The Treasure Galleons is now a REEL Novel

If you haven’t heard, I’ve had a career shift from music to screenwriting (and editing). Several of my screenplays have won awards, but only Hollywood readers get to read them. So I decided to adapt my latest award-winning screenplay into a book, and now...

I’m PUBLISHED! My books are the first titles with Reel Novels Publishing, a unique new publishing imprint for screenwriters.

Last week, I had a great book launch at the book signing with other 1715 fleet authors in Vero Beach where the 300-year anniversary of the story’s true events took place. More book signings are in the works.

This is NOT about making money; it’s about the number of sales. Thus, the retail prices are as low as possible. The more books sold to individuals, the more attractive to a potential investor &/or production company to get the movie made!

Please get your copy ASAP & tell your friends & associates!

All versions of the books are available for the lowest prices from the publisher (w/author signature) at:

http://tinyurl.com/reelnovels-amazon

The Treasure Galleons (in COLOR):

The true, award-winning story about a general’s son who must confront pirates, cannibals and an angry king after a hurricane devastates the family’s fleet carrying $400 million in Spanish treasure.

• A FAST read (175 pages) with 49 full-color images of original artwork! This historical adventure is suitable for all ages, but the reading level is best for 5th grade & up (a lot of Spanish words thrown in). The book version was written in ONE WEEK! But the original story took 6 months of development as a screenplay (+ years of research). Sales of this book all go to making the movie a reality.
• Be sure to purchase the COLOR version! http://tinyurl.com/tg-color-amazon

also...

A Song for Treblaya:

The fate of a kingdom rests on the young shoulders of a peasant girl and her love for a hellion whose disregard for the Testament Scrolls may lead to their permanent annihilation.

• A longer read (431 pages). This Christian/fantasy/adventure/romance is suitable for high schoolers & up. Started in 1988, this took 4 years to complete & is published under my pseudonym (TK Blackburn). 2015 is its first publishing! Again, this isn’t about making money. It’s about making the story available to anyone interested.
• The B&W version will do: http://tinyurl.com/treblaya-bw-amazon

For international delivery, buy from other Amazon vendors:

The Treasure Galleons: http://tinyurl.com/tg-international

A Song for Treblaya: http://tinyurl.com/treblaya-intl

Once you’ve bought your version of either book, be sure to register at the link in the back of the book. You’ll be notified of any book revisions & upcoming titles. My award-winning thriller Evangelina will be published in early Fall 2015.

Tammy Gross, award-winning screenwriter

aka

TK Blackburn, author

ALL BOOK OPTIONS:

The Treasure Galleons:

• full color print - RECOMMENDED - http://tinyurl.com/tg-color - $6.99 
• B&W print (discontinued when supplies run out) - http://tinyurl.com/treasuregalleons-bw - $4.99
• color ebook - http://tinyurl.com/treasuregalleons-ebook - (any format; set your own price!)

A Song for Treblaya:

• B&W - RECOMMENDED - http://tinyurl.com/treblaya-bw - $9.59 
• full color (discontinued when supplies run out) - http://tinyurl.com/treblaya-color - $12.99
• color kindle - http://tinyurl.com/treblaya-kindle - $8.99

The Treasure Galleons - the script - the book - the mini-series!

It's official. The Treasure Galleons is a BOOK!

After winning 8 (actually 9, but I must keep the latest win under wraps for now) awards, including 2 wins, the screenplay has been adapted into a very colorful novella. Chock full of original paintings by the talented Peggy Gross (my mommy), it also sports a wonderful cover painting by Cornish painter Ralph Curnow. The painting also marks the midpoint of the story.

You can order now, or better yet, get your SIGNED PAPERBACK at the wonderful book signing event Monday, July 27th at the very spot where the events happened exactly 300 years ago (Vero Beach, FL).

Hope to see you, but if I don't, be sure to order that ebook. The more copies distributed, the more likely it WILL be made into a MOVIE (or a mini-series)!!

Thanks for your support!

THE TREASURE GALLEONS - ANOTHER WINNER!

For months I've been working with a development producer on an epic screenplay. The historical dramatization of...

