Home Brewing next on my agenda?

Ok, so I admit I'm one of those guys who is always trying to find new shit to do. I'm always looking for something to express myself creatively or to just have fun with. Some sort of hobby to keep myself from going totally batshit crazy, you know what I mean? Sure I have my Harley, so I can always get away from real life, but that's not what I mean. I love to golf, but I have very few friends locally that have the time to play (and I don't either). I enjoy playing tennis, but again I don't have many friends to play with and I don't have time to commit to a league. Still, I need something to do! I like to create. Over the years I've tried drawing, painting, writing and screenwriting. I'm not very good at any of that. Last year I started taking pottery classes and while I really enjoyed it, I didn't enjoy the way the class was set up. No real instruction, just, "throw it around like this...smooth it here...slap some glaze over there." Hell, they didn't even let us put our own pieces in the kiln! Oh well, maybe I'll try it again some other year.

Recently though, I've returned to an idea I kicked around five or six years ago. Homebrewing! I love beer and have always thought it would be fun to try my hand at making my own brew. So now I'm doing my standard research and fact finding about what it takes to make beer at home. I've been reading up in magazines and at internet sights like http://www.homebrewtalk.com/ ,http://www.byo.com/  and http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/ as well as visiting my local homebrew store https://www.facebook.com/MainGrain and the New Orleans homebrewing store http://www.brewstock.com/ to gather as much information as possible. Everyone I have talked with at the stores and on the online forums have been extremely helpful and willing to answer all of my dumb questions. And to a person, they are all so passionate about homebrewing. So much so that its immediately clear that this is one fun hobby!

My plan now is to go ahead and purchase a brewing kit like this one as a fathers day gift to myself. I have a neat little desk area outside in my garage where I can set everything up and start this new creative adventure. The cool thing is, if the beer actually tastes good, I can drink my creative outlet! Check back in a few months and I'll let you know if I pull this one off. And if it really takes off, I may have to go back to that pottery class and make some way cool steins to drink all my beer!

Ken Law, an artist to watch!

I'm going to take the time today to introduce you to artist Ken Law, who I think is currently producing some very interesting works of art. 


Ken is an American living and working in Taiwan. Mr. Law considers himself an "Outsider" artist. The term Outsider artist basically means someone who has not had serious formal training in the art of painting, or it can refer to art that is outside of the mainstream styles of art.

I found Ken totally by accident as I was cruising through e-bay looking for some original art to buy. Now, my tastes generally lean more towards impressionism and realism, but for some reason Ken's work struck a note with me. There was something about his color palate and strange subjects that drew me in. I looked over his work a few times and after a couple of days I decided on a piece I wanted to buy. But, as luck would have it, by the time I returned to buy the painting, it was gone! (smart buyers out there) But I knew I wanted a piece of his work, so I kept looking and bought a work called "Back to School". I love the colors and textures of the piece. The painting almost glows. 


Ken paints with mixed mediums such as acrylics, watercolors/pencils, charcoal, oil pastels, dermatograph pencils and gelly rolls. He has done his works on paper, canvas and wood. He has recently began to branch out in his style and is adding some excellent abstract work to his portfolio. 


So if any of you that stumble across this blog, and are looking for some interesting modern art to add to your collection, or give as a gift, please go take a look at Ken's work on e-bay here: http://myworld.ebay.com/artbylaw123/?_trksid=p4340.l2559 and then go check out his Blog here: http://artbyklaw.blogspot.com/

.....just don't go buying up the pieces I want!

2012 is here! Did I sleep through 2011?

I'm not usually a "New Years Resolutions" kind of guy, but I was inspired today by reading the fine crime fiction and comic book writer Victor Gischler's blog at http://victorgischler.blogspot.com/.  


Victor is one of my favorite crime fiction writers and as I've told him in the past, I'd one day like to be a mix between him, James Ellroy and James Lee Burke. I think I'd be quite an amazing writer if I could accomplish that. Hell if I could write half as good as any of those three I'd be damn good! We all have to aspire to something right?
I'm a beginer when it comes to writing, but I sure love it when I get in that groove and churn out pages.  Holding down a full time job with a wife and two kids makes finding time to write a tough task. My writing time usually falls between 9pm and as long as I can stay awake. Sadly, 2011 was almost completely "writing free" for me, save for a couple of sessions working on a friends screenplay. I want to return to writing in 2012, so I'm making my 2012 resolutions now!

1. I want to make the time to write SOMETHING everyday. Most writing experts agree, this is a must if you're going to be a successful writer. I guess I should follow that rule.
2. I need to finish editing the two short crime stories I have written. I think they are decent stories and would like to try to submit them to one of the online crime fiction sites to see if they are worthy. Both stories are pulp noir and set in New Orleans.
3. Complete the re-writes of my short screenplays, "A Night Full of Blues" and "The Caper", both of which won Best Short Screenplay in a couple of national film festivals in 2008 and 2009. I like the screenplays as they are, but after not looking at them in awhile, I picked them up recently and read them again. Clearly there are flaws that can be improved.
4. Return to work on the feature screenplay I've been working on for about two years. This will be more difficult as I have really changed my opinion of this story. It may end up becoming a whole new screenplay.
5. I want to play more golf! I travel a good bit for work and should take some time to play a few rounds when I'm close to a nice course. This one should be very doable!
6. I need to lose 20 pounds! At 205, I'm not way fat or anything, I'd just look and feel much better at 185. This will take more exercise and a better diet. 


