LONG RIDER PRODUCTIONS
				                Box 114
                            Clearwater, BC VOE 1N0 CANADA
  	780-201-0333    mjpolitis@yahoo.com
			 	All works copyrighted, written/owned by MJ Politis.

Updated,  Jan, 2020.

				Contact:  MJ Politis, Ph.D., D.V.M.
		 Author of the best-selling ‘Complete Idiots Guide to Improving Your IQ’ 

List of materials available and owned by LR Productions.
Reads of complete novels/novellas available through www.longriderpress.net.   
 
Produced Films (commercially aired on CBC, Global, Bravo, CTV, SCN, Citytv, E!*) see ‘Reel/Film’ section in 
www.longriderpress.net for trailers/viewings.  MJ Politis as Writer/Director/Producer.

-Twilight of the Possible Immortals  Genius Visionary composer Richard Wagner is awakened in Purgatory a century and a half after his death in the 1880s, his Mystical Enlightenment-inducing Music set to be forgotten for the rest of recorded time unless he can answer for charges of inciting WWII with his anti-Semitic writings, intense connection to the best/most intense elements of German culture, his secret LGBT life and other transgressions which were part of his unique Creative Process.  (60 min, 2020).

-Tuckrunners  A Canadian-born White female, a First Nations Mom, and a recently hired Islamic Immigrant refugee mother working for minimum wage in a Saskatchewan Restaurant are pitted against each other by a sleazy old Greek owner who is excessively cheap, fond of flirting with the help and considers vicious competition between his employees as something good for the restaurant, and them.   Big time power-shifts happen as the workers find out more about each other, their boss and themselves,  leading to struggles for survival and justice that backfire in ways they never considered possible.  (30 min, 2018)

-Devil in her Drone.  An ex-priest, now police scientist-psychiatrist, encounters a gypsy woman accused of the most horrible of crimes, thinking that she is possessed by Satan, and that he can figure out the anatomy of evil by dissecting her, but the woman with a mysterious identity and agenda winds up dissecting said shrink, revealing more to him about himself, and life, than he bargained for. (24 min, 2018).
 
-Skeletal Western.  A washed out, over the hill, know it all, bitterly-cynical city producer is sent out to document paranormal events behind a porthole to another dimension in the Wilds of the West, and becomes part of the story he went out there to get on film.  (10 min, 2019, in post-production)

-Sanders Fecalosophy.  Socrates is interviewed by the Athenian Actors Studio, and Dog Pound, by a geeky host who sincerely and desperately needs to know how to make others laugh, from places you can trust.  The Bernie Sanders-like old fart philosopher offer some humorous and profound answers to this ever-elusive question in ways that makes the viewer think, and laugh, and reflect on social problems then which mirror those we face now.  (7 min, 2016).

- Mirrored.  A downtrodden, burnt out, yet still-defiant cynical 45 year old unrecognized writer (Avery ’Every’ Mann) does a mirror check before going out to hit the bricks with his newest novel that could save the world from itself. He is delayed by characters in the reflective surface (played by the same actor as the writer) who represent paths not taken and opportunities Avery still could be talked into.  After defending his case against their claims about him, Avery has to educate those personas about their own flaws before he can be freed of their influence.  (40 min, 2019)

-Frankly Abused.   Victim of long term domestic psychological abuse finally breaks, hitting spouse after going brain/soul dead, explaining case to a shrink  who has also been abused, and an apparition of spouse that set the chain of aggression into motion in the first place.   (13 min drama, first portion of feature length film)  2016.

-Henry and the Wolf Doctor.    Intense, independent Native woman with abusive past fresh out of vet school is trapped into working for old Sawbones pathologically-paternalistic redneck animal doc in a backwater Western Canadian town filled with colorfully-dysfunctional rugged individualists who refuse to be homogenized into the 21st century.   Alliances/bondships challenged by manipulative young Eastern Blueblood Corporate vet who wants to settle family scores with the Sawbones Redneck animal doc and make the old man’s sometimes willing First Nations ‘protegee’ his personal squaw, and the town his prize ‘colony’.  Based on novels of same title. (160 min movie/series).  2015.  (in negotiation for air slot)

-Fetal Distractions.  A 1950s scientist-physician, with the help of his wife, makes contracts with wife to have sex with hookers to legally extract their fetuses for scientific study until one of the ‘ladies’, a down and out Auchwitz survivor, wants out of the deal, making a getaway with the help of the ‘Professor’s’
most favored scientific protégée, who has also devised very powerful cloning technology which, in the wrong hands, would be globally destructive.  Based on true story (92 min) (2014, approved for airing, awaiting slot)

