Starting a new round of updates today

Last week was rather exciting for me, but the upshot is that I've got a lot more work to do over the next month or so.

On Saturday, Herman and I had dinner with a writer/director/producer who is reviewing my screenplay, Daddy's Money. Although he is not all the way through reading/commenting on the script, he seemed excited about what I've done. He told me the script is great as it stands if I'm only interested in appealing to a gay audience (which was my intent).

But he said for him to be interested in getting involved with this project, he would like to see it toned down a bit to appeal to a wider (straight crossover) audience. He told me that he's looking for a "breakout" gay movie that will appeal to everyone, similar to Brokeback Mountain, and he feels my script could be turned into such a movie with a bit more work.

So the upside is that he likes my screenplay. The downside is that I need to radically change the first act, which is essentially the first 10 scenes (30 pages). Okay, no problem. I'm willing to do that. He gave me enough direction that I've come up with a new beginning which I believe will give him what he's looking for.

I must admit, that as happy as I am to have this professional interested in my script, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'm also halfway through polishing my latest novel, Butterfly's Child, which should take another two weeks to complete.

I've also started the outline of my second screenplay, and I don't want to lose momentum on that. So I'm juggling three projects at once, while still trying to spend two to three hours per day promoting my book Island Song. When I retired from the corporate world ten years ago, I never thought I would ever be so busy, or work this hard again.

But then, life has a way of surprising us, no?