One of my scripts took “best screenplay” honors at the SF Valley International Film Festival last night. It was a nice cap to my first trip to LA. Writing isn’t exactly lonely work, as much as it is isolating. Even when you’re working in the coffee shops with other presumptuous writers (where I am right now) you are still required to climb into your own head. I can look around and see all of the same glazed looks. I understand where they are, of in their own lonely little spheres of existence in the second most populous city in the country.
So it’s very nice to receive validation in the form of nominations, and in this case, an actual prize. I received a trophy and a handshake. Swapped a few business cards. Ate a few cheese cubes and sat in the company of a room full of people who are pretty much in the same situation I am: devoting a portion of their lives to a creative pursuit for which they receive little remuneration.
It’s been a good trip. Without dropping names I had meetings with a small production company of which you’ve probably never heard (though I expect you will by the time their run is through) and a company you will certainly know if you’ve watched any of the best films produced during my lifetime.
And now its time to head back to the real world.
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