The View Up Here

So many months have passed since I took to this blog. Here's a sweeping update: started new job at the new parish in a new town moved into a sweet studio with a giant back yard, functional if small kitchen, attached garage, lovely neighbors/landlords finished revised draft of Black Doves; it's with the publisher now. Hoping for publication this year. finished short story "Working Man"  started writing other short stories that will be collected together in a self-published work at some point in the future Sadly, I must also report that my brother Patrick was diagnosed with stage III stomach cancer just before Christmas. I am asking the Lord to open doors for me to move there -- yes even though I just moved here. It's time to go home. I need my family, and my family needs me. I've already blown through all my PTO and I don't have the money to keep schlepping back to the South Shore on long weekends. By the way, my new profile pic is of him and m...

2018 ended with a grinding, gasping, crushing sound in my little world. I found out a couple weeks before Christmas that a registered sex offender had been living downstairs from me, and although his crime was 20 years ago and had nothing to do with children, he had somehow violated whatever parole he was on. I saw the Staties leading him to a police cruiser as I returned home from work one night. I made eye contact with him; he threw me this sad little smile. I'd known for some time that he was lost and drifting, very nervous and paranoid. Now I know why. I pray for him because he seemed gentle but lost, not evil by any stretch. But it was distressing, and since I'd just moved into the apartment in October and had experienced quite a difficult transition, even more jarring. A few days after that, I discovered some very disturbing news about someone who once meant a great deal to me. The reverberations of this are still rippling through me. My judgment of character, so...

Some of you have been checking in with me about this book, the book that I am writing... the book... that has turned several corners, backed up, run over its own head, careened into the river, onto the bank and through a field of land mines... and still keeps on going. Black Doves is in draft stage, and with some grace, blessing, and a lot of hard work, I hope we are on the road to publication sometime in 2016. So keep in touch... more to come on things as they progress. And thank you for your support.

It's been mighty warm in these here parts for the last several weeks, but finally in the 3rd week of Septmember we're enjoying some cooler temperatures again at night. The feeling of late summer as it manifests in New York and New England isn't quite the same here, but I can still feel the earth beneath my feet settling down, giving up the last of the harvest, preparing to rest for awhile. It was two years ago this month that I came to visit L.A. for the first time and decided I needed to live here. What an amazing life! School has begun, and I find myself teaching a section of World Literature to high school sophomore girls as well as providing admin. support to the principal. I love working and teaching in a Catholic school for all the reasons you would expect, but I also have to say it has brought to the surface some of my own sensitivities that are being healed in the Light of Christ. In His great economy, nothing is wasted! I spent last weekend on retreat with ...

I've been writing a lot of spiritual and religiously themed posts, so I thought I'd update some of what's going on with me personally. I've returned to working on the screenplay that was once called 'Eden.' I have to rename it because some kind of twaddle just came out with the same moniker. I'm doing some heavy Act II restructuring now, which is my least favorite thing about writing a screenplay, but it's going pretty well so far. I've also not forgotten about the project I'd started researching last year on Mary Magdalene. I'm not sure what I'm doing with that; it's still in a very nascent stage. I was also thinking of looking at other women in Yeshua's ministry and life, but we'll see how the Spirit leads me on that one. People keep asking me when Black Doves will be released, and unfortunately I have to keep saying the same thing: I don't know. It's in the pipeline at Powys and it'll come out when it'...

My first novel, Black Doves , is finished and copy edited and with the publisher, Powys Media . It's now in the pipeline behind two other Space: 1999 novels, so it'll still be a little while before it comes out, but when it's ready for public consumption, I will plaster teh internets with the link for ordering. Now that this is off my plate, I'm trying to figure out what project I will dive into next. I have a couple things that need dusting off, and something new that I'm partnering on with a brilliant woman in Quebec. More on that soon...

It's been a momentous month, August has. Here are the highlights: I am now the Assistant to the Director at Ithaca College's L.A. Program , as of this week. This came out of the blue; a couple weeks ago I received a call from the ICLA program's Chair (a good friend of mine through teaching screenwriting at I.C.). They needed a long-term temporary Assistant to start ASAP, as theirs had accepted a job teaching first grade and would be leaving just as classes start up this semester. I jumped at the opportunity, because:   a) I know everyone there b) the work isn't tough but it also isn't boring c) I get to be around students and assist them in various ways d) it's 10 minutes from my apartment, and I don't even need to think about a freeway, e) I feel like I'm still part of the Ithaca College family. And there are bounteous perks to this job, which make it even more lovely. They will have to open a formal search to fill the position permanently, which I ...

