Sticks

In my previous life, I was a television reporter and anchor. I chased fires and criminals and hounded politicians in an effort to bring viewers the shiniest, most compelling six o’clock news segment in the city of Syracuse. Most times I succeeded. Other times, not so much.

For ten years I chased those criminals and fires. Until the day I got punched in the face by a 15-year-old juvenile who was angry that the man who pleaded not guilty for murdering his aunt, dared utter those words. He didn’t understand due process. So after he and fifty other friends and family burst out of the courtroom in a rage, that angry young man took his frustration out on the first reporter he saw. Me.

That blow to the face was my wake up call. It told me I wasn’t where I belonged. It warned me that the longer I stayed in a place doing work I didn’t really love, the longer I would suffer. So I quit.

I started my journey as an entrepreneur and writer in 2010. I became a professional speaker and author, standing on any stage that would have me, spouting the truth of why we need to ignore the cultural norm of “get a job,” and follow the desires that live inside us instead. In 2014, I shifted my business to become a full-time writer. I dove head first into television writing, hiring a coach and spending time at television festivals and workshops. To support myself, I began to ghostwrite books for others. This is where I am today.

The attached script, ‘Sticks’, is a satiric reflection of that “get a job” cultural norm. This hour-long dramedy tracks the journey of four women in a redneck town who want more out of life, and will stop at nothing to get what they want. While one turns to running heroin across the Canadian border to fund her dreams as a novelist, another contemplates murder so she can set up an alpaca sock company on Cherry Island in the Thousand Islands.

Having spent so many years running away from my own passions, I wanted to create an amusing, but true-to-life series, that would encourage viewers to take the necessary risks (murder and drug-running not included) to pursue the truth of who they are. I wanted to wake them up to the fact that, while so many of us choose to merely exist and settle for less, they don’t have to. It doesn’t matter who they are, where they come from, how old they are, or what they did in the past, they can have, do, or be anything they want.

I am a college graduate. A certified life coach. A mom, and a friend.
I am a business owner. A wife. A dog lover, and a geek.
I listen. I learn. I fail. I succeed.

Writing is who I am and what I am meant to do. Sharing my voice and my stories with the world doesn’t just fulfill my passions, but, when told with fervor and truth, fills everyone else’s, too. I learned a long time ago that not everything is about me. The second I realized that everything changed, and my pen caught fire. The right stories came out. And all was right in my little corner of the world.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit.