Update

Please forgive my extremely long hiatus from writing. Turns out I don't multi-task well while I'm writing a script. Here's what has happened over the last 6 months since stepping out from Lighthouse to develop myself as a writer:

I have "completed" two scripts both by the name Spokanistan, both with two totally different stories. My first effort was done sometime in October. I submitted it to the intense critical gaze of a few trusted people (Bette Nordberg, Valerie West, my wife, Rachael and a few others). The feedback was...helpful: the script was too long (145 pages, which is like a 2 1/2 hour movie) and had some plot issues. I let it sit for a month or two and then tackled it again with a fresh idea of where to take the script.

The resulting second effort was much shorter 115 pages and a story I like much more. Yahoo! It was funnier, a bit more, realistic, but still contained a few plot holes. I got more great notes from a screenwriter mentor of mine named Creighton. I polished up this version of my script as best I could and sent it off to the University of Texas at Austin just in time to apply for grad school there. I'll hear back from them in March about whether I made it into their Masters program for writing. Hopefully, I will since that particular program is free for the few who make it in, but it's also highly competitive. Those of you who pray, please pray for favor for me and my application.

If Texas doesn't want me, Rachael and I have decided with much prayer and trepidation to head out to L.A. in the summer or early fall of '09. I'll be applying for an extension program at UCLA that is respected, cheap, and likely to accept me even though I'm just getting started as a screenwriter. Val West, one of the brave readers, of my earlier version, teaches online classes for the same program and she thinks my chances of getting in our good. So either way, it looks change is on the way for the Boyers.

Rachael has been continuing her local acting roles. You can catch her at Elisabeth Proctor in The Crucible starting next weekend at Tacoma Little Theater (www.tacomalittletheater.com). It's a great role for her and a dramatic departure from the plays she's been in over the last two years. Her fate as an actress is somewhat tied to mine as a writer at the moment. If I get in at Texas, we're hoping that Rachael could perhaps enter a masters program for acting. We'll have to play it by ear, but one thing is certain, I can't keep her out of the theater. She absolutely loves it.

For those of you who are wondering how we'll afford to live in L.A. or Austin, we're with you : ) We're saving money as fast as we can for the move. Rachael is in talks with her boss to see if she can keep her position as a writer for World Vision and just work remotely after we relocate. I've been working as a roadside assistance tech (think AAA), but I'm looking for any job that pays a decent wage (12/hr) and would allow me to transfer in 6 months or so. If you know of anything, drop me a line below or at email addy.

For now, my current job allows lots of time for working on my taxes, blogging, and writing. I hope to take one more major pass at my Spokanistan script before I call it good. Meanwhile I'm doing research for my next project, a historical drama/love story about a turn of the century journalist named Jacob Riis.