I've been slaving away at the Space: 1999 novel revisions. I'd hoped to have it done by Monday of this week, but seeing as how it's Thursday late afternoon and I'm not done yet, it's looking like I won't make that (self-imposed) deadline. That was 4 days ago. But hey! Tomorrow's Friday! And I can have it finished before the weekend is over. Then I'll be able to turn back to the other projects panting and waiting and staring at me from the wings. I've also been wrapped up in personal life stuff, which while difficult, is moving forward in a positive direction. I have begun a discernment process for a new life, basically. More on that as things unfold, but for now, suffice it to say that I am floating down the river of life on the raft of God. And I will leave you with this thought, which sums up how I feel right now:

I've been writing and editing, so please stop poking me with that pointy stick about not blogging. Sheesh . Black Doves is coming along, deadlines are set for the final editing, proofing, cover design, and approval. It will be ready. It just will be. The song that inspired the title and to some degree, the story:

I admit I was neglecting this blog for weeks, mainly because I wasn't sure what the point was to keeping it up. Most people I know follow me on Facebook and get a fairly decent picture of my life there. But I suppose the blog is more than just the minutiae of every day life, isn't it? So I will attempt to get back to what I started with this format - analysis, rants, musings, and updates on my writing. The 1999 novel is rolling along into revisions with my editor, so that's very exciting. Debut will be at the con this fall here in L.A. I also have to work on publicity and other such perfunctory duties. Into revisions for "Eden" my latest screenplay - that's going much more smoothly once I hammered out the first act re-write. I prayed for the Muse to help me with this first act re-write, because I felt like I was staring into the gaping maw of "I don't know what the fuck to do with this." Literally 30 minutes later, in the shower, it was like ...

Fred In the Can needed some updating. I get bored with the same look, but I find it frustrating to use the Blogger design templates. Very limited. But for now, it'll do.

Stonehenge, where the demons dwell... http://blog.stonehenge-stone-circle.co.uk/2011/01/05/stonehenge-spring-equinox-2011/ Perhaps the Vernal Equinox means more back East than it does here, but nevertheless, I feel the ground beneath me awakening, and it does my heart good. I've been quite busy of late, hence not blogging so much. I've finished the sci fi script and have almost completed the outline for my next script. I'm also excited about going to the Space: 1999 con com this September ( Alpha: 2012 ). What was to be the usual fan-run convention has become quite a to-do thanks to the reboot Space: 2099. Jace Hall of HD films will be there to talk about the new show, and many of the luminaries from the original show will be there as well. Powys Media will have a panel with the editor and writer that I've been working with on Black Doves , and we are shooting for my book to be ready in time for the con so that they can introduce me there. These days I h...

Can't embed the video, so check out this beautiful score by Bear McCreary with incredible timelapse exposures: Temporal Distortion from Randy Halverson on Vimeo . So I'm a little late with this week's blog. I just wasn't feelin' it over the weekend or yesterday. Not much new to add here...except that I am excited at potential prospects for some level of involvement with THIS: Space: 2099 For months, my gut's been telling me Space: 1999 is on the verge of a resurgence. I was right. Stay tuned for more. Meantime, the first draft of my 1999 novel is 99.999% done (want to do another read-through before I submit to my editor), and I have begun the revisions to my sci fi script that I think will make it a solid contender. For what, I don't know yet. I have finally sold the car, albeit for much less than I should have, but I was getting antsy and it was the only offer. So I will have that money by the end of the week, and will then turn my eyes to purchasing a b...

Okay, it's looking like once a week is what you get, folks. This week was quite busy. I had a job interview, but it ended up being for an office P.A. (production assistant) slot. Those jobs are typically held by recent college grads with no debt and who live in a house of 14 people so that they each only pay $250 a month in rent. And the work is grueling, with 12+ hour days (every day), $8.50 an hour, no bennies. It was good to see the inside of a production office, and I did get the connection through a rather big name in TV who I met last year, but they didn't offer it to me, anyway. But hey an interview is an interview, and I did learn a few things. The car issue has become, well, an issue. I've been carless for over a week. I borrowed a friend's car to get to the interview, and then lied through my teeth that I had a car at said interview (P.A.s do a lot of running around and errands, generally called "running"). Good thing I didn't get it, huh?...