THE TREASURE GALLEONS

It's still a work in progress, but a couple weeks ago I decided to get some quick, objective feedback from a few contests (often a cheaper & more effective way to get fast, honest feedback than hiring consultants).

So far I've heard from two contests...

1. Back in the Box: I WON! BEST ORIGINAL FEATURE SCREENPLAY!
2. WeScreenplay International: I've advanced to QUARTER FINALS! (they announce on New Year's Eve)

Ironically, I haven't gotten the wanted feedback yet, but I'd say the placements tell me something!

In a couple weeks, I'll be talking with my development producer about how to proceed with MAKING IT INTO A FILM in 2015!!!

The website for The Treasure Galleons is currently an info-only semi-private site intended to help me lay out the facts (I'm also writing the book version) as well as to give visuals to potential investors & production decision makers. But I'd love your reaction/feedback to it if you have time:

Tammy@TheTreasureGalleons.com

History in the Making

More to come, but let's just say things have gotten interesting since my last post. Four of my screenplays all garnered new interest this past week. That means I have four screenplays to look at with fresh eyes & do some rewrites. That means, as usual, very little time to devote here.

EVANGELINA - A multi-award-winning feature based on true events. A traumatized teen, who is either crazy or psychic, tries to help the victim of an unsolved murder to find peace.
more awards info: http://proofmyspec.com/who-is-reading-my-script.html

UNDER THE WILLOW - A short version of the touching true story of Chicago's strategic & spiritual importance at the dawn of the Civil War. A troubled young man finds purpose for his life when he joins the cause for God & country.

A PIRATE'S CHOICE - An award-winning short about the humble beginnings of a later-to-be famous pirate in the early 18th century.

THE TREASURE GALLEONS - The epic true story of Florida's Treasure Coast... A family endeavors to bring treasure from New Spain to the king in Old Spain despite pirates, mutiny, a hurricane, family tragedy, & much more.

Gotta get to work on ’em, but I'll be back with updates...

PART II: GRAND PRIZE: StoryPros

PART II:

GRAND PRIZE: StoryPros International Screenplay Contest

OK, in re-reading Part I, it's obvious that there is nothing more boring than reading a story with a writer (especially a braggart) as the lead character!

But, this is about writing & it's my assumption no one else is REALLY reading this, so here's part II...

The winning script was completed at a 48-hour retreat put on by the good folks (Signe & Bob) at the Great American Pitchfest (GAPF).

The setting was inspiring for a spooky thriller: the haunted hotel where Stephen King wrote "The Shining" in the Colorado Rockies.

To capitalize on the weekend's theme, I decided to set aside all my historical story projects and work on an idea for a paranormal thriller I'd outlined one weekend after learning about a heartbreaking unsolved murder.

With screenwriting guru Pilar Alessandra to guide us through a day of exercises to get us going, a group of dedicated writers sat in an old room filled with ghost-like vibes, and eked out our outlines and several pages, then for the next two days we wrote...and wrote. Two of us completed our scripts while everyone went away with a strong start.

About a month later we all converged on GAPF to pitch our now complete and polished projects. I had lots of requests.

The next month I took my story to my private critique group and they tore it to shreds. I took the notes to heart and made revisions then entered a couple of contests, just to get more outside feedback.

The feedback was helpful, so I made more revisions/tweaks and entered several contests, again just hoping for feedback & MAYBE a placement.

Apparently those final revisions did the trick. The script has done well in all but one of those contests, winning the grand prize at StoryPros.

Woo-hoo!

Now back to the historical stuff that really floats my pirate boat...

GRAND PRIZE: I won another contest! A big one this time.

GRAND PRIZE: StoryPros International Screenplay Contest

My script was up against about 825 scripts, so it's kind of a big deal.

If I can't brag on my own blog, where can I?

I received notification at the end of a very long & ironic day on December 15, 2013. I had spent the entire day sending prizes for my services for the first cycle of a contest that I had just co-founded: Reel Writers Screenwriting Competition.

