Dear Daniel

Dear Daniel,

Today is a good day. A little static from the mom, but other than that I have to say that I feel good.  I’ve been eating better, exercising, strict about my medicine, and been doing what I can to advance my career.

Yesterday was hard. And since mom had stayed home today because of my aunt’s major health scare (she’s a diabetic, and she went into renal failure after major heart surgery and almost died) now she’s heading home. At my weight and age I knew where my 301lb body was taking me. And it terrified me. So I’m back on the horse and I’ve lost 4lbs in the last week. So today is a good day.

My dream is to one day to be able share my life with someone who understands and gets me on a very basic level. Someone who supports me in action as well as word. Someone who loves me and can understand why some days might not always be the best for me and loves me anyway.

And to be 129lbs in a gorgeous gown on an awards show stage saying thank you to everyone whoever lifted me up to the sky whenever I fell to the ground unable to go on.

Today is one of those days I can hold myself help. Today is one of those days I can write and I feel the words as if they won’t stop. Today, at this moment I don’t need to be lifted up.

But there are days, like yesterday where I needed lifting every step of the way. While family provides me with a roof and supplemental grocery money there is little else they do. I love them for this. There are few families in this world who would let their 38 year old daughter pursue her passion without a timeline hoping for the big break.

Recently I wrote a television series treatment based on a series of books I’ve been contracted to write for a relatively new press. Hekate Press. I’m its interim marketing director and I would definitely say its owner/publisher Delilah K Stephans has lifted me up professionally and been a sounding board personally. I pitched the idea and she commissioned it.

Here is the television series (as registered with the WGAw).

 BELLA MORTE is in the vein of those great epic gladiatorial films such as GLADIATOR and the  successful television series REVOLUTION and GAME OF THRONES set in the not so distant future after political unrest and a second civil war.

Like those films and televisions series BELLA MORTE is an epic tale about shifting political and magical alliances and allegiances where family and old loyalties conflict with the demands of realities the heroes and heroines are faced with in the now.

BELLA MORTE is about a young woman hell bent on revenge, but a prophecy about her keeps getting in her way.

It is about heroism, integrity, and self-sacrifice in the face of temptation and evil.

BELLA MORTE is about a young woman, JUSTICE, a member of an ancient group of mystics referred to as the Order. Twelve years ago was forced to watch the brutal execution of her mother and father. Enslaved and brutalized from that time on she has been sold from owner to owner. Each time they fail to ‘break her’ they sell her off again. She lands at the plantation of Cyrus and STEPHANIE WILSON. During an especially violent encounter Justice fights back and murders Cryus, she manages to escape and runs to the point of exhaustion.

The queen, ELEANOR OF KE’LAN represents the worst of the Dark Forces. She is the most powerful magic wielder, she is evil in its purest form. When she is alerted to JUSTICE’S escape she dispatches her loyal savage mercenary, KRAVITZ to find her and bring to her.

The only thing ELEANOR desires more than to crush humankind, is to have the love and loyalty of her favorite enslaved gladiator, DUNCAN XAVIER. She appeals to his basest of desires and the two do enjoy a sexual affair, but for him it goes no deeper. He loathes ELEANOR and himself more and more with each encounter. When she comes to him with an offer of freedom naturally he is suspicious. When orders him to kill the possible prophet and go free or face death with her, he is left conflicted. He was once a good man, but fighting to the death has left him without a true compass. WILLIAM SHEPHERD a fellow gladiator demands that he save the young woman. That if JUSTICE is who ELEANOR believes her to be JUSTICE has the ability save the nation from the dark forces that eat away from its former greatness every day.

KRAVITZ is a monster who takes what he wants and destroys the rest. He is the man responsible for JUSTICE’S lot in life, and when he finds her collapsed in the desert he brutalizes her once more before brings her in.

JUSTICE is then thrown into DUNCAN’S cell and at his feet. Close to death’s door already, his decision is now. It is then and only then that WILLIAM reveals himself as a Conduit Warrior raised by a Crone who served the Order and that he has the power to heal her. DUNCAN relents and once she is healed she commands to the elements as he has only seen once before. His long missing and thought dead wife. They escape. Enraging ELEANOR OF KE’LAN and setting in motion a long constricted battle for JUSTICE, WILLIAM, and DUNCAN between the Dark Forces and the Order.

