I'm taking an online class with this guy who was teaching seminars at the screenwriting conference I went to in LA last November. He also teaches screenwriting at UCLA and is active in selling his own work to Hollywood.

Anyway, one of the homework assignments was come up with a new idea for a screenplay and list the source. I wrote something about Zecharia Sitchin who writes books about aliens seeding the planet earth, and here's the messaage I received back.

"Very interesting stuff, Brenda. I'm familiar with Sitchin, he has a whole series of books on the subject of aliens seeding life on Earth, which happens to be a popular topic in Hollywood development. Unfortunately, the reason these projects are still in development may be because of the present religious climate in the U.S. which may not be receptive to alternative ideas. Food for thought."

So Hollywood is interested in scifi stuff ... I got a good buzz about his message because I'm thinking maybe my story ideas and Hollywood's aren't that far off.

I heard Jimmy Cliff's big hit today, "The Harder they come". Boy does that song bring back memories. I love reggae music! I can't believe I don't own any Jimmy Cliff cds. I love danced to reggae. I still remember that reggae festival I attended in DC in Malcom X park. Dancing to reggae in the hot fall DC sun within blocks of the White House. How cool is that?

I didn't write on Saturday. Actually I didn't do much of anything on Saturday, although I made plans to go out. When I finally got up and dressed, the darn rain would not stop and it was so hard. Not that I care about rain, but it's a drag to be wet. So I sat around and watched the "MI-5" marathon on A&E. I think they call it "Spooks" in the UK. I seem to remember sitting around and watching it last year around this time as well. I love "MI-5", have always loved spy shows and always will.

I loved the ending of the first episode of the new season. This is an only in the UK kind of ending. The head of the Joint Intelligence Committedd (an actor I seem to remember from the Black Adder series) is sitting in a club talking to someone from the PM's government. The head of MI-5 comes in, who is also a member of the club. The JIC guy says to the PM aide, "are you a member of the club, because you're not my guest." The head of MI-5 says "he's not my guest either", so the guy has to leave. The head of the JIC had attempted to take over MI-5 and had failed, but he and head of MI-5 are members of the "club", so despite their recent fight the two remain at least in public cordial friends. It's such a Brit class thing I think. The PM aide who obviously is not of the same class gets shunted aside like trash because class has so much more meaning in the UK. It's the same the same here, but they never show that stuff on TV because the US is supposed to be a classless society. Whatever.

I'm so happy about my writing progress this year. It's going like gangbusters! I finished Chapter 10 today, and I was so happy. I wrote the summary for chapter 10 on New Year's day while waiting for my flight at the DFW airport, and now the chapter is written.

This is new for me; writing a summary of what the chapter is supposed to be about. I usually don't do that, but it's really helped to keep me focus on what I'm supposed to be writing about. And if I get lost in the writing, as I tend to do since I write the chapter in more than one sitting, the summary ends up being a map as what I'm supposed to be writing about.

I even started a rewrite of Chapter 1 since New Year's as well. I edited Chapter 1 on the plane to DFW, and it just was not good. The subsequent chapters read much better, so I decided I needed to rewrite chapter 1. The voice was just not there, as I didn't develop the voice till much later. Since I'm now comfortable writing in the voice, rewriting chapter 1 was easier and I think reads much better. There's a real character now talking.

I'm like, okay the rest of my life kind of sucks right now, but at least the writing part is working. Usually the rest of my life is okay, and writing part sucks, or my life is bad and the writing is bad. It's never been where the writing is better than my life. Is this a good sign? I'm starting to think of myself as a storyteller, and it's a good feeling.

A coworker told me on the elevator on Friday night that it's been a rough week for a lot people. Not me I thought. I've been writing every day since December 31, which is 8 days in a row for me. I haven't done that on my own since I was doing the Nanowrimo back in 2003. I worked four days this week, and would have made it five except the gym was closed on Wednesday due to a power outage. And I have the feeling 2005 is going to be a banner year for me with regards to my writing.

But then reality intruded in my world when I was coming from the gym last night. A man passed out on the second Muni train of the two-car train I was riding. A woman on the train told me that the man had told her that he had taken a bunch of anti-depressants, and then she watched him lose consciousness before her eyes. One of the other passenger called 911 and she came up to my train to tell the driver. And so we had to wait there till the ambulance came to get him. The man who said he overdosed managed to wake up and walk into the ambulance.

I think there is some weird vibrational stuff going on in the world right now. I feel especially protected right now, like there's a gold bubble of light around me and it feels like god has me in the palm of his hands and is protecting me. It's a weird feeling, and something I haven't felt since 2003 after my grandma died. I felt very protected, loved and blessed then.

I'm happy again, and I guess that's all that matters. I still think about the red-haird guy a bit, and I'm pretty sure I haven't heard the last of him, but I'm okay with that. I've decided not to worry about till I have to cross that bridge, because I can't control his actions anyway and only have control over my own actions.

I just wish this rain would go away only because it's so cold. But we need the rain because of the drought everyone was speculating about. Hopefully the rain will alleviate our water problems.