Guest Blogger And Author Arthur Padilla - Welcome!

Welcome, Arthur Padilla - one of our newest authors and guest blogger for the week.

Arthur wrote "A Kris Medford Mystery - Two Sides Of The Same Face." Which can be found on our website at www.breakingruleswritingcompetitions.com

Discovering Kris Medford

In June of 2013, a very good friend of mine decided that life here on Earth was not what he wanted and he chose to leave. I knew him from the time of his emergence when he began to understand his gender and I was honored to be a part of his life and his journey.  When he died, I was struck by the impact of the loss.  I cried and became confused about my own life and why I had not found myself ready to leave.  How had his life become so different than mine?  How had his road taken him to such a different place? More than that I was confused and unforgiving in my willingness to have let him become so distant; I always assumed there would be time. I would see him lurking on Facebook and we would always say hello. We always said that we missed each other.  But we never said how much. We never really said what we meant to one another.  If I had just worked faster and harder. If I had figured this out before.  And the “ifs” will probably always be there. 

About a year prior to his death, I began to struggle with my own cascading emotional challenges. Since then, I have spent most of my waking hours working on the complex issue of post-traumatic stress disorder.  My personal experiences and the many people I have met in my life who have been stuck, have motivated me to understand PTSD. I spent many years trudging through this murky world taking down everyone that I came in contact with. The resulting manifestations were always grand and outrageous and they slowly took everything from me before I was able to understand that I was acting out my trauma. I was ensuring that I did everything I could to manifest what I had come to believe as true. My friend was also grand and outrageous and he also lost everything. We both suffered from PTSD.

Finally, during this same year, I was struggling with my own disconnect and confusion because my partner of two years had become distant and was pushing me away. Some of it was my PTSD and some of it was her own burgeoning awareness of her gender. She came out to me about a week after I had finished my first draft of this book. We both spent the Christmas season of 2013 in a sort of stunned silence. I was stunned because I had spent the past year writing about and learning about Kris and here in my personal life, I was being invited to witness Kris’ process of living into being a transgender woman. I have been with Katherine and have witnessed her courage and commitment to resolving the dissonance that has influenced her whole life; silently pushing for freedom while feeling the waves of misunderstanding and fear as society screamed their ignorance. She has become my real life hero. She has inspired me to expand my understanding of Kris and what it means to be special.

All of this is to preface where the character Kris Medford comes from. For Kris, her message to the world is that she doesn’t have to be perfect. She just has to be willing to work at it. In this first story, she is confronted with a part of herself that she has never really met, as she becomes aware of her PTSD. The experiences in this first book force Kris to see for herself that she experiences significant physical responses to her memories and if she is threatened the part of her that has kept her alive regardless of the costs, screams to life and seeks revenge. This dance between the part she controls and the part that is unconscious begins as she confronts her lies and her denials.

She is also the one that survives. She came to life in my head days after my friend left us. She allows me to see myself, someone different, as courageous and ready for whatever is next. She allows me to believe in the power of change and that for all of those that came and went before us, she manifests hope. She allows me to believe that every day I will walk closer to being who I always wanted to be. She is the woman I am not and she is how I learned to understand my own PTSD.

Kris is how I want to manifest my understanding as I move forward in my research of PTSD.   She is fiction. She is not me nor is she my friend, and she is not Katherine. Yet, for many of us who remain hidden in our own ignorance, Kris is a way for us to say to everyone who loves us that we can be different and we can be honorable, dependable, and courageous.  What we are asking of ourselves is monumental. Nothing can be left a secret. Nothing can be left unsaid. I will do as Kris does and find a resolution that works for me.

