or because I genuinely enjoy the idea of writing a character week after week? Or is it because TV has a much quicker process?  I don't know.

But on the weekends, I find a particular solace in going to the actual movie theater and investing a block of time to one story line and a group of characters.   They both have their specific appeals and I'd like to be able to do both.  I choose to do both.  I choose to do a great many things, novels included.  (I will complete my first young adult novel prayerfully by summer's end.)

I see the choices of my peers everyday and how some of those choices are based on fear.  I have a friend who desperately wants to move back to the east coast, and build a career/life there. Her fear of missing out on something on the west coast keeps her here...and often in tears.

My choice is not as life threatening, life affirming or life altering as those of the in the military.  It would be asinine for me to compare my choices to theirs.  I am in the business of giving people a short reprieve from their demanding (or mundane) lives.

I have to remember, just like I have the freedom to choose to wear jeans or a dress, to speak up or keep quiet, to work or to sleep, to have a good attitude or a bad one, that same freedom of choice exists for my career.  Movies or Television?  Not an 'or', simply rather a matter of what I will choose to take priority.

There are a great deal or choices to make here in the coming days, weeks, months.  Stay tuned.

And many, many thanks to the men and women devoted to the military and our country's freedom.

It only takes one

I've been meeting with studio executives, show runners, writers and executive producers in the past months and I've gotten a great deal of advice.  I think the advice I remember the most was "It only takes one yes."

The person who told me that is an executive producer with several shows on the air.  He told me about his long journey here in the entertainment industry and how after just one person told him yes, his career jumped off.   A great deal of "no"s came his way.  But when that one "yes" showed it's lovely face, that was all that mattered.

Yesterday I received yet another "no".  I was slightly bummed for about two seconds.  I mean, it was an opportunity for me to get my feet wet in a writer's room on a show that would likely get a third season order.  It would also give me a feeling of belonging.  The chance to be on a team again. This particular position would only be for five weeks, but it would have been good for my resume.

I have been looking for a new job for a good two years, now.  I've learned a lot about a great many things (both about the industry and about people) where I am, but I've always known this position was a stepping stone.  I didn't want to stay on this one step too long.  I hate being stagnant.  I even hate the word stagnant.  I only like 'pause' when it's attached to a button on my remote control or music playing device, or when it's eloquently placed in a piece of music.  But sometimes, it's just how it is.

A few months ago my boss resigned.  The hows and whys of it aren't important.  But it has put me in an interesting position.  I'm not exactly sure how long I will have the opportunity to come to "work," write, basically do what I want and collect a paycheck.  So this position on this show would have been nice.  It would have been forward movement.  I could finally take the 'pause' off and press play!

Then I remembered that advice...it only takes one.  Only one yes.  And this one, wasn't the one.  I have to believe that it's all for a reason...and that my 'yes' is very imminent.  That play button is itching to get pressed.  Stay Tuned.  

Well, hello there....

A funny thing happened today.

I was at work, writing.  During my procrastination time (a necessity to my writing process) I went to the Internet and found that my blog page was up.  I didn't remember clicking on it.  But there it was. Clear as a glass of water, with the last post made sometime November 2013.

I read the post.  It recalled that year's Thanksgiving that I spent with a friend.  Then I scrolled through a few more posts and realized how much has happened...and not happened.  How much has changed...and how much remains stagnant.

So I decided maybe I would do what I've been promising for some time.  Perhaps this was a sign to restart the blog and make it a priority to keep it going...like when I first started it back in grad school.

This is the first attempt.  It may not be everyday.  It might not be very interesting.  But here's to another round of first steps.   Stay tuned.