Movies. TV has always been a big part of my life, I can still remember the educational films that were on TV in the late 90s that have honestly shaped my life and career. As I began writing many of those films drifted away from my memory and my writing career took hold of my mind.
As a writer, I always complained about book-to-film adaptions. The films, more often than not, missed EVERYTHING that the book was trying to portray. There have been very few adaptions that have actually made me think, "Hmm that wasn't bad." For this reason, I often scoffed at the idea of my books being put on "the big screen".
This past year has given me a whole new perspective of the term "direction". With all my events being either canceled or severely postponed, I needed to find a new avenue to go with my books. And let me tell you. I tried everything. I posted more on YouTube, assisted other authors, and even tried posting about my latest writing endeavors, but nothing seemed to be working well. That is…until I had my first event in a year. I was table buddies with a fellow author, Killarney Traynor. And although we didn't put up a "Sold Out" sign, we had a wonderful heart-to-heart conversation--one which may have even changed our lives for the better.
We started to talk about how our lives were changed within the last year and I even mentioned how I was looking for a new avenue for my writing. A few years ago, I even played around with taking one of my old "Amber Oak" mystery stories and turning it into a screenplay. At the time, I was just messing around, didn't take it seriously. But, Killarney heard my ideas and she LOVED them.
Fast forward to the end of the weekend and we decided to start working on films together!
"So, what changed your mind about book-to-film adaptions?"
Well, our conversation did actually. It made me realize that book-to-film adaptions can and SHOULD happen! But, it should be writers themselves who make their books come alive. No, not everything can be put into the film, but the important stuff can! Besides, who better to write a screenplay than the author who pretty much lived it? As I am writing this, I'm already writing my third screenplay and the more I write, the more I learn! My hope through this new adventure is to encourage other writers to expand their horizons. There are so many possibilities out there with writing in fact, they're endless!