I wrote this for all the reasons above and because I wanted my friend to know that I heard him. He needed to know that the road he chose was harder than mine ever was. He was my hero. I saw him as my strength when I was once again driven to the edge of my own tolerance. To him I say:

When I talk to you, I also listen to what I think you might have said. You might be gone and I won’t get a hug again or see your smile or hear your laugh. You don’t know what I felt when you would punch my shoulder like I was one of the boys; the sense of belonging you gave me will never be lost. I will always be proud of you and because of you, I have been spurred to move forward. I found Kris because she is those that went before and those still to come. I believe in hope and the power of the human spirit to persevere. And I will always believe in you, my friend.

Things are happening - in a good way!

Things are happening - in a good way!

If you’ve read anything on our social media pages or website then you’ll know that we, along with Al and Chuck Travel are bringing Christopher Clawson’s first novel, Bless Me Father, to the stage. The performances will be Sept 26th and 29th at the Studio @ 620 theatre.

Currently, we are looking for funding in various ways. The links are below. If you can – take a moment and consider helping out with a donation or sponsorship. All of the proceeds will go to further our mission as well as help to fund the Breaking Rules Publishing Young Writers Scholarship Fund. Thank you in advance for your support.

Ways to help!

www.gofundme.com/breaking-rules-scholarship-fund

www.breakingruleswritingcompetitions.com

Sponsors to date

Corporate -

Al and Chuck Travel - Title Sponsor

Hollander Hotel

St Pete Kilts

Providence Consulting Services

Individual

Jason Fields and Channing Floyd

Cathy and Patrick Burns

Brian Longstreth

Felicia Reevers

Ray H

Peter Syracusa lll and Mark Friend

Brian Hannon

Also, we have a couple of new books that we would like to tell you about. They will be released soon, order you presale copy now while the price is low.

Arthur Padilla

Katherine Brinson

We are still accepting manuscript submissions!

Some Other Books Available Are - 

So How Does This All Work?

And the question is, what do we do?

Interesting question considering that the word publishing is in our name. 

But, simply put.

1)  We partner with you to publish and promote your book.

2)  We have writing competitions for young and not so young writers.

and lastly, we offer scholarships to young writers.

It’s really very easy. We don’t have a genre focus and want only to help authors see their writing dreams come true. If your manuscript isn’t ready, then we have services, listed on our website that will help you. If you need help, then we’ll help you. But remember, the book is yours and therefore – you have the last word.

How does all this work? We again, easy – you just email your manuscript to us at breakingrulespublishing@gmail.com and we’ll review your work. Once we have found your manuscript to be something that we’re interested in – we then present you with a contract – we ask for a blurb about the book, an authors photo, a cover photo and we’ll help you create your cover or send a pdf copy of your already prepared cover. We’ll ask you for your acknowledgment page and then we’ll get to work on formatting your book. And lastly, we’ll ask you for a list of, up to, 100 emails that we can send out an announcement and help to start the promotion process. Just before it’s complete we’ll present it to the world for pre-sale. Next, we’ll look for possible signing locations, local books stores, place you in our quarterly magazine, "The Scribe," add you to all of our social media, blogs, newsletters, and libraries that will be open to taking on your book.

 

So – ARE YOU READY? All you really need to do is finish your manuscript and send it to us. After that, we’ll work with you to make it as successful as we can.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email us. Again, we would be happy to help.

www.breakingruleswritingcompetitions.com

breakingrulespublishing@gmail.com

Aren't you tired of waiting yet?

Aren’t you tired of waiting yet?

So here’s the deal. You have this story rolling around in your head, so you got up at 5a and spent your early mornings, evenings and weekends just writing your book. You struggled with your day job, your family and friends, because you thought that you could, you wanted to, and knew that you had something to say, so you wrote. Even though no one thought that you could do it. Let alone get published.

After spilling your insides all over the pages in front of you, copying it over to your computer and going through the editing process, you think that you’re finally ready. That you have just written the next great American novel. And you just may have.

Next step – you hit the library and look up how to get your first book published. You take out all the books you can that are related to the subject, hoping that some of it would set in and you’ll be able to finally get your book published, make your first million, become famous and live the life you were born to.

