When I complete a new script, one of the first things I do is submit it to a few screenplay contests to 1) get a sense of how it stacks up against the work of others and 2) get feedback and notes to improve the script. It takes a while for contest results to trickle in, but the season for my feature-length sci-fi screenplay INFINITY CANVAS finally arrived — and it’s a good look.

I’ve mentioned here previously that it was named a finalist at FilmQuest Fest and a semifinalist in Stage 32’s New Voices in Animation contest. In the past couple weeks, it’s also earned a spot on The Short List for Barnstorm Fest and was a semifinalist at ZedFest.

I’m stoked for the accolades, which landed INFINITY CANVAS on Coverfly’s The Red List as a Top 20 sci-fi feature of the month in January.

I’ve also mentioned previously that I originally wrote INFINITY CANVAS as a graphic novel, before adapting it into a screenplay. On that front, I finished working with the incredibly talented Bohdan Kravchenko on illustrated sample pages to submit to literary agents. A couple of the finished pages are below, and I’m completely in love with them. Here’s to hoping an agent — followed by a publisher — feels the same way.

It’s always fun to roll out a new screenplay competition laurel. The one above was earned by my feature-length sci-fi screenplay INFINITY CANVAS. The competition is still under way and I’ll find out if I made it as a finalist on November 22. Either way, it’s a nice follow-up for INFINITY CANVAS after it landed as an official selection and a Top 50 finalist at FilmQuest Fest.

I’ve been spending a lot of time marketing INFINITY CANVAS recently because, well, I love it. It’s based on a short story I wrote that was nominated for Best of the Net by Thirty West Publishing, so I’ve always had a sense there’s something special there. I love it so much, in fact, that I adapted that short story into a feature-length screenplay and a graphic novel.

Recently, I pitched the graphic novel to a literary agency and just when I thought they were about to offer representation — after they read the full manuscript and we exchanged several emails — they said they didn’t think they could sell it to a publisher without art. Well, that just begged the obvious next step.

So I found the best graphic novel artist I could find for this project and convinced him to partner with me as the artist for the graphic novel. We’re working on art for 10 sample pages right now, and I’m unbelievably happy with the early results. Here are a couple of the initial sketches (we’re hoping to have 10 completed sample pages before the new year).

First up, Monica and Lily — a woman and her daughter abandoned by their husband/father for a supposedly utopian metaverse — roam the apocalyptic Philadelphia streets seeking to create something beautiful out of the bleakness.

Next up, Daniel — the husband/father now living as an avatar in the metaverse — tries to find meaning in his virtual existence and cope with the grief of abandoning his family.

I’m looking forward to sharing the final art once it’s finished!

I’ve started religiously following screenwriter Michael Jamin‘s podcast and social media posts about screenwriting and advice for writers. It’s a great resource for any writer trying to break into Hollywood. One of his themes is to “put your work out there.” Just put it out. Any way you can. So I’m going to take that advice with regular posts moving forward I’ll call “Sharing Is Caring.” Here, I’ll throw a few of my favorite pages from my scripts into the void and see what happens. At a minimum, I will entertain my mom. (Hi Mom!).

Kicking things off, three pages from my feature-length comedy screenplay OVERLAND DAN. Here, the titular Dan — a paraplegic war vet who has taken on a second act as a “motivational doer” — discovers our protagonist Michael — a sad suburbanite — used to be a Prince impersonator. Let me know what you think, and feel free to share these pages with anyone you think might be interested.

I’ve always been a fan of hard sci-fi. Star Wars nerd? Guilty. Dystopian sci-fi like “1984,” “Brave New World” or “The Matrix.” Most definitely. Even emphasis-on-sci sci-fi like “The Martian.” But as a writer, I’ve tended to lean more toward fantasy. I’m not a big fan of rules and fantasy has none, really. Sci-fi, on the other hand, demands you respect science or at least scientific theory. Sci-fi fans delight in the mix of real scientific possibilities inflicting chaos on fictional realities.

So it was with some trepidation that I wrote INFINITY CANVAS, first as a graphic novel manuscript and then adapted as a feature-length screenplay. It’s about a father and daughter who navigate surreal virtual worlds, apocalyptic Philadelphia streets and a repressive tech corporation’s surveillance state to reunite years after the father abandoned his family for a supposedly utopian metaverse. I felt I could pull it off because I’ve worked for years in the climate and clean energy space (the “real world” in the script is a near-future climate dystopia), and I took a keen interest in the metaverse as the popularity of the idea took off during the COVID pandemic (the evil corporation offers lifetime contracts to live in its immersive metaverse, which people do to escape the hopelessness of their world). That said, there was a lot of tech to parse, and you never know how you’ve done until you hold the finished product up to the fire.

Fortunately, the screenplay did not come back scorched from the judges at FilmQuest Fest, one of the premier sci-fi and fantasy film festivals in the country. In fact, it was just named an official selection of the festival and one of the Top 50 feature screenplays. I’ll find out if it placed in the Top 20, Top 5 or is the grand prize winner after the festival kicks off on October 26.

