What's Underneath...

I remember the first time I went to a Highland Game. It was at Loon Mountain, NH some 20 odd years ago. I was with my husband (who is a Scot) and my sister. My husband was a photographer at the time, so my sister and I were left to our own devises. Probably not a wise move on my husband’s part! We, my sister and I, decided to see for ourselves just what was worn under the kilt. Mind you, this research project wasn't quite as easy as it sounded. One doesn't just go up to the nearest kilted man and ask, I mean what fun would that be anyway?

So, we found a set of outdoor stairs that were the open grate sort and nonchalantly stood under them. All right, maybe nonchalant is not the correct word for what we were doing, but I swear to God, it the most fun we'd had for a very long time! One by one, a kilted man would walk down the stairs and we'd look up. I can't imagine what people were saying as they heard us giggling under that stairway. We gave it a good hour in order to research the matter thoroughly!

Oh, and to answer the question on everyone's mind... shorts. Very disappointing. There wasn't a free-baller or commando on the mountain that day. Not like the gentleman in the photo above.

And just what is the appeal of a man in a kilt? My feeling is, if a man is confident enough with his masculinity to wear a skirt, he radiates a certain manliness that stirs the loins of a woman! This is seconded only by a James Bond tuxedo. Mmmm!

Screenplay Redux

I just received my critique for the screenplay I wrote for Eyes of Garnet. All in all, for my very first try, it wasn't bad. Of course there's work to do, but it's not like they said, stick to writing books. That being said, writing books and writing scripts are two very different animals. I'm reading an older Nora Roberts book right now about a writer who's just had his book made into a movie. When the protagonist asked him why he didn't write it himself, his reply was, "what do you take for me for, a masochist?" Oh, how true I'm finding that out to be. First, while Eyes isn't all that long, there are tons of things going on. Things I couldn't fit into a mandatory 120-page story. That meant I had to chop and hack my way through entire scenes, vaporizing entire chapters and characters. The funny part was my critiquer told me it didn't flow quite as well as it could. I'm thinking, no shit! You made me cut out all the connecting scenes!

Anyway, for my rewrite I have to stop thinking like the author of the book, and think about what would make a good movie. More visuals, less speech. More emotion that connects the scenes better. I need to find the one continuity and carry that through the movie. Feel it rather than read it. A new concept, but I do so love a challenge! I think by the end of this rewrite, it will definitely be more of "based on the book Eyes of Garnet".

On the writing front, I've just send a new batch of queries to 37 literary agencies. Yeah, I know it's a lot, but with the age of e-queries becoming more prevalent (saves a lot of trees!), the agents get back to you much quicker than the standard 2 month wait. I still have one agency interested from the last batch I sent out, and a few haven't gotten back to me yet. It's such a slow, agonizing process. The third book in the Garnet series is coming along very nicely, though. I'm on page 140 and beginning chapter 16. And the signing season is creeping up quickly. I always love that part of the deal - meeting the people who have read, or want to read my book.