Turn That Book Into a Movie!

Hollywood loves Adaptations (See? I even capitalized the “a” word.)

The number of Academy Award Winning movies that were once novels, memoirs, comic books, stage plays, etc. is staggering.

A studio executive in the movie industry is more likely to read an adaptation from a successful book than a screenplay with no history of fans and nothing to speak for it.

Even if your book isn't a NY Times Bestseller, it might translate well to screen.

Have you ever thought this?

Me too. 

A few years ago, I attended a Sisters In Crime event at Universal Studios Hollywood that brought together a group of Hollywood’s Who's Who to talk to a select group of crime writers about turning a book into a movie. It was highly inspirational, to say the least. I got to talk to the woman who wrote Batman Forever, the showrunner (boss writer) of Bones, the woman who negotiated Gone Girl for Gillian Flynn, Shari Smiley, and many other big wigs. I came home pumped and ready to find a screenwriter for my novel.

Cut to a year later and I still hadn't found someone to write the screenplay, but I was wondering about writing a script. I attended another conference, this one in my home state of Washington and it was there I met my book to film agent and shortly after that, was offered an option for my 3-book series. Luck had something to do with it, being at the right place at the right time, then having an agent with connections and vision and tenacity had something to do with it too, although the book is high concept.

Before I’d signed the option contract, which is a very long legal bundling of papers to talk about subsequent film deals, merchandising, payment, option length, consequences if the movie doesn’t get made, legal rights etc I was asked by my agent to write the screenplay.

And, because I didn’t want to tell this amazing angel from my dreams that I couldn’t write a screenplay, I started reading everything I could find about how to do such a thing. I read Save the Cat three times, I read the Screenwriters’ Bible twice, I read how to Adapt a Novel to Screen, and anything that was written online that suggested it was possible for a verbose novelist to reduce their 100,000-word book to a mere 100 pages of mostly white space. My agent reassured me that she just wanted to have a spec script in hand. It looked better than having a book in hand with no script.

It took 3 months to polish the script to a blinding shine, but I wrote the thing. There were loads of rewrites, scenes were dropped or rewritten or combined until everyone thought my screenplay of 102 pages sounded marketable. The company who optioned the 3-book series, 5 x 5 Productions, liked the script and set about showing it around Hollywood to draw other producers in to the fold.

Films take a really long time to get made. Many optioned books, or screenplays never see the camera lens and although I know this, I am hopeful mine will. To help the project, I’ve begun looking for investors, actors, awards for the script. At this point I have some interest from a big-name actor but he wants a director attached first. The production company is in pre-production for another book to film project and mine is next. They don’t object to me dabbling in producer-type activities and I’ve been looking for investors to help with the 3-5 million needed. That’s what I’m working on in my spare time between writing books. And as far as awards are concerned, The Dream Jumper’s Promise screenplay won The Los Angeles Film Awards Best First Screenplay, semi-finaled in the Burbank International Film Festival Screenwriting Competition and won Best Feature Screenplay in the Royal Wolf Awards and won the Hollywood Fellowship of the Bigfoot Screenplay Contest. There were other wins, but these were the biggies, the ones I’m most proud of.

I wrote another script from a Christmas Romance novel (these are wildly popular!) and then wrote a TV one-hour pilot, then wrote the book from the pilot, something I don’t recommend. Writing both at the same time was confusing, and it isn’t easy to confuse me somedays.

These days, I speak on the subject of adapting your novel to a screenplay at writer conferences and promote the idea that novelists make fantastic screenwriters, especially of their own work. No one knows the story like you. You already know how to write. Boiling your story down to 45 key scenes that are visually pleasing to carry the story line to a satisfying end is all you have to do.

Go ahead, write a movie.

If I can, you can. 

Want the Power Point to the RWA class? 

email me with this as the Subject:  POWER POINT

kimhornsby@yahoo.com

I'll send it to you by email because I cannot figure out how to put the one drive link in here. Apologies.