When I got the call, I didn't know what to expect since I found a phone call (from anyone) to be an odd method of contact for an online contest. It never once occurred to me that I could have won. In fact, when the very nice guy, Jeff, told me I was Grand Prize winner, I did not believe him. I thought someone was messing with me. When he convinced me it was legit, & that he had personally really loved the script, I had to stop him & ask...which one?

Two of my screenplays were entered in the contest. While I had done some tweaking to make both better, I had actually entered them into the contest for the feedback. It had mildly surprised me when both had moved on to the finals round, but I attribute that to good prose.

I know that I have an advantage over other writers with my good grammar skills (though I'm as susceptible to typos as anyone, & without someone else to edit me, mistakes do happen!). And I do know the "language of screenplay" better than most spec writers. After all, it's what I do for a living - correcting others' prose.

But as a fluid storyteller, I do struggle quite a bit. I fully understand the craft, but it's very difficult to execute.

So it never dawned on me once that I was a serious contender for any prizes! And it was anyone's guess which script had captured their judges' attention.

Shroud of Mystery is the realization of an idea I'd had back when the Shroud of Turin was in the news a lot when scientists had erroneously carbon dated it, pronouncing it a fake from the Middle Ages. It's probably the best original story idea I've ever had. However, turning it into a compelling thriller has been a very difficult process, & frankly, it still needs a lot of work, even if it did make it to the top 4% of the pile.

Evangelina was an idea that germinated a year or two ago after watching one of those dumb paranormal TV shows that try to convince people that there is "evidence" where in the end there always is none. This episode was no different, but there was a storyline that caught my attention. A teen claimed to be communicating with the spirit of a dead girl with whom she identified. It turns out that the dead girl's story is all over the internet, so there's no mystery how the teen got all the details about the dead girl, but what struck me in the story was how that poor girl was murdered 20 years ago, & not only has the crime never been solved, but mediums like these phonies on the TV show have been coming out of the woodwork to keep the tragedy active, dangling hope in front of the mourning family without ever providing any answers.

So I asked: What if a medium turns out to be schizophrenic, truly believing that she's communicating with the murder victim, but never really sure since it's possible she just read about it on the internet & forgot?

Thus, my grand-prize-winning script was born: Evangelina.

I can't end my story about the contest without mentioning the extraordinary way I was able to flesh out my story from idea to script, but I'll save that for next time...

I WON A WRITING CONTEST!

http://idahowritersguild.com/Rendezvous/
1st place for short screenplay.
To read the version I sent to the contest, CLICK HERE!

Gross Dialogue Tip

Trust me - the following is not a commercial of any sort. This is about dialogue, so bear with me for a moment (or just skip down to the very last few sentences if you're in a hurry!)...

“PRO-NRG”

Have you tried this new product?

It was featured in a recent SHARK TANK episode.

Now, in your head, how do you pronounce it?

Some will say “Pro-nerg” as Mr. Wonderful did.

Some will avoid pronunciation. It’s all letters: “P-R-O-N-R-G”

The correct pronunciation is “Pro N.R.G.” Get it? Pro Energy.

So why isn’t it spelled Pro N.R.G.?

ING Direct had fun with this problem in their early marketing, always making it to look as if ING was the end of a longer word being blocked somehow. Meanwhile, they insist now to be called “I.N.G. Direct” - so why are they not spelling it like that!?

The ambiguity and confusion hurts marketing. Ambiguity is not good in marketing and can be disastrous in screenplays.

And clarity is why screenwriters (and novelists) must spell things out in dialogue, including numbers, symbols, initialisms, abbreviations, etc.

But it’s only ONE reason why. In screenplay, the other reason is to keep the truth of the page. One scripted page equals one minute of screen time. Reducing “seventy-five smackaroos” to “$75,000” does not represent the time it takes to say it, and it does not make it clear how to pronounce/phrase it.

Which indicates a third reason to spell out things in dialogue in screenplays: How things are said reveals your character's voice:
mobster: seventy-five big ones
banker: seventy-five thousand dollars
Joe Schmo: seventy-five thousand bucks
IRS form: "$75,000" 

And the fourth reason is clarity. In dialogue, the "IT girl" would be a shout about that girl who possesses the X factor. The "I.T. girl" is the girl who works in the Information Technology Department.

