Time for Pam to Cowgirl Up
I like to think I’m a professional. And those of you who have met me in a professional-like situation, such as RWA Nationals, would probably think that, too. I’m confident, prepared and have no problem approaching somebody if the occasional calls for it. Hell, I can even chit-chat and, when on my A game, offer scintillating conversation.
Scintillating.
So why is it when faced with celebrities I admire, I turn into a 14 year-old girl who has just spotted one of the cast members of High Scho
ol Musical? Case in point—this weekend fate stepped into our weekend plans and Montana and I ended up at a culinary showcase where I was tickled to see Jacques Pepin standing ten feet away, but when I saw Ming Tsai to the left of him, turned into a shaking mass of speaking in one word sentences (“OhMyGodThat’sMingTsaiStandingOverThere!”) and near-hysterical outbursts of giggling. And the man was so freakin’ nice! He signed my cookbook, posed for a picture and was just the epitome of gracious. How I could be nervous around such a person is a mystery, but I was.
It happened in August, too. We were at a Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention where the guest of honor was MaryJanice Davidson. Went to her first seminar
with the room full of a whopping ten people, myself, Montana and MJ included, so I got all relaxed and felt like I knew her and she me, right? But then the next morning when she was scheduled at the autograph table I regressed from Professional Writer Girl to Fan Kook. Instead of my smooth, industry introduction of “Hi, MaryJanice. I’m Pam and am a great admirer of your work. At this year’s RWA Conference, I had the opportunity to speak to Cindy Hwang (MJ’s editor at Berkeley) and will be sending her a partial of my romantic-comedy paranormal next week. Part of what inspired me to submit to her was the tremendous series you two have built,” I have to stumble into, “Hi, I’m Pam and I…I’m one of your MySpace friends.”
Along with 1127 other people. Smooth, Pam. Real smooth.
Hell, the thing is, I know this about myself. Allow me to demonstrate. The following is taken from my MySpace page, written about a year ago:
Who I’d like to meet:
Hell, I’m easily star-struck. Let’s just say anybody famous and it’ll be true. I even tried to think of one or two really important people to me and couldn’t. Anybody I thought of was immediately followed with what in God’s name I would say to them, and it was pretty much all jibberish, unadulterated fawning or outright hysteria. None of those are pretty looks on me so I just don’t think it’s fair to subject anybody to that, alive or dead. I really don’t.
Yet, fair or not, I seem to keep subjecting people to that behavior. (And God bless Montana—he always gets my back during those crazed blackouts.) So, my resolution is going to be to relax and enjoy meeting new people, be they New York Times bestsellers or James Beard award-winning chefs with multiple TV shows.
Except Gordon Ramsay. 
If I have a chance to hear him scream “Donkey!” in person, all bets are off.
Save the Cat
Hello all. Believe it or not, my October resolution is to try and post more, even if it’s smaller items. See, sometimes I get stuck in the “If I post, it has to be lengthy, witty and informative” mindset, and you can see how that would cause a person to really slow down on posting. So, be ready for smaller, shorter posts and possibly more cat humor. Can’t go wrong with cat humor…
General business: Montana and I celebrated the finishing of Book #5 by taking a little trip down to Tucson. I got to see the band I would walk across broken glass for (a.k.a. Great Big Sea) and we got to have a fun adventure in The Old Pueblo. (Betcha didn’t know that was a nickname for Tucson. Neither did I until I googled it. See, without even trying I was informative. Yea, me!) And any adventure that includes pancakes automatically moves up into fabulous territory, so rest assured that the celebration was complete. Since then, I have been editing, and got Chapter One done last week. (Which Montana got to read last night, but don’t even try—he’s sworn to secrecy. If he leaks anything, no more pancakes is the least of his problems.) The only thing I’ll say is that I’m really excited about this book. Much different than anything I’ve done before. (And speaking of Montana, he finished a huge task with his most recent book, so give him a hooray.)
On to the post: Last year at RWA Nationals, I attended the second of two seminars given by Michael Hauge. (Yes, Michael’s specialty is screenplays, but as he says, how many of you wouldn’t want to see your book made into a movie?) Oh. My. God. That man is wonderful. His discussion alone on essence vs. identity was worth the price of the conference.
So at this year’s conference, I hear that Blake Snyder of Save the Cat fame will be presenting. Yeah, sure, okay, but he’s up against Writing the Hot Historical and I’m a Hauge Fan, so Blake (also a screenwriter) is probably is going to get bumped off my schedule. Saturday morning rolls around and the Hot Historical room has gone past standing room only to sardine room only. Not worth it. So we (Montana and I, also a Hauge fan) toddle down to the Blake Snyder seminar.
Let me sum up Blake’s seminar for you: 
Blake (I can call him Blake because we’re such close and personal friends…) breaks movies down into groupings like Golden Fleece, Monster in the House and Dude with a Problem. And from these groupings, he breaks them down even further using his amazing Beat Sheet. (Even I, a dedicated panster, am finding this tool deliciously valuable, especially now that I’m editing!) When you see how he illustrates Wedding Crashers or When Harry Met Sally, you’ll be a believer, too.
And his loglines? A thing of beauty truly is a joy forever. For those of you looking to pitch, you need to read how the man does loglines. You’ll never miss a pitch again.
Why am I gushing about Blake now? About two weeks ago I finally picked up his book, Save the Cat, along with its companion book, Save the Cat Goes to the Movies. When you read Blake’s lessons on Stasis=Death using Romancing the Stone, or Elle Woods’ False Defeat in Legally Blonde, you’ll know why I’m gushing. He tells you not only the what, but the why and when. Fabulous!
Now, I’m not saying that by following his Beat Sheet you’ll rocket to the New York Times bestseller list, but you’ll absolutely understand why top producing movies are successful and apply that structure to your book. I can’t count the number of gems I’ve found, the kind that make you slap your head and scream either in frustration because the answer was there the whole time and you missed it or in joy because there’s the answer!!!
(Now, I’m still a Hauge fan, but he gets his own post. My The Hero’s Two Journeys and Screenwriting for Hollywood order haven’t arrived yet, so I can’t gush quite as adequately. Be patient, my friends. These are not the droids you’re looking for.)
I’m going to stop my infomercial now, but I had to share Blake’s amazing tools with you. If you don’t run right out and buy his book, at least go to his website and check out his blog, peek into the community forums, download his beat sheet. I promise each and every one of you will learn something.
Including Pope in the Pool. How’s that for a cliffhanger?
The shame!
Hello lovely blog readers.
I was going to post this afternoon, but it looks like that’s not in the cards.
(I promise to have a new post up by Monday at the latest. Scout’s honor.)
And The Checkered Flag Goes To…
Me!!!
I finished my dark historical Wednesday night. It wasn’t a pretty ending, but an ending there was. (Thank God for editing.)
If you want to know what this past week looked like, here it is:
Yup, right down to being flipped upside down and losing a tire. But I crossed the finish line.
Hooray for me.
