A Working Writer

telling it from the gut...

This is my small contribution to the AWorkingWriter.com project. Much better if you check it out on the actual website. Watch Michael Seitzman, Jack Kenny, Dawn DeKeyser, Jessica Bendinger, and Eva Saks, too. (And some press from the Huffington Post, too...) And, although picketing is on hold through the holidays, don't forget to support, in whatever way you can, the striking WGA members and all the below-the-line folks who have been effected by the strike.

Happy Holidays, folks.

Walking the Walk

Today we walked, danced and cheered our way through 7 miles of Burbank/Toluca Lake studios. It's the most exercise I've had in a year! Our fearless leader Josh Singer kept the 70's tunes flowing, the supportive traffic kept on honking, and we kept putting one foot in front of another, making our way from one WGA-picketed gate to another. It was great to see my Team Jaguar peeps @ Universal Gate One! When my sweetie & I made it back to the car sweaty and spent, we could barely move. Thanks to all the folks along the way with water and treats. (And thanks to Drew Carey for picking up the breakfast tab this morning @ Bob's Big Boy!)

Today was a very visible and vocal show of support, but yesterday I participated in a film project spearheaded by Maria Maggenti and Michael Seitzman called AWorkingWriter.com, that, while more understated, is no less critical to the fight for visibility of writers. Check it out in the coming days to see me and several others talk about what it means to be a working writer. Hey, that's what I moved all the way across the country to do, right? Write.

Indie Film Gate

Top: Bill Condon, Left: John August, Right: Harlan Ellison

I did my time at Universal, then drove over to my own 'hood of H-wood, to represent as an Indie writer. Above pics from today's Independent Writers Caucus rally at Paramont aka Indie Film Gate. My sweetie & I will be lacing up our sneakers for the Striker's Studio Walk-a-thon on Monday!

Strike One!

That's Maria Maggenti & I braving the cold shadow of NBC/Universal on the WGA picket line. It was my first day walking the walk, and I was greeted by the enthusiastically jaded writers of "Team Jaguar" headed by strike captain John Gatins. Buoyed by holiday fliers printed-up and delivered by Justine Bateman (see her Speechless entry below w/her brother Jason), we tramped across the front entrance to Universal City, taking pictures with tourists from China, Australia & Texas. Being a WGA babe, I just soaked up stories from the vets about the last strike, various TV & film set debacles and home lives disrupted indefinitely by the strike. Tomorrow brings Indie Film Gate @ Paramount. I've joined the union at an historic time, so it's time to help make some more history...

Speechless

Unlucky Strike

I proudly joined the WGA at the end of August. Just in time for them to strike. Lucky me. (Can't even break into the biz as a scab *%#!...) And now, "Heroes of the Writers Strike":