I’m with Larry David on this whole wishing people a Happy New Year past Jan. 11th, which just happens to be one of my little brothers’ birthdays.

So I’ll just say longtime no see. But, in my defense, I’ve been ridiculously busy.

Which is good. Because I don’t do well with downtime.

I also don’t do well with New Year’s Resolutions. By which I mean I don’t do them.

But I do have some goals I’d like to achieve before the clock runs out on 2025.

And here we are in the last week of January, so I’d better get a move on!

1. I have an artsy short film script I’m working on. It has the dark quirky feel-good kind of story film festivals love to laurel … while having a unique enough story not to put the viewers to sleep.
2. Crossing my fingers that my French Noir adventure film The Truffaut Affair gets premiered this year. Our director and editor are still working on post-production, and our marketing team is working hard to get the word out.
3. Filming on my first horror feature should wrap in the coming months. The director and co-writer on that project has big plans for this psychological spookfest and I can’t wait to see what he does with it.
4. I’ve been tapped to write a short horror film script of my own choosing, so I’m still knocking those ideas around.
5. Currently, I’m a week or so away from finalizing the first clean draft of a dark-yet-romantic epical road trip screenplay for another director pal. He wants me to make him laugh, cry, and scream. Right now I’m just hoping he doesn’t fire me after reading it.
6. Last and definitely least—as far as priorities go—I’m going to take a break from horror and low-budget art films so I can outline two Apatowian dramedy scripts I’m planning to shop around … because this kitchen isn’t going to remodel itself.
7. Also sort of kicking around writing a book. Last one I penned was 2018, I believe, and I’ve been missing that sort of work. Thinking of doing some creative nonfiction rather than a novel this time. Going to read Susan Orlean’s The Orchad Thief for inspiration.
8. Ah, speaking of books, the wife and I started our own little two-person book club for 2025. I should say “resumed,” since we did this during the pandemic. So far, we’ve read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Book 1. Blech. Next on our roster is Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which I’ve read many times. After that, we’re going to read Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, which the wife has read.
9. Lastly (for real this time) I’m sure I’ll get a few odds and ends script doctoring jobs this year. I’m already hearing rumblings from a few filmmaker friends planning their spring and summer productions. The rest of my time will be spent refinishing the thirty cabinets in our galley.
   Have I mentioned how much I hate home improvement projects?