What do you learn? Well, you learn that you need an agent and that you need to write a query letter to get an agent. So, back to the library to find out how to write this all powerful letter that will change your life. Again, you check out all the books that will show you how to get it done. And so, you sit down and start to write to all the agents that you’ve found online. And then, you wait.

While you’re waiting for a response, you start on another novel, you go back and edit the first one, hit the beach (because all great novels are written at the beach) you drink lots of coffee and run your fingers through your hair. Be careful you may just pull it out. AND, you search online trying to find more agents to send that all magical letter to. And still, you wait.

Ouch – you got 15 letters back all in one day. And guess what? They were all no’s! But you keep that positive attitude and continue to send those letters out. You even think that maybe it’s time to go directly to the publishers. Again you head back to the library to see what you can find out about what your letter should say to the publisher. In the mean time, more of those agent letters come back, and yep, they are all no’s. So you send out the publisher letter and hope that you’re able to connect with someone at Random House. That the person you connect with is going to be the one to help make all of your dreams come true.

And what happens next? Shit, SHIT, Shit! More no’s! So you try again and continue to send out letters, continue to write your next book and deal with all the negative attitudes around you. Unfortunately, the cycle goes on and on and on. Apparently never understanding that expecting a different result from the same action is the definition of insanity.

So I ask you. Aren’t you tired of waiting yet?

What Breaking Rules Publishing is offering you is for you to be a part of making your dreams come true. We are offering to partner with you to say, we’ll publish your book. We’ll work with you to get you a great marketing plan. We’ll get your books in the books stores and we’ll do all that we can to make sure that you and your book get out there and are sold. Together – did you hear that part? TOGETHER we will get it done.

Breaking Rules Publishing isn’t going to just publish your book and let it sit there. Tossing it back in your lap and saying, “here you go – you’re on your own now!” NO! We are here to help you and work with you to get your book and your dreams moving.

Why are we doing this? So here’s the story. Our founder, Christopher Clawson-Rule wrote his first book 16 years ago in just 3 months. Yes, he worked hard to get that done, and then he did exactly what every other author does. He started writing letter and continued to get no’s. He did this for six years until a publisher took him on. And guess what? They didn’t exactly what was mentioned above. Toss the book back at him and said, “here you go – you’re on your own now!” Oh and the great news, when he did sell his book, he only got about 20% of the price of the book back in royalties. Certainly not the millions that he was hoping for.

The notion that he had just published his book was amazing. Now, he was a writer, an author. He was excited and over the moon, thinking that he was going to start to make his millions. And like most, it didn’t happen. For years he continued to do the same, write, publish and try his best to market his work on his own. Then it all hit him. This entire publishing process was crap. And he didn’t want any other writer to have to go through the same situation that he did. To feel that same doubt and wonder when their break was going to come.

So here we are. Now WE are waiting. Waiting for you to send us your manuscript. We’ll help you format it, publish it, and help you market it. We are even turning the table on the royalties’ situation. We are offering you 30% back, after printing, until you reach your first 200 books. After that, you jump to 70%. If you’re not saying, “NOW WE’RE TALKING” then you’ve missed the point.

And here boys and girls is my last SO – So, aren’t you tired of waiting? Aren’t you tired of writing all those letters? Aren’t you tired of getting all the no’s back and aren’t you tired of putting your dreams on hold?

Take the leap – send us your manuscript and let’s get started making that dream of yours come true.

Breaking Rules Publishing is now accepting manuscript submissions.

Need help? Just get in touch with us and we’ll do all that we can to help you out.

breakingrulespublishing@gmail.com

Authors and books on our website - take a look.

Authors and books on our website 

Take a look

www.breakingruleswritingcompetitions.com

K.C. Brinson

J.D. Norton Chronicles - Destiny 

by K.C. Brinson 

Pre-Sale $10

The Year is 2040 and the planet is in dire straits. All of the world's nations have joined together to form into one world order. Three people in the World Organization hold absolute power, while corruption has brought humanity to the brink of destruction. 

