CONTEST DEADLINE LOOMING AHEAD

This entry will be brief and to the point. I'm rewriting a screenplay in order to submit it to a contest recommended to the screenwriters at the NW Film Center by the Center. Deadline is May 31st. I'm hoping the Film Center's recommendation makes the contest authentic and safe. There is one big prize and several smaller ones. The size of the prizes suggest that many scripts will be sent in with fees. Thus I have to keep at the rewriting task and keep this short. At least Ghoul World is done for now. The screenplay is still untitled. Excuse me as I've got a script to tinker with. PS: Also notice alterations to my bucket list.

BEATNIK BOOMER REVELS IN SCREENWRITING CLASS

Belmont Theater—home away from home

Ninety people checked in on this blog this morning. Thank you. Rewriting of Ghoul World continues apace, and the screenwriting class was a smashing success as far as my mood went and goes. I particularly enjoyed the time we spent during which each of us shared our favorite movies. I had so many come to mind that I feared I would take up too much time so I rushed through, a freight train of words ending in a blushing gush of "I just love movies". Fears behind me, I'm excited to be in the class. Being the oldest among them, I also realized my youthful classmates might enjoy the fact they are sharing a screenwriting class with an old duffer who'd actually seen "Sands of Iwo Jima", "Fort Apache" and "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon" when they were first run in an old fashioned single picture neighborhood theater. Mine were the Belmont and  Dabel theaters.

Tomorrow I do plan to ride the Max into Portland. When I first entered the NW Film Center last Tuesday, I ran into a youthful very attractive woman and asked her how safe it was to be riding the Max late at night. She said she regularly rode the trains and buses of Portland late at night. Well...I thought to myself...if she can do it, so can I. Our teacher was part of the writing teams that produced "The Doors" and "Mask of Zorro". He's also written scripts for HBO's "Tales from the Crypt". He mentioned the fact that screenwriting can be streaky—you can be "hot" and "not" by turns. In the back of my mind, I have an intention to show him my novel Ghoul World with the object of co-writing a script for it. I began the novel with clear intentions for it to become a movie. I'll wait to see if we hit it off before I make the suggestion.

SWEATING MY WAY TO ANOTHER PORTLAND ADVENTURE

Tonight, my Tuesday night 6:30 - 9:30 screenwriting course begins at NW Film Center in downtown Portland. Teacher will be Randall Jahnson. If you've been following my bucket list quest, you'll recall that I took time off from rewriting novels to write a science fiction film two summers [or so?] back. I enjoyed the process and thought I might be able to do that in my declining memory years. One-hundred pages of film script is easier to keep in mind than a 500 page novel. Two of my novels are open to turning into film scripts. 

For the past week, I've been full of fear about the course, telling myself I have nothing more to say, telling myself I'll be out of place among young writers, imagining they'll laugh at this 79 year old codger trying to turn out film scripts. I questioned myself violently, doubting everything about myself and hit myself over the noggin with my financially unsuccessful writing career. I experienced moments of fear that reminded me of the fears I felt when I put the bottle down 40-some years ago, i.e. how will I be funny and pick up girls...I'll be so alone, etcetera. One fear was about the expense of parking in Portland, then I looked into taking the Max line in from PDX but was deterred from that by my fear of standing at 9:30 pm in downtown Portland waiting for the Max line to show. They run the last two runs to PDX at 9:55 and 10:30. I truly want to learn to take the Max line into Portland, so I'm compromising tonight. I drove in to park expensively in a garage near the school, then I'll look around as I leave the school at 9:30 to see how scary it might feel at the stop I'd need to wait at.

OLD BEATNIK POET FINDS HOME FOR POEM

Been more than a week since last entry, but we've had a crisis in wife's family so my writing schedule has, of course, been set aside. I did rewrite another chapter of Ghoul World Tuesday after our return from Spokane on Monday. Will hopefully rewrite another chapter today. 

Washington State Poet Laureate Tod Marshall has undertaken putting together an anthology of living Washington State poets to celebrate our state's 129th year of statehood. I'm thrilled to be included in the anthology.  Washington 129 will feature the poetry of 129 poets living in the state of Washington, and my poem "Legacy" will be included in the hard copy issue. It will also be turned into a handbill to be circulated at various literary events around the state. I look forward to seeing my name in the anthology among the many fine poets of Washington State, and I'm sure to recognize the names of old friends and acquaintances in the collection. As I learn more I'll let you know where you can purchase the anthology when it's published. Sage Hill Press will be the publisher. My poetry can be found at Amazon or Authorhouse. You can even find Gray House By Cold Mountain at Amazon for the low price of $2,498.00 through RedGooseMedia. Seriously. I think it's worth that at least. 

I forked over $765 to take a screen writing course at NW Film Center that begins in April. Since it's almost impossible to find agents for film scripts, the expenditure is just to keep my brain on its toes. I did write a sci fi film script two summers ago, and I thought I might have an inclination for writing scripts. We'll see. I'm going to work on that script for course work.