My first novel, “Beatrice Clover,” was published on Amazon on November 24, 2021. Thanksgiving Day.
The first words in the novel were written four years earlier.
This is the story of how the book came to be published.
“Beatrice” wasn’t the first novel I’d written (and far from the first I attempted). Like so many writers, I have cobwebbed computer files of different books in various stages of incompletion. I had finished a couple of manuscripts, but ultimately never they were good enough to be published. My background is as a tv executive, producer and screenwriter. As a screenwriter, I have cobwebbed computer files of scripts that were never made. ‘Unproduced’ we call them. My first attempt at writing a novel was turning one of these pilot scripts into an entire book. Unfortunately, some difficult personal circumstances intruded during the book’s writing, so I abandoned it. I attempted others but never felt I was writing anything that moved me.
In the case of Beatrice Clover, I wanted the freedom to write something that I would want to read. Because of Amazon’s platform, writing and indie publishing a book now seemed the best way to do that. I had a vague idea about two sisters who shared a traumatic event in their past that they each remembered differently.
I originally intended to write the book as a true “frame story.” I wanted to tell the story of these sisters through a series of short stories with an ongoing police investigation serving as the frame story. I’ve always loved a good short story. However, I find most collections at best contain one or two excellent stories, one or two pretty good ones, and then a bunch that are utterly forgettable. I thought it would be great to write a novel of short stories connected to the larger frame story, making each one at least a little more compelling because they would all connect in the end.
I started writing and soon had about 24k words.
At the time in 2017, I was under a writing-producing deal with Blumhouse TV. They had bought a pitch from me, and the deal we made expanded to include my work as a producer. Part of this work involved consulting on Blumhouse tv shows in development. I consulted on “The Purge,” the tv series of the popular movie franchise, which aired (still airs, I think) on USA Network and Syfy. Now it’s probably on Peacock (NBC universal’s streaming platform).
I also executive produced a pilot for them that fall, which we shot in LA, called “Run For Your Life,” created by a pair of talented filmmakers, Chris Cullari and Jennifer Raite. We shot the pilot mostly at night all around Los Angeles in November. We shot at an old police station, an abandoned factory, and in the LA River (well, next to it anyway, under the freeway)
At the same time, my wife and I had just had our second baby, our daughter Madelyn. Between the responsibilities at home and work, I couldn’t find the time to write “Beatrice, “ so the manuscript never progressed further. The novel was relegated to that bottom shelf in the back of every writer’s brain where ideas that may have been once-and-future books sit gathering dust. The project took a turn late on a Thursday evening, heading into a holiday weekend, when the Co-President of Blumhouse Television took a phone call from the head of programming at Hulu.
Blumhouse has lots of companies that want to be in business with them. One of those companies at the time was Hulu. Prior to my deal there, Blumhouse had pitched Hulu on the idea of a limited series of low-budget horror movies where each movie was set around a holiday. The call that evening from Hulu had been them eagerly asking, “when can we see something?” The thing was, the show still only existed as the concept Blumhouse had pitched months earlier: Horror movies linked to the holidays. It was fitting then that we ended up discussing this show idea in a windowless conference room before a holiday weekend when the BHTV Co-Pres brought this up to the group of us in the conference room. There may have been a bottle of tequila going around.
The Co-President wondered whether there might be a pile of “busted” movie scripts from the Blumhouse features team that the tv group could repurpose for this Hulu project. (never a good idea).
Fearing that we would be stuck in that conference room for several more hours — or maybe I was just tired — whatever the reason was, I said that I had an idea.
I proceeded to pitch the opening scene to my novel, but as a frame story for the Hulu show. The co-President heard this and ran out of the room to call Hulu and set what would be the kick-off meeting for the show that eventually morphed into “Into The Dark” on Hulu (which does not include my idea, and is simply stand-alone movies as initially conceived.)
But then it was a new year, and I found myself at my Hollywood agent’s office meeting with him and his junior agent. When I was coming off my Blumhouse, my agent asked me what I was working on, and I told him a couple of my tv series ideas, which seemed promising. Then, I mentioned that I started writing a book in an off-handed way. As a tv agent, that wouldn’t usually interest him, but he asked what the book was about, so I pitched him the basic idea and the opening scene. His eyes lit up, and he immediately said, “you need to pitch that as a tv show.” Now, the thing you need to understand about pitching in Hollywood is that you're looking for any confirmation what you're doing might work out result in a sale. So if your agent — who tends to be skeptical of most ideas — gets excited about one of yours, it's a good idea to pursue that idea.
