Merry Christmas to Me!

Promise that as soon as I can speak directly I will. But another piece I can say is that T and I were stuck in a loop of adapting other work, or trying to sell people on the idea of us adapting our books. But my agent Jonathan Westover had told me years ago, back when I returned from the NW, that television was being written by staff, and they didn’t hire anyone over 40 (not totally true, but true enough). I was over 50. Screwed.

So there were two things I could do, according to J.W.:

1. Create a television series
2. Write movies.

The first felt far more complicated to me, and demanding of far more moving parts all coming together at the same time. Chose door number 2.

In 2018, I was driving to San Jose Worldcon up highway 101. Driving long distances clears my head. I love it. And an idea for a movie popped into my head, so clearly and powerfully I almost had to pull over to the side of the road, dazed. It was an idea unlike any that had ever come to me…but in another way it was such a natural extension of my previous interests that I KNEW I could write it easily, and without tons of research. I will say it was an historical caper film, and leave it at that. When I got to Worldcon I mentioned the “elevator pitch” twenty-word log line to a dozen people, asking: “am I crazy or is this a terrific idea?” Every one of them responded the same way: eyes wide, and “take my money NOW.”