Where I'm At...

The Savoy article: Done yesterday. It came in at 1800 words, but the subject needed it. The article talks about the plight of black character actors in Hollywood, which is very relevant to me.

I go into UCLA with my eyes open and no illusions about where black writers fit in the scheme of Hollywood. For a HUGE percentage of the industry, we don't. But that's okay. When you're black and educated, you sort of get used to those odds as being normal. And besides, I have a plan.

On other fronts:

Project Z: Haven't paid attention to it because of other deadlines. I need to get it done and out of the way because I want to finish my other fiction manuscript (Project X) by the end of May.

Project Y: June to August is devoted to gathering all of the research material for my non-fiction book proposal on hip hop. Of all my projects, this is going to be the trickiest. If my agent can sell it, then I'm going to truly have a packed schedule next year. I'll go to school during the week, and then I'll be doing research, interviews, etc. for the book on the weekend. But I'm the type of person who NEEDS a constant sense of pressure and deadlines. I think that comes from working at a newspaper, where there's never a break in the deadline cycle. But it'll be interesting.

Friends With Benefits: My fraternity brother operates a marketing company and came up with a REALLY good promotion/sponsorship idea for Friends With Benefits. He wants to hold events, not just book signings, around the theme of my book. The book comes out in late August, early September and so I need to do this promotion at the very beginning of September. UCLA begins on September 26, so I'm going to be cutting it close. The idea, beyond selling many, many copies of FWB, is to get my name out into the public so that it is branded. I want my readers to pick up my books on GP.

Planning Ahead:
In the Summer 2006, I want to produce two shorts and one feature length movie: For the shorts, I want to shoot in Brazil (crime caper) and England (a documentary). For the feature (if I can get financing) I want to adapt my own Friends With Benefits. I'll be done with any book projects, and hopefully I'll have time. As I enter my last year at UCLA, I want to have a great portfolio.