Good news, bad news
Seems only fair that I share with you the disappointments of my writing career as well as the triumphs. Otherwise you’ll get the false impression that everything I touch turns to publication. As much as I love to fool people that way, I feel a responsibility to keep it real.
So first, the good news. In yesterday’s Publisher’s Weekly there was a HUGE ad for my book. I was a little shocked to see it, right there smack dab on the top right of the screen. Shocked and thrilled. Here it is. Notice what happens when you click on the girl. Eeeee!!
Now for the disappointment. You may recall me saying I was waiting for some huge news. Well, I got it last night. See, every year the Sundance Film Institute runs a screenwriters’ lab, where they invite a mere 12 people to the fabulous Sundance lodge in Utah and ply them with food, coffee, and the expert advice of well-known screenwriters, directors, and other bright stars of the film industry.
Earlier this year I submitted a partial screenplay and a synopsis to the competition. Then waited. And in July I received the glorious news that I had made the first cut, from 2200 people down to 250. Elation! I cancelled my vacation and sat down and knocked out the rest of the screenplay in record time, while, I might mention, also working on extreme deadline to finish my copy edits for Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature. It was the busiest and most exhilarating few weeks of my life.
Then I sat back and waited again. And for the past four and a half months, I’ve enjoyed dreaming of Sundance perhaps eighty times a day, imagining myself there, dreaming of all the wonderful experiences–
Okay, whatever. I didn’t make it. Found out by e-mail last night. Wah!
But the truth is, although I dearly would have loved to have gone there, it’s hard to be too terribly crushed. I’ve already had the year of my life as a writer–selling my novel, meeting and working with my brilliant editor Michelle Frey, finding out Random House is going to make it their lead book on next summer’s children’s list, finding out a few weeks ago that the audio book publisher, Listening Library, wants to put me in the recording studio to do an author interview for the end of the book, and on and on. It seems like lately something exciting happens about every two weeks. I’ve been smiling so much this year I’ve had to start doing facial exercises to keep up.
In other words, don’t cry for me, bloggy people.
And just out of curiosity, do you want to hear all these gory details of my writing life? Would you prefer I only write things like, “Today I went out to lunch again with my new best friends Meg Cabot and J.K. Rowling, and J.K. had the duck and Meg had the pizza,” etc.? Or do you like me to trot out the flubs and disappointments and embarrassments, too? Because we aim to please.
Technorati Tags: Writing, Publishing, Publishers Weekly, Evolution Me and Other Freaks of Nature, Random House, Listening Library, Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Screenwriters, Screenwriting, Young Adult Novels, Young Adult Fiction
December 15th, 2006 at 7:19 am
I think the blog needs to focus on the 50-book reading challenge more.
December 15th, 2006 at 7:32 am
Quit yer gloating.
December 15th, 2006 at 8:07 am
i cry for sundance–it is dead to me now.
December 15th, 2006 at 8:15 am
I like that in a friend. But forgive them, Annette. I’ll still be going to the Sundance Film Festival next month, and they will make me happy once again.
December 15th, 2006 at 8:17 am
I think your blog is just fine.
And hey, at least you have a finished screenplay. That is good news.
December 15th, 2006 at 8:39 am
Yeah, Heather, I feel that way about it, too. I don’t plan on sticking it in a drawer–it’s going out there, baby!
December 15th, 2006 at 9:06 am
I know how you feel-I went to audition for Who Wants to be a Millionaire’s Pop Culture week awhile ago and passed the first test which got me a brief interview with a producer. I had to wait for several weeks for an answer by mail. I got the postcard that said”Sorry,better luck next time!” Disappointing but could always try again,like you’re doing with your screenplay.
Oh,and your blog style is like the porridge that Goldilocks chose.
December 15th, 2006 at 9:09 am
Lady T! That is SO sweet!
Sorry you didn’t make the Millionaire team, but I applaud you for trying out. Being a pop culture diva yourself, I’m shocked you didn’t make the final cut. But having the huevos to even go for it is truly something to be proud of. And now that you’ve done one audition like that, you’ll be all the more prepped for your next one.
December 15th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
11:01 AM (Hour 3)
1. Drive mini-van in reverse off bridge to avoid police pusuit
2. Press button and wait for electric sliding door to open, unfurl sleeping bag as makeshift parachute/glider, jump out door and drift to the roof a a passing 18 wheeler.
3. Unload a clip at the black part of the black and white police cruiser on the bridge. Can’t they pick a side?
4. Take sip of Vente Latte, return cup to inside vest pocket.
5. Tuck and roll when the 18 wheeler takes a sharp curve at 43rd and 18th. Hide glock behind Vente Latte and stroll up to the outdoor cafe seating.
6. Observe Robin having brunch with J.K. and Meg - Listen for helicopters.
7. Say ‘Duck” when invited to sit down, consider letting them be shot when they assume you are talking about J.K.’s food.
8. Tackle Meg Cabot as the table is pelted by M60 rounds.
9. Toss the glock to Robin and shout “Cover me” - charge the black helicopter hovering 15′ off the ground while realizing that J.K. might have been a better shot.
10. The President closes his cellphone and turns to his secretary. “Cancel my lunch with the Queen of Argentina,” he says and briskly walks away.
11. Husband locked in the bathroom attempts to kick out the bullet riddled door, failing miserably, falling over like a little girl playing soccer in her mother’s slingback high heels.
11:59
December 15th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
I especially like “falling over like a little girl playing soccer in her mother’s slingback high heels.” Real poetry.
December 16th, 2006 at 10:06 am
genius. pure, full-on, unadulterated genius–ahhh.
not to nitpick, but doesn’t one unload a clip “into” a pursuing police car?
December 17th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Good point. The way I wrote it, it almost sounds like it’s possible to have missed the black part of the police car.
Now we understand why I am unpublished…
December 17th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
oh patrick i feel terrible–i’m sure that’s not the reason you’re unpublished.
December 18th, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Yes, it’s true. I can’t comprehend a flawed protagonist. Missing the police car was my attempt.
December 18th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
Thank you for pointing us to the ad for your new book. Some of us over the age of ???? get lost on the web and cannot always follow instructions.
About Sundance, I recall sitting next to a mother on the bus at Sundance 2 years ago and she was sharing with me her delight that her daughter who had worked on a doc. film for 10 years was finally accepted at Sundance for a showing that year. The entire family was there to cheer her on.
Cheer up, Ms. Robin, you have lots of screen plays in you, whether on the floor with your feet up or walking Bear through the hood, you know you will in some season be in Sundance with your own movie. You REALLY don’t want to bunch all your good events in one year—-stretch them out so you only have to do one victory dance at a time.
December 19th, 2006 at 6:41 am
Thank you, MJG. What a lovely note.