So, ultimately that’s what I did.
After not renewing my deal at Blumhouse in March 2018, I spent the rest of that year pitching Beatrice to producers. People were intrigued but not sure what to make of the frame story, as well as the fact that the main character would be missing for a good part of the season (mind you, she would appear in flashbacks which is where much of the story lived, but hey, that’s Hollywood think for you).
For a while, I couldn’t get any producers to bite. Then I was introduced to Michael Mcdonald. A former ABC executive who had his deal and his company, Stearns Castle.
Michael took a meeting with me in September, along with his junior executive, another great guy named Tommy Benjamin. They immediately got the premise and liked it. However, they wanted to hear the pitch one more time, so we arranged another meeting in early October. They “bought” the pitch. Which doesn’t mean I was paid anything, only that they were interested in developing the idea with me and taking the pitch out to market. Still, I was very excited. Getting talent attachments (Showrunner, Writer, Producer, Director) is a big step towards selling a show.
Unfortunately, I found out that despite everyone’s enthusiasm, they would be unavailable for the rest of the year. Michael had a production he was finishing up, so we agreed to meet in the new year (2019) and resume working then.
I spent the holidays tinkering with the pitch and beginning to think more about the story, which when I was writing it as a book, I was making it up as I went along. I am a “pantser” (I write by the seat of my pants), though I prefer the term “discovery writer.” It’s sort of like being your own book’s first reader. However, in television or movies, where millions of dollars are spent and other very talented artists and craftsmen are lending their talents and steering their careers towards a project, you can’t be a discovery anything. You have to know where the season is going. This is not merely a money issue. It’s a necessity in order from a production logistics point of view. Practically speaking, production designers and set builders need to know what sets their building, location managers need to understand what types of locations to scout, customer designers need to know what style of wardrobe/costumes to design, for who and how many….you get the idea.
So by the time 2019 rolled around, I had some time to work on the idea and felt even more confident about pitching it.
Michael called and said he wanted to hear the pitch again. He had some questions he’s been thinking about over the holiday break.
So I drove out to Burbank where the ABC Studios (Disney) lot is located. This is where Michael’s office was, I went and pitched him and Tommy Beatrice again.
Michael, to his credit, repeated his enthusiasm for "my “Beatrice” pitch, and said that he would send along any additional questions or notes they had shortly. I left his office and strolled down the tree-lined brick path walking past the old animation building office feeling pretty good about working with Michel and Tommy and bringing the project to market early in what is customarily thought of as “selling season” (despite selling being an all-year sport nowadays).
A few days later, I got a call from Michael, who said that he wanted to give the pitch to a writer-showrunner he knew to get that person’s take and see if they had any questions Michael and Tommy weren’t thinking of. He didn’t say who this person was, but I remember getting off the phone feeling a little deflated.
I didn’t hear anything back from them for a few weeks. Then the phone rang, and it was Michael. He sounded excited. He proceeded to tell me that he had sent my pages to John Ridley. This would be John Ridley, the academy award winner who wrote “12 Years a Slave,” wrote the original script for “Three Kings”, and created and Showran his series, “American Crime: which aired for two seasons on NBC and which he had produced with Michael.
Michael told me that he always sends pictures he's working on to John. Typically, John either doesn't respond or responds with a simple “good luck.” However, in the case of Beatrice, when he read my pages, he called Michael and told him that this was the kind of show he wanted to work on. “He’s willing to attach himself to the project if we want him,’ Michael told me over the phone.
If we want him?
Um…yeah…I’d say we do.
I told Michael that I thought Ridley would be an unbelievable partner on the show. Michael told me he would set a meeting with John. That meeting took a month to happen because Ridley was off working on another project.
When we did meet the following month, John was just the coolest guy. He was obviously intelligent and insightful as a writer, but his whole approach was that of a guy who loved a good story, who loved the movies and who told me that “Beatrice” was the kind of show he wanted to work on.