It will take a group of three of history's most brilliant minds accompanied by the leader of the Resistors, an underground Junkpunk civilization. The Resistors have survived persecution and now have a mission to reclaim their rightful place among civilization while saving humanity and the world in the process. 

Join Lucille Calhoun, Lady Renee Grey, and J.D. Norton in this Sci-Fi/Fantasy adventure of time travel and World Order conspiracies. While working with the cooperation of the Gods of the Galaxy, they also find themselves working in subterfuge under the radar of the Gods in order to root out an evil entity in their midst.

Arthur Padilla

A Kris Medford Mystery -
The Sides Of The Same Face 

by Arthur Padilla
Pre-Sale Price -  $10.

Kris Medford arrives in Santa Fe, New Mexico shortly after she agrees to take a job running a small family foundation. She finds herself quickly embroiled in a situation where a mysterious man is coming for her and is intent on finding the answers he has been paid to get. Without a real plan or any real understanding of how she finds herself on the gun end of a sinister character,   Kris comes face to face with Brian Fielding. When she is actually confronted and captured by Brian she explodes and her real potential is both frightening and revealing. Her actions and the confusion she causes put Kris on the radar of a silent group of underworld "do-gooders." This group of women actively identifies and recruits women, worldwide, who present with certain gifts and they want Kris for reasons Kris would not even understand. In the end, what seems like mishap and circumstance, results in the larger understanding that Kris and all the women involved have been intentionally manipulated to be part of this group. Kris finds her power, her strength, and her capacity as she confronts her nemesis in Brian, while wrestling her own internal demons. 

Jay Helwig

Mr. Jay Helwig has mastered a lovely book of poetry based on the impressions of Emily Dickinson. 

Brit Chism

Mnemosyne's Daughters by Brit Chism - $15.

Another exciting component to Mr. Chism's book "Mnemosyne's Daughters" is that he is donating ALL of his royalties from the sale of this book to the Breaking Rules Publishing Young Writers Scholarship Fund - specifically to young LGBT writers in St. Petersburg. Breaking Rules Publishing will match Mr. Chism's generosity and respond in kind.

ALL proceeds from the sale of Mr. Chism's book "Mnemosyne's Daughters" will go directly toward the Breaking Rules Publishing scholarship fund.

Thank you, Mr. Chism, for your amazing generosity and support of the LGBT youth in St. Petersburg.

Mnemosyne's Daughters by Brit Chism -
​
The impetus for stories comes from the Muses. Old myths, many of them five thousand years old, provide a seed of truth, a plot, a glimpse of the character that can be developed in a modern context. Societal structures, patriarchy, family, religion, cultural norms and mores, and women’s hopes and goals shape these stories and push and pull these female protagonists into their arcs.

The reality for women in the twenty-first century is that fully half the households in the U.S. are headed by a single, working mother. One in three women are raped. Millions across the globe migrate to escape war, famine, and destruction of their environment. All face discrimination based on gender. I have no interest in writing escapist fiction with a happy ending. I do, however, want to tell gripping stories about the truth of women’s lives.

“Medea Royal” began this journey for me several years back. Others: Jocasta, Eurydice, Katya, Mnemosyne, Alice, Claire, etc. seemed to push forward in my creative imagination waving their raised hands, “Me next!” they shouted from my dreams.

​The cost for this book is $15 - plus shipping and handling.

Christopher Clawson

Waters Edge by Christopher Clawson - $13 .                                    

Waters Edge is the next installment in the Matthews Family saga.
 
Tristan and Boston Matthews desperately need of a vacation, in no time they find themselves in Madeira Beach, FL. getting more than just some time away. Each has their own back story and challenges to bear, neither expected to find happiness, or their future on a quiet beach in Florida or with the girl and boy next door. Their summer neighbors, Seamus and Claire Waters, father and daughter, have their own demons to deal with, yet quickly the two brothers jump feet first into love stories and memories that would last a life time. Using the beach, water and sunsets from the Gulf of Mexico as its back drop - Waters Edge has real life characters as the Matthews brothers develop their own story of family, love, sex, betrayal and death. Tell me, what will you find on the water’s edge?

