Hey, a little external validation never hurt anyone!

The tagline on the website is “Learn and become what you are.” It’s a line from the Greek Poet Pindar. Genoi hoios essi mathone. That’s an admonition to myself, a kind of personal mission statement. It helps me remember why I write and perform, to find and express myself in a way that connects with my fellow creatures. If I can sell a script or a book, great. If I can sell enough tickets to do my one man show until it’s wired tight and sharp, excellent. It’s just got to come about as a byproduct of learning and becoming what I am.

But hot damn it’s sweet to get some external validation! I’m utterly thrilled. Got this for the first screenplay I wrote, “The Persuaders,” a pilot for a serial drama set in the world of union organizing campaigns.

I spent the last year or so taking my life apart and reassembling it to support my personal mission. They say every writer has 250,000 bad words in them that have to come out first. I hope the number isn’t too far off, because I’ve got it covered. I was casting around trying to find the right way to approach my experience in and around organized labor, and thought I would try writing a screenplay. I loved the format and the demands of the medium. I went through the Vermont Production Collective’s screenplay incubator program, and have two feature scripts in contests this year.

I was away from this site for a bit, and happy to be back!