Over a year. I looked. The last post was on September 4, 2023. I think Jimmy Buffett had just died. I’m sorry, I have been horrible about communicating since we left Mexico. More specifically, since we got back to the Island. I can only chalk that up to one thing. I’m calmer overall. I think writing (particularly during Covid) was a big part of how I stayed sane down there ????????????.
I think pot helps me stay calm and not anxious. I’ll believe that until I die. And I live in the land of mail order 24%-28% THC Cannabis. And if I watch for sales, $48 CAD/oz. If not on sale, $69. You can get higher priced, higher grade flower – but why? LOL.
Before I get all philosophical, let’s run down what’s happened in my life since I last wrote. Christmas came and went pretty quietly. In December, I finally signed the option on the Christmas script for network TV (US). Then, in January, I was given notes and asked for a rewrite, which both the producer and executive producer highly praised. However, the network changed executives on the project and had other ideas. They wanted one of their writers to rewrite again and make it “more them.”
That’s fine with me—I get paid no matter what. I just wanted to see it made and get a credit because that counts in this business. Long story short, the writer demanded full written credit and half the ‘created by’ before they would sign on. So, there went my writing credit. And I got reduced to half a created by.
Wah, wah, cry me a river, no one gave it a second thought except moi. And a third and a fourth.
It’s airing this year. I won’t be watching. Sounds dramatic, but we don’t get that network in Canada. It may show up on W, however.
It’s not like I ever thought this was a nice industry. And I did get paid. But you know what? It took months to write and then do a pitch deck. The producer had it for over a year, and then this network agreed to have a look at it in May 2023. So we are looking at three years plus. In that context, it did not pay well. And it didn’t end up paying until the first day of principal photography (that’s when it’s due because until then, it can be killed at any moment) – in our case, that was late August 2024. I should be grateful I got paid (and I am). Would I do it again? Not like this.
Based on the sale, I decided to extend this ‘writing full time’ experiment, which was initially for one year, until the end of this year (making it an 18-month experiment). But I’m less enthused as the year draws to a close (you may think, but it’s not even Oct! But mark my words … it’s flying by).
There are still three months left to sell something else or at least get big nibbles… that’s my ever-hopeful Sagittarius speaking, but I have not been idle. That same producer has another Christmas script of mine, a spin-off series bible, plus another tv series proposal deck (420 Salt Spring Lane). The last one is uber-Canadian. The script I am currently working on (a feel-good family story) will also go to that producer, and I’m writing it to be filmed in New Mexico, which has excellent tax credits. Or Alberta. Which also has excellent tax credits.
I have another pitch out there, a half-hour comedy series bible, with a friend who is a Canadian producer it’s called Gringos (if any of you ever want to look at these pitch decks, just let me know!) I hope to knock off the family feel-good script I’m on now and then rewrite another script (in process but currently set aside), I Know You’re Out There Somewhere. And I have to finish cutting the DogStar script. And that is me in a nutshell until 2025.
I have to update The Move to Mexico Bible quite seriously this year. The Move to Canada Bible isn’t selling well, but I will update it for 2025. The market doesn’t seem to be there, so I will reassess it next year. It’s not easy as a senior to immigrate to Canada, but Mexico – pretty darned easy. That seems to be the difference. But I live here, so it had to be second in the series. I think Portugal will be next, then Costa Rica, maybe. I dunno. What do you think?
I guess I haven’t had much to say because I’ve been writing so much and taking writing courses when I haven’t been writing.
The garden was lovely this year. It was different from the year before, with very different weather. The zinnias went nuts. We planted a lot more things. I have another 200+ bulbs on their way this fall, and I sometimes wonder if I have a problem, but it’s too late to correct that now, and it’s a pretty problem. I have people who come in spring and fall, and they do plant a great deal of them for me.
I’m unsure what I’ll do with myself if I don’t keep writing. We have enough money to feed ourselves (and eat what we want), a car that will last for our driving years, and modest passive incomes (Canadian government pensions, however, I’ve discovered, are much lower than in the US). We don’t have credit card debt. We don’t need much.
Neither of us is much into travel these days. It’s not that there aren’t still things to see, but there is so much tourism, climate trouble, and strife … there are places I would still like to go, but am I willing to be part of the problem? And another significant consideration is what that amount of money would buy for this house instead – we just added a new front door that cost maybe close to half of what a trip like that would cost, but it gives us pleasure several times a day and likely will until we die. So what’s a better spend?