To say I was thrilled would be an understatement. Every writer likes when someone pays their work a compliment, but when that person is an Academy Award winner who’s written some of your favorite movies, it’s a huge uplift.
Michael and Tommy were equally excited.
To make a long story short, the pitch didn’t sell.
I took it to Disney and pitched one set of executives who were excited about the idea, said they wanted to do it—then they all got fired.
After waiting several more months to re-pitch “Beatrice” to the new team of executives who were heading up the studio arm of Disney where we were pitching the show, I pitched the heck out of the show. John and Michael seemed to think so, but having sat where they were sitting in pitches where I was the producer, the truth is you never know. What you might think was a great pitch doesn’t sell, and something you figure has no chance does.
Ah well, there’s no business like show business.
I would likely have ended 2019 on a down note (though I am generally an optimistic fellow), but I had far bigger things on my mind: namely, the birth of my son.
If you’re looking for ways to pass the time while you wait to bring your pitch to market in Hollywood… Be fruitful and multiply…and pray for a straight-to-series order.
Invigorated by my status as a “hat trick father,” but facing the reality of three where before there were two for my wife and me to feed and cloth, I pledged to myself to make 2020 my most successful year.
My first order of business was to get “Beatrice” sold somewhere else. Neither John Ridley nor Michael could stay with the project since they were both under exclusive deals at the studio. This meant the project was essentially back at square one
By this point, I didn’t have much desire to bring the pitch to a new round of producers; that had taken nearly five months. That was too long, I thought. Instead, I simply wanted to see if a network or streamer buyer would be interested in buying the pitch directly from me, without all the bells and whistle attachments. I had worked on the pitch over the break and was confident in my ability to sell the pitch, despite not having a Showrunner like Ridley and producer like Michael attached.
But this is Hollywood. We love a come-from-behind-to-win story.
Invigorated, I set up several pitches for myself with buyers. The pitches were all set over a week to a week. The first one was on Monday at Netflix. The pitch went great. I got a call that they were interested in the project. Then I pitched Fox and HBO. HBO wanted the project. I called back Netflix exec, and told her the news. She said she wanted the project.
I was riding high, looking at two potential sales heading into my next pitch, which was at Amazon. The date was Thursday, March 12th.
I showed up for my pitch feeling ready to sell and maybe get a couple of buyers competing for the project. I walked into Amazon offices in Culver City. I remember it was a gray overcast day and pretty cool by Southern California’s standards. I checked in at the front desk, where the receptionist called up to the exec’s office. I saw the look on her face change. When she hung up, she said that the exec’s assistant was on her way down to see me. The receptionist explained that the executive had called in sick.
A few moments later, a very lovely assistant met me in the lobby and told me what the receptionist had said. Her boss was out sick. She wasn’t very sick she told me but said, “What with everything going on, she thought it best to stay home.” It was then I noticed that the receptionist counter was lined with bottles of hand sanitizer.
I was bummed about the pitch having to be reset. Mostly because I worried this would screw up the timing of the other buyers’ interest in the pitch. But I couldn’t do anything about it. So I thanked the assistant and said I would see them all soon, then headed out the door with an hour to kill.
Now, as I mentioned, my son had been born a few months earlier, which meant that my house was a bit of a raucous madhouse. So I’ll admit I wasn’t too bummed about having some quiet time to myself.
I decided to do something I rarely got to do since having kids: grab a coffee and read the paper. I walked across the Culver City promenade to a Blue Bottle Coffee. I walked in and immediately noticed the bottles of hand sanitizer. I started to get a bad feeling. I ordered a coffee and went to sit at an outside table. I opened the news app on my phone and read the day’s stories. I kept getting a bad feeling as I sat there on that cold, steely gray day. I left without finishing the news or my coffee and went home afterward.
The next day was Friday, March 13. The last day things were “normal” before the government shut down everything.
By that following week, everything had stopped. No offers materialized for my show. Nothing materialized—except for lockdowns and shutdowns, as we all hunkered down for “two weeks to flatten the curve.”
(If this were a Hollywood movie, there would be a hard cut here to:
TITLE: “Two Years Later.”)
What did I do during these two years at home?
I began writing the novel again.
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