Vol. 4, No. 17

Greetings, fellow travelers, and welcome to another edition of the Blog.  It's been two weeks since we last met and I've been thinking over what topic I should discuss with you.  After much thought, I've decided to share many things with you.  Tops on the list, the activities of my company, Golden Shawn Productions.  As I've mentioned, I founded the company so I start my new film making career.  I also mentioned the lack of funds the company currently has.  I may have solved that.

 

To earn some money for the company, I've gone back to my writing roots to make a little book with the main purpose to make some income for Golden Shawn and also to show what films will be coming out of the company.  It's a collection of stories called "Three for All".  I call it that because it features three stories which also double as things I can adapt into films and such.  At this moment, I have only come up with two stories for the collection but I'm working on a third tale to tell.

 

This collection is perfect for my writing style.  I seem to have this knack for writing tales longer than a short story allows but shorter than a novel.  Hopefully, I can make enough money to get my company off the ground and make our first film.  If all goes well, I will release a story at Christmas as the first release from the publishing arm of Golden Shawn.  Money may be the root of all evil, and I believe that totally, but if you must make it in this world, it helps to oil the gears of success.  Now, to what awaits readers of "Three for All"

 

The first story in the collection, in the process of being written, is something called "What's in a Name?".  It stars our favorite son of the Blog, Oddley.  In this timeline of events, Oddley finds himself the stand-in father of a six-year-old girl named Joanie.  In the story, we see Oddley get Joanie as her father heads off to faraway lands as part of the Peace Corps.  The title refers to the main plot, of Joanie deciding to take Oddley's last name as her own.  This confuses other people in her life and Oddley learns a lesson about his own name in the process.

 

The second story I have is one called "The Inspector's Tale".  It's a story I've still sorting out the details for, so I won't go into much about it.  What I have so far is that it is told by the title character, a town hero of sorts.  He narrates a tale about when a divorced mother and her young son travel to the resort town of Ormond for a vacation.  They meet the Inspector, who guides them through the town.  Throughout the story, he reveals details of a romance and gives us a story worth a movie.  In fact, that's where the idea came from.

 

As for the third story, they are a couple of candidates at the moment.  One of them is a story I mentioned in an earlier entry, "Side Effects", my same-sex romantic comedy.  Another candidate is a jaunt into a unique brand of science fiction called "The Crossover".  It features a man who learns that a counterpart of his in a parallel universe is a criminal mastermind and has taken advantage of a joining of his universe and ours for a special kind of crime wave.  Those two mentions are not the only one that could take the third spot in "Three for All".

Over the last few days, as I ponder this collection, other assorted tales enter my mind.  I'll share with you one interesting entry because it sounds very silly to me.  Let me start by saying that I am a master when it comes to sitcoms.  I may have mentioned that they're my favorite form of storytelling.  Anyway, one of my favorites is "Mork and Mindy".  It currently airs on the Hub channel.  They recently showed the episode where Mork actually lays an egg.  As I watched this episode, my mind went on one of its usual wanderings.

The idea that came to me in that wander was, "What if a human woman actually laid an egg?"  So, I've been piecing together a possible entry for "Three for All" called "The Egg Mother".  In the story I've created so far, a human woman, after a night of good-sized passion, finds herself giving birth to an baby-sized egg.  The story then looks into the response to such a happening.  Realizing that there might be an actual baby within the egg, she decides to do what most egg-laying mothers do... and sit on it until it hatches.  Again, the story follows as she  becomes the first human to hatch a baby.

As I've pointed out here, each story in the collection is a possible movie for my production company.  Adapting this story to film would be interesting, and since there is now a visual part to the tale, you can really take a look at what would happened.  I see cameos by my favorite late-night hosts, news stories moving it along, and truly view how the world would react to a human having to hatch a baby.  The best stories in fiction are those that take a taken-for-granted concept (in this instant, babies being born) and completely overturn it on its head. 

In fact, the whole idea lead me to an unusual occurrence.  I usually write over a long period, that way I can check my progress and add ideas along the way.  This week, the idea of "The Egg Mother" lead me to an all-nighter, writing up what might be called a first draft in about six hours or so.  Looking back on the story, I see even more ideas hiding within.  One idea is a group of religious nuts who call themselves Egg Christians, who believe the egg is the Second Coming and the day it hatches as the Judgment Day.  My mind is just a weird place to me.