So...

IN DIALOGUE, always spell out your initialisms AS THEY ARE PRONOUNCED: F.B.I., O.K. (or okay), T.V., etc.

Acronyms are a whole different animal. Pronunciation trumps all, so there is NO punctuation: MADD, VISA, INTERPOL, etc.

To be clear when you have a word that could go either way, your actor will know what to do depending on how/if you punctuate: ASAP, A.S.A.P., AWOL, A.W.O.L, R-O-L-A-I-D-S, etc.

A "Gross" Ghost in a Misty Forest

New stuff happening, has happened, will happen.

Screenplays have been completed!

Novels are underway. Non-fiction bios are outlined and ready to go.

But it's not just all about ME and MY projects. It's about other people's work these days.

The more screenplays and books I proof, edit and analyze, the more people I meet who want more help. And I've found I have a knack for seeing the forest despite the trees - when I look at other people's work.

Of course I continue to be blind to the forest when looking at my own trees, so my own work is much more slow going. But that's OK.

We all think we can fix other people's work, but it's not usually true. We often look at something that needs fixing & we end up imposing our own ideas on it.

I would have a lot of ticked clients if I were doing that. What I've been doing is looking at the work before me as completely belonging to its original creator, and figuring out how it can be reshaped to truly meet that creator's vision.

Thus, more "ghost writing" work has come my way, and I must say that I enjoy SOME of it. I've turned down more than I've taken so far. There does need to be a gelling of minds for ghost writing to work. But all of these special requests have sparked the need to expand my range of services, and there's a bunch of new stuff on the horizon.

So, meet Tammy Gross - Proofreader, Writer, Analyst, Ghost Writer AND "other" (watch for updates to the sites...)

ProofMySpec.com

Coverage4Screenwriters.com

GrossProofing.com

Screenplay - DONE! (sort of)

...
Wow - Lesson learned.

Just write the stupid thing!

That's not an American colloquialism. If you're attempting a "first draft" of anything - write it. It's stupid. It's putrid. It's ugly. Just write it.

Once the stupid thing is done, the real work can begin. That's where I'm at now: REWRITING.

Took me two years to figure it out. All the books say to do it, but making yourself "write through the bad" is really, really tough.

On my birthday in October 2010 I finally finished the "puke draft" where I spewed out all the green slime (& some pretty terrific stuff, too) onto the pages. 171 pages. It should be 120 pages. When it's done for real, it will be sleek & GREAT. I hope.

Time to get to the real work now...

Online Resources - a Gross compilation

I was reading an 1888 book about the family of one of my historical characters. In the very detailed description of what a pilgrim girl wore in the 1680s I found the quoted phrase "loose gowu."

What is a "gowu?" I went on an online quest, as I often do. But I did not go to google, as most people would. This was one of those times when I went through the whole journey, as detailed below, only to end up questioning whether the word was a typo in the original text, having possibly meant "gown."

This was perhaps my first unsolved mystery in all my research (about generic data), because usually I need go no further than the following to find my answers...

INSTANT, FREE ONLINE ACCESS:

1. etymonline.com - factual & well researched origins of words and phrases
2. dictionary.com & thesaurus.com - factual & well researched
3. WikipediA - usually well documented, but facts need to be verified, especially with "legendary" info (50% of the info on 18th century pirates is incorrect, citing disputable references). Most other reference sites are stealing from WikipediA.
4. google books - it's amazing how many out-of-print books they have digitized. You can both read the original text & search it online by key words! Text is converted by OCR, so it's hit or miss when searching. You can also read several pages of newer books that have "preview" available, though inevitably the page you really need will often be missing.
5. Amazon.com - actually offers previews of many books, where you can often find the missing pages not previewed in google books. A bit tedious, but worth it for that gem you need.
6. Project Gutenberg - volunteers are digitizing out-of-print historical books & documents. Fallible OCR technology.
7. google maps & google earth - for places, just go look at it! If you can download the FREE google earth software, you'll be amazed what you can see & do. I like to FLY!
8. FamilySearch - detailed genealogies. The Mormons are dedicated to rounding up all of our ancestors. Much like WikipediA, the info here is only as good as what is inputted by well-meaning but sometimes mistaken family historians. So, it's a good starting point for genealogical research, but not the end-all. Refer back to google books after finding some connections.
9. British History Online - very exciting transcriptions from Colonial & British documents dating back to the 11th century. Compiled by dedicated scholars whom I've personally met. Much of the info is free, but for about $40/year you can upgrade to have full access.