-Committee.  Satire about University Committee whose mandate is to above all, talk about everything and do nothing, even when the proposal and/or proposition at hand is whether to call the fire department when the building is burning down. (10 min) (2012)

-Stalin’s Psychiatrist. * (Part of the series ‘Electrifying Encounters’).   Joseph Stalin undergoes a nervous breakdown after the surprise attack by Hitler, with no one in charge of a Russia that he built to do nothing without his say-so.  A Jewish American expatriate female psychiatrist (perhaps real, perhaps not) locks herself in the room with him to pull the ‘Man of Steel’ back together, to infuse some humanity into him, and, perhaps, to turn him back into the man she once admired, and loved before it is too late for everyone. (60 min) (2010)

-Let There Be Light  *(part of Marvelous Encounters/Electrifying Encounters Series).   Aging inventor Nicola Tesla, after being banished by the world he tried to revolutionize and save, is ‘rescued’ himself from suicide by a reporter who has a secret agenda which is his worst nightmare, involving even more possible betrayal and heartbreak.  (50 min) (2003)  

-Albert and Mileva/God Does Not Play Dice * (part of Marvelous Encounters/Electrifying Encounters Series).   Young Albert and first wife Mileva Einstein are having big time problems in their marriage which jeopardize their sanity, and the Einstein destiny unless a wise-beyond-his-station janitor can patch up their relationship, and awaken the slumbering Spiritual Soul of one still-arrogant and emotionally autistic (Aspberger’s Syndrome) Albert, which is still…sleeping.  (48 min) (2009)

-Mentoring *  Two souls exchange roles as student and teacher in incarnations from caveman times to present times, their relationship reflecting development of humanity at key points in history, catalyzed and challenged by third wheel soul with secret agenda. (120 min) (2007)

-Of Lions and Lambs *  An over-intelligent, super-intense, hyper-cynical and always-misunderstood social-crusader female stand up comic clawing her way through the clubs of Vancouver is befriended by a naïve, pathologically kind, New-Age Bible thumper from Iowa who believes through a series of spiritual ‘accidents’ that said comic is his spirit helper sent from the heavenly planets and that his calling is to be a comic himself (48 min).   Featuring David Palffy.  (2002)

-Mindless Love *  Fred, a geeky, lonely, First Nations teenaged Neuroscientist in search of the neurological chemical answer for ‘love’  yearns for the affections of an abusive, hot-looking, ‘cool to be cruel’ classmate and to be accepted into the ‘in crowd’.  With the help of his best friend, a teenaged ‘plain Jane’ white girl who wants, and deserves to be more, he gets hold of a potent ‘love potion’ from an outlaw neuroscientist in the backwoods, who turns out to be his estranged Uncle John, who was in the past a guinea-pig for such potions in his youth, with dangerous consequences, as they relate to a woman he fell in ‘love’ with once, and now doesn’t know how to get close to.  Commissioned as episodes in CHUM/Citytv ‘Stories About Love’ anthology. (48 min) (2005)   
  
-A Viking’s Carol *.  An aging out-of-step-with-the-world but Spiritually-connected and prolific backyard inventor  deals his transition to the other side, while his sons deal with their father’s death, and finally---each other.   One son is afraid to leave home, the other terrified of coming home, but they all MUST unite, at least once before their commonly-shared transition (49 min) (1989)
 
-Kefi’s Garage *.  Modern day Quixotic Western about old Greek CND cowboy desperately holding onto his land, a Medicine Wheel connected to the Realm of Light, and his inner fire so he can hand it over to his undeserving and soul-dead nephew (72 min).  Featuring Gordon Tootosis, Tibor Feherighazi. (1992)

-The Dream *.  A pathologically optimistic cowboy must deal with reality and find inner belief in his Spiritual beliefs to save his ranch, his family and his valley from a vicious Eastern-based developer (49 min).  Featuring Donnelly Rhodes, Linda Darlow. (2000)

-Whose Soul Is It Anyway
A cynical, nerdy, pathologically-linear Millenial Theoretical Psych Grad Student is assigned by his notably absent thesis advisor the job of interviewing Jack, a middle aged multi-personality patient who is afflicted as well with dull out disease, disabling him from being vitalized as a person, and expressive as a musician. His five personae materialize and do battle over who has the right to be the controlling entity within him.  
(2017, 20 min)

-The Great Wall of Trump/Don Donald’s Wall
Two 'red blooded' redneck citizens in a ideal, typical American Lego border town village are charged with Don Donald Trump to build a wall to protect 'us' from 'them'.   The obsession for security over freedom, or considering that people on the other side of the wall are just as human and deserving as 'we' are, results in the pair of well-meaning dimwits using all of their resources, including their own houses, to build the wall, finally having nothing left to defend, as they drop dead, and are commended by their 'fearless' leader.
(2017, 7 min).

