SUGAR LAND (TV pilot) One-hour Southern fried TV drama based on the award winning novel The series: 1924. Rural Texas. After Miss Dara’s forbidden, queer love is discovered, she is forced to work in a savage men's prison where she meets the soon-to-be-famous blue singer, Lead Belly, who sings his way to freedom (true story!) and inspires her to break free of her prisons—any way she can. Based on the award winning, southern novel. In lingo, SUGAR LAND - which went through the Sundance "Mapping the Series" Co//ab - would BBQ with Fried Green Tomatoes and Shawshank Redemption. The Bible is ready and the short film showcased at the American Pavilion at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, LA Intl Shorts, OUT Atlanta, AGLIFF, DC Shorts, and others. Email me! |
In addition to Finalists laurels:
2023 Semi-finalist Stowe Labs Second Rounder in PAGE Awards 2023 Semi-finalist LA Intl Screenplay Awards Quarter-finalist ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship 2022 Quarter-finalist Filmmatic - Inroads Fellowship Season 5 Semi-finalist Flickers' Rhode Island 2022 Intl Film Festival Semi-finalist 2022 Vail Script Contest Quarter-finalist The Great American Script Quarter-finalist in Showcase Semi-finalist Writers' Lab 2023 Semi-finalist Scriptation 2023 |
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I found Miss Dara to be such a unique yet unpredictable figure. It's a character |
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CAROUSEL (TV pilot: "Dipso Maniac") One hour, surreal TV thriller
___WINNER 2023 PORTLAND SCREENWRITER'S AWARDS (out of 1,000+) Yellow Jackets meets Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. Pilot: The souls of two star-crossed lovers are trapped together in different lives during different periods of time until one of them, DIPSO MANIAC, can gain the confidence to break the pattern. Series: CAROUSEL opens on a charming yet a volatile boozehound, Dipso Maniac, who must decide whether to forgive or avenge his own death. And when the mysterious, non-binary Bartender turns out to be his Case Worker with secrets of their own (many they don't even know), things get really bizarre. |
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THE LIFE AND ASSUMED DEATH OF THE BARONESS (feature)
A surreal, gothic indie: The Others meets Downton Abbey
This is a reverse fairytale where, instead of a kiss waking the sleeping lover, it sets her on fire. The Baroness, a wealthy, isolated woman, adheres to a compulsively strict schedule of tea times, reading hours, and meals. Her days move along pleasantly until she hires a new butler, Ms. Mothe, who innocently breaks the Baroness' regimented routine. Afterwards, the Baroness begins turning to wood...
A surreal, gothic indie: The Others meets Downton Abbey
This is a reverse fairytale where, instead of a kiss waking the sleeping lover, it sets her on fire. The Baroness, a wealthy, isolated woman, adheres to a compulsively strict schedule of tea times, reading hours, and meals. Her days move along pleasantly until she hires a new butler, Ms. Mothe, who innocently breaks the Baroness' regimented routine. Afterwards, the Baroness begins turning to wood...
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GRENADINE KISSES AT MIDNIGHT (story collection)
GRENADINE KISSES... is a collection of dark, tender stories that reads like the love child of Aimee Bender and Rikki Durconet. Historical figures often play into the stories, like the French revolutionary Guy Debord who finds a dead bunny in his wall. The collection focuses on the many definitions of 'connection' - some bizarre, some deranged, and some deeply moving. In one story a man falls in love with the picture of a fetus. In another, a girl understands the up side of having a third leg. In another, frogs are disappearing... Most of the stories have been previously published in places like NAR, Folio, The Portland Review, Pif, and 10,000 Pounds of Black Ink and nominated for awards. |
Two other stories ready for adaptation:
“Racing Josephine” published in 10,000 Pounds of Black Ink (and also in print only with the Buckman Journal) "Fetus" published on F(r)iction see full publications... |
in development
PUNCHING DEAD HIGHWAYS (feature)
A dual reality, psychological drama: Memento meets Little Women
Nanette arrives in Paris just after the May 1968 Riots, where she falls in love with real life French radical, Guy Debord - and heroin. Twenty-five years later, Nanette returns to the US to be the legal guardian for her two orphaned nieces: Cedar, the queer introvert, and Sanford, the troubled, manic genius. As Sanford's unspoken grief unravels her, she hatches a plan to use Nanette’s continuing addiction to change Nanette's memories and, therefore, her reality. If all goes as planned, Auntie Nanette will believe she is Sanford’s mother – and they will be a happy family, but when Cedar discovers that she will be left out, things don't go as Sanford planned.
A dual reality, psychological drama: Memento meets Little Women
Nanette arrives in Paris just after the May 1968 Riots, where she falls in love with real life French radical, Guy Debord - and heroin. Twenty-five years later, Nanette returns to the US to be the legal guardian for her two orphaned nieces: Cedar, the queer introvert, and Sanford, the troubled, manic genius. As Sanford's unspoken grief unravels her, she hatches a plan to use Nanette’s continuing addiction to change Nanette's memories and, therefore, her reality. If all goes as planned, Auntie Nanette will believe she is Sanford’s mother – and they will be a happy family, but when Cedar discovers that she will be left out, things don't go as Sanford planned.
THE CYCLE OF SOIL (TV pilot, book) One hour, near future series based on the book in edits
The series: If Charlie Kaufman wrote Little House on the Prairie with a religious cult looming, it would be THE CYCLE OF SOIL, a grounded, near future series. Book One takes place in a neo-primitive, In-Land community where mysticism dominates science even as they all become one giant epigenetic experiment to breed the perfect race.
The pilot: In a divided, futuristic society, young Mira comes to realize they've inherited their grandparent's terrifying, supernatural abilities while across the world - and destined to converge - Salax understands that they can alter people's epigenetic information to change future generations to fit their plan for humanity.
The books: There are two in the series, SOIL and THE CYCLE OF SALT, both in development. In SOIL, when society is left without structure, they develop rules. In SALT, when society is overly structured, they become feral.
All genders are "they" because, well, this is the future.
The series: If Charlie Kaufman wrote Little House on the Prairie with a religious cult looming, it would be THE CYCLE OF SOIL, a grounded, near future series. Book One takes place in a neo-primitive, In-Land community where mysticism dominates science even as they all become one giant epigenetic experiment to breed the perfect race.
The pilot: In a divided, futuristic society, young Mira comes to realize they've inherited their grandparent's terrifying, supernatural abilities while across the world - and destined to converge - Salax understands that they can alter people's epigenetic information to change future generations to fit their plan for humanity.
The books: There are two in the series, SOIL and THE CYCLE OF SALT, both in development. In SOIL, when society is left without structure, they develop rules. In SALT, when society is overly structured, they become feral.
All genders are "they" because, well, this is the future.