• This Writing Journey

    A Foray into Screenwriting

    In my early twenties, I took some drama courses because I had a mild interest in acting. One of the teachers was a film and television director. I asked him if he’d look at any screenplays I had. He said he would. I’d never written a screenplay, and had no idea how to do so. But I saw opportunity. Now I just needed to learn the format. The library didn’t have any instructional books about screenwriting, but they did have one about playwrighting. We were still three or four years away from the internet becoming a thing. I wrote two screenplays (using the playwrighting book as a guide) – both…

  • This Writing Journey

    Midnight’s Dawning

    I jump around a bit in this blog because it’s interesting to contrast my attitudes of today with that naïve, optimistic, hopeful writer from over thirty years ago. Writing about him, I miss him, and the idealism he nurtured. But it wasn’t all hopefulness. Sometimes, reality snuck in to temper the enthusiasm. As occurred after I finished my novel. I started wondering why a publisher would take a chance on an unknown, untried author who’d only written book one of a proposed four-book series. A big part of this concern was genuine self-doubt. An equally big part was just how clueless I was about what to do next. I decided…