Corrected Issue 9: Please help us make our short film! LA Strong charity comic, and more!

(we're sending this again, because despite spending twenty minutes formatting everything correctly, it seems nothing was saved and you were all sent a blank newsletter. FUN.)

So the world is evermore on fire, but somehow we are busier than a Costco on Christmas Eve.

We’ve got so much to talk about, so let’s just get right to it.

Probably nobody wants to read these weird little intros anyway!

NEW STUFF

“Long Away” in a comicbook-y font in pride flag colors, next to a pink heart that is kind of hugging a smaller heart in trans pride flag colors

The short film we’ve been working on is crowdfunding, and its campaign launches today! You can help make this project happen, and we literally can’t do it without you!

https://seedandspark.com/fund/long-away

Our producers and friends, Erin Macdonald (science advisor to Star Trek!), Aaron Loss, and Jessie Earl (known for her megapopular YouTube channel Jessie Gender) are kickin’ ass and helping us first-timers figure everything out, and we’re steamrolling right ahead.

We’ve got the location and most of the crew locked in, we’re closing in on casting, and prop construction and costume design are already under way, and we’ve locked in a shoot date! We’re gonna try to do it all in one twelve-hour marathon on location in a comic shop, which is a tall order but this is a short short film, only about 15 minutes. And even this requires so many people and so much work. That any movies or tv ever gets made is a miracle.

This film is actually an adaptation of a comic short (of the same name) that we did as part of the Color of Always LGBTQIA+ love anthology, with art by GLAAD Award-winning artist Richard Fairgray. And Richard’s returning to do original art for the short film!

Long Away is the story of a trans woman who travels back in time to meet the father she can’t remember, who died before she transitioned… to try and find out if he’d love and accept her for who she truly is. It’s a deeply personal story for Tilly, and we’re just so excited to get more authentic trans stories out into the world. We need them more than ever.

There’s also some incredibly cool rewards for backing, including copies of the comics featured in the film, a pin that is a key plot point in the story, onscreen thanks, social media shoutouts, all the way up to producer credits!

And we have some great stretch goals, including behind the scenes set photos from J. W. Hendricks (you’ve definitely seen his amazing photography covering the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes of 2023) and even licensing the amazing song by Queen that partially inspired this story (which shares a title with our film)!

We know money’s tight for a lot of folks, so if you can’t support it monetarily that’s okay! But please share the link and spread the word! The more people hear about it the more likely it is that we reach our budget goal!

Okay, so what else is going on?

We’re honored to be part of the LA Strong comic that’s being put out by Mad Cave in support of victims of the recent Los Angeles fires. This city is our home and we love it here, and being able to help by contributing to this charity comic means a lot to us.

It’s on sale March 19, but you can preorder now at any comic shop with Lunar code 1224MA843 (if you’re not used to preordering comic books, just take that code and the title of the book to any comic shop and they can preorder it for you).

You can also get it direct from the Mad Cave website. All proceeds go to help victims of the fires!

Also, our friend Kelly Jo Brick wrote an article for the Final Draft website with tips from pro screenwriters about finding motivation when it seems to be lacking, and both of us are quoted in it! So check that out if you wanna!

Also also, the original, creator-owned comic pitch that the editor asked for some expansion on was loved by the entire editorial team (!) and now is off to The Final Decider to Decide. Cross every finger please!

Also also also, we’ve been okayed to say that we’re working on something for IDW comics that is very near and dear to our hearts (it may have been one of the things we’ve been talking about working on in these here newslettery thingamabobs). An official announcement should be coming in the next month or so! Eeee!

We also just did another walkthrough of the Long Away filming location with the director of photography and producers, to work out what shots we want and where we’ll shoot them, and other logistical stuff. We’ll probably talk more about this next time.

Listen, we told you there was a lot! We are tired.

WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON

We’re still waiting to hear back on the creator owned comic pitch that the editors loved and sent off to The Decider, so nothing new there.

The one-paragraph pitches that we sent off had a clear winner, and so we’ve turned that into an outline and sent it to the editor to approve before scripting. This is the one that should be getting announced next month maybe!

The bigger pitch that got sent back to us for tweaks? All those tweaks were made and the editor seemed to really like it, so that is now on its way to a different publisher’s Deciders to Decide.

We had to write and shoot the video for the Long Away crowdfunding page, which was actually very weird because we are writers, not be-on-screen-ers. But sometimes one needs must, and so we did. Hopefully we did okay! Watch it and if you thought so, let us know! If you think we bombed it, just keep that to yourself. 😌

TRANS TUESDAY UPDATE

A few years into doing Trans Tuesdays, we launched them as a companion podcast, and a few years into the podcast it’s hit one hundred episodes! Podcast episode 100 was actually Trans Tuesday 217, if you can believe it. What.

In any case, to celebrate Tilly did an AMA, and we got so many questions we had to break the answers into three parts! But the first two are up now, so head on over to PART 1 to read about selfies as resistance, underrated films, cis reactions when we come out, Tilly’s earliest indications she was trans, celebrity crushes, getting into the writing groove, fave Star Trek characters, choosing our names, voice training, and how we find the way to carry on given the state of the world.

And then in PART 2 you can learn all about Tilly’s love of P!nk (the singer), writing with a partner, horror movies, Tilly’s egg-cracking story, screenwriting tips, whether Tilly would like to carry and give birth to a kid, Matrix tattoos, and duck-sized transphobes!

RECOMMENDATIONS

Clean Slate on Amazon Prime is doing some great work normalizing trans people in an environment where we sorely need it. It’s so good to see Laverne Cox again, and George Wallace is fabulous. It’s a fairly broad comedy with a lot of heart and the kind of thing a lot of people who might not watch “those trans shows*” might find appealing.

Honestly this is the show cis folks out there need to watch with other cis folks in your life, who are maybe on the fence about (or entirely ignorant about) trans people. It’s a gentle introduction to us from a somewhat cisgender perspective, and shows like this can really move the needle and change hearts and minds.

*as if there are shows just for trans people lol

And for those out there looking for some comfort in *waves arms* all of this, we recommend the Wayward Children series. Susan is listening to the audiobook versions and they’re a nice, soothing background noise while feeding cats, watering plants, and dealing with The Horrors.

THE DIRTBAG DISPATCH

Sometimes we don’t need to say anything here, because a video speaks for itself. Sound on.

WHAT’S IN THE BIG TIME?

In Issue 9 of the Big Time, we discuss dealing with big feelings when you get notes or revisions on your work, and how to deal with them. Finding a way through can bring new avenues you never realized you could explore.

Also there’s more of one of our earliest bits of comics work, Cannibal Planets! And there are actual planets in this installment!

It’s a good time to support queer creators, so if you are able to sign up for the paid version of this newsletter that would be very supportive! You can sign up at birdguestbroadcast.com!

THE END

Call your reps. Stand up for the oppressed. Love each other with all you’ve got.

SOCIALS

Tilly’s Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/tillybridges.bsky.social
Susan’s Bluesky
https://bsky.app/profile/susanlbridges.bsky.social
Writing website
http://birdguest.com