Issue 4: accolades (?!), big pitches, more kitties
It’s December!
How? Why? Wasn’t yesterday March? Listen, time is weird, and everything’s on fire, but we’re gonna keep newsletterin’ anyway! Because we never get tired of talking about writing, or writing about writing, which is good because you kind of need that when you’re writers.
And hopefully you like reading about writing, and you like us, and that’s why you’re here!
So let’s get on with it, eh?
NEW STUFF WE DID
Our Monster High Halloween special, Monster Fest, won an inaugural Velma Award for LGBTQIA+ representation in children’s entertainment!!
We talked about Monster Fest back in issue 1 of this newsletter, if you missed that and want more information about it. And we’re in the middle of releasing audio commentaries for all four parts of the special in the Big Time version of this newsletter!
While “best guest star extravaganza” is a bit of a goofy title, nearly everything that was honored had a similarly goofy title. The point was just to honor queer and trans rep done right in media for kids, and it’s super amazing to be one of the first to ever get a Velma Award.
Being able to give trans kids the kind of representation we didn’t have when we were kids was legit one of the most amazing things we’ve been part of.
And it’s incredibly gratifying and humbling to have an organization like The Rainbow Project recognize that the kind of rep in Monster Fest really matters.
You can read more about The Velma Awards and the other winners in The Hollywood Reporter!
Last week our original pilot script ROBO WAITRESS ASSASSINS was selected as part of The Stunt List Originals Bureau! What the heck is that?
The Stunt List began as a selection of some of the wildest, most popular stunt scripts floating around Hollywood. For those that don’t know, a “stunt script” is basically something you’d never write under normal circumstances for a variety of reasons… it’s way way out there, and usually involves shows or characters you don’t own the rights to, or any number of other things. Screenwriters usually just do these for fun, or as a writing exercise.
We were actually members of the inaugural Stunt List a few years back, but we’ll talk about that script next time!
So The Originals Bureau sprang out of the Stunt List, to feature entirely original concepts by screenwriters, also generally with really high concepts. And it was super cool to have ROBO WAITRESS ASSASSINS selected for it.
As the poster says, it’s a cyberpunk action dramedy about a titular robo waitress assassin trying to save her friend, but it’s also so much more.
It’s about the ways society pits women against each other, and the gendered expectations it lays on us.
It’s about the ways society keeps the people who have the least in constant struggle, so that they’re too busy and tired from trying to survive to be able to fight back.
It’s about taking our capitalist hellscape to the next several steps down the line… where are we headed as a society? What would really happen if corporations were able to acquire even more power than they already have?
There’s a lot going on and we’re really proud of it! It’s also one hundred percent our brand of “laugh cry,” in that it’s gonna crack you up and then punch you right in the heart. That’s the Bridges’ special!
If you’re an industry member, you can request to read it right from its Stunt List page!
By the way, our incredibly talented friend Phil Sevy, who’s been killing it on comics for Marvel (and lots more) did the concept art for the poster. It’s magnificent, isn’t it?
WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON
We’re still working on the comic pitch we mentioned last issue, for the idea we’ve had for years for a big pre-existing IP. It feels like a really big swing, but the editor loves it and wants to fight for it.
But because it’s such a big swing, she wants a short version to try and sell folks on the concept. She didn’t want us to do all the work of a full pitch if she can’t get the go-ahead just on the concept alone.
Which makes perfect sense! And yet that means this story that’s really important to us, that we never thought we’d get even a chance at a shot of telling but have wanted to do for a very long time… has to be boiled down to just a couple pages. And that’s an incredibly difficult thing to do.
Writing short is always more difficult than writing long, because you have so much less space to convey theme and character arcs and story. Trying to fit all of that into fourteen pages for an eleven minute Monster High short, for example, is so much harder than fitting all of that into an original pilot of fifty-some pages.
So we’re putting all our focus on this pitch to try and make it as dazzling as possible, to get them to take the leap with us into a new frontier.
Cross all your fingers and toes for us, please!
TRANS TUESDAY UPDATE
The final part of the series on photos was released, which is Tilly’s Guide to Selfies! People kept asking for this (isn’t that wild?) so it finally happened. It’s about angles and lighting and lenses and how cameras both lie and tell the truth at the same time. There’s lots to learn here for cis folks too, if you wanna know how to get better selfies! And it may seem frivolous on the surface, but trans people finally seeing themselves in photos can legitimately be lifesaving. So check it out and maybe it’ll help you get better selfies too!
And out this week was Trans Trauma 1: That Old Dysphoric Feeling. When you go through life experiencing the horrors of gender dysphoria, it impacts you in so many ways you don’t even realize. Years and years later, even when your dysphoria is all but gone, something entirely unrelated to gender or transness can somehow bring all those horrible feelings flooding right back in to drown you. This essay is a window into what that’s like, and how it can blindside you.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Tilly had the honor of reading and giving feedback on an early version of the indie comic Boy Jones* (*40 years of lying), and it’s something you absolutely must check out.
Back during the WGA strike in the summer of 2023, the comic’s author, Heather, approached Tilly out on the picket line, recognizing her from her many selfies posted to social media (this happened a lot! It was weird!), and they had a lovely conversation about Trans Tuesdays and HRT. A while later, Heather trusted Tilly enough to send an early version of this comic over to get her thoughts, and now it’s finished and available for everyone to read.
It’s such an important story. So much of if it is so similar to what Tilly and so many trans people went through, and on top of that it does brilliant things with the medium of comics. It’s a truly beautiful, important creative piece of work in every regard. Please set aside a little time and give it your eyes.
Also check out the Forever Desert series of novellas by Moses Ose Utomi. The first two, The Lies of the Ajungo and The Truth of the Aleke, are out now. Written like fables, they deal with how what we believe can be manipulated to serve the powerful, and that seems to be relevant pretty much always. The third book will be out this year.
THE DIRTBAG DISPATCH
Progress, of a sort!
Dirtbag Henry continues to be an emo baby. When Izzy first arrived, all he wanted was to be near her, but she was still scared of this big lumbering oaf of a cat. But she’s warmed up to him a lot over the last few weeks, and she’s even groomed him some! It’s super super cute. And she tried to cuddle him once, but he wasn’t having it.
So now Henry’s feeling (he only has one at a time) is often set to “jealousy” and he gets mad when we pet Izzy, or when she cuddles with us on the couch. But he doesn’t want us to pet or cuddle him, oh no. He just wants us to not do it to her. King baby!
Anyway, when Henry was little and we had Stella (the original Kitteh Elegante), she mothered him a lot and would groom him, even as he got older. But he’d never ever groom her back, because… Dirtbag.
So imagine our surprise when we saw this, and also somehow caught it on video!
This was literally as long as it lasted, but it happened! And it’s SO KYOOT.
May their progress continue and may Henry eventually feel that he has the constant companion he needs.
WHAT’S IN THE BIG TIME?
This week in the Big Time version of this newsletter, we talk in-depth about the logistic restraints of writing for a CGI animated show, which involves a whole lot of things you probably never thought of (unless you, too, have worked on a CGI show)!
And it’s got our second audio commentary for Monster High’s Monster Fest, part 2!
THE END
That’s it for this installment!
Stay warm! Unless you’re somewhere warm like us, in which case we hope it finally cools off for you!
Unless you hate the cold… in which case:
stay at whatever temperature is happy and comfortable for you!
We want you to be cozy. 🤗
