When Someone Else gets There First

I just spent half the morning at YouTube, watching trailers for the upcoming The Lost Boys sequel....

Anyone who has known me and my twin sis for any decent length of time knows that the two of us wrote and sent a sequel to Warner Bros. many years ago, when we were in our early teens.  We were huge fans of the movie, and we felt we had an obligation to write a sequel worthy of its predecessor as quickly as possible, so that no one else would write it and get it produced before us (and thus screw it up).  Richard Donner's assistant back then, a nice man named Scott Nimerfro, gently rejected our numerous pleas to have our script read.  We had no clue how lucky we were even to get a response, and we were both shattered with the rejection.  I think of what might have been, had Mr. Nimerfro decided to take a chance....

I am aghast from the trailers I watched this morning for The Lost Boys: the Tribe ... simply in utter shock at what appears to be a direct-to-video desecration of a cult classic.

Writing that was the springboard my sister and I both needed, however, to get the ball rolling on our amateur writing careers.  At fifteen, the two of us collaborated on a novel.  We finished it in a matter of months.  I have gone on to write several more novels, as well as short stories and screenplays, while Erin has turned to music as her storytelling venue of choice.

Still, I am frustrated that I think my sequel would have been better, but I didn't have the experience, age, or connections to get mine produced first.  I am frustrated that, in this business, it is all about who one knows ... and my network is small, at best.  I am frustrated because I have so many stories to tell ... and yet I have no audience.

I am a writer.  I want this more than just about anything else I have ever wanted in this world.  I know that we all go through this ... these bursts of impatience, when the years and the portfolio progress, but the doors remain closed....  I know I have no choice but to be patient, however.  I know my work will eventually catch the right eye.  I know "this" is where I truly belong....