-Twilight Cowboy
A self-absorbed middle aged man (Alan Mowalli) with a stream of ex-wives and a history of being an underachiever is diverted through a car accident into another dimension where he encounters an Old West Sheriff in a realm where the balance of power between men and women, good and evil, order and chaos keeps shifting, the fate of that world and the one Alan comes from is dependent on him bumbling his way to the Right decisions.  Comedy.  (1997, 30 min) 

-In Search of Grafittiman
The entire town is after the mysterious artist who is bringing real Art to a dull, procedural town, in the form of Graffitti, the entire satirical endeavor watched by and perhaps orchestrated by ETs.   Mocumentary.  (1998, 14 min).

Aired Radioplays/Mockumentaries
-Unstrung Heroes of Classical Music.  
    6, half hour mockumentaries about (thankfully NOT) famous dysfunctional music composers in the classical music past.
-Multiple social satire mock commercials.

SPECIFIC LITERARY WORKS

OF LIONS AND LAMBS (novel and produced film)
Aired, CBC, 2002 as one hour prime time drama.

Logline: Cynical, intelligent,  and misunderstood female comic who feels out of place on Earth befriended by naïve, all-heart-no-brains New Age bible-thumper who sees said comic as his Spirit Helper, sent by Heavenly father from the Divine planets to teach him how to be a comic. 

Story:  Athena “Atti the Hun” Nichololias is the most hyper-intense, ultra-cynical, super-intelligent, and chronically-misunderstood comic duking it out on the B-minus level comedy circuit in Vancouver.  The only one who really understands this middle-aged social-reformer gag-girl and her special life mission is her father, Nikos, a Greek Revolutionary who is pulled closer and closer to the grave every day by a debilitating neurological disease, ghosts from his past, and a Computer Age incarnation of evil, “Ralph Reaper”.  Only Reaper and Nikos know Atti’s real purpose, struggle and the unfinished business about the child she gave up for adoption in her lost teen years.
   
Enter into Atti’s life ‘Johnboy’ Smith, naïve New Age Bible-thumper 20-something farm kid from Iowa.  Through a series of ‘accidents’ and numerological prayers, hyper-optimistic John comes to the conclusion that his calling is to be a stand up comic, and that Atti is his Extra-terrestrial Angelic Spirit Helper.

Against her better judgment, Atti takes on the wayward pilgrim. A friendship develops amidst the cultural tension and romantic under-feelings.  But the Comedy Camelot is destined for disaster---unless Atti can beat Reaper at the game he started---and is so good at.

Published 2002 with Goss Publishing/Quality Press, company disbanded 2008.  All rights held by author now.

HENRY AND THE WOLF DOCTOR (novel and screenplay) Part 1.
 Produced as film/tv series, 2015.  Published 2001, with Goss Publishing/Quality Press, company disbanded 2008. All rights held by author now.  

Logline:  Intensely-independent young First Nations woman fresh out of vet school with abusive/tortured past, scientifically brilliant and re-connected to her cultural roots, is trapped into working with pathologically-paternalistic old redneck sawbones veterinarian with mysterious past, political/cultural mismatch taking place in backwater Western town filled with colorfully-dysfunctional rugged individualists eventually united against newly-arrived Corporate ideological and veterinary foe.    MOW, potential series pilot.

Story: An excessively-independent  young First Nations woman (Roberta Collinear, Ph.D., D.V.M.) fresh out of vet school with a tortured/abusive past who is scientifically-talented and re-connected to her cultural roots is trapped into working with a pathologically-paternalistic old sawbones Redneck veterinarian (Doc Henry ‘Dinosaur’ Steiner) with a mysterious past.  Political/cultural mismatch held together by pioneer grit, compassion for animals (rather than personal profit of professional status) and a need for both docs to heal themselves of familial ‘miscalculations’ they made in the past which made them the loners they have become.  In Doc Henry’s case, it was too much tough love that he still does not see as wrong.  In Roberta’s case, it was trusting abusive and manipulative men who always had her worse interest at heart, and giving up a child for adoption when she was a dug-addicted 15 year old, wanting now more than anything else to be reunited with that child and seeing that child in every animal in need of help that comes her way.

