Book, screenplay, and other musings

First the book. I am pleased to announce that the book Heaven and Sea has been accepted into the small press trade distribution program at IPG. The book will appear in the spring 2008 catalog and will be available for purchase sometime between Jan and Apr of 2008. Acceptance into this program is contingent on me changing the tile and cover design. I am in the process of making those changes now. Some sample title ideas are listed at the end of this post. You can voice your opinion by commenting to this post.

While I awaited for the panel to assemble and make their selections for inclusion into this distribution program, I decided to write a screenplay based on the book. I have written two other screenplays. One was very bad. The other was very good but was lost when I accidentally deleted it when I bought a new computer. I have also taken a few classes and belonged to some online screenwriting groups. So I’m not a complete novice. Forced by the constraints of screenplays where every word and every scene must have a purpose, I was able to really focus on the drama of this story. The end result was a screenplay that has attracted the attention of an agency in Hollywood. I have signed with this agency and they are now in the process of submitting the screenplay to production companies.

The odds of having the screenplay actually produced are not favorable. But they are zero without the effort. Stay tuned here to see how things progress.

Here are some title ideas for the book. Let me know what you think.

Main title:

The Rescue of ALM Flight 980

The Rescue of Flight 980

Flight 980

Rescue

Rescue at Sea

Rescue in the Caribbean

Ditching

Ditched at Sea

Thirty-Five Miles From Shore

Last Flight of The Carib Queen

Subtitle ideas:

The only open-water ditching of a commercial jet

The true story of the only open-water ditching of a commercial jet and the efforts to rescue those who survived

The true story of the 1970 ditching of ALM flight 980 and the efforts to rescue those who survived

A true story of heroism and survival