Also, join my Facebook page for screenwriting!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/197600128169218

Follow me at my Beach site on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/groups/188081488503196

Or TWITTER where there is a big active screenwriter community 

https://twitter.com/kimhornsby

Try #PipelineWriters on Friday night at 5 pm, PST for a fun mixer of screenwriters!

The Dream Jumper's Promise

 The Dream Jumper's Promise is a Bestselling Novel, Amazon #1 Suspense, #1 Supernatural Suspense, #1 Paranormal Romance and now an award-winning screenplay.

_____________________________________

Publishers Weekly said, "Hornsby has written a fascinating and engaging paranormal romance... believable and richly portrayed"

______________________________________

My name is Kim Hornsby and I wrote the book in 2012, published it under Top Ten Press and it quickly flew to the top of the lists as a bestseller. No one had heard of entering dreams before. Then, Inception (the Christopher Nolan movie) came out and entering dreams was lifted to a commercial height I hoped to benefit from. 

When my Literary Manger, J.D. DeWitt at 5x5 Literary Management asked me to write a spec script for the book, I said yes and promptly started to learn screenwriting. Years later, I teach the adaptation.

The Dream Jumper's Promise was optioned for 18 months but fell out of option, had a shopping agreement with another production company which ended and is now available again. 

Here's what it's all about:

Logline

A Maui Dive Shop Owner is haunted by otherworldly dreams after the mysterious disappearance of her husband and when an ex-boyfriend resurfaces with a preposterous claim of entering dreams, she must decide whether to trust him when he offers to enter her subconscious.

Check out the book site on Amazon (ebook and print)   http://amzn.com/B00AA4FAJC

5 Book Series (Franchise Potential)

Book Blurb

Tina Green's husband is presumed dead from a Maui surfing accident and now she's being haunted by otherwordly dreams. When former boyfriend, Jamey Dunn, turns up at her Lahaina dive shop and offers to help, she can't believe his preposterous claim -- he can enter dreams. As James deciphers her dreams, the mystery unravels for Jamey, Tina, and her best friend, Noble. But secrets, lies, and heartbreak rise to the ugly surface and soon we realize that no one is entirely who they seem. 

One person is an impostor, one, a traitor and one is flirting with insanity.

The LEADS

Locations

Maui - Lahaina Side, Underwater Scenes

Molokai, Underwater Scenes

Kandahar Scene

Carnation, Washington - Farm

The Dream Jumper's Promise - Screenplay Awards

Look Book and Synopsis Available on Request

Stay Home/Stay Safe

I'm not trying to make enemies here but if you don't wear a mask in public, aren't staying home, and staying away from people who aren't quarantined with you, I'm very disappointed in you.
Even if  you live in a place where COVID hasn't really hit hard, all it takes is one silent carrier to infect everyone if they sneeze. Or if they spoke loudly in air space five minutes before you walked through that same space at the store.
Gathering with family members or friends outside your quarantine group expands the possibility you might contract COVID. It might not take your life. You may just be a silent carrier. But you also may pass it along to a vulnerable loved one and consequently be the cause of their hospital stay with a ventilator best friend, or worse.

