I found Stage32 in the fall of 2016 while searching for networking sites. I’d just decided to really go all out to pursue my passions and dreams. I’d taught myself screenwriting in college years earlier when libraries were still a thing. I joined a few other places around the same time and Stage 32 was the place I visited and still visit the most and have made the most connections by far. I think finding your people can add a little extra motivation. I'd really hit my stride and found my voice by the end of that year.

2017 came with some contest placings, including the Nicholl's Fellowship Quarterfinalist for a feature comedy. This got my name out a little, I made a few connections, and gave me a little validation as a writer internally and the confidence to really put myself out there. I started looking around and finding some freelance type work. Stage 32 was there for me and has been a staple go-to for me. Not long after would be my second paying job, a connection with composer Alexander Ace Baker, who I met here on Stage 32.

Looking for help on a different kind of comedy that I hadn't tackled yet. I helped him develop and write his frat humor animated musical series. It continued with a similar scenario. Meeting and chatting with a self-published novelist I met here, Charley Waraday. Exchanging works and he decided I'd be a good fit to tackle his fun book, 5ive Speed. Now, I didn't just have live-action adult comedy scripts I'd been going for along the lines of my Nicholl’s script. I had animation comedy and a dramedy centered late 40s married couples. I kind of started a formula mainly here and in other places like Reddit, Upwork, etc. Finding serious people I can vibe with who had interesting material I could adapt, add to or rework. With more samples and partnership experience, I’d look for and others to work with. Each new script and experience helped me grow as a writer, build up my portfolio and crave more partnerships.

Now equipped with a few different samples I really started learning about writing pilots. I’d also happened to meet some indie comic creators locally and online. Now I was adapting creators indie comics and self-published novels. And getting comfortable writing my own pilots. By early 2020 I have some meetings lined up and my own big plans for the year and beyond which become irrelevant in the blink of an eye. Like many, you're taken out of a comfort zone and forced to reexamine things. With what I've learned about comics and the connections I made, I was confused why it took a global lockdown pandemic for me to say “you can create a lot of this on your own, take the lead and really put your career in your own hands.” From mid-2021 to the present, I've been working with some artists on some comic creations for my own indie comic co. with pilots and pitch decks to go along with them.

One of Our Animated Creations

Late last year I met Dave Finnegan and we hit it off. We even had some kind of small connection. Dave wrote a juggling program in the late 70's and went around the country to get gym classes to implement it as a program and what he described to me is exactly what our gym class did in my elementary school. So that was cool. What was cooler was his latest project an environmental educational workbook and school assembly program he'd been developing for years. He was getting ready to roll out this program in a few schools in Florida, with a wider rollout next fall. I found myself with the new challenge of using the characters he had created for this school workbook and with the theme of environmental awareness coming up with my own narrative story for a potential pilot or just a fun classroom video to go along with it.

During my comic-making process, I stumbled upon visual novel games, studied it, made some friends in that field, and am now in the beginning stages of producing an educational visual novel game to go with the Green Actioneers workbook package one day. Right after finishing up with Dave I linked up with animator/creator Frank Detrano helping him develop one of his IP's, detailed here in his Stage 32 blog.

I met Brimo Morales here at the perfect time in both of our careers. She was just coming off some great contest results for her first script, dealing with very real LGBT material that was close to her. Low and behold I had not long ago finished an LGBT dramedy based on the personal experiences of an amateur writer I met elsewhere. Eventually a month or so later she reaches out to me about this great concept/script she has started. We recently finished a draft of probably my favorite thing right now. An LGBT updated version of "A Christmas Carol" led by a domineering founder of a dating app. Something in million years I would never even think about, let alone now have a good script, already in a few producers' hands. And she’s just wrapping up her film she started filming after we were finished.

I always seem to find connections and coincidences related to what I'm focusing on through Stage 32 one way or another. As I'd been working with one of my artists to develop a rhyming children's illustrated book maybe you can guess what happened next by now. I connected with a motivated children's author Curtis Fulsty posting here looking for help with his book, "The Pressing Monster". We hit it off and have been developing his short illustrated book with him into a feature. And I also get to lean on his knowledge and experience for my illustrated book endeavors.

Currently, I’m in Iowa working with some content-creating friends and will be in and out of town through the summer. Any Stage 32 Iowans feel free to reach out. And getting ready to be a big part of a web series production in my hometown of Rochester, NY with a lot of hungry people with the backing of some local players.

You never know where that path you’re taking will lead and where you will find yourself. When I started my free education in the libraries to become the next great serious dram and comedy feature writer/director. TV pilots were a no-go, according to all the books they were pointless, and the future spec market was still kind of booming.

I never thought for one second as I'd be writing television pilots, a plethora of family material or animation/cartoon scripts. I became aware of transmedia here I didn’t still don’t really know anyone else or other places really talking about it. And a few of my things have taken turns in that direction as well.

Networking, trading feedback, and looking for other motivated creatives that bring different strengths and different perspectives has really helped me. My advice would be to stretch your boundaries and try new things. The more I’ve asked questions and listen to others the more I’ve learned. Sounds simple and it really can be. Like life, I think is a never-ending journey and learning experience.