Here's hoping to success in 2012!!


Cheers!

History!

Osama Bin Laden has been killed by our US Special Forces in Pakistan! This surely is not the end of terrorism, but it is indeed a sweet victory for our armed forces that serve and protect us, so we may all live our lives as we please here in the America! I feel certain the terrorists of Al Qaida will now attempt to retaliate, but for now we can revel in this victory.

I hope no politicians, especially our President, take credit for this, but instead graciously praise our military hero's for their sacrifices, loyalty, fearlessness and dedication to our country.

God Bless the United States of America!

What the hell? It's 2011?

I can't believe it's already February 2011. I must have slept through the holidays because it was all a blur. Now that I have reawakened, I realize I have really been neglecting my writing. Not that it's my career (I wish!) or that my stuff is very good, just that I haven't spent any time at the keyboard in the last three months. Not a good idea for someone who is attempting to become a published short story writer or a have a screenplay optioned. A writer must write...every day...is what the experts say. Shit, I'm sure they're right. I have a lot of catching up to do.

One reason I am blogging again is just to make sure I write something today. Also I have two screenplays that are "in progress" and need some attention and a short story I have completed that needs some editing. I think the short story is actually fairly decent, I just need to make sure it's tight before I submit it to a couple of online crime fiction sites to see if I can get it published there. I have a number of stories that are half (assed) completed and I must find some time to get back to work on them.

I was able to gather some real inspiration two weekends ago. I had the great pleasure of meeting one of my newest writing hero's, the one and only Victor Gischler! Victor is a fantastic writer of crime noir and has a full time gig as ar comic book writer for Marvel's X-Men series! You can check him out here: http://www.victorgischler.blogspot.com/ I had to go into New Orleans and attend the NOLA Comic-Con to meet him, but it was well worth the time and money. Victor graciously signed all of my novels and took time to talk to me while he signed comic books for his fans of that work. He even accepted a beer from me as a thank you for his time. Now that's a cool writer dude! And it doesn't hurt that he has his PHd from my alma mater The University of Southern Mississippi! I can't wait to visit with him again.

Finally, I found a "flash fiction" challenge at writer Patti Abbott's site http://pattinase.blogspot.com/2011/02/flash-fiction-challengescarry-night.html and I'm thinking about giving that a shot too. The deadline is February 28th, so I'll need to get on the stick if I want to complete the story by then. The challenge is for a story of 800 words or less. I'm sure I can do it, I just hope it doesn't suck too hard.

I'm out.

Another win for my screenplay.

I was very happy last month to win "Best Dramatic Short" at the Action on Film International Film Festival in Pasadena. I was really hoping to get to attend this years event as the festival has grown over the last couple of years and is fast becoming a premier west coast festival. Heck, I was even in California with my family for nearly two weeks before the festival, but we had to fly home the day of the Writers Awards dinner.

Fourtunately for me, Holly Hughes, a high school friend living in the Los Angeles area, was happy to attend the dinner in my stead. Thankfully, of the four nominations my script received, it won one! Holly called me after the dinner and made my day! Or should I say night. Our plane had literally just landed and it was nearly midnight when the phone rang. Holly enjoyed the awards dinner and festival experience and I got another pat on the back that I'm doing something right in my efforts to learn screen writing. The ride across the Causeway at midnight was a good one, even as the hours of travel were catching up with me.

Now....if I can just come up with that feature screenplay....

Short sceenplay "A Night Full of Blues" garners my first win.

I've been attempting to write screenplays for about three years now.  After an aborted attempt to scribe a feature length comedy, I made a decision to try to write a really solid crime noir short. I suceeded somewhat and got good feedback from a couple of actors and writers here in the New Orleans area. My first short was a 25 page story, "The Caper",  about three New Orleans low lifes who decide to pull off an ill conceived heist. After I polished it up, I submitted the script to seven screenwriting competitions to see if I could get some feedback from people who read a lot of scripts. "The Caper" received "Official Selections" in four competitions and the script was a finalist at the 2008 Vail Film Festival in the short screenplay competition. This limited success prompted me to write another short to continue my efforts to learn the craft of screenwriting.

Last year, after a multitude of re-writes, and some sage advice on the ending from my good friend Holly Hughes out in California, I finished a 20 page short titled, "A Night Full of Blues". This script is set in a small juke joint in 1954 Mississippi and tells the story of two brothers wrapped up in racism and blues music. Again the story was well received by my friends in the New Orleans acting community and I decided to fork over a few more dollars to get some feedback/coverage from a few film festivals and screenwriting competitions. I submitted this one to nine festivals and so far it has been an "Official Selection" in three and is currently a quarterfinalist in the highly regarded "FadeIn Magazine" scriptwriting competition.

The good news is, the script actually won for "Best Short Screenplay" at the 2010 Bare Bones Film Festival in Oklahoma! I was very pleased to see at least someone out there thought the script was above average!
I know that Oklahoma isn't the hotbed of screenwriting and movie making, but I have enjoyed the accolade and it has given me some validation that I can write a decent feature length script if I work hard at it.

I have three or four good story ideas for my next script which will definately be a feature. I hope that I have learned enough over the last three years to be able to put down enough words in the right order to make 120 pages of a good story!