The setting is Knife Bend, British Columbia, a town full of colorfully dysfunctional rugged individualists who refuse to become modernized and/or sterilized by the 21st century.  They include Norma Poundstone, 60-years-defiant widow who runs an effective, needed but often illegal shelter, who so far anyway, is Doc Henry’s most trusted Platonic friend.  Terri Kewalski is an aging, pathologically naïve ‘all you need is love’ neohippie who sees it as her personal agenda to bring Doc Henry and Norma together as romantic lovers, despite the fact that such would probably destroy their friendship.   Deathhound Jones, ultra-intelligent, hyper-cynical Goth 15 year old who is looking for a female role model/mentor she can trust.  And ‘Cowboy Hank’, who is a gentle and strong man’s man to everyone in Knife Bend.  He is also an ex-country pop music star (whose hit song is the tune that Roberta hates above everything else) hiding out from his true identity, and  the money-grubbing agents who don’t believe that he is dead,  Cowboy Hank’s sincere respect, then love, for Roberta both turn her off and scare her.   

On the tails of Roberta’s entry into Knife Bend and her subsequent integration into the community refusing to give itself up to the world around it is Corporate Veterinarian Tom Wilson, D.V.M., M.B.A., Esq,  smooth, suave and very connected (to the Academic-Veterinary Establishment) blue blood who needs to prove himself to his rich father back East.  To do so, Tom takes it upon himself to colonize all of the businesses and people in Knife Bend.  He is particularly bent on destroying Doc Henry (a former rival of his father) and Doc Henry’s old school ‘animals-first, profits and professional-prestige last’ practice.   But first and foremost, he takes it upon himself to make the independent and scientifically-brilliant ‘Doc Roberta’ his personal squaw.

The means by which Tom works is legal, professional and ‘truthful’.  He informs Roberta that Doc Henry sabotaged her dream job with the State of the Art veterinary clinic she was heading to after graduation by telling them she was ineffective and untrustable, a ploy he used with other clinics as well to be sure that Roberta would be stuck working for him.  When Roberta confronts him with the accusation, he admits to doing such for her own good, slipping into calling Roberta by the name of the daughter he lost due to too much tough love in the past.  Refusing to be his new daughter, or student, Roberta decides to work for Tom in his high-end, University-connected clinic, leaving Henry alone to die in the self-righteous, all-work-but-no-love, coffin he created for himself.  But she soon finds out that Tom wants her as an arm ornament and love toy, and as the most power witness he has to send Doc Henry not only out of the veterinary profession, but to jail for his various offenses against the bylaws, threatening to destroy Roberta’s career as an animal doc if she doesn’t tow the line, and that he will conduct an investigation into her criminal past as well, which would land her in jail also.  To make matters worse, Daniel, Roberta’s son who she has been searching for all these years, is finally found, but he does not want to see her.

Roberta’s despondency is misinterpreted by Cowboy Hank as being rejection, so he drops out of her life as she decides to drop out of life as well, after surrendering to the bottle again.  But bringing her out of the abyss are her two dogs, who she herself saves from death, give her a reason to continue, somehow.  Roberta goes back to a broken down Henry (who has turned an invitation for Real Love from Norma), and decides that it is time to re-open the shop.  She’s willing to try to trust a father again (as her own abused her), and he considers loving a daughter without being so pathologically-paternalistic about it.  Hank returns, Roberta opening up her heart, and his.   But keeping some secrets from him, as she expects that he has secrets of his own as well.        

HENRY AND THE WOLF DOCTOR Pt2:  PRAY FOR THE PREY
Novel and screenplay.  Continuation of Part 1.  Produced as film, 2015.

Logline:  Battle of wits and wills between Corporate veterinary villain Tom Wilson and rebel animal docs Roberta and Henry continues, with the stakes even higher, and more personal.

Story: Two years have passed since the obsessively independent First Nations Libertarian Doc Roberta settled into her niche in Knife Bend with pathologically-paternalistic Redneck Ultraconservative ‘Doc Dinosaur’ Henry Steiner.  The politically and culturally mismatched rebel vets have done very well in their common-sense, no-bulls-it practice, having nearly driven out of town Tom Wilson, blue blood Corporate veterinarian who tried to kick them both out of the profession several years ago, along with trying to make the entire Knife Bend community his personal ‘colony’, to please his Corporate Mogul father back in Toronto.  But, hell hath no fury like a blue-blood brat who’s been had by the ‘commoners’.   Tom Wilson has devised a devious and sure plan to destroy his rivals in the marketplace, and from places deep inside of them they didn’t even know existed.    For Doc Henry, Tom sends in a new female employee who steals Henry’s heart, then sabotages his practice, making him doubt the validity of his heart and biomedical abilities.  Roberta, having experienced dull out and burn out being a doc, seeks a career as a performing artist, Wilson setting her up to feel good about the prospects of such with praise from connected people who then blackball her with everyone else in the industry, making her believe she really is an emotionally-sterile technician with absolutely no scientific talent.   As for everyone else who has or takes care of animals, Wilson uses the new SPCA as an organization that seizes animals from those he does not like very legally, and not giving them back till they do his bidding, or get out of town.   And all of it done with the aid of the Veterinary Association that has no idea of how much they are being manipulated by their acting President (Wilson).   

