Dear Daniel

Dear Daniel,

So ‘tis the season to be…jolly. Yes. It is official I am happy. Typically I struggle around this time of year. I’m depressed. Or in a funk. Don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays. I have a decorated 4 foot tree on a small cabinet next to me. I love giving and getting presents. Especially for my friends. I know them and they know me. And then of course there are my three cousins, Rebekah, Bridgette, and Mary Jo. Missy calls them my fan club. And I’ve kind of taken Rebekah under my wing as a writer. And another girl online Nicole. I write ‘with’ them via Facebook. We 1k 1hr it. That’s one thousand words in one hour. Sometimes it flows easy. Other times it’s a struggle. Given I’ve been either sick or sick on the antibiotics this last week I haven’t felt much like writing.

But writing with Nicole and Rebekah who face similar challenges to myself (I won’t say which ones, they both come from great families) and they need a little encouragement. I give a lot where Rebekah is concerned because her collegiate path so mirrors my own, only in that I was trying to get away from my house, and that she had a better support network than I did at the time. I’m proud of her. I gave her the simplest of goals. Write 150 words a day. It is the same missive I gave Nicole. That amount will give you 54K in a year. That’s a short novel. Or a good chunk of longer book. And sometimes you’ll get more, and sometimes you’ll get less. I told them to be gentle with themselves and not to measure themselves to me or anyone else. She even has a blog Ravings of A Coffee Crazed Writer. In her most recent blog she talks about her mental health battle and how it doesn’t have to get you down. I’m incredibly proud of her for her bravery and honesty.

On another front. I chose to go small press with Hekate Press for the Bella Morte series. Have garnered interest in the television series treatment and pilot from the acting community. Cady McLain, Robin Strasser, Steve Burton and even Ricki Lake and Jon Lindstrom have tweeted their support. As a result a connection I made at Fandom Fest told me to send the treatment and my accolades on and he would forward them to agent/producers. But you know how Hollywood is, it might go, it might not. I’m hopeful though. If not the series is eight books long and will keep me writing until February of 2015. And to be a paid working author is awesome.

At the end of next month I find out if any of my scripts finaled in That Book Place’s Author Fair’s writing competition. Halfway through February I find out the result of First Look’s contest results. And at the end of February I find out if I advanced in the Nashville Film Festival’s Screenwriting Competition.

And on a sadder note my kitty of almost 13 years may be ill with something incurable. And it’s dawning on me that she may not be with me much longer. And this realization right before the holidays threatens to break my heart.

Sincerely,

Amy McCorkle