I've been holed up in my house and backyard since the second week in March along with my husband and two children who are 23 and 18. The only time I've left the property to go to the doctor's, hospital or grocery store, I've worn a 3-layer mask and been fastidious at hand sanitizing and not touching my face. Same with my kids who would rather be out with friends, enjoying summer, dating, partying, being young adults. Can you imagine how hard it is for these diligent young people? They're watching their friends gather at the lake for parties and won't go because they're trying to save their father's life. And be good citizens.
My husband hasn't seen the inside of a store since March but he has seen the inside of the hospital operating room. In May he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma after two surgeries, the first to see inside his chest, the second to take tissue samples. His type of rare cancer is not curable but we're hoping he can live with cancer cells that have invaded the lining of his chest wall, or that the chemotherapy keeps the tumors from growing and spreading. In this time of COVID, we are faced with his mortality. I've gone from not sleeping with worry about us all dying of a virus, to not sleeping from worrying about my husband's cancer.
Long story short, he's been getting his chest drained of mystery fluid since January, waiting for the hospital operating rooms to open back up and was diagnosed with cancer in mid-May. Are we furious that our government did not act on containing this virus immediately so he could have surgery sooner. Of course. But we can't dwell on that. Are we furious that people around us continued life as normal during the quarantine, not taking it seriously. Yes. While COVID took root in our community (the beginning of the virus in America) we waited while his lung specialist was able to get him in the OR to confirm her suspicion of Mesothelioma. Three months, we waited, praying it wasn't what they thought. It was. Stage 3 Cancer.
So when I say that I resent ANYONE not wearing a mask in public because it lengthens the time this country must stay in quarantine and increases the possibility of my vulnerable husband getting the virus, I mean it. I don't care if you don't know anyone in your town or tight circle of friends who's had COVID, or that you truly believe no one in your community has it. You don't know if what you think is true. And just like having to stop at stop signs while driving, we need to be following basic rules and laws to be part of a lawful and courteous community. I liken this mask wearing debate to sitting in a classroom, waiting for a small group of kids to stop talking so we can all go out to recess.
Shut the F up!
Just follow the rules, whether your good judgement tells you differently or not. Stay home, don't have those summer barbecue parties this year and we can all get back to normal sooner. I know you don't know my husband, nor do you care deeply for my kids and if they grow up with a father, but this is what's at stake, people. I'm one of many people with a vulnerable family member. So while you gather with friends and family maskless, we are hunkered down in our house and backyard waiting for you to come to your senses and see what's happening in America. You are contributing to the problem if you aren't staying home, staying safe and masking in public.
When we come out of this nightmare, I will never again trust any friends or family who didn't take this seriously enough to mask up and stay away from other people because you prolonged this by being selfish. Your need to keep life normal was more important than the nations need to get this under control. And indirectly, you put my husband's life more in danger.
The news tells us every day that if we all stayed in Quarantine and wore a mask in public, we wouldn't be the only country in the whole world with millions of cases who can't get the virus under control.
Please consider cancelling that summer party, that book club, the gatherings at church and at clubs that spread the virus to the vulnerable community. Do your part.


KIM HORNSBY is a USA Today Bestselling Author and Screenwriter who lives in the Seattle area with her husband and children and dogs.

Mask Up People!

This world-wide quarantine has been hard on everyone. Some more than others. And we've been finding other ways to see people like on social media, Zoom calls, reading books, watching movies, the last of which make you feel like you're out in the world without leaving your house.

Our country seems to be divided between those who take this virus seriously and those who don't. I understand college kids and teenagers needing to socialize and thinking they're going to live forever because I think they can't help it, but when I see fully grown adults out in public these days without a mask, I have to wonder what their thought process is.
You put me in jeopardy when you walk by me at the grocery store. I have an ill husband awaiting lung surgery who can't get the virus or he'll probably die. I cannot bring this home to him. I can forgive you for thinking you won't get sick but what if you're a silent carrier, have the virus, and are spreading your exhalation droplets all over the grocery store?

OK, let's pretend you don't believe there is a virus.
Can you believe that most of the country understands the science of this and believes there is? And isn't that enough for you to respect your community members enough to mask up when leaving your car in public? It's common courtesy. We are scared of you!

Even if you live in a part of the world where Covid 19 has not hit hard, you are not immune to catching this thing unless you live on an island that hasn't seen a visitor since last November. Consider that.

When I see someone without a mask in public, in among the rest of us staying 6 feet apart and wearing double layer masks, I peg you as inconsiderate imbecile. And a dangerous one at that.
Don't tell me you get claustrophobic in a mask because then you could either stay home from the store and don't take your maskless children and teens, or do curbside pickup or wear a clear face shield that are for sale on Amazon.
Coming into the store, or any business that's open to the public, without a mask, tells me that you are making a statement similar to saying "F You!"
And please don't bring your maskless kids to the store if there is any way you don't have to. It's not like it used to be when Dad got the kids out of the house for an hour by taking them grocery shopping.