Bless Me Father – by Christopher Clawson - $15

Noah Matthews, husband, father of five and art professor, has a cross to bear.

Sexually abused as a child, he was led into a challenging life. After his first confession to Father Vincente Connetti, an equally cursed man, the two became friends. Both, in the end, help each other through their pasts. Vincent, who never allowed himself a life, changes his vocation and abandons his collar.
 
Noah employs David, a young model driven by urges based around his sexual appetite for men, for his life drawing class. Showing his true colors,
David proves himself and makes Noah and Vincente relive the nightmares of their youth in the most lamentable fashion possible. Colorful and endowed with realistic characters, Bless Me Father paints a paradigm of honesty, friendship, and morals with sex and violence aplenty.

The cost for this book is $15 - plus shipping and handling. 

Make Time to Write: 10 Tips for Daily Writing By: Courtney Carpenter

We were hoping to create a blog entry that would help you get motivated to write more often. While searching the WWW we found this article by Courtney Carpenter. Instead of taking the time to recreate the wheel and the notion, we figured it would be just as effective to just share what Courtney has already said. We hope that you find this helpful. 

Make Time To Write: 10 Tips For Daily Writing 

by Courtney Carpenter

Writing takes commitment, self-discipline, and desire. Don’t let other distractions get in the way of your writing goals–set aside time every day to write. When you are tempted to make up an excuse as to why you can’t write today, stop yourself. Only you can write the rest of that chapter you’re working on or meet your deadline. Remind yourself why you are passionate about writing. Plus, look at these 10 tips for writing motivation from Writer with a Day Job by Aine Greaney.

10 Tips For Daily Writing  

1. Make a date with yourself. Yes, I know your schedule is jam-packed. But you deserve a writing rendezvous with yourself. We owe ourselves some creative, meaningful time in our lives. So make a date and keep it. Oh, and show up on time.
2. Right brain. Right time. Is there a time of day when you’re naturally more whimsical, more in tune with your inner or imaginative self? First thing in the morning? Last thing at night? Right after your morning yoga? Immediately after your lunchtime jog? Sitting at your son’s hockey practice? If there’s a time when you believe that writing will come more easily, make this your daily writing time.
3. A clean, well-lit place: It doesn’t have to be a custom-designed artist studio with an ocean view. But your daily writing spot needs to make you feel comfortable and happy, and it needs to match your personality. Even if it’s just a table in the corner of your shared bedroom, this spot should make you feel free to be yourself. It should fit the creative you. At a minimum, make sure that your writing spot is free of any negative associations or memories.
4. Tell your family or friends. You may want to be a mystery writer, but you don’t have to a mysterious writer. Because it’s a new surprising side of you, because it’s a new person that your family may not have encountered before, you may be shy about saying to your family, “I’ve started writing.” Quite simply, it may make you feel vulnerable. Or you may feel that it sets some kind of expectation for blockbusters or huge advances, or that you’ll start to walk around talking to yourself. Or you may fear that your friends and family will see this as time away from them or a set of shirked household duties. Actually, it will. Beginning a writing life means sacrificing or cutting back on other things, including your social life. But share your writing dream with your family, friends, or roommates. A real friend will support you. A fake friend will laugh, tease, condescend, or try to discourage you. Or worse, these friends or family will make it all about them (“but what about our Thursday night movie?”). Believe me, every writer needs a cheerleader or two or three. Also, rearranging your schedule to find some writing time will require the support and cooperation of the other people in your household.
5. Same time. Same place. Set up a place where the writing is going to happen. By going to that same spot with the same view and smells and general feel, you give yourself some sensual and spatial prompts to start writing. Yes, we’re Pavlovian creatures, and this is especially true in writing. “Oh right,” you think, as you sit in that plastic seat inside your usual window at McDonald’s. “I’m here. So it must be time to write.”
6. Switch off all electronic communication. Take this as fact: email, iPhones, Blackberries, text messaging, and any other electronic-messaging system are the enemies of writing. First, all that time spent reading and responding to messages eats into your precious writing time. And second, those bleeps and pings and newsy emails distract you into completely different mental space—a place far away from your writing mind. However hard it is, even if you are chained to your work or personal electronic device, switch it off. All those messages will be there when your writing time is over and complete.
7. Write naked: Say a prayer to the writing gods. Develop a pre-writing ritual that works for you—even if it means wearing a Stetson hat or writing naked (not in McDonald’s, please!).
8. Set a daily quota or word count. As you look at that calendar or day planner, you may automatically allow a time to writing—a half hour or fifteen minutes or an hour. This works in terms of finding and assigning a regular writing time. But when I’m starting a new project or a first draft, this never works for me. Quite simply, it’s just too easy to say, “I spent a half hour at my writing desk today.” But that half hour doesn’t count if half of it was spent checking the online headlines or just gazing at the computer screen. Make your writing slot work. Set a word quota.
9. Praise! Alleluia! Keep a little calendar about your desk or, at the end of your writing session, open up your online calendar or online to-do lists to record today’s completed word count. It will serve as a time sheet—and a rewards system to praise yourself for your excellent discipline.
10. Allow yourself to write badly: At least for the early drafts, you need to just write. If you stop to judge, edit, delete, and rewrite, you will be spending all your time playing reader or critic, not a writer. Trust me, you and your work will have enough critics later when you finish your final draft and put it out there for public consumption. But for now, for these early drafts, be gentle with yourself. Love your writing. And above all, trust where it’s going.

