What's In the Works

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What's In the Works

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Local, California

(Seeking representation)

Local, California (78,000 words, upmarket speculative fiction) is a murder mystery threaded with a multi-generational family saga.

In 2047, the murder of a middle schooler, Tariq Hazelton, shatters the city of Local, California. His mother, Julie, becomes the emotional center of a trial that pits justice against politics. The accused shooter, another boy from Tariq’s class, claims self-defense. The trial becomes a crucible for the city’s divisions: some see the acquittal of a boy with a gun as dangerous precedent, others see conviction as a betrayal of the right to defend oneself.

Woven throughout is the history of Local’s founding family, the Pembrokes. Their 19th-century quarrels—such as one brother’s aversion to another’s loud chewing—evolved into entrenched district rivalries that, by 2047, define the city’s politics, economy, and identity. These flashbacks appear alongside the modern narrative, revealing how trivial disputes hardened into structural divisions that no one remembers the origins of, yet everyone abides by.

At its core, Local, California asks: what prejudices do we inherit without ever questioning, and how do they shape the systems we live under today?

What’s in the Works?

Night and Day (Unscripted Film)

This unfinished documentary follows the story of Anthony Hollie, the inspiration for HBO’s The Wire, and how even the Witness Protection Program couldn’t mask his transgressions as a Baltimore gangster and his lifelong struggle to make amends.

I taught myself how to shoot in order to capture interviews. I taught myself FinalCut Pro in order to make a trailer and edit the full story together (~3 hours). Need executive help getting this project to completion!

Ghost School (Scripted Film)

Regardless of their motivation, in the afterlife, the deceased have to graduate from Ghost School in order to learn the ropes and earn the right to spook the living on Earth. Ghost cadets must choose a course based on why they want to return to Earth: to seek vengeance, to monitor loved ones, or just to freak people out for fun. While three dead newbs try to navigate the afterlife, they must learn how to filter out the good advice from the bad.

Click below to watch the video treatment

Storytelling

Before and After

Franco Santoriello was a champion bodybuilder in the 1980s and 90s but his drug addiction, which started when his parents divorced, ultimately ended his professional career. After beating big name bodybuilders like Vince Taylor and Eddie Robinson, Franco could have gone on to be Mr. Olympia if he didn't have months-long benders in between competitions. After overdosing on heroin and improbably surviving a widow maker heart attack, he was sentenced to three years in prison for doctor-shopping (receiving the same prescriptions from multiple doctors). In prison, Franco was forced to turn his life around. He regained his physical strength and, by reading The Bible, rebuilt his spiritual strength, as well. Now, almost four years out of prison, Franco is planning a comeback to the fitness world coupled with a physical and spiritual transformation plan aimed at addicts, bodybuilders and inmates.

Some Spoken word

DSC_0019 (2).JPG — Huffington Post Profile

When to Jump

When to Jump is an inspirational book compiling stories of people who gave up the life they had in order to pursue the life they wanted. Launched in January 2018, I wrote a chapter on my journey to build a foundation for my writing career which included an unexpected but fruitful detour into CRM consulting.