Must Read

So my blog totally sucks. The one good thing is that I actually have been writing. Believe it or not! I ended up after much outlining, note-taking, and um... thinking, deciding to scrap the original idea I had for a novel (although I will still write it at some point I'm sure, it just wasn't exciting me like it should). I did however get hit with an idea that I'm REALLY excited about. It's one of those stories where the first line just hits you and all of a sudden this person is talking to you and telling you their story and I can barely type fast enough to keep up and write it all down. So, yay! It's funny, but once I decided to stop thinking about what might actually sell and instead work on an idea I love - which is how I always go about writing screenplays - I come up with something so much better, and something that excites me. It will of course, probably never sell. But at least I will write it and know that I can write a book, and hopefully become a better writer for it.

In the meantime I'm going to try next month's Script Frenzy by the people who do NaNoWriMo and see if I can get a finished version of the film I want to shoot this summer.

Anyway, the whole point of this post was to share one of the best books I have read in a long time. You MUST READ The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. I was up until 5am today reading this book because I just couldn't put it down. It is a literal page-turner. The action never lets up. There's no place to stop even if you wanted to, which you won't. It's rare that a book will make me tear up, or get as emotionally upset as a character but this book really touched me. It's Carrie Ryan's first book and I am really looking forward to her next one! Go read it now!

2009 - A Year Of Writing

It's January 1st and I'm trying something new. I'm not much for blogging but I'm a writer, and any kind of writing is supposed to be good exercise, right? I've decided that in 2009 I'm going to do something I've wanted to do most of my life. I'm going to write a novel. I missed NaNoWriMo but I'm going to work under the same principle and just work and work at it every day until it's done. There are so many great author, editor and agent blogs out there and I doubt this will be anywhere near as interesting but I'm going to do my best to keep this updated with my progress.

Who am I? I'm a writer/director with a whopping one short film under my belt (it did win some awards though), a couple more completed short scripts, a feature script, and a collaborative film project in the works in which I will write, direct and edit one segment this year. In addition to completing my first novel, my other writing goals are to finish a feature length and short film script this year, as well as shoot another short film and several music videos. I figure if you're going to dream, dream big right? Oh yeah, and I heart YA.

I will try to use this blog to track my progress on the novel and anything else interesting in my life. I hope I find some other writers like me who are working on novels as well. I look forward to early mornings with my laptop and coffee in my brand new I Heart Writing Mug!



Wish me luck!