OK - I know I'm a little late...

Way back in June, 2011, when I still had a bit of time on my hands, I declared publicly that I would (attempt to) start blogging on a weekly basis. So... yeah... a couple things changed along the way and I never QUITE got around to doing that.  Then again, you probably already know that.  'Cause you've stared at blank pages on this site week after week, month after month, finally throwing your hands in the air and walking away, writing me off as just another one of "those" bloggers.  I'm a bit perturbed with myself for what must be a massive letdown for the legion of readers who have hung on my every thought since the very beginning (note tongue planted firmly in cheek here).  I bow before you, red-faced, in the most sincerest gesture of humility...

But it hasn't been a complete failure.  And I'd like to catch you up a little.

But first:  a little background.  When I suddenly found myself unemployed in early May, I also had two school-aged children finishing the school year in Ventura County (where I also used to work); we felt that, with just one month to go in the school year, it was silly to uproot the kids and put them in new schools.  So I shuttled them to school in the mornings, then whiled away those seven hours, awash in free WiFi at Starbucks, McD's, and Borders (RIP).  Now, don't get me wrong...  I loved having that time.  I was able to make calls, send email, research jobs, get a little writing done (this blog and otherwise), and NETWORK to find The Next Big Thing.  Little did I know that, as I became the little networker that I'd never EVER been before, I was opening up new possibilities.  CREATIVE possibilities, which I'd desperately longed for for YEARS.

One thing has led to another - I was lunching with fellow writers & filmmakers, volunteered at the Inktip Pitch Summit, and finished a rewrite on QUANTA - a thriller I'm starting to fashion into my feature directorial debut.  I've found that the more I open myself up to possibilities, the more possibilities open up to me!

Then one day, as I wandered the groups on LinkedIn, I stumbled across a post in the Save The Cat group from Anne Lower:  "Check out my crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter!"  I went over to the site, read all about this goth/noir/horror piece called They Live Among Us, and felt her pain as I read about how she, too, was tired of just sitting around waiting for something to happen with her projects.  I immediately found myself contacting Anne.  It wasn't long before she and I met up IRL for lunch, and we were off to the races on this little project!  While TLAU has been a crash-course in new-world filmmaking, it - and pep talks from other filmmakers, writers, etc. - started proving to me that there was simply no excuse why we shouldn't ALL be doing something like this.

If you have a creative bone in your body, standing (sitting) idle is simply unacceptable.

(Unless you really don't want it)

Now, go forth fellow spreadsheeters.  Concatinate. V-Lookup. Do it all.

You may just find that your bottom line will be far, far greater than the sum of its parts!