Dear Daniel,

Dear Daniel,

You ever have one of those holy craptastic moments where you think this is it? I really did it. I climbed, I fought and they’re really giving me a reward for it? Well the winners of the Fright Night Film Festival were announced really late last night. And maybe it’s a little late. And maybe nobody is watching, but we did it! Me and Missy really did it! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fright-Night-Film-Fest/63772024471 Bounty Hunter, the book I was inspired to write after seeing Cowboys & Aliens, which inspired me to call on Missy to help adapt it to screenplay won Best SciFi Screenplay!

I know the reality is you’re not watching this or reading this, but I owe so much of this particular project to you Daniel. Your talent allows me to project my imagination onto what I need the character to do. If you were a limited actor I couldn’t do half the writing that I do. I tend to ‘cast my work. There are other actors but I do have preference for your style of acting so it’s easy to cast you.

Don’t get me wrong. What I do isn’t fan fiction by any stretch of the imagination. What I do is hard work. I like casting Eva Green and Kate Winslet in the female leads as much as I like casting the men. Cate Blanchett is another favorite. Jennifer Lawrence. Constance Towers. Maurice Benard.

I digress. I WON! And it’s because Cowboys & Aliens reignited my passion with all things scifi, dystopian, and western. So I really have you and a splendid cast, crew, director, writers, and producer to thank for that.

I cried last night. I know, it’s just a competition. Failure isn’t fatal and success isn’t permanent. But when you work hard and see it pay off it’s one of those things that makes you want to keep going.

It’s fuel for when you’re feeling down and thinking the whole world is against you. When you think everything’s a clusterfuck  and it makes you turn and see things aren’t all bad. That someone, professionals, people who work in the same arena as you do respect your work and it lets you know that even though you live in a nowhere town that somewhere thinks highly of your work and you’re not working in a vacuum.

I need to submit my screenplays to agents and production companies, I have the credits now, but I’m waiting to hear from Austin and Sundance. I’m sure that will impress people more, but I’ve never won a competition and it feels good to get one under my belt.

You know, I can almost forgive Fandom Fest and Stan Lee for eating my food. And I was on the cover of my local newspaper the Wednesday before we left for Fandom. It just feels like everything is going my way.

Not that I’m assuming that it always will. And if you’ve read this blog at all you know that isn’t the case. But right now it is. My dad even made me a celebratory fried egg and cheese sandwich.

He’s a little crazy right now, he has a big trial coming up. So it’s basically duck and cover but he was sweet enough to indulge me this morning.

I wonder if I’ll ever meet all my heroes. But until then I’m content to come to this blog and ‘write’ letters to ‘you’. I’m sure you’re not reading it but I can’t help it, you have no idea how your work and your work ethic has shone the light on at times what has been a very dark path for me. Here’s a picture of my stepdad that I call dad. Truth be told as hard as he and my mother have made it from time to time I love them very much, and they have helped make me the person I am today.

Sincerely,

Amy McCorkle