To me, the story is becoming my intro as a writer and possible director.  It contains humor, social commentary, and morals.  I might even forgo the two other stories of "Three for All" and release "The Egg Mother" on its own.  I'll have to see this whole thing out and see what final form I reach.  It occurs to me that maybe we should people like me rewriters, for all we do is take ideas and rewrite them over and over again.  It's rare any story fires me up so much.  If I were you, I would keep an eye on "The Egg Mother" hitting both your book shelves and theater screens.

I think I've run out of things to say.  This time around, we learned about a plan to make some money for a newborn film company and also how one moment's thought can lead to something that no one has really considered before.  The power of fiction to make you think about the world is something I don't take lightly.  Even if you're writing a comedy, make sure you have a message with your jokes.  Otherwise, it'll mean nothing.  To conclude, to borrow something from my new idea, if you lay one heck of an egg, better hatch it before it's too late!

Yours truly, John Maxwell.
Your Fellow Traveler.

P.S. See you in two weeks!!!

Vol. 4, No. 16

Greetings, fellow travelers, and welcome to another posting of the Blog.  Well, it certainly has been a busy in terms of the amount of news flowing in.  Last week, we talked about the number of marriage equality reaching double digits for the first time.  Now, the momentum has really continued with votes in two more states.  It's hard to believe that this kind of momentum didn't exist a decade ago.  What a sign of the times.

 

Last week, I mentioned the fact that Delaware was on track to pass marriage equality.  On Tuesday, it did so, becoming state no. 11.  The governor didn't even wait an hour to sign it into law, doing so 30 minutes after the final vote.  Now, the action shifted to Minnesota, where its House took up a law to remove the current ban on same sex marriage and change it to create marriage equality.  The law passed, with the Senate to take it up on Monday, with its signing soon to follow if it does pass.

 

Now, to the business of Golden Shawn Productions, my film company.  It would seem that there is a slate of productions being arranged in my mind, projects coming along side the previously announced project "The Melting of the Iceberg".  The big question here is which one will go before the camera first.  To be exact, I have coming up with two additional projects for Golden Shawn.  I will give you a run down of those projects so I can get your feedback on them.

 

The first one is a nice comedy crime film titled "Christmas Crime".  It's a project I wish to star in.  It's the story of Arnold Reno, a store detective working at Wal-Mart at Christmastime.  In the film, Arnold comes across a body inside the store and all fingers point to the store Santa as the murderer.  However, Arnold is approached by the daughter of the suspect and she asks him to find the real murderer.  Arnold soon sees that there may be a killer running free and it's up to him to solve the case before it's too late.

 

The second one is something I've just come up with.  It's a old idea of mine but one I feel needs to be done.  We're all familiar with the old story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as told to us by Robert Louis Stevenson.  It's been told to us a hundred different ways but almost always with a male protagonist.  I've been wanting to do a female version.  In my latest thoughts on the idea, the story takes place in the mid-1960s.  It would nice to do it in the style of the romps of the era, with lots of music, jokes, and hip fashions.  I would also take time to look at the feminist movement of the era with the story.

 

These two ideas are nice and would make good movies.  "The Melting of the Iceberg" would also make a good movie.  Three potential projects and each other a nice thing to be filmed.  Hopefully, I can get the company off the ground first and see which one is the cheapest to be filmed as the economic resources of G.S.P. are a bit low, as in non-existent.   I hope to remedy that situation in the future.  I also hope to start collecting actors for these projects.  Who I hire will have an effect on which project will be filmed first.  Stay tuned to the Blog for further announcements.

 

Let's talk a little more on that female Jekyll-Hyde idea.  In my mind, the 1960s was a great time for music, fashion, and film.  The three managed to come together and give us films like "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "Catalina Caper".  This female Jekyll-Hyde story would be my contribution to that genre of film.  The feminist angle would be handled with subtlety as to not ruin the comedy and music.  It's a approach I like to see, only if to see if it would work.  "The Life of Oddley" stories I've posted here are also in that vein, a look into a great decade of our country.

 

Of course, Oddley and his friends live in the later portion of the decade.  By 1968, much of what we think of the sixties was long gone.  In its place was thoughts of war, the draft, and a million other things.  If I had continued with any version of Oddley's story, I might have made wax nostalgic for a time that was only three years earlier to him.  That just shows you the difference between 1968 and 1965.  The workings of the current version of my female Jekyll-Hyde story are to be worked out.  With any movie idea I have, I have ten million things I wanna do with it and I must pick and choose carefully, lest I get it wrong.

