Today we heard back from Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting. We did not place as a quarterfinalists, but were very thrilled to place in the Top 15%. With  over 7,000 scripts, we did  better than around 6,250 of them with our first script, Allatoona Lake. Congratulations to the 372 Quarterfinalists. Looking forward to watching your stories on the big screen one day in the near future.

We completed our first short script, Crux, last month and decided to send it in to a few screenplay competitions that accept short scripts. Just received some judge's feedback on it today. Here's an excerpt of the review.

Keeping our fingers crossed that we might place as a finalist.

Mark's short screenplay, By the Water, was selected for the 2013 Spring Endowed Film at Regent University.  We're excited to see the final production.

Logline: Bryant a once aspiring writer must come to terms with his divorce and his so far unrealized writing dreams. After an uncomfortable encounter with his ex-wife and a chance meeting with Grace, a potential romantic interest, Bryant begins to heal.

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Mark started pursuing his MFA in the spring of 2010 and he's hoping to be done in May of 2013.

Our first screenplay, Allatoona Lake, placed as a Quarter-Finalists in the 2012 Zoetrope Screenplay Contest, a competition founded by (The) Francis Ford Coppola, who also serves as a judge.

We are stoked to say the least! This our first validation that we actually might be good at this as we beat out nearly 2,500 other scripts. This has encouraged us to return to our Neowestern/Crime/Drama screenplay and push it to the next level. We hope this is only the beginning...

Logline: To keep his business afloat, a struggling gun salesman exploits his community's fear of a neighboring serial-killing spree.

Just received some judge's feedback on Allatoona Lake from the Slamdance Screenplay Competition. Mostly positive, but we won't find out if we placed as a finalist until September. Here's an excerpt of the review:

What's not to like about that?

Today we heard back from the first screenplay competition we entered in to... and we were rejected. The screenplay competition was the Tony Cox Screenplay Competition via the Nantucket Film Festival. We were somewhat disappointed, but not discouraged. Mark and I both read Stephen King's On Writing, and we both loved the story of his initial rejection letters. When Stephen King was still developing his craft, he entered his stories into numerous magazines and was rejected one after another. He saved all of the rejection letters and pinned them to his wall with a thumbtack. Soon he had so many rejection letters he had to replace the tack with a nail. Then he  had to replace the nail with a stake. With each no, he was one step closer to the yes. 

We are no Stephen King, but we're happy to file our first rejection letter and know that with each no, we are one step closer to that yes.