For a monthly or annual subscription fee, some other fully accessible online resources include:

INSTANT, ONLINE - FOR A FEE:

1. British History Online - £24/year (approx. $40/year)
2. footnote - $80/year - digitized documents from the USA National Archives - much easier to use than the National Archives websites
3. The National Archives in England - per item fees when specific documents are available/digitized, such as papers from the Colonial Office which are often referenced in British History Online & historical bibliographies (for example, enter "CO 37/10" in the "Go to reference" search box). Online searching here is a bit frustrating. It's much more fun to go to the actual Archives in Kew, England.

If all these fail, just use google & lots of discretion!

For more details on these & more on-site resources, you can check out my July 8, 2009 blog.

Life Happens - a Gross interruption

I don't really get writer's block in the sense of not knowing what to write.

I get life block. The combination of busyness, business, fitness & other "ness"es take over, & suddenly I realize I haven't written anything for over a week. Or two. Or more.

Discipline has always been the dreaded "D" word in my life. The discipline of writing every day has not yet made its way into the elite few things that are my daily habits.

When my writing suffers, my research suffers. And so does my blog.

I think I have a new goal: WRITE EVERY DAY.

As has been said many times, don't worry about getting it right, just get it written.

Columbus Day - a Gross take on Colonial Times

Arguably, the dawn of the modern era was the most exciting point in our world's history as it relates to the world we now live in.

I believe our colonial heritage is underappreciated in art & literature, which is why it's become my passion to research & write about it.

300 years ago, the world was expanding in more ways than any other time. Our predecessors had discovered key things about religion, astronomy, oceanography, colonization, etc. The accumulation of knowledge and discovery put the world on a fast track to adventure unlike any time before. Suddenly, our globe was vast and conquerable all at once.

One aspect that makes the colonial era so exciting to present day historians is its close proximity to today. In the universal scheme of things, 300 years is a blink of the eye. For historical information about centuries previous, we rely heavily on archeology & architecture. But since the 17th century, we find a lot more written documentation to tell us the stories. And it was written on really good, strong Colonial paper!

Because it was so recent, & we feel we can relate to the people who lived in that era, we sometimes scratch our heads over the behavior of our predecessors in those crucial years. When Columbus discovered the Americas, the world's face began to literally change forever. Faces of countless races disappeared from the planet, & some disappeared from history. Entire nations lost without remembrance.

Every single Indian nation that once populated the Caribbean was wiped out by the Spanish, who also went on to obliterate & dilute the Indians in South & Central America, too. Most of the Indians in North America's southeastern territories fell victim to both Spanish & Anglo colonists, the latter earning a fierce reputation across the entire continent in subsequent years.

The face of the land changed, too. The precious natural gems & metals of the earth were mined ruthlessly from the Americas. Millions of years of God's handiwork stripped out of the earth, leaving a scarred & fragmented landscape.

While much of the damage done in the 16th-18th centuries is undoable, so is the progress it catapulted. Never before was the idea of freedom more perpetuated. Time will continue to test its indomitability.

As we continue to enjoy the freedoms of the New World, we simply can't ignore the historic transition that brought our ancestors out of the Old World.

The Net works for networking - a Gross web

The internet is all you need to start up virtual relationships that lead to actual progress in research.

Personally, I can't orally put a coherent sentence together when I'm face to face with people. I go off on tangents with every expressed thought. I am easily distracted by my own words, and all the things going on around me when I'm talking.

But I can put a string of sentences together that make a little more sense when I'm writing. So the internet is perfect for people like me. It's also more efficient when it comes to weeding things out.

Forums are a great resource.