Just because our president doesn't wear a mask, does not mean it's acceptable for you. He also tans to within an inch of his life, stares at eclipses and eats poorly. Do you follow his lead on that too?

I haven't heard a good excuse yet for going without some form of mask. Even the poorest people can tie a T-shirt around their faces. So please, people, when you leave the house. If you're going to be within 6 feet of people, have a mask ready to pull over both your mouth and your nose. Both must be covered for you to look like you actually care about your own health and the well being of your community.

Mask Up! It might save one life.

Write That Book!

If you are being a good person of the world and staying home to social distance, maybe now is a good time to tackle that book you've always wanted to write.
As an author, people tell me all the time that they have a book idea and ask how to get started. Are you one of those people? Are you staying home, hunkered inside in a social quarantine? (If you have to go out, be careful and stay six feet away from others.)


Maybe it's time to be creative, make this time count for something creative. If we're in our homes for a few months, organizing cupboards is going to get done and then what? Why not settle in to the laptop and start working on the novel, the biography, the research needed for your non-fiction?

The way I started writing my first novel in 2007 was to Google Search "How to write a novel" and it came up with the Peace Corps 100 steps which I followed. I can't find the site anymore but there are lots of great books on how to write your first book.
Get one on Amazon, start plotting and developing character descriptions and get some words on paper, future novelists. This is how it starts and it just might amuse you and ignite your creative side during some months of staying out of the public.
Have fun!


KIM HORNSBY is a USA Today Bestselling Author and Screenwriter who lives in the Pacific Northwest. For more information, go to her web site www.bit.ly/KimHornsby or Amazon Books site www.bit.ly/kimamzn

New MOODY Book!

I'm in the midst of writing a book in a series that takes a lot of thinking time. The word "Time" is key here because the main character is a time traveler and her antics in the 1850's are so out of sequence that she makes assumptions and declarations all over the place, thinking she knows the end game.
It's confusing, but very fun. And, I'm told that the series is great fun to read.

It was originally written as a TV pilot script. From that, I wrote the first book. That's why each "episode" ends in a cliffhanger of some degree. Have you ever watched a one-hour TV show that didn't end with a burning question to keep you coming back for more?
Plus, it's a series with lots of plot points that need tying up over the long run. Please don't hate me because you love the books and need to find out if Caspian finds his bones and is finally put to rest thereby banishing him forever from haunting the house of the one woman he loves more than life or death itself.

Check it out. The fifth book just came up for presale. May 26th is the launch date. See what everyone is talking about!

MOODY & The GHOST - 4 Book Series (AMAZON)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TW7Z64H/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

BOOK 5 - ANCHORS AWEIGH

AVAILABLE FOR PRESALE AT AMAZON

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084VCQKS9/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

Oscar Opinions

Admittedly, I only caught parts of the Oscars last night but that was enough to have a few opinions.

1. Joaquin Phoenix's speech was too long and I'm now using almond milk for my coffee.
2. If Jane Fonda is against ageism in Hollywood, why does her face look so different, like it's been stretched and the woman wearing the grey hair and sustainable jewelry barely resembles her?
3. Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig should host the Oscars next year.
4. I love Eminem but why?
5. That rap?
6. Natalie Portman's use of embroidery thread was genius.
7. Why do woman need to show so much skin and men cover completely up in formal attire?
8. Brad Pitt brought his mom. Ahhhh.
9. Weaver, Gadot and Larson! And a woman won!
10. No female directors nominated when Gerwig was sitting right there.

I hope you all enjoyed the pomp and circumstance last night at the 92nd Oscars where a woman finally got to conduct the orchestra and did so with flourish and a gold fancy jacket.