I tell wonder-filled stories about hope and healing
Good morning from the Red Sea in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia tonight with this horoscope: “New paths can open for a destination you have been longing to discover. Dive into a juicy investigation. Explore an exciting thread for amazing revelations.” Here are my first few glimpses of the Kingdom from the plane. By the time we landed it was dark so daytime exploration starts tomorrow. Thank you to Royal Jordanian for a perfect flight!
This week I’m going to the Middle East for the first time. To have this opportunity to be immersed into a completely different culture is something I never thought I’d have. I’m grateful for this opportunity to share stories from this part of the world. I’m excited, a little nervous, and above all, hopeful that there will be so much for me to learn on this journey.
Yesterday I clicked submit on my TV pilot script for my novel, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters. Thanks to the encouragement of my friend and mentor, John Bucher, I sent it off to see if Emerson might have a TV life. I loved the structure and editing process of writing for TV, and am excited about all the possibilities for stories told in this medium, especially for streamers like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. Here’s to dreams, written and made.
Next week I’ll be on the most unique trip I’ve ever taken—to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. I’ll be there for work on a film, and will be visiting Jeddah (on the coast of the Red Sea) via Amman in Jordan, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the Empty Quarter, the world’s largest continuous sand desert. I’m excited to show you these countries through my lens and stories, and can’t wait to share what I find. Follow along here, and on Instagram (christarosenyc) and Twitter (@christanyc).
Inspired by the masterful adaptation of Good Omens on Amazon Prime (have your watched yet?!), the Masterclass with Shonda Rhimes, and encouraging tweets from my friend and mentor, John Bucher, I’m adapting my Emerson Page novel into a TV script. Given its visual nature and dialogue, I’m already halfway there! Thanks to so many of you who have loved Emerson’s story and supported my writing. It means a lot to me and this adaptation is for you! I’m about 30 pages into the 50 page pilot. I’ll finish all the editing this week and then submit it to a the screenwriting competition in L.A. that John Bucher told me about. SMH that this ideas was here all along. I never thought about it for TV until seeing Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens work. He made me realize books for TV can work!
My senior college thesis in history at University of Pennsylvania was on foreign correspondents in Germany and occupied areas during the Third Reich, especially Edward R. Murrow and William L. Shirer of CBS News, which started their radio division to keep the world informed of what was happening before, during, and after the war, and every day since. I scoured diaries and archives in constant awe of their brave work. Their reporting changed and saved the world, I argued. Without it, we may have never known how dire the situation was and remained complacent when we needed to act. To these brave reporters, all the media outlets that supported them, & to all the troops whom we will never be able to thank enough who gave everything when we were down to nothing, I salute you on this 75th D-Day anniversary.
Here are a few photos that were a part of my thesis.
The first is William L. Shirer writing his report on a typewriter. It was the story of the French surrender in June 1940 in Compiègne, north of Paris.
The second is of “The Murrow Boys”. America’s eyes and ears were those of these correspondents who were hired by and working with Edward R. Murrow. Eric Sevareid, Charles Collingwood, Larry LeSueur, and William L. Shirer belonged to this group. Shirer ran the Berlin bureau while Murrow ran the London bureau. In their report they would take listeners inside air raid shelters, to landmarks all over Europe just before a bombing attack, and then to the ruble that remained after the bombs had fallen. They risked everything so that we would know everything. That’s what writers do.
I had a blast chatting with a class of 4th graders via Skype yesterday about my book, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, about all things writing. It’s a gift to be an author and encourage young people to tell their stories. Also, teachers inspire me and are the very best humans. Amy Artl is so passionate about helping her students understand the writing and revising process. I’m glad that I could encourage them by explaining that all of the things they have to manage in their writing—finding inspiration, the struggle of editing, and dealing with conflict—are all things that every writer manages, especially me!
Yesterday was their last day of school, and Amy promised them they could finish the book before today was over. They cheered and my heart melted! Want me to chat with your school about writing via Skype or Google Hangout? I’d love to. Get in touch with me and let’s set it up!
Let the filming begin! I’m so excited that my camera kit arrived and I can start getting a feel for filmmaking with my hands, heart, and mind. Let’s tell some stories that matter, shall we? Take one…
Writers, are you ever overwhelmed by the enormity of your work. Hi, that’s my natural state of being all the time. I love being a writer. I love writing. And sometimes I feel the weight of my responsibility to do justice to a story to the point that I feel paralyzed.
My friend, Laurie, posted about this advice she got years ago from a writing group: write two pages every day. That’s it. Just two small pages. You don’t need whole days to write. You need tiny, focused windows on a consistent basis. One word, one sentence, one paragraph, one page at a time. In a year you’ve got a book, and a pretty big one at that.
Two pages. I can do that any day. So can you. And we will.
Christa Avampato 