One very good place I find "experts" for my research is the messages boards on the History Channel. Both USA & UK fans come to the site to ask questions & spew knowledge. Sometimes, you get a gem from that.

This is how I met several people who have catapulted me to the next level with my research and my writing. Through a pirate forum, I found out about a book I had somehow failed to find sooner. It was not yet on google books, so it hadn't popped up on my radar earlier. I was able to also find the author's website & start corresponding directly with him to exchange valuable information.

Through a similar forum I found the author of one of the books that has been very helpful in my research. I contacted this author, and now we are negotiating to hopefully someday collaborate on a biography in the future.

Same thing happened on another forum where a published author contacted me after we both posted some corrections, and now we are sharing rare historical evidence with each other to collaborate on my first biography! Pooling our accumulated research & knowledge, we plan to solve a 300-year-old mystery!

The internet can lead to some real-life face time, too.

Meetup.com is awesome. I live by it. Really. Spiritually, physically, intellectually, personally, professionally - it has introduced me to many new actual relationships. Borne out of the 911 tragedy in 2001, Meetup.com connects people by providing a virtual starting point to get people face to face in real life. While researching in London, I was able to meetup & play volleyball in my very limited time there.

After a couple years of benefitting from attending many meetups, I decided to start my own meetup for screenwriters. We meet every other Saturday to read and critique and discuss our scripts & the biz. I've met some fantastic people this way. Some of those people have pointed me to resources I'd missed on my own. Through these resources, I've already had face time with several Hollywood producers and executives!

Networking can put you on to new information. It can open new doors of opportunity. It may help you find someone to mentor, or someone to mentor you, or someone to collaborate with. The possibilities are endless. It may even find you a financial supporter.

If nothing else, networking keeps you thinking & talking about your projects. It keeps your enthusiasm level high enough to keep the project buoyant. How many really cool projects have sunk into the forgotten ocean of death just because you lost your passion? Networking keeps them afloat.

Intelligence, sincerity, authenticity. These are some of the qualities you need to develop for successful networking. A degree of diplomacy will take you very far. Don't push. Don't back down. Balance it out.

I'm still learning the art, but I've already learned the benefits.

Researching - a Gross guide to Primary Sources

Gathering accurate information requires tenacity. To decipher crazy 300-year-old writings, you must first find them.

The now old joke "if it's on the internet it must be true" rings ironically cautionary for historical researchers. Pretty much everything I've ever found on the internet about the pirates I'm researching has proven false.

The only way to get at the fascinating truth is with Primary Sources. Transcriptions are not only rare to find, but they're fallible - made by humans or by OCR scanning. For accuracy, the original pages are what you need to lay your eyes upon. Even the original pages will have contemporary errors and false information, but for now, concentrate on getting your hands on those primary sources. Investigating their content comes later.

There are many places to find primary sources, & I've learned about all of them the hard way (see my first June 2009 blog). To save you the heartache, danger and expense, here is a simple "how to" formula:

1. Free online searches, which lead to...
2. Free online sources (digitized originals)
3. Fee-based online sources (digitized originals)
4. Online library searches, which lead to...
5. Visit local libraries (publications & multimedia)
6. Visit regional/university libraries (digitized collections)
7. Visit regional historical societies (original documents)
8. Visit national archives (original documents)

Online Resources:

Search engines - NOT a Primary Resource:

Sure, you can search google, but 99% of what you find will be bogus hearsay. If you get lucky, your results might link to a source image, or maybe the Project Gutenberg (sloppy transcripts by volunteers). There are very few primary sources available in a google search. Wikipedia is NOT a Primary Source. Dictionary.com is a great place to seek out the origin of words, including the year it first appeared in the English language, but it is NOT a primary source. Encyclopedias are NOT Primary Sources.

Forums are a better resource than you might think. Often in the forums you'll find an expert or two in the field who posts corrections to the misinformation. When possible, directly contact the so-called experts to see if they can help you verify the information & lead you to the primary source.