Plus, we have a dog. I would leave her for a few weeks with a good housesitter or dogsitter, but I’d rather go somewhere we can drive in the electric car and take her. Maybe the California coast one day… if Kamala wins. Maybe even Galveston again one day, but we’ll see how blue that county is next time we think about going. And there’s a lot of this Island to explore.
We’re off to Tofino for our anniversary—we’ll be there October 22-24, which should be fun. Once the production company paid for the script, we planned to go somewhere, and the West Coast is always wild. It’s the end of the road. It’s a little early for storm-watching, but we might catch one. We are right in town, on the water with a hot tub. It’s a cute little windswept town on the edge of the Pacific. And some brave souls are bound to be surfing their little hearts out.
So, now that we’re caught up, is anything philosophical on my mind? No, not today. I will leave this one more day, but it’s going out before October 1.
Okay, September 30. National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. But I’m not going to write about that. I still don’t have any thoughts. Not sure what’s wrong with me, LOL. Often, my fingers won’t stop. Sigh.
Still don’t have thoughts, except I didn’t publish by Oct. 1. I’d publish now, but I don’t feel like there’s enough here. I’m not sure there’s a lot of hope in my world… I had it back for a bit when I saw Kamala’s support, but it’s been beaten out of me by the Republicans again. Honestly, who are those people? And I’m not even in America (or likely to go there anytime soon unless the Dems pull it out of the hat. Then maybe I might.
I am mostly disheartened with life. I love our house and our garden. I spend almost all my time here. It costs about $300 to even leave the house—it almost feels like that (I saw it on Facebook). And selling one script two years in the making isn’t making a living. I’m thinking about a real job. We can live on our pensions, but they are small, and what would I do with my time, anyway? I’m tired of trying to publish things or sell scripts. It’s a mug’s game if you ask me. There was an eclipse this week; it took until yesterday for me to get over it, and I was in a great mood yesterday, but today I’m sorta depressed again. Well, this has been a fun paragraph.
I will return to this when I have a better attitude. I’m putting myself in the corner… haha.
And here I am—only 20 days past my “post it” deadline of Oct. 1. Oy. That’s how it happens. The eclipse passed, and we’ve had great new and full moons since then, so life is back on track.
I finished Under the Pecos Sun (feature script, 107 pages) and am happy with it. Just yesterday. It needs a rewrite, and I need to add more emotion and profound dialogue. But that’s how the stages go. Maybe move a few scenes around. But it should sit for a week or two. Here’s the logline:
When an inner-city drug addict dies, and her vegetarian daughter is sent to live on a remote New Mexico cattle ranch with her previously undisclosed grandmother, the teen wants nothing more than to escape – until the ranch is jeopardized and she uncovers the family secret that changes everything.
The vacation has arrived, and we’re off to Tofino this week. It’s a short three-day getaway, our first since 2021. I mentioned that above, but now I have a screenshot. The only places I’ve been were to see Dad twice, once on his 90th birthday and then to be there when he died, which was a gift to me. So this should be fun. We love the island’s west coast (about 2.5 hours on a good day) – but it’s too remote to live there, and the weather can get snotty on the highway there during the winter. These are the things you think about when you’re older.
Will we kayak? Uh, no. I would, but that water must be really cold. Normally, I wouldn’t care if I tipped. But, no. Not in October. Probably not even in July, it never gets what I’d call “warm” out there in the water. Of course, I like a 30C+ pool. In fact, that’s the minimum for me to get wet. I’m quite spoiled.
So, where do we go from here? I have a series proposal currently shopping in Canada, one that *should* be shopping in Canada (I will work on that) but isn’t, and one that’s shopping in Europe, along with the movie the series is a spin-off from. Different producers. So, I’m getting there. How quickly I turn from despondent to hopeful again. I can’t help it: Sagittarius sun and all. I waffle between Oh woe is me, what a stupid profession and I love this work. Both are true, I guess.
The good news is, we both feel like we’re finally home. How could we not with that view (slight zoom there). We are grateful and appreciate our view, garden and house every day. So, hopefully, we get to die here. Yeah, that’s what you think about when you get older too. Dying. I could go on (you know that’s a fascinating topic), but I won’t. Maybe next blog. Which I will TRY so hard not to leave unwritten for over a year.
I’m still working out every morning and listen to Bubbles Up before moving on to a random playlist. Every day it reminds me to look up. Lots of good messages in that song.
I’ve probably told you – if you get disoriented when scuba diving, that’s your lifesaver: Bubbles go up. Follow them. Also, champagne.
Adios…adieu…parting is such sweet sorrow. But I must get on with my Sunday morning. I will write again.