After figuring out that she was set up by Tom to have her heart broken as a performing artist, Roberta returns to Henry’s shop, to be a ‘normal, mediocre’ citizen again, working under Tom’s thumb to do her day job of being an animal doc.   She finds Henry just as he is ready to give up medicine forever, thinking that his medical judgment and general state of mentation is defective, yet still believing that Marie left to go to Vancouver to take care of her sick sister, and that she will return to him soon.   Roberta and the now-cynical (once naively optimistic) Terri discover the sabatoge Tom and ‘Marie’ (if that was her real name), and confront Henry with it.   

Terri undergoes her own transformation and trials in that her ‘mastery in servitude’ approach to life is tested by being roomates with Deathhound. Deathhound turns into a ‘cool to be cruel’ person due to having a pen pal in the joint with an identity she shares with no one, and dope/money she shares only with herself.  

Roberta and Henry, along with Cowboy Hank and the other ‘defeated’ outlaws of Knife Bend each go after Tom and Marie, exposing them both and foiling their operation in a plan in which they pit Tom and his father against each other as well.      

Just as things seem to be ok all around, Deathhound arrives with Kurt the Suit (Roberta’s former abusive husband), threatening to ruin everyone’s day and life, but it is Terri and a wild bear (which is more flesh than spirit this time) that does him in.

A tale that goes even deeper into the inner and outer workings of the veterinary world  as it is, and as it should be.   With many comedo-dramatic human stories in between.

FETAL DISTRACTIONS (screenplay, produced as film 2013)
Logline:  Physician-scientist in 1950 Norway, with help of his wife, makes contracts with hookers to have sex with them and then to extract their fetuses for ground-breaking scientific studies till one of the chosen ladies, a down and out Polish Auchwitz survivor, wants out of the deal.

Story: Lorena, a down and out Scandinavian prostitute on the run from her Russian pimp, and who is an Auchwitz  Concentration Camp  survivor  is selected to take part in studies conducted by high-level, well established Professor Doctor Horstadius in 1950s Norway.   The ‘good doctor’ impregnates his ‘subjects’ (prostitutes of various varieties, mostly) with his own (superior genetic) sperm, then contracts the women to have their babies extracted at various stages of pregnancy for anatomical study of human embryological development.  The Professor pays good money to his ‘girls’, the candidates having been personally chosen by his wife.  But when Lorena has a change of heart, or more accurately, an awakening of Soul, she wants out of the deal.  It evokes the Professor’s rage and relentless pursuit, her getaway made possible by (a) the Professor’s favorite student, Jon Svenson, a young, status-hungry scientist who find his priorities changing very fast, and (b) the unexpected help of the ‘good doctor’s’ black-hearted and embittered wife.

The story of 1950s Scandinavia is related by an Elder Svenson in 1972, hiding out as a high school teacher in America, still hiding out from the now-world-famous Professor Horstadius.  As the time has come, Svenson finally relates the tale to Tina, Lorena’s daughter who was born in secret and, for her own safety, has not been told that her mother is still alive.  Tina’s lifelong premonition that her mother is not dead leads her and Svenson to finding Lorena, then settling old scores with the ‘good’ Professor as he is about to be awarded a Nobel Prize for his ‘innovative’ work in human fetal development.
  
Comment:  Psychological/action medical thriller.   Appeals to women who are connected to life issues, but speaks to men as well, revealing the underbelly of very dark worlds in ways that hit the mind and heart.  Mature audience.  Based on a very real story about the a Scandinavian Scientist Physician whose medical observations still remain in mainstream biomedical textbooks today.   

ELECTRIFYING ENCOUNTERS (dramatic tv series, with educational printed material.  Formerly, “Marvelous Encounters”, see below)

Real-time, fact-infused, character-driven one hour ‘behind closed doors’ dramas (with comedic elements) about famous (and infamous) historical figures who have made our world and collective consciousness what it is today.  

