It’s with great relief and more than a little exhaustion that I can say, my part of the invitation process is complete. I did the thing.

When I decided to dip a toe into this madness, I set a series of intentions and personal guardrails so that I wouldn’t lose sight of why I believed adapting The Pillars of Dawn was a path I wished to take. I sat on that list of intentions for quite some time, and very nearly decided to walk away all together. After a lot of measuring the outcomes – I realized I owe it to the Muses and to those who have supported, read, encouraged and kept my head above the water all these years to keep going. So, I dug into the intentions and put all my weight on them.

One of those intentions was:
I am delighted to work with those who are delighted to work with me.

No stranger to rejection, I even have a brownie recipe just for such occasions, I knew I’d be stepping into uncharted waters by being the person sending out the attachment request to performers and their agents/managers. Producer (M) said, “It takes about a hundred emails to get a maybe, so don’t get discouraged.” More so that I am a nobody, and because I am doing it personally as the author, with no intermediary as my spokesperson – which will likely get me bumped on principle.

I got rejections, sure. But surprisingly, way more surprisingly, I got more interest than rejection. I got more “check back later” than “absolute no”. More “show me what you have” than “radio silence”. Still a lot of those dropped off, or decided on a no after seeing the package – and yet, many simply asked me to circle back around after X, Y, Z. Several managers of talent I would be happy to work with went half a dozen rounds or more on emails. Which was tons of fun, and really educational. There’s so much I didn’t know about how the gears are pulled and what it takes to nurture those relationships. They have ALL, without exception, been gracious, kind, helpful, and encouraging.
They have all been wonderfully respectful. This is something I was not expecting. In fact, I’m embarrassed and chagrinned that I completely forgot to list that quality within all my intentions, because it is so comfortably prevalent.

A couple of agents took time to write me emails explaining how I could best tweak my approach. While others took time to ask about my work and the trajectory of my goals. Some kindly replied with the reasons for rejection, expressing their client’s regrets and that rejection has nothing to do with my work or my approach but are related to scheduling or full workloads. I am choosing to take it all as a combination of business relationship development, and genuine humanity.

I’m told it doesn’t happen this way. I’m also told not to expect that it will be so easy.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking… that was easy? Holy shit, that was like a hundred emails.

All that said, my role in this part of the equation is over for now. I may do more later when the tides settle, but at this point, I think I broke some inboxes in Hollywoodland, and my plate needs time to clear for the next set of requirements. As I did what I came to do for casting and attachments, the rest will now be up to studios and producers – which is to say, it will have its own reasoning behind it, and likely nothing to do with me.

Speaking of next steps, I’m off to finish writing the episodes for season one. This wasn’t originally the plan, but after a few rounds with execs from streaming services during the pilot reviews, it became more apparent that they’re looking for completed packages, and a couple of them suggested they’d like to see what my author vision was first, before they would bring in a showrunner to re-tweak.

My favorite was the comment, “If they’d just gotten out of George’s way, that last season wouldn’t have been a mess. Maybe we just need to look at what the creator’s long-term plans are up front.”

I assume I know who they were referring to… and a can’t help but agree on that one.

Anywhoo, I had to strip apart the timeline of the books and rethread them anyway, so now’s as good a time as any to re-weave the through points into a new spirit of the story cohesion, and break the singular focus. It was already happening by Scold of Jays, so bumping up that re-thread for a new audience is timely and makes sense to have me do it anyway. I’m already in there. I already know where the payoff points are located. And, it turns out Netflix wants full seasons written before pitch these days. As I’m also eyeball deep in Tangle of Mermaid drafts, it would help to give me an idea where the show is arcing in tandem with the books – so they will stay somewhat aligned.

Just get ‘er done, yo.

My plate is stacked. The consulting producer will be stepping in on a more regular basis to help push my needs and line me up toward the path. He’d like me to find a manager or agent, and he’s provided names, but my plate is just too full to worry about those steps at the moment. Trying to catch up a whole other person on what’s been happening, and where I’m aiming seems like a lot. Just the idea of explaining it all over again makes me want to take a nap. But I can’t nap right now…

…right now, the build is coming on. The urge to craft is itching. Characters are pushing for coverage, and the world of Aria is knocking.
I’ve asked for my asks, and invited those I hoped would join – that’s the best I can do for the moment.
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The rest is in the writing.
See you all on the other side.