Well, It's been some time.

God, I almost forgot this Blog exist! I haven't accessed this page in a long time now. Well, I'm still alive, considering I was just diagnosed with Diabetes since last February.

I have to say this has been a life changing experience. I decided to fight this back. So far I have lost 32 pounds, eating better and taking care of myself. My original weight in mid-February was 252, now I'm 220! What a difference!

I also have a new job, working for a national Cell Phone Provider. I work in the Customer Finance Dept. It is not a bad job, but it is sometime very hard, dealing with people screaming because their phones were shut off!

I finally got myself a Prism E2 Stunt Kite in Citrus color scheme. It is a lot of fun to fly. Now all I need is a kite bag to hold all my four kites!

I'll see about writing more often. It's good to have a place to express myself and hopefully have people listen to what I have to say!

-Eddie

How things change...

First, I'm sorry for the lack of posting. It's been a very hectic couple of months. A lot of bad things happened to me, but also some few good things. First the bad...

I was having a lot of money problems, still have them. My current job is not paying enough and I've had a lot of sleepless nights thinking about problems. Sometimes things can get very bad, specially if you can't stop to think about them.

Now for good news: I found a new job working for Nextel. The pay and benefits are way much better. I can probably be able to get my finances back in track and then be able to be more creative and write scripts again.

In the mean time I got 2 new kites for my birthday this past July. A Prism Micron (Red) and a Nexus (Blue)! With my other Nexus I could get a stack line set and stack those two! that would look great! I will add photos of these kites very soon!

Now all I have to do is somehow survive these coming month. 2 weeks on my old job and 2 weeks more for my new paycheck!

Ready or not...

-Edward

Happy July 4th!

Sorry I've been silent for a looong time, but life has been hard lately. Let;s hope things get better for me.

I'll be back!!!!

September is a pain...

A lot of things have gone wrong the last couple of weeks. For starters my short fan film will have to be postponed till new notice. Just when I had finished storyboards, I lost all contact with one of the most important persons in the group. I guess somethimg must have happened and he wasn 't going to be able to work with me. I sure wished he would have called me back and let me know. This happened just when things seemed to be going forward.

Next, my job is getting more stressful, with no benefits and no chance for advancement whatsoever. I'm starting to do jobhunting, but all I'm getting is closed doors and no opportunities.

I took my wife to the doctor today, good news is that she doesn't has Lupus. Now the doctor is not sure what is wrong with her. He is thinking she has Chronic Fatigue Sindrome. He prescribed Provigil 100mg. The damn thing cost $350.00 without health insurance. And to make matters worst my wife had to miss last week of work and the doctor ordered her not to return till next Monday (Sep 25). That would be 2 weeks without pay. And then, when I took her doctors orders to her job, they are asking her to quit due to her health problems!

Hope is starting to be something harder to hold on to. I can't quit. I HAVE to try to make my film, get something done. I HAVE to try to make my dreams come true. But it seems without money, I can't do anything.

I hate what's happening to me. This is killing me. A month ago, I thought I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. At this moment that light has been pushed further away. I hate it.

But I have to hold on. Somehow I have to hold on.

Sorry if this saddens you all. Hopefully I'll be able to bring better news.

Just a few words...

I think I've been having a lot of good things happening to me in the last few months. After my script was read this last month at the Austin Screenwriters Group I decided to find help in producing this fanfilm project.

A few weeks later I managed to get a Producer from Austin interested in this project. I will be directing based on my script. Hopefully we'll be able to start production in October!

I can't say what this project is about or what comic character Is based on, but this seems to be going at full steam! I've been working with a local artist from Killeen named Brazzy. We're doing storyboards and some early designs. They are looking great!

I hope this project comes out as I want it to be, this could be a huge thing, not only for me, but to the crew and actors who are interested in working for this.

Lets just hope.

Now, there's another thing happening that is not good. My wife is having health problems. I took her to the doctor a week ago. We do have to make some tests, but he's suspecting Lupus or some other thing like that. My baby is scared. I am too.

I pray to God that I can be strong in this matter. All I want is to make things better for her. I love my wife, and I need to take good care of her.

We'll know what is her ailment in about 2 months from now, when she has her next visit. Maybe she'll have a medical plan from her job. That will help us a lot.

