Tuesday, September 2, 2008

how shady can a schadenfreunde get?

So, writer-friend du jour finished up at the writer's conference and called me last night at midnight to give me the skinny. As fate would have it, it's skinny, lean and all things in between. As it turns out, she did talk to the exec at Columbia Pictures. She even got his contact information, but he told her that he doesn't deal with people that a) don't have agents and b) he hasn't met face to face. This is totally understandable and the expected party line. What was NOT expected was schadenfreundin's response to me: "So I have his information and when you get an agent, I'll give it to you".

I know, huh? That's exactly what I thought.

Why didn't she just give me the info with that age-old girlfriend caveat, "But you didn't get/hear it from me". That is, if she has his contact information at all. She could be bluffing. What she doesn't know is that Mama has an imdb pro account where I can (who am I kidding? already have...) look up said exec's info and contact him myself. And I won't invoke the name of the schadenfreunde, as it will probably harm my cause.

The thing that really gets my goat is this: as trifling as she can be, I am genuinely excited for her success. I WANT her to finish her book, make a million dollars and embark on a worldwide book tour. I wish nothing but the best for her, because I know that, in some small part, I've helped along the way. Why can't she be the same? Why can't she just be happy for me or anybody else, for that matter? When I mentioned my upcoming L.A. trip, she said (real high falutin' like) "And who are you meeting with again"? I said, "Such-and-such management. The ones that provided the script notes. You know, the producers of the 'Halloween' franchise". Ya'll know me. I'm usually not into horn-tooting, but damn if the haters can argue with THAT shit.

Another nugget: while we were on the phone, she read the email I'd sent to my "Street Team" saying how my latest play will be onstage next month. The first thing out of her mouth was: "You let Elayne read it"?

Let's just break this down: Elayne reads in a timely manner; SF doesn't. I send Elayne 2-10 pages to read and she does so while on the phone with me and provides instant feedback, so I can get on with my revisions and my life. Once, I sent SF a ten minute jobby to critique and it took her a month to get back to me! Thirty doggone days and she wasn't even writing during that time!! Can you imagine how many contests/ entry opportunities I would have missed had I relied solely on her feedback? This is one of the reasons I use multiple readers.

In closing, I thought I was over the whole "I'm not giving you his contact info" thing, but I'm clearly not. However, "Mixtape" edits call. Side note: I've edited the script, noted where extra scenes are to be plugged and written said extra scenes. I anticipate sitting here until the wee hours knocking this baby out. And that I can do, with or without an executive's phone number.

1 comment:

Elayne said...

Dude, I'm stoked for you, and you know it! Don't listen to the nay-sayers!!! Keep your head in the game ...