I apologize for getting lost. No good reason, just a barrel of feeble excuses. Like much of the world, I’ve been running sideways, backward, two steps forward, ducking, and hopping erratically depending on the how reality dictates. Time to at least get somewhat caught up.
In no particular order:
Been busy on a variety of things, most good, some not so good, but that’s the way the bowling pins scatter. Some throws hit the pocket, others create splits, and each day the world seems determined to reinforce the new normal as sideways chaos. Not sure we’re getting anywhere, but we’re doing so with loud bombast.
In October, the No Bats Baseball Club — which I founded in 1991 and intended to host just once — celebrated year #30. In partnership with the Nolan Ryan Foundation in Alvin, TX, the club raised and handed over every dollar of a record $125,000. Thanks to our generous supporters, it was the largest amount the club has ever raised and the foundation received. Host JJ Gottsch was brilliant to us and it was a truly inspired weekend for all. Nolan, as always, was gracious and grateful–a Hall of Fame good man. No Bats has now raised and donated about $2.2 million to a wide variety of great charities. Next year we hope to support the Chicago White Sox, followed in 2023 by the San Diego Padres. I’m working on several additional locations for the years beyond.
Meanwhile, I’ve been in heavy labor trying to birth the follow-up novel for my greatest character, Tuki Banjo. Tentatively titled, Tuki (Back in the Game with Tweedle & Friends), the story is out now with advanced readers. So far, so good.
I finally got the words to obediently line up and march in order, and told the story I wanted to tell. Instrumental steerage on the front end came from several folks, the most vital being New Zealand actor Jodie Hillock. Jodie made the time to peel apart a very rough initial draft and list all thoughts, good and bad.
As I tend to do when I seek advice, I took it. A thousand hours and six drafts later Tuki got where she needed to go. Novels are infinitely harder to write polish than scripts, which are (comparatively speaking) sort of storytelling Morse code. Tuki is not a long novel but paints its canvas with 93,000 words. A script adaptation would involve perhaps 15,000. Novels I write for an audience of one. Scripts have many mouths to feed.
As with most of my work, this is a multicultural ensemble story with a happy ending because that’s the way I want the world to be. Back in the Game deals with the challenge of getting off the mat a second time in life. Most of us have been there; and those who haven’t may someday have to. I believe in this character tremendously. As with her appearance in Tuki Banjo, Superstar more than a decade ago, this specific story will stand alone to make an excellent film or episodic program for a mainstream audience.
Meanwhile, Covid has done a nice job of providing a complete coat of dust over my suitcase. International travel has been limited to Mexico but I hope to return to the U. K. in mid-summer, perhaps earlier if one of my stories goes into motion picture development.
With Covid messing up things for me from an in-person teaching perspective, soon I hope to announce a transformative deal concerning my life’s work. How’s that for a tease? Vague but curious, isn’t it? What we’re kicking around is very exciting. I hope to share this amazing news within the month.
As I zoom toward the close, the calendar is also Zooming me toward a presentation for Agile Pakistan. My friend Misam Abbas contacted me about putting on a second program for his group, aimed primarily at sharing ideas how busy people leading tech-centric lives can better manage crowded heads. I always enjoy these seminars and look forward to this one. Life’s fun when head and heart are aligned. When they scramble out of alignment, things get difficult.
That’s it for now.
Goodbye for now and keep moving and making stuff happen. It’s harder to hit active targets.
Best aways,
