ANGEL TRAP and GUMBO JUSTICE Launch Party

Angel Trap made runner up in the Acclaim Screenplay Contest, which is equivalent to coming in second. I was extremely surprised, as I didn't expect to make quarter finals, semi finals, or finals, much less come in so close to the top. What was particularly surprising to me was that I had just received a rather rude, flippant critique from another contest that referred to my characters as a bunch of losers, as in, "Why should we care what happens to these bunch of losers anyway?" The only thing missing in the critique was a LOL. So here I was thinking I had edited my screenplay into a glorious mess when I got the email that I had come damn near to winning.

So then I start to think, is damn near winning the same as losing, since I didn't actually win. This is probably the closest I'll ever come to actually winning, and may have been my only shot to take home the big prize. But then I do get to say that it was the runner up if I send it out to try to sell it, or get an agent, so it is a really good thing.

On another note, I had the launch party for Gumbo Justice at my would-be bar, (still fighting code enforcement over zoning issues so we're not open yet), but the party was a success. We had a lot of good food and (free) drinks, a lot of people showed up and got books signed, a fun time was had by all I think.

Angel Trap and Gumbo Justice

Angel Trap has made the semi-finals in the Page Awards. In September they'll post the finals and then a winner. I am excited, but it sort of balances out because it didn't make the finals in a different contest. It's difficult to know what contest readers are looking for. I have received feedback that contradicts other feedback and now I'm starting to think I've listened to too many different people in my editing process. I think I should have waited to edit until I had several opinions, and then found the common thread, if any, among all of them and edited accordingly. Instead, I changed one part to make it like one reader suggested, and then added something in to please someone else. Then the next guy didn't like either of the changes and suggested something else that I had originally done and taken out. It was a good lesson on my first attempt if nothing else.

I am still promoting Gumbo Justice, planning a book launch party in fact at the bar that isn't a bar yet. It will be a "private" party, since we can't sell drinks. I'm also having a gumbo contest, and the winner will have a character in my next novel named after them. It should be fun. So far response has been pretty good to the novel. Still waiting for Brad Pitt to read it and decide he wants to produce it as a movie to star as Shep, or for Quentin Tarantino to read it and decide he absolutely has to direct it. But then enough of my fantasy life.

Unsettling thought, Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino in the same fantasy, but then that's me.