JUSTICE doesn’t quite have the control or experience over her powers that the QUEEN does, and when they battle sometimes it appears the all is lost, but JUSTICE always finds a way, even at great mortal cost to save her, WILLIAM, and DUNCAN.

BELLA MORTE is about what JUSTICE wants, which is to bring death to House of the QUEEN and KRAVITZ and all who ever wronged her. Versus what she has to come to grips with is that more than she can possibly imagine rests upon her shoulders. And what that is isn’t always quite as clear for her as it is as it is for those around her.

Action packed, and full of adventure and special effects,  each episode of BELLA MORTE will contain the continuing arc JUSTICE’S struggle to do what is prophesized for the good of the former United States of America versus answering her emotional need to quench her thirst vengeance. Layers of story of the supporting characters story will carry the weight of the self contained arc within the episode. i.e. the QUEEN has a son who may or may not be that of DUNCAN’S.

Other core characters of BELLA MORTE are:

QUEEN ELEANOR OF KE’LAN- Once a fierce and loyal member of the Order an unrequited love for Duncan Xavier led to her turning against the very Order that trained her to master her power over the supernatural. Beautiful, poisonous to everything she touches, she rules with an iron fist. Obsessed with Duncan Xavier she will do anything to destroy his first born daughter, the much prophesized about Bella Morte (Justice), and win his love. The only good that may remain in her is her love for her seven year old son Henri.

DUNCAN XAVIER- Justice’s real father. He just wanted to be left alone to live his life with his family. The second civil war didn’t allow for that. Strong, rugged, and resigned he’s the gladiator referred to as the Legend. He is undefeated in twenty years of battle. The queen is his release. The reason his wife, her sister, is dead. He wants to mend the rift between he and his daughter and teach her to battle with thought and skill and not just on raw instinct. He wants her to reject the prophecy and embrace a peaceful life. But when push comes to shove and they go into battle he is at her side, sometimes even if she doesn’t want him there.

WILLIAM SHEPHERD- a conduit warrior schooled by his mother, a crone who served the Order. Upon finding his mother murdered he learned that his brother and sister were complicit in her death. Beaten savagely by his brother he is sold into slavery. He escapes and finds love on to have it ripped away by Kravitz and a queen serving the vision of the dark forces. Enslaved as a gladiator he comes to be known as the Mad Hatter for his ‘insane’ fighting style. When Justice comes into his life he must decide, hold out hope for his wife, or do as he’s been raised, protect Bella Morte and teach her mastery over her supernatural gifts and teach her to embrace her destiny.

KRAVITZ- a violent savage warrior engaged in a lustful affair with the Queen. Drunk on his power and lust he enacts a brutal form of dark force justice. Raping and pillaging at will and doing whatever the queen orders. The only soft spot in his heart is for a mystery woman being ‘turned’ by the dark forces will. He will do anything to protect her, even from the queen, even at great risk to his own life. He is the one Justice seeks to make suffer the most as he has destroyed her life at every turn.

NERO- the head of the dark forces council. He seeks to control all women, even the queen, but finds out that perhaps he has bitten off more than he can chew.

CAREEN XAVIER- a powerful member the Order, Eleanor’s sister, Duncan’s missing and believed dead wife. She may or may not be alive.

LUCINDA SHEPHERD- William’s missing wife he cannot seem to give up on. May or may not be alive. May or may not be serving the dark forces.

THE ORDER- an ancient body of female mystics who have risen up in the darkness of the second civil war to save the former United States. They prophesized of an supernatural assassin whose beauty is rivaled by no one. Referred to as Bella Morte, it is believed Justice Xavier is Bella Morte.

THE DARK FORCES- evil supernatural entity embodied by men who seek to wipe humankind from  the world over and rule over an enslaved race. They fear the Prophecy more than anything, but want to see if the prophet can be turned to serve them.

As BELLA MORTE unfolds we will learn that the path for Justice is not always clear, and those she thinks she can trust sometimes let her down at the worst of moments. But it will be in these moments that she finds her true strength, her mettle, and what she is made of. Most of all Justice will be forced to learn how to forgive those who truly love her. And by the end of the series true love will have found our heroine, evil will have been vanquished, and a sense of family, which at the beginning had been in tatters, will be formed and in place, although loss will be faced, her family will be stronger than ever.

BELLA MORTE

Whoever is reading my blog if you like the treatment and wish to read the pilot, please contact me through my contact form or at amyleigh07@live.com. I hope you like it.

Sincerely,