I've got a routine down, and Spaz is getting used to being more of an indoor kitteh. I realized yesterday I haven't even been here 2 weeks. I really do expect a lot out of myself and my circumstances; I have to remember that as Don put it, "Slow and steady wins the race." I now have a local phone number, which was necessary because apparently no one will even consider you for a job if you have a weird area code like, say, 607. They want to know you live in town to start ASAP, I guess. Seems stupid, as many people retain cell numbers when they move and it doesn't mean they don't live here. But that's how it is, so there you go. Work on Black Doves is moving apace; I aim to have the first draft completed by end of the month. I have a new idea for a screenplay waiting in the wings; currently doing some research to get notes going for that when the deck is clear. But it's not all writing and job searching! Last weekend, my friend TL took me to the...

Quickly, before I go shuffle papers for 7.5 hours: Yesterday I went to my favorite place to write outside of my home office - The Owl Cafe - and worked on Black Doves for a couple hours. It wasn't much time, but I did manage to get quite a bit done. And by that I mean, I pushed through the act wall. Since this is a novel, not a screenplay, I have had to impose act breaks because that's how I think (having written screenplays, everything in life is broken into 3 acts). But a novel requires more than 3 acts. The book really has two halves, and each half is roughly broken into 5 acts. I'm pretty sure I'm in the fourth act of the second half. Hopefully my editor isn't reading this with his face in his palm.

Amazing that all it took to get my mojo back was the end of the semester and a vacation to my beloved South Shore and Nantasket Beach . I finally punched a hole in the brick wall of my writer's block concerning the third act of Space: 1999 Black Doves . Luckily, I'll have a couple weeks before I begin teaching at Cornell this summer to bang out the rest of the first draft. Won't my editor be thrilled? Not to mention gobsmacked. I have to say, the spring semester really did a job on me, physically and mentally. To continue my healing and reclamation of sanity, I am maintaining my summer vacay vibe with morning swims in the pool (before the marauding hordes of seven-year-olds show up with their armory of pool noodles and water pistols) and breakfast on the patio. Once again, I am lulled into a (false) sense of serenity and ahhhhh during the glorious, warm months here in Ithaca. All of which will be forgotten in the middle of dirty, rotten January when I'm stomping my ...

The semester, at long last, is finally concluded, and with it, much of my stress. Even the incessant rain and gray skies aren't going to get my kite string in a knot. No, instead, I relish in the freedom of mind, body and spirit that comes with that glorious period between end of Spring semester and beginning of Summer Session. Next week, I will be visiting The Land Where I Was Birthed and celebrating my great-nephew Aidan's first birthday with my family. Over the summer, I have plans, many plans, which include, but are not limited to: Teaching for Cornell's summer college Working on the Space: 1999 novel (thanks to Bill, my editor at Powys Media, for being so patient) Polishing two scripts with my writing group Getting a rough cut done of my doc on life as an EFL teacher in Korea Working on the Rod Serling Conference for Ithaca College Volunteering with The Ithaca League of Women Rollers as their Penalty Box Manager Lookin' for a jrrb I have a clip coming out later...

Last night was one of those times I'm very happy to be living in Ithaca (so few and far between during the Winter months). I attended a very informal, entertaining and inspirational talk by Mr. Nick Sagan and Mr. JG Hertzler - both with connections to the Star Trek universe (ahhh now the title of this post makes sense!) - cosponsored by Light In Winter and Science Cabaret . Nick Sagan is a wonderfully approachable, down to earth yet introspective writer and speaker. I enjoyed listening to his insights about writing for Trek and his science fiction novels , and hearing about his latest projects . He strikes me as someone who can still feel, or at least appreciate, the underpinnings of hope and awe that Trek is all about for many people. I don't think screenwriters can write successful sci fi film or TV unless they understand what's really at the heart of it - which to say, the heart. Nick told a lovely story about himself and his dad, Carl Sagan, watching Star Wars when h...