 

Speaking of the world of film, that world lost one of its best.  To anyone who has watched fantasy stories put to 35mm, Ray Harryhousen was as much of a hero as the actual heroes of those films.  I'll admit I've watched the original "Jason and the Argonauts" and the effects in that film are better than the CGI of modern times.  Harryhousen took fantasy creatures from the farthest reaches of the human mind and gave them reality.  A computer, with few exceptions, can't do that.  Their movement was as if the creature itself was moving of its accord.  Mr. Harryhousen, may you make the movies of Heaven even better.

I'm beginning to see myself as a filmmaker more and more.  A year ago, just being a writer was my stock in trade.  Now, making movie magic is my goal.  I see myself as a visual thinker and for the longest time, I was trying to put those images in words.  Now, I can just make the images in my head come to reality.  That amount of thinking lately has caused me to be lax in my Blog writing.  So, I will switch to posting every other week, so I can make the most of my new mode of thinking.  I know that this way, I can keep you in the know of Golden Shawn Productions.  So, I'll see you in two weeks from now.  Until then, always keep your mind in your head, it's safe there.

Yours truly, John Maxwell.
Your Fellow Traveler.

Vol. 4, No. 15

Greetings, fellow travelers, and welcome to the 15th posting of volume four of the Blog.  Well, my look into what way I can use my renewed creativity has lead me to a decision.  I've decided to go into movies and make one.  Therefore, I would like to announce the first project from Golden Shawn Productions: "The Melting of the Iceberg"  It's the culmination of my "Life in Hyperion" material.  More information in the coming months.

 

Meanwhile, the Blog is your source for the news of the world as seen by me.  As you all know, last week, the number of openly gay athletes in the four major American sports leagues was an official zero.  Now, that number has increased to one with the coming out of NBA player Jason Collins of the Washington Wizards.  His coming out was a surprise as no one even knew of his homosexuality.  Nevertheless, he made the brave decision to come out and be the first.

 

In the same vein of news relating to the equal rights of homosexuals the country over, the state of Rhode Island became the tenth state to legalize same sex marriage, winning the race to become so over Illinois and Michigan.  And it looks that the 11th state to legalize it isn't far behind.  In Delaware, a bill to legalize same sex marriage has passed the state House and it has been forwarded to the Senate for a full vote next week.  Illinois will have to settle for being the 12th state and that's not too far away either.

By the looks of it, this has been a good week for the gay rights movement, with their first open pro athlete and the division of same sex marriage states now one in five among fifty, with even that being short-lived as another readies to join the marriage equality club.  Now, let me say once more that I am a heterosexual white male but I am all for letting everyone marry who they love... within reason.  I don't believe in that whole "slippery slope theory" of marriage, that if you legalize marriage between two people of the same gender, it will lead to marriage between a person and your beloved pet.

That theory is made up by people whose IQ could be measured in single digits.  I believe in reason in government.  A government must listen to its citizens and pass laws that reflect the wish of the people.  A decade, a majority was against marriage equality and simpletons took the time to pass same sex marriage bans.  Now, the tide has changed and the people now want marriage equality.  The government now must undo these bans and bring the world closer to peace.  Let not the ranting of mad men ruin society.

As I've said recently, we are living in the Crazy Times, a period of history where our society is losing the grip on its collective sanity.  The cure for the Crazy Times is reason.  Reason lead to the Arab Spring two years ago.  It lead the people of Libya to end the rule of a despot and it's leading the people of Syria in a civil war against a family regime.  The time to reason with ourselves as a race is fast nearing.  Can you face the outcome of that?  If not, a heavy toll will be levied on us and I fear the price is something we can't pay.

The news of late has caused me to wonder where our civilization is going.  I mean, the world's first commercial space plane just finished its first test flight, telling of a future in the stars.  At the same time, countries like North Korea and Syria show a future where free will is a luxury.  As I close out this week's posting, remind yourself that the future is not certain.  It is created through the smallest actions.  In conclusion, the old phrase that the flapping of a butterfly's wings can cause a storm is very true but only when the butterfly is really flapping away...