As writers, we are horrible, and horribly hard on ourselves. We stop too often to censure, edit, and worry what the readers, the publishers, or the critics might think. Love yourself. Give yourself a break. Keep writing.

Guest Blogger - Brit Chism - The Generative Life of LGBTQ Pinellas

The Generative Life of LGBTQ Pinellas

Cindy Lauper's "True Colors Fund" is a national pioneer in raising community awareness of homeless LGBTQ kids. Florida has 5,700 of these "throw away kids" who face homelessness after their family of origin threw them out. It is estimated that nationally 1.6 million kids sleep in the streets. Forty percent of these, a disproportionately high number at 640,000, are LGBTQ. In Pinellas County, a cooperative effort is now addressing this problem.

Christopher Clawson Rule of Breaking Rules Publishing,(www.breakingruleswritingcompetitions.com) and his husband, artist David Rule are leaning into the work by offering educational opportunities in the development of language and writing skills. It is shocking that if a child cannot read and comprehend by the time they are nine-years-old (leaving the third grade) they have little chance of success in traditional schools.

The effort, on a local level, brings together Metro Wellness and Community Centers, and Family Resources, Inc. with Prism Transitional Living to offer transitional housing, clothes, food, learning opportunities, and other services, including some basic medical care, to this vulnerable population.   

Buddhism encourages its practitioners who try to follow the Noble Eightfold Path to work for the good of others and to respect life. Erik Erikson, the developmental psychologist, calls it "generativity" when adults strive to produce and rear the next generation and to be creative in one's life and work. John Kotre, a Buddhist practitioner, and writer translate the Japanese sedai-keisho-sei that you receive something from the past, you create something out of it, and you pass it on to the future. Or, in the words of Erikson, "I am what survives me." Generativity plants an orchard or vineyard that one farmer may not live to enjoy the produce from, but generations that come after them will eat the fruit of their labor. It includes any activity that contributes to the development of others and to the life of the generations. Like Moses, who wandered and toiled in the desert, did not live to enjoy life in the promised land, but his efforts rewarded later generations.

