A Cinematic Two-Step
In my last newsletter a fortnight ago, I wrote about some decisions I made concerning the wider distribution of my two Oregon Meltdown companion novels and my presence on social media going forward (Balancing Act, v 516, 5/16/26).
Two weeks later, I feel much more comfortable with those decisions, as well as with my overall author journey. Last week, I published a new short story on Medium (“Spare Time“), so I thought another side trip was in order.
This time my foray is into the vaguely familiar land of scriptwriting.
A few years ago, I entered that wild & woolly world by learning as much as I could about the nuances of formatting & creating screenplays. I even entered a few projects into competitions just to see what happened. Even though I had more than a few positive responses, I moved back into novel writing with the idea that I could balance both modalities, so to speak.
As you might suspect, that plan didn’t quite work out as anticipated. Both pesky Oregon Meltdown companion novels pulled a tag team number on my limited writing time till I recently wrapped up my promotional campaign & am now ready to move on.
So I’m taking a deep dive into adapting the first part of one of those stories into a pilot script. But in order to feel more comfortable with that process, I exhumed one of my unfinished scripts & am almost finished rewriting it. Now that my screenwriting chops are more to my liking, it’s time to fully embrace that pilot script.
Oh, did I mention I’m entering each of them into separate competitions just for the fun of it?
What can I say? I’m a glutton for writing challenges.
Till my next post a fortnight from now.
Drew
Latest review of Core Haven: Hope Amid the Ruins, 2-9-26
P.S. At the time of this writing, Core Haven: Hope Amid the Ruins has maintained its 4.9 out of 5 with 48 global ratings & 46 customer reviews on Amazon, along with 4.61 out of 5 with 127 ratings & 118 reviews on Goodreads. Not too shabby, right?
My first self-published novel, Pearl Fields and the Oregon Meltdown: A Tale of Survival, is currently available on the Kindle Store.
My companion novel, Core Haven: Hope Amid the Ruins, was released on July 31st, 2025. Available now.