Again... lets just hope.

See y'all later!

Austin Screenwriters Group

If I could be any more happy, I guess I could be living in Cloud 9 right now.

I'm a regular visitor to the Austin Screenwriters Group meetings. They have meetings the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month at The Book People bookstore in Austin. In there we participate in reading scripts done by other members of the group. This helps in receiving a lot of input on your work and you get to hear your dialogs instead of just reading it by yourself.

I was forced to stop going after April due to finances, and the cost of gas alone is a killer, specially if you live 60 + miles away from Austin.

I was hoping to return to the ASG as things were more stable, with my wife's new job. I was expecting to start going around mid July.

Last week I received an e-mail from the ASG Yahoo Group. Nancy Smith, one of the members, left a notice that on the July 1st was going to be short script readings, due to an unexpected change in plans from the scheduled member who was going to present her work that day. The writer was not going to have her full script ready for the meeting, she was going to bring an unfinished draft and a short script. Nancy was asking all members who had a short script to include it on the schedule.

I wrote an e-mail to Nancy and said that I have one for my fanfilm project. She answered me back, saying that I was most welcome to bring it!

I had the copies made and I was at Book People early at 9:00 am. Some members started arriving at the conference area, including some visiting actors. I was selected to start first. I distributed the copies of the script, and one of the actors played my main character. The reading started.

It was one of the best experiences in my life. Just listening to the dialog! My characters came to life. All my fears and doubts that I had on my script were gone! The group laughed on the right parts, I glanced around seeing nods of approval from the members. Some were writing notes on the copies they had.

After the last line was read, there was applause. Then came the critiques. The overall story was great, they loved the dialog. I was suggested to add something for the beginning of the story. The thing that they suggested I could fix was the way I used some verbs and to break up the paragraphs, mostly technical aspects of the script. Otherwise the reaction to the script was very positive!

That was a great experience to have, it was my first script read by an audience. If you are a screenwriter, this would be a great experience.

Another good thing that happened that day was that the actor who read my main character is very interested in playing the part. Even though he is younger than what the character is supposed to be, but his presence and, most importantly, his voice was enough to tell me that he is my #1 candidate to play my hero. That and he is a good physical actor, rides horses and sounds like a very rough badass Clint Eastwood.

My little Western film is taking shape now.

Now comes the hard part... getting the money and finding a crew.

BTW. Happy 4th of July!

One step forward!

This has been a great week. I've been hit hard because of my problems with finances. It was getting so bad I started to lose all hope. When you lose your hope... It's a horrible feeling. You feel alone and scared of facing each day. You don't want people to see you, you avoid your loved one.

Hope is a terrible thing to lose.

Just at the moment that you desperately cry for help... that moment that you feel so much on top of you, that's when it comes to you like a bolt from the blue.

At first, my wife started getting job interviews. One right after the other! She got hired today in a location that is 10 minutes away from my current job, she even has the same hours that I have! That will help us getting our feet back on the ground! That took off a lot of pressure away from me! We can start saving some money now, and we don't need to live by one paycheck.

Now the other event that made this a great week for me is something that will help me get my carreer as a filmmaker going forward. I've been planning to do a short film project for a few weeks now. I finished the first draft of the script, which is a fan film based on a comic book character. My problem was how to get this project rolling. I want to get some of the equipment, including camera, a computer for editing, movie making software and some other stuff. The rest of the equipment can be rented, like a steady cam harness and a crane. But seeing my huge money problem, I was loosing hope and feeling scared.

Out of desperation I wrote some e-mails to different people. One of them answered back 4 days later.

It was the Texas Film Commission.

They told me they want to help me and they want to read the script! This must be a sign from heaven! Even if they can't help me much, this means a lot to me.

I honestly feel that this is a step forward towards my goal. Pretty soon I'll be yelling "ACTION" and have my vision made true by the camera lense.

If this is the break I need, and probably it will be, I will announce it on this blog. I'll also announce who is the comic book character that my film will be about, and I will create another blog with details from pre-production, production, and post production.

In the meantime, I'll be working on a new draft of that script and get it ready to send to the Texas Film Commission.

It's just one step forward, one at a time.