 Stories are told from perspective of ‘commoners’ who are not written up in the well-known history books who affect aforementioned historical figures at crucial points in their lives, revealing key aspects about who these heroes (and villains) really are as people, and how they relate to the common, universal human experience.   Episodes about Nicola Telsa, Albert/Mileva Einstein and ‘Uncle Joe’ Stalin produced and commercially aired.  Scripts available for:
-	Beethoven, dealing with his ‘Immortal Beloved’ becoming pregnant with his child,
-	Gregor Mendel, kindly, academic, politically-active abbot who falsified a lot of his genetics data.
-	Marie Curie, who after her husband’s death, had an affair with a French biologist that set into motion a world wide scandal that nearly killed her science, her, and her children.
-	George Washington Carver, master Afro-American 19th century inventor whose real genius was mentoring young Black Americans in ever-changing race relations.
-	Ramon y Cajal, artistic founder of contemporary neuroscience, whose love-hate relation with his ‘anti-artist’ father moved him forward, and enabled him to advise others to not make the same mistakes, particularly a rigid, wannabe-German Spanish scientist who is about to lose his musically-loving son.    
-	Harriot Brooks, self-taught brilliant Canadian contemporary of Marie Curie and Platonic lover of Ernst Rutherford, who could have been as famous as Marie Curie had she not married the wrong man.
-	Ghengis Khan, illiterate conqueror of the world, encountering a clever, scholarly monk who uses his skills as a scholar and blackmailer to contain and perhaps educate him.
-	Sequoia, self-taught linguist who put the Cherokee on the map by formulating the most easily understandable and widely written Native language in North American history. 

THE TELENKOVIAN EXPERIMENT (novel and screenplay)
Historically-based contemporary and historical medical thriller with a humanistic twist, and black-comedic tone.
Funded by SaskFilm.   Published 2001, through Goss Publishing/Quality Press, company disbanded 2008.  All rights with author now.

Logline:  Village of starving colorfully-dysfunctional Ukrainians in 1931 turn tables on their Red Army captors by killing then eating the most evil of them first in morally-designed plan  that escalated and works for everyone (including the Red Army itself) but then  goes wrong, resulting in an epidemic of Mad Cow disease that re-surfaces in modern day to threaten survival of Russia, Ukraine and the world.

Story: WHAT IF…your isolated, highly traditional and colorfully-dysfunctional Ukrainian village was invaded by Stalin’s Red Army in 1930?
WHAT IF…they took away ALL your food just before winter was coming on?
WHAT IF…your children were starving and your town became a labor camp?
WHAT IF...you accidentally killed one of your Bolshevik guard and had to dispose of the body?
WHAT IF…you wanted to stay moral, alive and decided to kill the most evil ones first, and dispose of the evidence in a very practical way to feed your bellies?
WHAT IF…the courtroom was the town gypsy-whore’s brothel and the jurors were solid citizens who had private fantasies/dreams of their own?
WHAT IF…the experiment went too right (your village becoming a place where bad apples in the Red Army are intentionally sent to be disposed of), then went very wrong, and you had to dispose of (and eat) the wrong guy (delusional, yet kind, Commandant of the town who naively thought that the Red Army officers under his command were doing good things for the villagers), perpetuating a series of medical-political cover-ups that led to a silent epidemic threatening to decimate contemporary Russia AND its former enemies?

WHAT IF…the fate of the world lay in the hands of
   -the last Ukrainian survivor of the ‘experiment’, (Boris) a clairvoyant, human and very mad psych patient
   -a young, idealistic renegade Russian scientist (Yakov)
   -a jaded, self-absorbed, selfish American biochemist who is a Nobel Prize candidate (Geoffrey Weinburg)
   -a well-armed detachment of troops with secret orders to kill the aforementioned individuals AND the real story about what happened in the village of Telenkov in the fateful, colorful and humanly-comedic winter of 1930?
WHAT IF…it is all connected by a resurgence of Mad Cow Disease in contemporary Russia from a virus that has been ‘sleeping’ since 1931, incubating in millions of cows and potentially able to kill millions of people…unless the survivor of the Telenkovian Experiment of 1930/31 can convince an arrogant, dis-interested American scientist to understand his struggles, tell them to the world, and  find a cure by using selected part of his body in ways modern science has yet to discover?

After uncovering truths that make him face the world as it really is, and could be, Weinburg’s Soul is activated and he boldly, with Yakov’s help, gets Boris out of the compound just as all hell breaks loose.  Boris’ interview tapes carry the truth of the matter for anyone who will listen.  His body, once killed and distributed properly, can provide the cure for the mad-cow disease he is carrying which is now in cattle herds throughout Russia.   With Yakov and Boris dead, the only friends Weinburg ever really know, and all too late, the once-arrogant scientist decides to use his skills for the betterment of humanity rather than his own professional reputation, and, as his new day job, to open a vegetarian restaurant back in New York.

