Current mood: grateful

Hi everyone,

I am gainfully employed again reading screenplays now that the WGA strike is over. My first day back was a bit like first day in school after summer break. I caught up with friends, my parking credentials were returned to me, my access to the coffee and donuts are mine again (that part was not necessarily a good thing, mind you).

But the second day, an ominous feeling settled on those of us back from the abyss. The "Where is so-and so?" question was often answered with a whispered, "Gone. They fired him/her."

Quite a few writer-producers lost their deals in the three and a half months since I was at the studio and there are more empty offices than ever.

It's been the same with several studios. A 'cleaning house' policy made very convenient by the strike.

Though I only have a few screenplays to read right now, I am so grateful to have something when so many talented, wonderful people were 'let go of' during the strike.

Here's a thing writers should know.

You get screwed as a writer in the movie business because what you initally sell the studio, whether it's a TV show or a movie is never what ends up getting made.

So, it you are lucky enough to get  past all the crap and make a career for yourself, next step is to become a producer-writer. In television, this is what is known as being the 'show runner.'

Being a show runner is supposed to give you some control, some power.

Yeah, right, until the studio decides to fire the producer of a TV show because the writers are on strike. And one of those writer is the producer...you see where I'm going with this?

In the movie business, it's a little bit different. It means you might get a small office, maybe an assistant and somebody like me to help filter through the literary garbage so you can find something wonderful to produce.

But the writer-producer is a new kind of animal in recent years and the firing of one, therefore the other half of this double act happened to several friends of mine who are now in varying states of panic.

Some have turned to writing novels, hoping to make a big pay day, some are trying to get deals elsewhere.

Me, I am happy to have something resembling my day job back, but my bliss is writing my books.

My fantastic publisher Martine Jardin emailed me the cover of my Stolen Magic: The Queen of Pentacles book yesterday (uploaded on my photo album here) and told me she is running out of Hawaiian-looking men in her arsenal of pictures - I keep her hopping!

Too bad...I have no intention of giving up writing about my hot Hawaiian guys...she'll think of something. I know she will, talented publisher/artist that she is!

In the meantime, I have two fictional hot Hawaiian guys waiting for me in the middle of a steamy shower scene I must finish writing....

Aloha oe,

A.J.

Currently listening : Taboo: The Exotic Sounds of Arthur Lyman By Arthur Lyman Release date: 24 September, 1996