Primary Sources Online:

Google Books (free!) is the best place for every book ever published from the 17th century to today. Books written ABOUT your subject are not primary, though their citations and bibliographies will point you in the right direction. Older uncopyrighted books are available for full preview, totally searchable. Newer copyrighted books are often available in partial preview, where you can search the text & preview a lot of pages.

With every book listing, there is a list of links to find the actual book. One link is almost always to Amazon, and another link is usually to WorldCat...

WorldCat (free!) is the global catalog via which all libraries network. I say "all" loosely. Certain important organizations such as your local historical society or the American Antiquarian Society do not show up in any results, which is disappointing. However, your local library & most other libraries throughout the world are linked when you search for phrases or book titles. It's a very cool resource that keeps you from having to search separate library catalogs.

Depending on what you're researching, the possibilities are endless. For my purposes, there are special places I can go to such as British History Online. It's free for much of the content, and about $60 per year for unlimited access to everything they have. The transcriptions are impeccable, and citations make all of it verifiable. I've met the people who do the transcriptions (Institute of Historical Research @ University of London), and they're very dedicated to the work.

The National Archives catalogue has digitized a large number of documents relating to both British and Colonial history. For a per-item fee you can get pages to many historical documents without flying to England.

Another resource worth mentioning, especially for genealogists, is S&N Genealogy Supplies. The reasonably priced data CDs provide text-searchable digitized registers, maps, etc. from the UK dating back to the 1500s - when King Henry VIII was alive!

The Mormons have been meticulously collecting global genealogical information which you can search free online at Family Search.

Exclusive Resources:

Digitized Collections:

The coolest primary resources are digitized collections. The documents don't quite come to you, though. You have to meet them half way. If you're remote from a major city, you'll need to travel. Many colleges & universities, plus some big city libraries, subscribe to the collections. I'm in Orlando, but I have to travel about 2 hours to gain access in Tampa, Gainesville or Boca Raton because the local colleges don't have the funding to subscribe to these pricy collections.

The New York Library lists most of the collections invaluable to an historical researcher. My personal favorites for digitized original documents:

• America's Historical Newspapers
• Early American Imprints (Evans)
• EEBO (Early English Books Online)
• ECCO (Eighteenth Century Collections Online)

&

• JSTOR (articles with good citations/bibliographies)

Original Documents:

At some point, you may have to travel all the way to an archive housing the original documents you seek. It's a thrilling experience to touch, see and smell the pages handwritten by people like George Washington, Patrick Henry, Henry Morgan, the Duke of Marlborough, Robert Walpole, etc.

To save you the pain of learning the hard way how to do on-site historical research, I beg you to buy a plane ticket and travel to the middle of Massachusetts to visit the American Antiquarian Society. In your first 30 minutes, you'll learn more about the process than you'll ever discover at another archive. And you'll most certainly find a lot of the documents you need there, be it American, Colonial, British or genealogical.

Once you've learned how to navigate your way through an archive, you can visit other archives and historical societies relevant to your research, from the massive National Archives in Washington to your local historical society in the basement of an old house.

Before you go:

Comb your hair. Many archives will take your picture and hand you a badge. They may even fingerprint you and grill you about your research credentials. This usually happens at Ivy League school libraries. You might need to carry a letter from your publishers, course instructor or whoever is commissioning you. If there is no such person, you might find yourself denied access. This is very rare, but it's a reminder that you should call every archive you plan to visit before you go to ensure that their online info has not changed. Just because their website says they're open, they may be closed for renovation or may have changed their access rules. Check out their requirements.

You'll want to take a few important types of modern technology with you:

• Digital Camera
• USB flash card
• Laptop computer
• A pencil
• 2 pieces of photo identification

Most places you visit will allow for digital photography, perhaps with a page limit. Others will be very strict and not allow cameras, forcing you to pay for photocopies, which adds up. The British Library has awesome resources, but their camera policy ruins it for researchers. An hour tube ride (train) to Kew at The National Archives opens a brilliant world of research freedom where cameras are welcomed and documents flow through a well-oiled machine of caring historians. It's like research heaven.

Bring a translator with you if you must go to national archives in a country where English is not the official language. My research took me to The Hague, in The Netherlands. People in Holland speak English better then you or I, but their records are in Dutch, and their computers are not online to do onsite google translation (a great tool btw).