This activity, according to Erikson, gives rise to the ego strength called, "virtue of care." If we are successful with this, we are generative, not stagnant and self-absorbed. At the end of our life when we look back and ask, "Is it OK to have been me?" we can answer, yes. We have ego integrity, and we are not in despair.

In the words of an African proverb, "The world was not left to us by our parents. It was lent to us by our children."

They need money to support the work, and they need volunteers to donate some time. Telephone numbers: Stacy Welton @ 727 521 5203, and Nicole Leslie @ 727 552 1011. More information: http://www.watermarkonline.com/?s=prism+program.

Guest Blogger Wendell Whitney Thorne - A Cooperative Endeavor, A Solo Journey!

A Cooperative Endeavor, A Solo Journey

A lot of people I know are not writers. They think I'm supremely gifted and talented and boy, how do you come up with this stuff?

I wish I knew. That said, in a way, I have some idea.

Everything I see--every event, every collision of people and acts, every minute observation--sends me on a pathway in my own mind. For instance, while stopped at a traffic light a couple of weeks ago, my son and I noticed a beat-up bed pillow at the base of a pylon sign at the bowling alley. There was also some shrubbery on the little parking lot island. That's it. I asked my son what he thought about that? I asked him, Do you think maybe a homeless person spends his or her nights there? Or, Did some guy smother his wife with that pillow and then chuck it out of his car? That kind of pathway.

If you're a writer, you probably do the same thing. You see something mundane to most; but to you, it's a story, and you get to make it up. I don't even know if I like that about myself. But there is no way out of it. I've been this way since early childhood.

Now, after half-dozen novels, a few pieces of non-fiction, hundreds of blogs and newspaper columns, I'm finally zeroing in on that story-making thingy in my mind. I'm now a screenwriter. Ugh, who isn't, right? And every one of them (us?) want's the same thing, to a degree: Get our words magically transformed into something people just might want to watch.

But it's more than that, really, isn't it? We have something meaningful to convey about this life and this world and its inhabitants, replete with lessons and head-scratching moments and laughter and tears. It touches us. And we want it to touch others in either the same way or in a way that stirs an emotional response in them, whatever that amounts to for them. Right?

So, after a year and a half of working with a splendid script coach, I have Ridin' On The Rim, a dark comedy that pits a teenager, somewhat psychopathic short-order cook against the observed injustice in his tiny realm. Okay, the log line is more like this:

"An idealistic teenaged short-order cook, in denial over the suicide of his pregnant girlfriend, snaps during the breakfast rush and slaughters a complaining diner. Four years in the psyche ward--and a teacher who won’t give up on him--promise an optimistic future. But an arrogant lawyer and the lad's own naive sense of justice stand in his way."

It came to me--mostly--in a dream, and I wrote the short story by pairing my dream with an actual event that occurred in Florida nearly 20 years ago. People said it read like a movie. Of course, it did; it's a dream, and a dream is nothing more than a movie. One observer who read the screenplay said it's like Slingblade meets Natural Born Killers. I'm glad somebody can be that succinct.

We've done a table read and I've had a dozen or more people read the work. If it ever gets made into a film, the services of scores of other people will be required. Many of them will have to embrace the story as I do. The end result will likely look somewhat different than the film in my mind, and even though that thought initially brought consternation, I'm good with it now. In fact, I'm kind of excited to see what talented people who "get" the story will do with it.

Somebody once said that you can do anything, but you can't do it alone. I think it was a ballplayer, probably a pitcher. I can't remember. But it's good advice for those of us in the creative arts, you ask me.

So now I have this idea that's become a bunch of words on an actual page. I feel like I did when I was coerced into writing the story into a screenplay in the first place. I opened up the template in Final Draft--even gave it a name--and then took a deep breath--and stared at the screen. Where the hell do I start? Well, that's how I feel now. I have some potential investors and that's it. Where does one begin to assemble a team of talented people to make this film?

