Tag: fiction

Update on my extraordinary life and spectacular reckonings

by Robin

“Well, son of a gun,” you may ask, “where the heck have you been?”

I know, I know. Greetings, BRIGHT SOULS! Salut! Buenos dias! Buon giorno! It’s been a minute since I last posted.

No excuses. Just…

I planned for my first novel, THE IMPROBABLE WONDERS OF MOOJIE LITTLEMAN, to be part of a trilogy. For refreshers, here’s the logline: A troubled half-human, half-celestial boy mourning his adoptive mother’s death focuses on winning back his estranged dad, while juggling time between outcast kindred beings and a surly grandfather.

It introduces Moojie as an adopted, foundling child with superhuman powers who wants a family more than life itself. Slow to walk and talk, he struggles to conform to his first family’s expectations, but is haunted by identity and abandonment issues. After his mom dies, his disapproving dad, Henry, abandons him to her dad, Pappy Finnegan. At fourteen, Moojie meets the elusive Light-Eaters, his celestial kin. Through relationships with them and gruff Pappy, he struggles with self-acceptance, forgiveness, and tries to suppress his out-of-control paranormal powers. When the Light-Eaters return to their dimension, will he overcome the past and take the lead in helping his community survive a prophesied natural disaster?

I thought this would easily segue into a second novel…

Now Moojie (18) is living with his hapless adoptive dad, Henry, and meddlesome Auntie Tilda. He’s inherited his grandfather’s goat farm and is struggling to establish a healing ministry. Natural disasters are occurring in other continents. Moojie knows it’s just a matter of time before another big quake hits the region. Henry, self-serving and conniving, tries to arrange a marriage between Moojie and the daughter of a wealthy mobster to settle a gambling debt. Neither Moojie or the girl wants it. When Moojie helps her escape to the city to go to college, the mobster threatens his life and the forced sale of the farm. After Moojie finds out the mobster can’t legally take his farm, he embarks on a journey to the Mojave desert with his eccentric Light-Eater buddy, Abu, to find a mountain portal. He hopes to reunite with Babylonia, his first love, to bring her back to marry and start a family. But when he gets to the other dimension, there are more than a lion’s share of challenges to face. In undertaking new risks and challenges, his character is further transformed, and he’s ready to start his own family.

So, how’s that going for ya?

Before I get through the revisions on Book #2, I meet distinguished director/actor/producer/writer, John Crye, at a media conference in Hollywood. For longer than I care to admit, I’ve secretly housed a dream to write for motion pictures. I love the medium but, I kid you not, it’s ENTIRELY, UTTERLY, LOCK, STOCK, AND BARREL different from novel writing. Webinars, seminars, networking helps. A mentor helps. Reading others’ scripts helps. Scrutinizing films helps. Bottom line, humility helps.

John and I brainstorm ideas about adapting Novel #1 for a feature. Before ya know it, we’re undertaking a creative conspiracy that lasts years. We worked together, and as a team with screenwriter, Quinn Sosna-Spear, imagining different versions, including a TV series.

Flash forward. There’s a polished feature script for Novel #1. I’m signed with a super entertainment lawyer. Offers are coming in to adapt other projects. Yay! The Moojie script (current title HALFKIN) is being circulated and reviewed by producers and critics. It will soon be packaged for submission to studios and networks. A tidy sum of development goes into this process: budget, pitch deck, signing producers, director, actors, crew, and finding financiers. Whew!

Here’s a mock up of the pitch deck cover:

When I started the adaptation process, I had no idea that the average time it takes to develop, produce, and distribute a feature from start to finish is typically eight – YES – eight years. Also, only 1 in 1,000 films that get optioned actually get produced. Sheesh.

And here we go, scouting locations…

What in my life could have possibly prepared me for this journey? Working for decades on something I have a passion for, knowing that it most likely may never be realized?

Well, I must say, even if the film never gets made, I have no regrets. I’ve met some of the most terrific creative, supportive folks in the film making industry. I’m thrilled that my quirky first novel THE IMPROBABLE WONDERS OF MOOJIE LITTLEMAN won lots of awards and is just too weird to die.

***If you read the book and liked it, kindly spread the word. Scribble a review! Wave it out the car window! Post a picture of your goat eating it!

So, like the song says:

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I onward bound,
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

Meanwhile…

I’m talking to the birds outside, trying to get them to pipe down.

As one must.

Taking one day at a time.

Bye-bye for now.

P.S. Please hug a tree. They need attention, too.

Magical Realism That Drowns Us, con’t

by Robin

…Magical realism has finally found a toehold in mainstream America. If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a finger on the national pulse, it seems America is ready for stories that treat supernatural and mythic themes as a natural part of life.

I’ve been drawn to mysticism and spirituality most of my adult life. During this time, I’ve witnessed a number of healings (my own and others’)—from the common cold to terminal cancer—without the aid of medical science. So-called miracles have become a natural part of my life. As a writer, I am excited to build stories on this premise. With a little help from Charles Dickens, I follow a tradition of subverting expectations and use irony to call into question social and religious traditions. For example, in The Improbable Wonders of Moojie Littleman, I address Pappy’s bigotry in a historic (and personal) context while showing him also as protective of bi-racial, disabled, troublesome Moojie. On the other hand, Moojie, who is developmentally  challenged, is often wiser than Pappy and the adults around him. Another example can be found in The Whale Rider. Paikea, the protagonist, is excluded from her grandfather’s search for the next tribal chief because she is a girl, but she is more capable than any of his male choices.

pans.monster

My greatest wish as a writer is to publish stories that show characters subverting human expectations by awakening to their divine nature. As some of you know, for the past year I’ve been working on the film adaptation of Moojie Littleman, Book 1. Adaptation and screenwriting are completely different from novel writing so there are a number of changes to the story, but the basic themes and premise remain true to the book. My mentor, John Crye—writer, actor, producer, editor, and former Creative Director of Newmarket Films (produced Whale Rider)—is as excited about magical realism as I am. While my screenplay is still in development, I credit John’s magnificent oversight for this pre-production review:

“The Improbable Wonders of Moojie Littleman” is an emotionally powerful and viscerally stunning fantasy with a fascinating and hard-hitting family drama not overshadowed by all the spectacle. We are, with Moojie, entering a strange new world here where the incredible seems possible. At the heart of the story is always his quest for belonging, a universal human drive that resonates even in such extraordinary circumstances. The Light-Eaters are intriguing and capable of holding our interest with both their capabilities and thematic nature. Nahzi is a particularly breathtaking and memorable element. They are inspirational as well, and we can see that it is Moojie’s time with them that helps him mature in the way that he does, whether it is taking responsibility for starting the trouble, or telling Babylonia he loves her with the stirring speech, “The day I met you, it was like I fell asleep and woke up in a better world.”—THE BLACK LIST, Hollywood (Aug/2018)

Europe, Australia, and South America have long-embraced magical realism in art, literature, and film. It is thrilling to see it finally recognized in America. Thanks to David Lynch’s legacy, and other commercially successful films, like Being John Malkovich, Donnie Darko, and Edward Scissorhands, the road has been paved for stories that normalize mythical, spiritual, and mystical experiences. If you are drawn to films like this, you’re going to love the Moojie film! Also, here are some magical realist films worth seeing: The Whale Rider, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Amélie, Micmacs, The Delicatessen, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey, and Pan’s Labyrinth.

pans

So it’s onward and upward! Time to get back to work. I love hearing from you. Whether you are parenting or writing or being the CEO of a national corporation, I want to hear how you are following your dreams!