And hire an English speaking driver. While they drive on the right side of the road in Holland, their street signs are all 15-letter words in tiny print on little signs set far off the curb - and they don't have odometers in their rental cars (making it difficult to follow directions on a map). In British colonized countries, such as Jamaica, Tanzania, The Bahamas or India, they drive like maniacs - on the wrong side of the road!

No matter where you go, treat the documents like the treasures they are. As you read an article in the pen of Benjamin Franklin, you get a sense of the awesome responsibility we have to preserve the documents for future generations.

Too much trouble? You won't think so once you've done it.

There's nothing in the world comparable to blowing 300-year-old dust out of your nostrils at the end of a long day perusing original documents.

So, don't forget to bring some Kleenex, too.

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Formatting - a Gross necessity

Music & Screenwriting are specific crafts. Creative. Confined, yet Freeing...

To write a song, you learn the basics: radio play is about 3-1/2 minutes. Standard format is Verse-Chorus-V-C-Bridge-C-C. Within verses you follow a meter. There is a type of crescendo for the chorus. The bridge presents a new theme.

You can stray from the format, but the structure is always basically there.

Same for screenwriting. You have 2 hours to tell your story to an easily bored audience. There is a definite format to storytelling: Act I, Act II, Act III. In Act I certain things must happen (inciting incident). In Act II a set of problems must occur. There is a climax and resolution that must happen in Act III. Each page of the script equals about one minute of film time, so 120 pages is your max.

120 pages to tell a 300-page single-spaced story!!??

The craft is more important than anyone not in the biz believes. We've all seen the movies that make us scratch our heads. What idiot producer OK'd that disaster? But more often, especially in recent years, the fierce competition has elevated the storytelling to a higher level.

I'm glad to know the format. I'm glad to know the limitations. I'm even glad for the competition that ensures I'll tell the story in the best way possible.

I'll be glad when my screenplay is finished!!!!

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Screenwriting - a Gross start

Gross means "grand" or "big" in German. Only in recent decades has it taken on other meanings.

I like to do things in a "gross" way (Germanically speaking).

I may not be 100% qualified (yet) to be an authority on screenwriting, but I am definitely qualified to share the ups & downs of the process.

I got my gross idea a year ago - exactly. In June 2008, my sister and I surprised my Mom for her birthday by 1) showing up at her door, and 2) driving her down to a favorite destination in Key West.

We made our first visit to the pirate museum. It was there that I learned about & fell in love with the lady pirates. Yes. There were real lady pirates back when Blackbeard plied his trade.

Immediately my brain went to work on the visuals. Why was there no movie about these hellcats of the sea?

The next 12 months would answer that & a zillion other questions that continually pop up.

Since then, I've been to the archives departments of the Bahamas, Jamaica, UK, Netherlands, & every city & colonial town along the Northeast Coast of the USA. In one week, I "attended" Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Brown - & another week took me to every library between St. Augustine & Cape Cod.

Now I know how to breeze through 300-year-old writing, which holds many challenges to any modern reader, & I've learned how to pack a computer, printer, paper & other office essentials into a carry-on size suitcase, which also holds all my clothes & toiletries. It's a skill.

Most screenplays don't require (or deserve) such dedication, but this one is special. When I get my way, there will be sequels & books & websites. So far, I've found that a lot of people are interested in this subject, but very few have ever dug far enough to find the real facts. They are elusive. But the "facts" you'll find online are definitely not reliable. Don't even bother looking them up. Misinformation is what you'll get. Wait for the movie. My movie. It'll be the most fun historical lesson you've ever had.

Until then, I'll blog about the process. I've had an adventure, including getting drunk for the first time (in the name of research!) & actually having $1,500 pirated from me by direct pirate descendants - all in one day. I was chased by modern hurricanes & floods, & a few 300-year-old fires have blocked my path several times in the quest for historical fact.

Putting the story together about fascinating, real people is a process as fascinating as the subject matter.

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https://www.proofmyspec.com/blog/screenwriting-a-gross-start