MARVELOUS ENCOUNTERS (one hour TV episodic scripts, two episodes produced and aired, scripts available) (now incorporated into Electrifying Encounters, above).
Series of broadcast one hour, fact-based dramas about famous or should-be-famous scientists at critical points in their lives focusing on their human faults, virtues and humor as well as their scientific accomplishments.   For the educational and entertainment market.  Featured scientists include:

-Inventor Nicola Tesla at later stages of his life after he had been banished from mainstream science and the world,  and was on the verge or either committing suicide or embarking on even bolder work, the products of such are still hundreds of years ahead of his time.  Produced and aired, CBC/Global TV (CND). 

-Albert Einstein in 1905 when he underwent an intense intellectual and spiritual transformation, in part because of what was going on between himself and his first wife, Mileva, who some say was the real brains behind Albert’s work as well as the impetus to turn him into the pillar of human wisdom  and social enlightenment he was to become.  Produced and aired, Global TV (CND).

-Santiago Ramon y Cajal, rugged individualist ‘backwater’ politically-active Spaniard whose revolutionary work ‘painting’ the nervous system with the stains he developed  with his money won him the 1906 Nobel Prize, This founder of modern Neuroscience  had a very rocky relationship with his self-taught physician father, who actively and violently discouraged his beloved son from becoming an artist.    In this 1935 episode, an elderly Santiago helps an emotionally-insecure wanna-be-German-Nazi Spanish scientist deal  with his son’s wanting to be a musician while the aging Cajal is working on a painting he is dedicating to his deceased,  beloved and still estranged, father.

-Marie Curie, defiantly and colorfully Polish spitfire who broke her way into the male dominated world of European science with the help and active support of her French husband, and once ‘boss’, Pierre.    After Pierre’s death, Marie fell in love with a French biologist, Paul Langavin, whose wife was abusing him quite unjustifiably.  When a vicious, washed-out-scientist working as a journalist found out about the relationship between Paul and Maria, he made it public, labeling Marie as a Bolshevik Polish Jewish Whore who should be killed.  While Marie sneaked out to Stockholm to receive her Nobel Prize, mobs tried to burn down her house, and Paul had a duel with pistols in Paris.   In this episode, Pierre, as a ghost, appears to Marie periodically and encourages her to be both brave with regard to the world, and follow her heart with regard to Paul.        

-Gregor Mendel, the monk who founded modern genetics, was a brilliant mathematician and insightful scientist.  He was also an active politician, using his position as a monk to democratize and liberalize Europe in the 19th century.   However, he faked some of his scientific observations to fit his theoretical model of genetics.  The secret is found out by a Pacifist-Anarchist-Intellectual who is hiding from Conscription in the Imperial Army within  Mendel’s monastery.   Through their interactions we see and feel the struggles Mendel had with science, politics and his own conscience while he was trying to serve the greater good with an ‘ends justifies the means’ modality of thinking.

-George Washington Carver, born into slavery, became one of the most innovative African American scientists in history.  He was also a highly spiritual and dedicated educator, encouraging young Negroes to prove their worth to bigoted Whites in the South by being smarter and more gracious than they are.   In this episode, Carver takes a hot-headed young African American student (Andrew) on his rounds in the rural South educating farmers, and the car breaks down, in the middle of a farm field owned by a bigoted, broke and armed White man whose mentally-deranged and attractive White wife falls in love with Andrew.   It’s up to Carver to keep everyone alive, while figuring out how to cure the farmer’s wife and restore his land so it can grow crops again.

-Harriett Brooks is a forgotten but not insignificant Canadian woman who was a pioneer in the area of Physics.   The bookish and overly-considerate Harriett found her way to working with famed scientist Ernst Rutherford, over-expressive New Zealand visionary who set England and Canada on fire.  Rutherford took Harriett under his wing, at great risk to his own career, and Harriett soared as a brilliant scientist whose discoveries rivaled Curie and Einstein---until she married a man who brought her back down into being ‘just a woman’, against her own common sense, and Ernst’s advise.   

BABLYONIAN RETRIBUTION (novel and screenplay)

Logline:  Down-to-earth, established, emotionally-restrained  journalist on honeymoon with his hot, fun-loving wife in Middle East is awakened to a past lifetime, made clairvoyant then mad by ghosts from buried Ancient  civilization of tortured/massacred scholars who lead him back ‘home’ through harsh terrain and hostile armies, but not for the ‘welcome back home’ he expects.
 
Story: An introspective, intelligent, kind-hearted, but somewhat arrogant New York Times Journalist (Michael Craven) is on a long-needed vacation in the Middle East with his hot, young, optimistic Arkansas wife (Crystal).   Aside from Michael’s reluctance to loosen up, it’s a good time for the couple, until Crystal pulls her head-heavy new hubby into a street fair where he sees an ancient vest that he HAS to have with a design that looks familiar to his cynical eye.  Its pocket soon contains a book deposited by an elusive street dancer about the legendary (and probably fictional) Ancient Civilization of Jenada.

