Blessings are counted

I'm feeling a little schizophrenic - my personal and professional lives are pretty fantastic these days, but my heart aches for our fighting men and women in Iraq, their families and the innocent Iraqis caught in the middle of the most bizarre, ghastly war there that has destabilized the world politically and fomented the cause of terrorism everywhere.

I saw President Bush's assessment and pronouncements, and all I will say is that Joseph Goebbels would be proud. It was astonishingly effective propaganda. I can't imagine the Democrats coming out fighting for the truth because those pictures and the cast were terrifically orchestrated.

So I'll just concentrate on my work.

I've been hired to write a feature film that I know will make everyone involved with it incredibly proud. The producer is terrific. Truly great producers are the salt of the earth - down to earth, honest, truthful, generous and open. They also know how to find the best professionals with whom to work, which makes for a mighty happy team. I'm very fortunate that we found one another.

So, I'm currently working on three feature film scripts, which is pure heaven for me. I'm fortunate that none of them bears the slightest resemblance to the other so there's no chance of becoming confused with any of them. More, each is in a much different state of completion, which makes for a pretty wonderful fall.

One is a comedy a kiss away from market, the next a comedy in the throes of a major second draft rewrite, and this script, which is a gripping drama in the development phase following the completion of the short film version - which we decided to table in favor of going directly to the feature length story.

Between these three feature projects, coaching, other writing commitments (two magazine columns coming up soon), catching the preview of my pal screenwriter Michael Brandt's new film 3:10 to Yuma tomorrow, and preparing a sensational seminar for Seattle actors with LA-based Bob Bledsoe Saturday, October 20, life is thriving.

Unfortunately, it means that I'll have to catch up on all the blog posts I want to write as soon as I have a little breathing space. Believe me, I'm teeming with ideas, thoughts and stuff to say. It also means I may severely limit my camera acting coaching practice sooner than I had planned, depending on how good a juggler I turn out to be!