My Next Project: The Canvasser

Hi. Today, I wanted to tell everyone what I'm working on for my next project and why. I hope to write a series of posts highlighting the development of this project to help people understand a little more what goes into the writing process. In this case, my next project is a screenplay that I've called The Canvasser.

Logline

An unemployed and disrespected political canvasser takes a long-shot run for city council before going on welfare.

Genesis

The genesis of this story came out of my experiences canvassing on before of political parties for many years for a volunteer and as a candidate for councillor in the recently completed municipal election. Over my years of experience, I've encountered a lot of unique and humorous situations that would ideal for a comedy. Another influence for this story is a guest lecture that I gave a Carleton University last year about political communication. My ideas, which I attempted to present in a humorous fashion, were a big hit with the students as they simplified a great deal of theory and research into simple, easily understood, and memorable principles that were easy to remember. A screenplay provides an opportunity to present these ideas in a more visual and easily digestible format. It also gave me an opportunity to work in a genre (Comedy) that I've never worked in before, which will help to develop my skills in writing humour.

Genre

Political Comedy. I chose a comedy not only to develop a weakness of my writing (comedy) but also because it fit with a lot of the experiences that I have encountered during my canvassing career. There is a lot more to political campaigns than what you see in movies, most of which is pretty funny and so I wanted to capture these experiences in a format that people would enjoy, understand and remember.

Format

Screenplay. I've chosen the screenplay format because the story in my head, which is dependant on cutting and contrast to develop humour, is tailored specifically to the strengths of video. It is unlikely that I would ever be able to sell this screenplay but if I keep the cost low enough, it may be something that I could make on micro-budget sometime in the future.

Still to Come

That's all the detail I want to go into for now. In future posts, I'll talk about my characters, the structure of the screenplay, and my writing and later editing process. Ciao for now.

Long Time No See

Wow. I must apologize as I've been away from this website for a really long time. However, I have been really busy with things that were really exciting.For the most part, my time during the past 6 months has been focused on running for Ottawa City Council. Despite long odds, no money and few volunteers, we managed to put together an excellent showing in Capital Ward. Despite all of the long hours, I found that the experience was really worth it as I met some amazing people, campaigned on issues I cared about and worked hard to represent a community that has become my home. I'm not sure that I would ever do it again but it was well worth the experience!Following the campaign, I was hoping to participate in National Novel Writing Month but I found that I was simply too exhausted. I have for the most part been working on my next project, The Canvasser, a comedy screenplay which I hope to film on a micro-budget next year. I'm also working on a couple of other screenplays (tis the season of screenplays), namely I, Virus and an unnamed project over the long term while trying to find time to edit my 2012 NaNoWriMo project, Other than I, and my children's book,  Ballad of the Four Princesses, into novella format. Over the next couple of months, I also need to update my website so that it's less like a blog and more of a bookstore. I wish that I had more hours in the day.Next year will be a big one for me as I hope to finally focus on the promotional aspect of my writing career and go ahead and starting making and meeting new fans. It's going to be an exciting year and I hope that I will be able to keep all of your updated.I don't think I've ever had as much fun writing as I have recently so I'll see if I can keep up the momentum into 2015. Thanks again for all of your support.

What I've Been Up To

Sorry everyone for the long time in between posts but I've been working on a lot of interesting things recently.Aside from non-book related activities and travel, I've been working on editing the manuscript that I developed during the 2012 National Novel Writing Month - Other than I. My current plan is to finish another edit on it over the next few months before I submit it to an editor. Aside from that, I don't have a lot of promotional events going on during the summer months and this project will take up most of my free time. In the meantime, I will have a number of Amazon promotions offering discounts on my previous novel: Evermore: Call of the Nocturne. If all goes well with Other than I, I should be able to start production on the next book in the Evermore series in November. The name is under wraps for now but I hope to have more news on this project soon.Until then, please enjoy your summer ... and buy my book if you haven't already.

Evermore: Call of the Nocturne Now 40% Off on Lulu

Great news for those of you who have not yet bought my debut novel, Evermore: Call of the Nocturne. Lulu, the site where I self-publish, is having a special sale where you can 40% of all of their print editions. I repeat ... 40%!All you have to do is go to the Lulu Bookstore, find my book, add it to your basket and then use the coupon code FALLSALE40 when you check out. It's that simple.So if you've been meaning to read it for a while, now's your chance. You'll have a great time and you'll save money.

Elmore Leonard Passes Away at 87

Sad news today as the world found out that legendary crime writer Elmore Leonard had passed away at the age of 87. While he had lived a full life, wrote more novels than I could read in a lifetime and saw many of those ideas translated into movies, it is still sad to see him go.I haven't read him enough to render a full opinion of him or his body of work but he certainly has had a major impact on several generations of writers with his ten rules of writing. Thankfully, Gail Bowen of the Globe and Mail has reposted the ten rules. I fully recommend that you check it out. If you are a writer, then I hope these rules will have as much influence as they had (and continue to have) on me.

Toronto Launch

I kept it below the radar, but a couple weekends ago I went to Toronto to do a soft launch of my debut novel Evermore: Call of the Nocturne. The idea behind the soft launch is not really to promote the book but use it as an excuse to meet with all of the people who bring the book to fruition. Well, that and watching Blue Jays games.

After coming in on Friday and drinking some beers with an old Friday. I spend Saturday afternoon watching a Blue Jays game. I hadn't seen a game in Skydome Rogers Centre since about 2008 and I was impressed by how much the baseball experience had improved. The Blue Jays lost (again) but I had a great time, got a massive sunburn and watched the dome close following the game (cool). Following the game, I got lost walking around Toronto and saw some of its amazing neighbourhoods including Queen's Park, the University of Toronto, Little Italy and Koreatown.I met Erin Stropes (my editor) and Jordan Knoll (my cover designer) at a neat little pub called "No One Writes to the Colonel" in Koreatown. We had a great time. It was amazing to finally meet to people with whom I had been working with for years to make my dream a reality. My only regret is that I didn't have more time and that I didn't take any pictures (d'oh).On Sunday, I visited with Kevin Bae, the illustrator for both the back and front covers. We met for lunch and talked for a couple of hours before I grabbed my train. We had a great time and it was cool to find out what he had been up to over the last couple of years, including getting married. Anyway, we had a great time. I wish I had more time to spend in Toronto so I could see these guys more often. It also gives me more motivation to get moving on my next project so I can work with these guys again.

Evermore: Call of the Nocturne Kindle Edition now 99 cents

Now that it's been out for a few months, it was time to lower the price of the Kindle Edition to 99 cents. I've spoken on this subject before in my blog post "The 99-cent e-book" and now it's time to try the price point out to see what impact it will have on sales. Hopefully, it will encourage more people to take the leap of faith on an unknown author and an unknown story.The Evermore: Call of the Nocturne Kindle Edition is available on the Kindle Store.