I've reached out to a number of people, both locally and in the target-rich environments of New York and Hollywood. I know it's an uphill climb and I know it's a serious long shot. Meanwhile, I'm working on two more, because screenwriting is seriously the most enjoyable writing I've ever done.

Which means that, no matter what, I'm going to keep on doing it. My friend Doug would utter the word "persistence" at this point.

That's one of the reasons I like him.

You can find Wendell on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2972958.Wendell_Whitney_Thorne

or on his website at http://www.wendellthorne.com

5 Things You Wish You Had Been Told About The Design Industry - Guest Blogger - Loius Martin from Invictus Studio

Welcome Loius Martin,

and thank you for this very informative presentation. 

You can find a link to Loius Martin and his company, Invictus Studio, via our website at www.breakingruleswritingcompetitions.com

5 Things You Wish You Had Been Told About The Design Industry

The design is the art of practicing the ideas and experiences with visual and textual content. The process starts with an idea and ends with execution. Designs that get noticed in an instant are the easiest to recognize and lasts for long. Depending on the business context and career level, designers can find themselves with some different job titles and with the ongoing years, they realize that they could have done work in a better way.

Let’s share few insights of what could have been told earlier to the designers about the design industry. It could have been much easier for the designers if they were told to,

    1.    Learn To Ask Questions:   

You never know it all nor your client does and not every project you take will be defined clearly and is easy to start. The designers these days accept the importance of asking questions from the customers. If you do not proactively ask the questions, you will not be able to head correctly particularly in the case of a non-designer client. A project at the start is entirely ambiguous and can mislead if clarification is not done from the customer. Ask questions, clear your queries, and head correctly. Questions can be like,

·         What does your product/business do?

·         Tell us about the unique story behind the name of your business or your logo design?

·         Share some qualities that describe your company?

·         What timelines are you looking for the project?

·         What is your budget?

There are many questions like the above ones which every designer must ask to clear all the queries before executing a project.

     2.    Learn To Say Yes And No:

At times, saying yes is not correct. Not all the requirements of your client need to be implemented. You must have faced clients with unreasonable expectations which may end you up in a difficult situation as to how to synchronize your skills and ideas with the client’s requirements. Learn how to please customers but within an achievable frame so you may not end up frustrating your work and your clients.

    3.    Never Miss Your Deadlines:

Being up all night to complete a project was all that you had been doing for quite a few time of your beginning as a designer. Don’t carry the misconception that being a designer, no matter a professional logo designer or a web designer means to work all day and night. When you are into a project, the only thing that creates a balance between you and your work is the deadline. Set deadline a little ahead so you may be able to complete your task promptly.

    4.    Build Up Your Portfolio:

Promote yourself by making up an online portfolio on your website or other social media platforms.You have been doing projects for a time; it is time to create the best of you by showcasing your abilities, skills and design projects online for your prospective clients.

It will head you towards a more professional way of sending your links and portfolio to your clients to assess your work.

     5.    Initial Deposit:

You must have been cheated on your earlier times when you did not get paid for your work. There are clients looking more towards getting a design for free. So, what to do? There is nothing wrong if keeping the initial deposits compulsory before executing a design project.

It will help you in identifying your legitimate clients from the ones trying to deceive you. The safer you play, the higher you reap and so is for your betterment.

Conclusion:

A designer has an unlimited domain to work in, explore it, learn from your mistakes and step ahead correctly. The consequences of the startup time have been discussed which is not the only ones, there could be many other obstacles that might have been faced or may occur shortly. All you need to do is stay patient, take your time, learn from the given guidelines and take a deep analysis of the design project before you step in it.

Author Bio:

Loius Martin by profession is the Marketing Manager at Invictus Studio and a professional guest blogger. He writes about design trends, search engine optimization, and marketing. He has always been looking for new opportunities to write on and has now made a good presence in the field of content management and marketing.