Angel Trap (formerly Bernie Angel)

While I am still editing Angel Trap, the screenplay I nicknamed Bernie Angel, after the protagonist, I am happy to report that an early version placed in the semi-finals of the Wild Sound Spring 2009 screenplay contest. From the twenty-five finalists, three winners will be chosen. The winning screenplays will be read at the Wild Sound Festival in Ontario.

I am still editing, based on feedback I've received, but placing as a finalist is a good step, because if I ever try to shop the screenplay, I can include the fact that it was a finalist in my information, which may mean it will actually get read. No guarantees, of course.

Interestingly, every time I thought I was finished with it, I felt sort of depressed, like my baby was leaving home.

Speaking of red tape

When I last wrote, we were waiting for the permits for the bar. Specifically, we were waiting for the permits from Jefferson Parish, and I was bemoaning the red tape we would have to hurdle.

Turns out, my fears were completely justified. We received a zoning revocation from the Director of Code Enforcement, Debbie Villio, claiming that we didn't have adequate parking for the zoning. No matter that the bar has always been a bar, apparently she was of the opinion it can no longer be a bar because of the zoning.

It boils down to a city councilman's constituent who lives in the neighborhood and does not want the bar to reopen there. This city councilman is obviously pulling the puppet strings, and couldn't care less that we were already advised by Code Enforcement that we could in fact reopen a bar there.

I'm a lawyer- I'll fight this to the end of time if I have to, because it only costs me the filing fee at court. What bothers me is all the people who suffer through this who are not attorneys, and who don't have attorney friends to work with them, and who have to perhaps give up their businesses because of political bullshit in Jefferson Parish.

Elton Lagasse is the city council member who, to my understanding, advised Ms. Villio to revoke the zoning. Mr. Lagasse visited the location of the bar room when my husband ran for sheriff and put a sign up on the building, and was asking about it at the Code Enforcement Office. Obviously, someone complained to him early on, while the roof of the building was still being repaired from Hurricane Katrina, and Mr. Lagasse takes his voters, or perhaps his voters' contributions, very seriously.

This is a building that was damaged by Katrina. The owner lost his will to continue running his bar and did not have the building repaired. The building was purchased, repaired, and is now ready to go back into commerce. Instead of being happy that the once-blighted, damaged building is now serving a function, the political powers that be would rather the hoi polloi work , I suppose, at jobs run by the politicians. If John Young, another council member, wanted a bar there, the bar would be there, and constituents be damned.

So now we are fighting the political machine once again, just to open a neighborhood bar on a street that already has several neighborhood bars, in an area zoned C-2, just because some people can't handle the little bit of power they've been able to grab.

Don't be surprised when my husband runs against Elton Lagasse in the next city council election.

Bar opening

Completely unrelated to my writing, my husband and I are waiting on the final permit from the parish so our bar in Harvey, the Last Stand, can open. I have always wanted to own a bar, and it is pretty exciting that it is finally happening.

My husband has put so much work into this bar. It needed a total renovation, and he basically started from scratch. When I had my car accident, the entire thing was put on hold for half a year. When I was finally able to move around again, he was able to be gone for short periods of time, and worked as much as he could. Now he is finally finished, and if we can hurdle the plethora of red tape it takes to get anything accomplished in Jefferson Parish, we will finally open.

When Gumbo Justice comes out, I'm thinking of hosting a book release party there. I'm also thinking of starting a writer's group or a book group out of the bar. I'll have to see how it goes.

Hurricane season in New Orleans

Last night we had tremendous storms in the New Orleans and southeast Louisiana area. Thunder so loud it woke me up, had me sitting up in bed making sure it wasn't the train sound of a tornado I've heard so much about. It wasn't, but with hurricane season right around the corner again, and with the forecasters predicting another bad one, I started thinking about the last big hurricane around here, Katrina.

I haven't thought about Katrina too much. When I do, I think of the businesses here that didn't return, friends who have moved away, the neighborhoods that have still not recovered.

This time I started thinking about Katrina changed us. Not just my family, but pretty much everyone I know. I recall being stuck in a hotel, a very nice one in Houston, 24 steps away from the Galleria, and fretting each day because we didn't know if they were going to continue to extend our stay. The hotel was booked, and we stayed for two weeks. I think about how for several days we had no idea if our house was okay, if the strays that lived in our yard survived, if our fish were okay.

We were lucky. Our house had minor roof damage, the animals survived, the cars were okay. For days, though, my husband couldn't work. He was a contractor, so work would abound eventually, but for a while, there were no supplies to be had, nothing was open, no way to start the recovery.

Without his income, we were in a pickle. I still got my pay, but we are a two income family for a reason. We applied for FEMA money, the $2000 everyone got, and were declined. No reasonable explanation, except maybe I applied too early and they weren't giving the money out yet. I applied for Red Cross money, which we did receive. I also applied for and received Food Stamps. I guess it should have been humiliating using the Louisiana debit card they give you from the state to purchase food, but at the time we needed it.

I had never thought in this life I would need food stamps. I work, I'm a lawyer, I have always paid my own way. But there were people who made more money than me, professional people, people who also worked and always paid their own way, who needed the boost from the state to make ends meet until the recovery began.

I had a boss once who said most people are one paycheck away from living on the street. I never thought about it too much until Katrina hit. But she was right. I can only imagine what happened to those people who didn't have at least one income to rely on while they were evacuated.

Angel

I am still in the midst of re-writing Bernie Angel, and am torn between the titles Angel Hunt, or Angel Trap. Both are applicable, but trying to determine which one sounds the most like a catchy movie title is the problem.

The rewrite is not coming along as fast as I had hoped, mainly because I had a significant amount of rewriting to do. I thought my original was fine, good even. I paid for two critiques, being new to this type of work. One was much kinder than the other, although both noted two problems that I hadn't seen. (My husband, strangely enough, had seen one of them.)

I did an initial rewrite, changing just the two issues both professionals had noted. They were easy fixes. Then I started thinking about the harsher critique, and realized a lot of what he said was true. While I didn't agree with every point he made, I agreed with the major ones. So I had to rethink some key issues, and how some key characters interacted.

I like constructive criticism. There is little point in writing if it's going to turn out to be crap, and if I write something nobody gets, I would like to do my best to make sure they get it.

Gumbo Justice

Gumbo Justice is scheduled to come out in June, in time for the Las Vegas writer's conference I am attending. I can't wait until the cover comes out, so I can see what all my hard work is going to finally look like. I posted the first chapter on the website, www.gumbojustice.net, and hopefully will have additional information to post as it gets closer to the release date. I have been doing a few promotional things, but will be gearing up to do more soon.

I have also been rewriting the Bernie Angel screenplay. I rewrote Gumbo Justice so many times before I was satisfied with how it turned out, and even now I hate to re-read because I can't read anything I've written without thinking I can improve on it at least by one word or sentence or phrasing something a different way. When Bernie Angel is finished for good, I will post the first scene or two for feedback.

In any event, I hope everyone has as much fun reading Gumbo Justice as I did writing it.

I posted the first chapter of Gumbo Justice on the website at www.gumbojustice.net. I am still waiting on the official release date, but from the looks of things, my novel is the next one on the schedule for my publisher.

I am also doing the finishing touches on Bernie Angel before I submit it. I have to figure out what to work on when Bernie is finished for good. I would like to try another screenplay, I think, but do need to catch up on Gumbo 2.

I have been spending waaaay too much time on Facebook lately, and think I'll have to set a schedule so I'm not checking it constantly. It is a lot of fun to catch up with old friends, though, and to see what everyone is up to.