I must say, as someone who has spent a significant number of his childhood and adulting hours reading and watching sci-fi, it is a pretty cool feeling to have this little moment of validation from those who know good sci-fi best.

“Excited” is just too bland a word. Elated? Ecstatic? Revelrous? Take your pick. I was feeling them all when Eric C. Jones of the Tobias Literary Agency offered to represent me as my literary manager for screenwriting work.

I queried Eric with my one-hour TV pilot THE BAD NEWZ in early July and he got back to me about two weeks later with a request to meet. Shout out to Melessa Sargant and the Scriptwriters Network for helping me prepare for the meeting. My feature HAPPY JACK won TSN’s 2022 Hollywood Outreach Program, and Melessa has made herself available to help in any way possible ever since. I thought my call with Eric in late July went well, but you just never know if you and your work is going to be just right for an agent or manager.

So when one week later, sitting on the shore of Lake Tahoe during a camping trip with my brother, I saw Eric’s email extending an offer of representation, suffice to say I was jubilant. Maybe it was just the thin mountain air, majestic mountains and the workings of a double IPA, but I was a little emotional, too. Every step in this process to become a published novelist and paid screenwriter is a challenging one. The odds are long. It’s one hell of a journey.

What’s next? Well, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are certainly muddying the waters, but when things clear, Eric and I will hopefully find happy homes for my scripts with producers/production companies who are going to be hungry for new work. Or, hopefully, someone will see the same spark in my work Eric did and hire me as a writer for a new project. It’s exciting to even put that hope in words. The journey might be long and hard, but I’m still making my way.

Good News for The Bad Newz

THE BAD NEWZ went on a hot streak this spring and early summer in film festival and screenwriting competitions. With the awards, it vaulted into the top 18% of all projects listed on Coverfly and also made Coverfly’s The Red List as one of the top 20 television pilots for the month of July.

In the past few months, THE BAD NEWZ placed as a semifinalist in the Scriptmatix Fellowship, Richmond International Film Festival, Your Script Produced Season 4 and Scriptmatix Pilot Season. It placed as a quarterfinalist in the Inroads Fellowship (Season 6).

HAPPY JACK continues to do well on the contest circuit, too. On the heels of a quarterfinalist placement in the 2023 Scriptapalooza Screenplay Competition, the script is now in the top 19% of all projects listed on Coverfly and made The Red List as a top 20 fantasy feature for the month of August.

Win, lose or honorable mention, screenplay competitions will usually email you when the results are in. Usually.

Yet still, when I’m having a slow day and don’t have the inspiration to get new words down on the page, I’ll take some time to update my agent and content submission tracker spreadsheets. (Side note: There’s nothing quite like the special joy of tracking back through three months of emails so you can add the words “form rejection” next to a dozen literary agents names in a Google Sheet. Like a slap to the face on the heels of a shot of bad whiskey.)

Every once in a while, though, spreadsheet tracking unearths a little nugget of gold. Like today, when I saw I still had no result recorded for the Scriptwriter’s Network Hollywood Outreach Program (HOP) contest. Lo and behold, what did I discover when I went over to the contest website: I won! One of two grand prize winners!

It’s the first grand prize win for Happy Jack, which has a handful of semifinalist and quarterfinalist nods from other competitions. I emailed the Scriptwriter’s Network team today to apologize for missing the news and get in touch about claiming the winner’s prizes. So what does winning the HOP mean for Happy Jack? There’s some legitimately exciting stuff in the prize winner’s package.

Here’s a list of the prizes from the contest webpage:

• Receive a one year membership or a one year membership renewal to the Scriptwriters Network (SWN).
• The top three winners will receive a 4-month InkTip Pro Membership. As an InkTip Pro Member, thousands of filmmakers can find and read your scripts, and you’ll be able to pitch directly to production companies every week. With over 3,000 options and 400 movies made, InkTip is the place for independent film.
• The top three winners will meet VIRTUALLY, one-on-one with a Writer and/or Producer.
• The top three winners will meet VIRTUALLY with a Literary Manager.
• The top three winners: Ten (10) Pitches on VPF, the platform for TV/Film professionals seeking scripts and writers to represent. With VPF, writers can submit Written Pitches to 500+ networks/studios, producers and agents with the assurance of a guaranteed response.
• Winners will also receive a Pitch Boot Camp class with Ms. Sargent, SWN’s President, prior to pitching on VPF.
  Arc Studio writing software for the top three winners. Arc Studio goes beyond industry-standard formatting, offering real-time collaboration capabilities, distraction-free design, and advanced story-building tools.
• The top three winners: SWN/We are in the process of retrieving funding and supporters, in order to produce the winning scripts with our production company. We want to make sure you have a chance, at least once, to see your project developed.

I guess the only other thing to say is: LET’S F*ING GO!