"Vera from Paramount," it seems, played me good.  She contacted me a couple of weeks ago to let me know "someone at Paramount read WORLD-MART, liked it, and passed it on to someone else to read."  I have talked to Vera a couple of times since then, and it has become very clear that 1) she thought she might try to plagiarize my work, or 2) she and the "friend" who put us in contact had nothing better to do than mess with me, for whatever reason.

Another producer, although small-time compared to Paramount, expressed interest in an exclusive read.  When I approached Vera about the names of the individuals at Paramount who had read my script, she refused to give me names.  Finally, she said "George" read it ... but shortly later referred to the person as "James."  When I asked her which it was (George or James?) she replied: "Both; they're gay lovers."  When I asked her to level with me, she hung up on me ... and then proceeded to call back a few minutes later, to tell me that "they," whoever "they" are have erased my work from their hard drives.  When I told her that I only sent her a hard copy of my script, she had the audacity to reply: "No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"No, you didn't."

"YES, I DID."

She then proceeded to tell me she would send me back my script ... but could I give her my address?  I informed her that the address was on the script.  Is it just me, or does it seem as though this woman removed my cover page (which contains my contact information) and replaced it with a page of her own?  I had to wonder why my "friend" wanted to know so much about copyright and the Library of Congress ... little did he or Vera know that I copyrighted the original draft under the name The Last Great Minds of 2084....

At least I can take solace in the fact that people generally do not attempt to plagiarize bad works.  Still ... what a waste of time.  I knew I should have listened to my gut.

Last night I finished the first draft of my Myths of Gods screenplay adaption.  I finished the script at exactly 120 pages, which equates to about a two-hour movie.  I'm very pleased with the draft.  I ended up making some dramatic changes from the novel, cutting some characters, as well as a few bits from the novel I would have rather found a way to include; just the same, it is about as true to the original work as I could go, and I can't wait to start sharing this piece with interested parties.

MYTHS OF GODS will make the perfect indie film.  It is artful, provocative, and extremely disturbing ... but in the right hands it could potentially rock the world.  No exaggerations.

I'm very excited to add this piece to my portfolio.

I decided recently that it was time I wrote a new screenplay for Myths of Gods.  Myths actually started out as a screenplay (one of my early attempts), the storyline of which I ended up scrapping when I wrote the novel a few years ago.  While revisiting the story, working on a redraft, I decided it was time to give it the screenplay it deserves.

I have only covered the first couple chapters of the novel, but I'm ecstatic with what I have so far.  The endeavor has been draining, however, and I find that it will likely take me longer than usual to work on this one.  The story, itself, is very intense ... but getting the "visuals" just right has been a venture all its own.  The result so far is utterly mind-blowing (sorry if that sounds a little dramatic, but that's really the only way I can describe it), but I'm quite certain that it will take me more than today to recover from those mere twelve pages it just took me two days to write....

This one is going to be difficult to stay patient with, the challenges huge, but the finished product will definitely be worth the wait.