It seems to me that a bench creates an inherent boundary that one doesn’t cross unless invited.

I have a milestone birthday this week. I’m still deciding whether to celebrate or not, which brings up a lot of questions. Mainly, why not? I attended a wonderful wine tasting last week. It’s on my weekly schedule, but somehow the friends who want to go always back out and I’ve never gone alone. This time I did because I’d written about the winery for an online magazine that covers San Miguel's culture and lifestyle and was curious to actually taste the wines. I made wonderfu

What inspired you to write The Nice Room? The Nice Room was the second of two screenplays I wrote after seeing Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! Its anti-patriarchal spirit and nonstop energy sent me into a burst of writing. Good Taste came first. When I finished it, I wanted to keep that energy going with a contained story set in San Miguel. I didn’t completely manage the contained part. For the premise, I turned to Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle’s 1994 low-budget thriller about th

The opening scene of a movie establishes so much – world, character, tone, genre – that getting it all on the page can be overwhelming. That’s why your first couple of pages are likely the ones you edit the most. They’re certainly mine. I find it helpful to have a clear image of the space and how it flows into, or acts as a counterpoint to, what comes next. As the screenwriter, you decide which visual details matter. Whether it’s a lonely cottage on a bluff overlooking a sm

What can a psychological thriller about a man assuming his dead friend’s identity have in common with a dark comedy about three women concealing a dead body? Both are built on the same premise: “People believe what they want to see.” They occupy different genres, but they share a foundation. That is where my screenwriter’s voice begins. As a teen, I wanted to be an architect. I was told only men were architects. I landed up studying exhibition design and window display. Throu

When a reckless rich daddy’s girl dies in her own pool, her gay best friend covers it up, assumes her identity, and turns her failing gallery into a success while deceiving her controlling father and dangerous lover. What inspired Good Taste? After seeing Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride!, I wanted to write something daring. I loved the irony of Mary Shelley inhabiting the body of what would become her own creation and going on a wild ride with her own male protagonist Frankenst

I have been quiet here since February, but not because I have not been writing. Quite the opposite. In recent months, a number of scripts have been named semifinalists, quarterfinalists, and official selections. FilmFreeway has sent up its little stars and bursts of digital confetti, which are not quite an Oscar but can still improve an afternoon. And then there are the days when a festival says no. The days when you submit work you believe in, perhaps work that has been reco

Then I saw Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride. The irony of a dead author becoming the bride of her own male protagonist, post-mortem, was sheer brilliance. Identity doesn't just transfer. It mutates.

One week into the new year and I’m thrilled to be starting with a bit of good news (for me). I just got word that San Miguel ExMas MixUp has advanced to the Quarterfinals in this year’s ISA Emerging Screenwriters Competition. There are still 540 writers in the running (by my estimate), which is both humbling and oddly encouraging. It’s a reminder of just how many screenwriters are out there hoping for that ray of light that says: someone read it, someone responded. Somebody l

I’ve been revisiting a script I wrote twenty-five years ago. Not polishing it so much as listening to it, the way you listen to an old record and hear more than the music. You remember a time, a place, who you were with. The script is Postcard From Italy . It was sparked by my travels there. Lazy afternoons. Surprising rain showers. Water taxis. Train platforms. Espresso taken standing up like a local. That particular European suspension of time where nobody seems in a hurry

A question that I’d parked in the back of my mind finally demanded my attention: why is the only script I’ve written that strictly follows a prescribed structure the only one that’s gone nowhere in screenwriting contests? Not even a quarterfinalist nod. It’s a serial killer script called Misidentity . And it does exactly what serial killer scripts are meant to do. The structure is solid. The escalation works. Information lands where it’s supposed to. The story moves forward w

I learned a new word recently. Cryptomnesia. It’s a documented neurological phenomenon where a forgotten memory resurfaces and is experienced as a brand-new idea. Not plagiarism. Not déjà vu. A genuine belief that something has just been invented—when it’s actually been quietly waiting in the back rooms of the mind. Writers live inside this state more than most people. But here’s the part that caught my attention. Neurologists studying memory recall have found that people who