Things I love right now...in no particular order

1. Proudly wearing my UCLA sweatshirt on rainy L.A. days.
2. Long talks with my parents on the phone. It makes it seem like they're not so far away.
3. Texting. Again, it makes people seem not so far away.
4. Friends who respond immediately to emails.
5. Screenwriting podcasts that make working out seem like work so I don't feel guilty that it's 3pm and I'm outside walking around Hancock Park.
6. White vinegar. The coffee maker was dying a slow death. Or so I thought. Then my dad said pour some vinegar through it and Voila! It's alive again!
7. Steve Martin's autobiography "Born Standing Up" -- fascinating!
   
8. My Kindle.
9. Lavender tea.
10. That my third graders have pet mealworms on their desks. They're studying them!
11. Teaching fractions and making the kids laugh.
12. That my DVR is full of some of my favorite TV shows and I have all night to watch them.
13. That I have lived different places and done different things and have lots of stories to tell.
14. Playing Scrabble online with friends.
15. That I got a buy one get one free coupon for Chipolte that I get to use tomorrow.
16. Gnomes.
    

What do you love right now?

The beginning

"I'm a writer." I said those words on Sunday morning when I met some new people at church and they asked what I do. I didn't start with, "I'm a teacher but working to become a screenwriter" or "I teach part-time...". I said the words, "I am a writer" and I meant them.

Over the past week I've been immersed in writing. I attended the Oscar-nominated screenwriters panels at both the WGA and Creative Screenwriting. I saw two Oscar-nominated movies (The King's Speech and The Fighter - both AMAZING). I listened to a ton of writing podcasts. I attended a three hour television writing seminar. I typed a full-length screenplay in exchange for getting notes on a television pilot. I'm going hardcore.

So on Tuesday when I walked out of the theater after watching The King's Speech I was thrilled to have a voicemail from the literary agent I met with a few weeks ago. I'd sent him another script on Monday and he was calling to invite me to be a part of their orientation process at the agency. Thrilled. Excited. Ready. That's me.

What does this mean? It means I'll spend the next few months meeting with the agency once a week learning about how they work, how we'll work together, and the best path to take my career down. Does it mean I'm their client? Not yet. It means we're having a trial period, on both sides. Kind of like dating. Yep, I'm dating a literary agency.

Some people have asked if this is traditional. No. But nothing about showbusiness is very traditional. If you ask a hundred people how they got their start, they'll each have a different story. If you ask a hundred people for advice on how to begin your career, you'll get a thousand different replies. So for now, this is my path. Wish me luck (though their offices are on the second floor, so no wishing for a broken leg, thanks)!

Still fighting

This is a shot of the crowd last year at the EIF/Revlon Run/Walk for Women. I'm in there somewhere. I'm in there with Angela, with my mom, with a team of men and women from the middle school Angela works at. And it was an amazing day. A day I've recorded here. My mom, Angela and I raised $1185 last year for our walk. Our family and friends were amazing. They reached out when money is tight, when there are hundreds and thousands of other causes begging for support. They reached out. And I am humbled and grateful and filled with love because of it.

But guess what? Cancer has not been cured. Cancer hasn't gone away. We still have to fight just as my grandfather and my second mother have to (see last year's post on why I fight here). We still have to fight hard to kick cancer's butt. And we will.

This year Angela and I are once again doing the 5K. We've set a fundraising goal of $2000, $1000 each. I think we can reach that goal. I think we can help fight the fight. I think we can do it because two of the people I love most in the world fight the fight every single day.

Every single dollar counts. Every single prayer counts. Last year I walked with a piece of paper in my hands:
On that piece of paper was a list of all the people I walked for. I walked for my family and yours. I walked for loved ones still with us and loved ones gone to heaven. I walked for you.

So THANK YOU IN ADVANCE. Thank you for helping, for fighting, for loving, for sharing that love. Thank you. There's not much else I can say. But thank you. And I'll see you at the finish line.

You can donate by clicking here.

Beyond Words

Beyond Words was the name of the event I attended last night at the Writers Guild Theater. It was billed as "a conversation with WGA and Academy-Award nominated screenwriters". It lasted about an hour and a half and was fascinating. Beyond fascinating. Beyond words...

There were screenwriters there who's work I enjoyed this year (Stuart Blumberg & Lisa Cholodenko - The Kids Are Alright; Aaron Stockard - The Town; Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network) and writers there who's work I've yet to see (Paul Tamasy, Scott Silver & Eric Johnson - The Fighter; John Requa & Glenn Ficarra - I Love You Phillip Morris, Mark Heyman - Black Swan; Nicole Holofcener - Please Give) but it didn't matter, they all had fascinating insights into the screenwriting and television writing process, and more than a few fun anecdotes from the trenches.

I've attended my share of panel discussions and seminars since moving to Los Angeles to pursue my writing career. Sometimes they're a lot of fun, sometimes they're educational, sometimes they're downright boring and repetitive. (No, I don't want to know about an agency contract. When I get one, I'm sure someone will explain mine to me, thankyouverymuch.) But this panel was different. I walked out of the theater on cloud nine. Ready to write a movie. Ready to write another TV pilot. Ready to take the world by storm. Well, at least Hollywood by storm.

At the end of the conversation, the moderator (an entertaining John August - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc.) asked about when the writers share their ideas with people, when they start to talk about their stories. A few people chimed in but it was Aaron Sorkin who summed it up perfectly for me (of course). He said he doesn't share his ideas with a lot of people until they're nearly done. Not because he's afraid someone will steal them but because he's afraid people will steal his energy and passion for the project. And I totally caught myself nodding. How many times have I told someone I'm a writer who's working to get her screenwriting career going and people are like, uh oh, yeah, good luck with that. You just know they're thinking, whatever, never gonna happen. They steal my energy and my passion. Same goes for story ideas.

So I've decided to take control, own my energy and my passion, and continue on, focused on my career. I want to write movies. I want to write television shows. I want to keep moving forward. And so I will with all the inspiration I gleaned from last night. It truly was moving beyond words for me...

Encouraged beyond belief

This afternoon the handyman was here to fix the locks. We had some issues with the wood on the door swelling after the December rains. Well, turns out that the handyman did more than fix the door. He let a little green bird (about the size of my fist) inside. An hour or so later when I went into the kitchen I saw the bird fluttering about, pecking at the window in the laundry room. I got him outside quickly, thank goodness, as he'd already pooped on the dryer and kitchen counter! But for those few seconds that I was watching him ram the window, deciding what to do, I couldn't help but think how scared he must be. And frankly, how scared I was that he was going to get into another part of the house. And oddly enough, even though there was that split second of terror, ultimately, I was calm. I wasn't screaming on the inside or the outside.

I got the bird outside and I got dressed to go to my meeting with the literary manager. And guess what? I wasn't scared. I wasn't screaming. I was calm and well spoken and by the time I told my story the second time, to the senior partner, I had it down pat. And I was pretty happy about the whole thing. I'm not quite sure where all of this will lead. I really liked what they had to say about their brand-new company. I really liked how they seem to embrace emerging talent (basically us baby writers) and how they emphasize writing as a collaborative process. When he walked me out the lit manager asked about a second pilot script I'd mentioned. I pitched him my story and he seemed intrigued. He asked to read it. I think that's a good sign.

Will this be the company I work with throughout my whole career? I have absolutely no idea. If you'd asked me five years ago if I'd ever live in Los Angeles I'd have said I have absolutely no idea. But one thing is certain. I had a good meeting today. I felt confident and encouraged as I left the office building. And for what it's worth, that's really all I wanted out of today. And so it begins...