As I mentioned before, I was close to completing my full-length novel. Then I received an email…
“We’re gearing up for our … Screenplay Competition and I want to make sure you know all about it!”
I am appreciative of each and every one of you who read my books and especially those who supported me and gave me feedback. Without you this story would not have evolved as it has.
I never would have received that feedback if I started with the screenplay. However, I always felt that this should be a screenplay and was just waiting for the opportunity to make it one.
So, when I received this email, I immediately started converting my novel for the screen, trying to meet the deadline. Then, the unthinkable happened, my wife’s health declined to the point where I had to quit my job in order to take care of her.
For me this was a mixed blessing, I got to spend more time with my wife, our cat and dog, and more time to write my story, my screenplay. But it came at the cost of a regular income, which caused more problems.
Without a regular income, how could I make mortgage and other monthly payments? We would have to sell and find a cheaper place to live. How were we going to do this, while taking care of my ill wife? Then a miracle happened.
We had given in to the fact that my wife was going to need more care than I was able to provide. We went to the doctor with the hope that he could refer us to a social worker and find her a government plan to provide in-home care, or a care home. Instead, he knew immediately what the problem was and gave her a prescription.
It wasn’t a cure, but it worked! My wife was soon in better health than she had been in months!
We still have to move:
- We found a realtor team who helped us get our house ready for sale.
- We found a place that would accept both our pets, and was in our price range.
- In one day both the purchase and the sale fell through!
We were devastated. We looked for another place that would accept our pets; however, most said “no pets”, some said “one small pet”, and very rarely they would say “two small pets”. Most people consider our dog a medium size, so we are out of luck.
It looks like our best bet is to move to what is know as the northern interior where the temp drops way below freezing in the winter, and I am chronically cold. I already wear 3 thermal layers in summer time, what am I going to do in 40 below?
Anyway, I sent the screenplay “pilot” episode to several contests, wrote 8 hours of script, now I’m working on finishing the novel and trying to get my job back, all of this while living off our savings. Hopefully this will get us to the new year, and the real estate market will improve.
I hope you are doing well. Please let me know if you have had similar experiences.