TV Writer.Com Message Board

Know how the world has all these rhythms? Regularly occurring events
like Spring being followed by Summer and that kind of thing? Well,
my life has a few of those regular occurrences too.

One of them, it turns out, is heart attacks.

32 and a half years ago, I had the massive MI I've written about
in various places. (Hey, it's all grist for the writer's mill, no?
And any tragedy you walk away from is an adventure.)

In mid-January, I had another MI 32 and a half years after the
first. To me, this is both horrifying and cool. If not for the pain
and other consequences I'd be spending hours and hours analyzing and
puzzling and trying to figure out why I'm getting these regularly
scheduled wake-up calls. Who or what set up the timer? Why? When?
That kind of thing.

Okay, you caught me. Obviously I am putting in those hours. I've
gotten some answers too. Mostly in dream time, where I've had to
confront my past, present, and future, my dead parents and former
friends and lovers, my enemies too. But the Secret of the Universe
now is mine, and one day soon I'll have the courage to share it.

Two days after my MI, I had quintuple bypass surgery. As of this
writing, I've been home from the hospital for 12 days. Some of those
days have been horrific, infused not only with pain but with a sense
of helplessness that left me afraid to take the next breath. After
bypass surgery the most important thing for the patient to do is NOT
use his or her arms to push himself up or lower herself down from the
bed or chair. And guess what? We all use our arms for that purpose
without even being aware of it.

Fortunately, I have good abs.

And they're getting better with usage every day.

But the feeling of being an overturned turtle haunts me, especially
when the lights go off.

In addition to consequences so personal that they seem cosmic to me,
my health has had an effect on good ole TVWriter.Com. I've had to
cancel the Online Workshop, various telephone Mentorship Sessions,
and website updates.

I've also had to take on the process of rethinking the entire way we
do business. That word "we," for example. For over a decade the
TVWriter.Com family of sites and services has presented itself as a
kind of "internet empire," teaching and advising and running contests
and raking in the bucks to pay for its multitude of associates,
employees, and professional advisors.

And, yes, we've always had associates, employees, and professional
advisors. But for the most part they've been volunteers, helping out
yours truly, Larry Brody, the One-Man-Internet Writing-Band. The
reality of this "empire" is that it's a small, cottage industry, a
hobby for which I've always had Big Dreams.

It's been very successful on many levels, helping talented people who
otherwise would never have a clue about the real rewards and demands
of writing professionally hone their craft and their outlook and get
started on satisfying careers.

(How do you know if a TVWriter.Com-er has "made it" as a pro? The
simplest way is to see who's no longer posting on the Message Board.
Because once new writers are working in the biz most of them no
longer have the time or reason to ask all those questions. Or,
often, to answer them as well.)

The bottom line is that TVWriter.Com for the most part has been and
is, now more than ever, me. Giving any piece of myself I have to spare
because, God help me, I know what it's like to be gifted and lonely
and insecure and would give anything I could to prevent others from
having to feel like that.

The giving has taken a bigger toll than I thought. I want TVWriter.Com
to continue but will be consolidating the site in order to make it
more manageable by one slightly crazed do-gooder out to rescue his
karma before it's too late.

This means that I'm going to take at least the month of February as
easily as I can and give myself time to recover properly from the
surgery. It also means that I'll be relocating to the West Coast for
awhile to be closer to friends, family, and medical facilities that
can save me from myself the next time I overextend.

On a pragmatic level, this translates into the following:

1) THE TVWRITER.COM ONLINE WORKSHOPS

The Advanced Workshop will continue to be suspended until the first
week in March, at which time we'll finish off the session that was
in progress and schedule new ones. Ditto the Basic Workshop, which
has only the last class meeting remaining.

2) THE TVWRITER.COM CONTESTS - THE PEOPLE'S PILOT & SPEC SCRIPTACULAR

Both the PP and the SS were scheduled to close February 1st. Due to
my inability to publicize the closing days of the contests because
of my health and my anticipated inability to judge or preside over
judging until I'm feeling a whole lot better and clearer, the contests
will remain OPEN UNTIL JUNE 1, at which point we'll make them an
annual rather than biannual occurrence Frankly, I'm hoping this will
attract more entries than we usually get and enable us - okay, I mean
me - to use the additional income to up the value and number of
prizes.

3) CONTEST FEEDBACK

As of now, I still haven't written about 20 Feedback reports due to
entrants in the PP and SS which ended back in August. Unfortunately,
I'm not going to be able to get to them in the foreseeable future
either.

A TVWriter.Com Empire would simply authorize refunds and that would
be that. But the TVWriter.Com Cottage Industry doesn't have the money
that would make that possible. It was spent on the previous contest
and its prizes. TVWriter.Com will, however, apply the first $40 of
everyone's $60 payment to an entry into the current or any future
running of either the PP or the SS. In addition, everyone who ordered
Feedback will receive a free PDF copy of TELEVISION WRITING FROM THE
INSIDE OUT, which sells for $22.95.

Believe it or not, I'm doing you a big favor with this offer. My book
is generally considered the finest one out there on TV writing, and
it'll make you see your writing and career goals in a whole new and
more realistic light.

(NOTE TO THOSE WHO'VE ORDERED FEEDBACK FOR THE CURRENT CONTEST:) My
intention is to honor those orders (since there are so few of them)
and deliver that Feedback as planned, after the next Winners are
announced. However, no further orders for Feedback will be taken.
Regrettably, that option is discontinued as of now.)

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings. I hope this covers everything
because I'm too tired now to think or write any more. And, hell, I
need to keep up my energy, not merely to heal from the World's Most
Aggravating Operation, but also to be able to continue answering
everyone's questions on the TVWriter.Com Message Board (and jump
into writing my column/blog, "LIVE! FROM PARADISE!" again).

Thanks for reading this incredibly long message, and for all the
good wishes I've received. When I say LYMI, I truly, truly, truly
do.

LYMI,

Larry Brody

TVWriter.Com
Good writing means better TV (& a whole bunch of other wonderful
things too)

And now, a preview of an e-mail going out to the TVW mailing list tomorrow: