Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

It's been awhile since I've written here but that's primarily because I've been living my life instead of documenting it.  After 7 solid months working on an episodic TV series, I've been taking a much needed break.  Stress, long hours, minimal sleep and nonexistent weekends.  You forget your friends, they forget you, and often you forget yourself because the show saps all your time and energy and you still gotta do your laundry.

Any TV show presents its challenges due to intense scheduling and frantic pacing.  To put this into
perspective: Six months is the amount of time usually allotted to complete shooting of a feature film.  The average finished film is about 2 hours (from a script of about 120 pages)  In TV, you don't get the luxury of that much time.  Every day, TV productions shoot more than double the amount of script pages as films.  Everyone's gotta be on their toes at all times and the finish line always feels so far away. We only shot an 8 episode season for the TV show I worked on but that equates to roughly eight hours of footage by the time the public sees it on screen.  And each script is 60-70 pages long.

My cat lounging on the sofa

So what have I been doing with my time? I've been reading (currently: Amy Poehler's 'Yes Please.') I'm co-writing another screenplay and working on my next short story collection, 'The Best Days Of Mabel Gordon.' Excerpts from the upcoming book can be found here.   I've been hanging out with my two cats (one of whom is pictured here), getting dressed up and going out for a change, taking long walks, exploring the world around me...  Essentially, enjoying everything I can during the time I have before the next job takes over.

And that last job?  I met some terrific people, many of whom I miss seeing on a daily basis. 
I'll also miss the purple blossoms on the tree outside my office window at the studio.  Whenever I was at my most stressed, I would take a deep breath, stretch out my arms and gaze at that tree for a few moments-- it reminded of the simplicity and beauty of life--- the exact things I'm able to enjoy up close now that I have the time for them.

The soothing purple blossoms outside my window.

Copyright © 2015 by KLiedle/ @cococaffeine

This Is How We End: Getting It Out There

Anything worthwhile is worth the heartache.  No, I'm not talking about love (given it's the day after Valentine's Day.)  In this case, I'm talking about writing.  After close to a year of writing and editing, I've released my first short story collection, "This Is How We End."  It's a collection of short stories, poetry & art that centers on the themes of both beginnings and endings.  (It's now available on Amazon in print and digital formats, including Kindle.)  Working on a book is not an easy process.  Just before publication, I read and re-read my own book more times than I'd like to remember.  Well before that stage, I'd spent countless hours coming up with characters and initial ideas.  I wrote most stories out longhand in a pink composition book.  Sometimes there were so many chicken scratchings and notes written in margins on those first drafts that I could barely figure out what I'd meant.   Sometimes my ideas didn't even make it to the notebook.  Those ideas were written on strips of scratch paper or anything I could get my hands on whenever an idea struck.  I kept these raw notes in a Strawberry Shortcake folder.  I'm probably way too old to be carrying around such a folder, but Strawberry Shortcake makes me happy.  I also convinced that it would make my former six-year-old self proud of the adult me. This Is How We End also includes several illustrations by Los Angeles-based artist, Scott Vogel.  THIS IS HOW WE END In life, sometimes an ending is really a beginning. We just don’t know it at the time. Filled with heart, passion & emotion, “This Is How We End” is a collection of short stories, poetry & art that examines beginnings & endings. Check it out and help spread the word!  I welcome comments.  In future posts, I'll also include exclusive excerpts from the book. Like it on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/ThisIsHowWeEnd Kendra Liedle Author of "This Is How We End"