Angel Trap

My screenplay Angel Trap made the quarter-finals in the Page Screenplay contest. I am stoked about it, because over 4000 screenplays were entered, whittled down to the top 25 percent, then the top 10 percent, so making the quarter finals is pretty exciting. It will be another month until the list is whittled to the top 25 in each category, then another month for the top ten in each category, and I think another month for the big winners. I'm just happy to still be in the game.

Gumbo Justice and Angel Trap

I am back from the Vegas writer's conference. Had a blast, love Vegas, met lots of writers, sat on two panels. If the food was better Vegas would be my dream town. But you can't beat New Orleans for food.

I am planning my book launch for Gumbo Justice, still trying to figure out the date and the particulars. The Code Enforcement appeal hearing for the bar is next week, so we'll see. I'm also trying to order some books from my publisher, so I can have a few to sell. Several people have told me they have ordered it, most are still waiting for it. The local Barnes and Noble ordered a few to keep in stock, which is nice. Ordinarily they don't stock books from small presses. The only person who has actually read it and told me she has read it is my sister, who read the rough drafts and helped me edit, so her opinion doesn't count too much. (She thinks it has too much sex as violence, as if such a thing is possible in a legal thriller set in N.O.!)

My screenplay, Angel Trap, also made it to the second round of another competition. It didn't place at all in two, not even quarter finals, but made it to the finals in one and now the second round of another, so I can't complain. I have so many versions floating around out there because I kept editing it, I'm not even sure which versions are making it and which ones are not. I figure I'll worry myself about it if I actually win one.

I am working now on promotion for Gumbo Justice, which is a lot more work than you would think, and the follow up to it, which is my escape from reality. Except for the broken bones and the daily pain, my reality's not so bad I really need the escape, but I do love to write.

Gumbo Justice

I picked up my copies of Gumbo Justice yesterday from Billie, my publisher at Oak Tree Publishing, and I am amazed at how good the cover looks. I wish I could say I had a lot to do with it, but I don't. The colors are fitting for New Orleans, purple and gold on the cover, purple, green and gold on the back cover, appropriate for the town that celebrates Mardi Gras. My kids learned in pre-K, apparently the history of Mardi Gras is part of the pre-k curriculum in southeast Louisiana public schools, that purple of Mardi Gras stands for justice, green for faith, and gold for power.

I am trying to decide when to hold the book launch. It will definitely be at the bar, whether it is opened as a bar or not. (If we get screwed by code enforcement, we can still have a free private party in the building until we file suit in JP.) In any event, I am looking forward to everyone reading it and letting me know what they think. Hopefully, readers will enjoy it enough to want the read second one I'm working on now.

GUMBO JUSTICE is for sale

I am amped because GUMBO JUSTICE is finally available for purchase. I don't know whether to write "is for sale," or "is on sale." It's actually both, kind of, because the Amazon and BandN price is sale priced from the cover- not that I care. I am just stoked people can finally get it to read it.

I am also a little apprehensive. It's a little nerve wracking, wondering if people are going to get it, if they'll like it, if they'll think parts of it are borderline pornographic. I worry about things like sex scenes in the book, because I don't want people to think I'm a pervert, and sometimes I come away from a regular thriller, say for instance an Iris Johnasen novel, and I think, the book was okay, but the sex scenes were insane. But then she always has those men and women who just meet, immediately hate each other, but immediately are attracted to each other, sort of romance novelish even in her thrillers that are not romance novels.

In any event, the book is like my third child. I've certainly spent as much time raising it as I have my kids, and of course, every mama wants her babies to make a good first impression. I guess I'll soon see.

GUMBO JUSTICE

I am so excited to have seen the tentative cover for Gumbo Justice. It didn't quite seem real that the book was actually coming out until I saw the potential covers. So many decisions still to be made after a book is written and slated for publication. The cover, as I mentioned. What to include in the author bio. Whom to thank.

There are also decisions when proofing for the final draft. Some things may have changed since the novel was written. In my case, the law has changed, so I had to update some things to make sure they were current. Of course, the law is liable to change again, and then the info may be outdated. I put a note to that effect in the foreword. Also, we have had so many shifts in the makeup of the NOPD since Katrina I don't know if anyone could accurately portray it from one month to the next. Our current superintendent may make a run for mayor, and when we get a new mayor, whether it's Riley or not, we will get a new superintendent, who is appointed by the mayor. Then the structure of the NOPD is likely to change again. It's no wonder we can keep a lid on the crime problem.

Not that I'm complaining. It's excellent fodder for writing.

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.