According to legend, Jenada was populated and protected by Pacifist-Scholars who kept Sacred Books of Wisdom alive for East and West, until they were tortured and killed by an infamous Mercenary General who was hired by several kingdoms to keep the experiment in learning and independence from speading.  Michael finds himself obsessed with finding the Ancient Caverns and the Sacred Books which, legend says, haven’t been seen by human eyes in over 2,500 years.   Feeling that he was there during the massacre, he becomes clairvoyant, mad and very adept at leading Crystal and his hired band of Outlaw Guides through every kind of obstacle Nature, man or ghost throw in their path.    But upon arrival at the Caves…the prophesies promised are delivered in ways that NO one expects.  It turns out that he was not one of the tortured scholars, but their torturer, the ghosts of the victims demanding payback, and seeking an appropriate person (Craven’s wife, Crystal) to entrust the Sacred Books they have been keeping for over 2,500 years with powerful knowledge that can change the world, hopefully for the better than the worse.

Comment:   A one-character thriller with twists, friends revealed as foes, heroes with very dark and unsuspected  ancient pasts.   Mid range of appeal in terms of the titles.  

HEART OF THE HEALER (novel and screenplay)
Commissioned by Pellegrino Center for Clinical Neurology, 1998, published with Goss Publishing/Quality Press 2001, company disbanded 2008.  All rights with author now.

Logline: Physician-researcher  on his first vacation in 20 years and his last month on earth, writes memoirs about people/patients who made him the healer he is today, and is then visited by special individuals from the land of the living and  the dead, his worsening condition blurring the distinction between the two, being watched all along by parties who have his worst interest at heart.

Story:  Highly-respected, internationally-acclaimed, but under-experienced (with regard to the underbelly of humanity) physician-researcher (John Baldino, M.D., Ph.D.) on his first vacation in 20 years and his last month on earth, writes his memoirs about people/patients who made him the healer he is today.  
John is visited by special individuals from the land of the living, and the land of the dead, his worsening condition blurring the distinction between the two.  And the lingering question…is he being watched?  

What Doctor John doesn’t know is that the recently diagnosed brain tumor that causes him to hallucinate is a fabrication, his altered state due to mind altering drugs given to him by terrorists, and that he is being carefully watched by the landlady of the beach-house, Kathy O’Brien, who winds up falling in love with him.   She and her bosses want information about Doctor J’s innovative neuro-scientific research investigations, and the whereabouts of  his super-spy brother,  presumed dead in the ‘places of change’ overseas. 

But Doctor John’s background, medical knowledge, and newly-uncovered ability to speak with the dead are also valuable to friends in his past who are ‘officially-dead’ scientists who now see that it is time to recruit the ‘stay at home’ Doc into their ranks.   In the process of the good guys and bad guys figuring out who Doctor John is, he finds out who he really is, for the first time in his life.  

HEART OF THE HEALER PART II:  ANATOMY OF DECEPTION
Commissioned by Pellegrino Center for Clinical Neurology., 1998.  All rights owned by author now.  Novel. 

Logline:  John Baldino, MD., Ph.D., pathologically honorable ‘above all do no harm’ biomedical researcher who has never left his safety of the Metro New York area, just recovered from being drugged by BITE, a clandestine White Supremacist international cartel with very evil agendas, to extract info about his still-missing superspy brother, Vinny, and his innovative research on expansive human consciousness.  He was been saved from dying by Erica, an officially dead, old flame working for an underground organization of scientists trying to keep the world Alive, big A.  A byproduct of being a guinea pig for BITE is that John can cross the life-death line at will, with a unique ability to get into the heads of people still living. After faking his own death, so he can redefine his own life, John is called back to active service by Erica and, so she says, Vinny. His assignment is to get to find the real causes for an epidemic of brain cancers on an isolated, mystical and belligerent Reservation of Apache Indians which is officially attributed to new kind of illegal peyote connected to a very outlawed spiritual cult. Heading up the ‘investigation’ is a biomedical think tank staffed by scientists who were John’s old colleagues back in the ‘normal’ days.  To avoid getting killed, and to extract the most info possible, John has to pose as an attractive female reporter with a natural gift for listening and flirtation. John’s ability to get to the real story about and cure for the rapidly growing epidemic requires the usually-trusting healer to critically and viciously investigate those he once considered trusted friends, as well as infiltrating a ‘no whites allowed’ Apache world.  John gets unsolicited help from of a female ‘ghost’ infiltrating into his brain who helps him pass himself off as a woman, but for an secret agenda that could cost him his life, sanity and immortal soul, as well as, if he fails, the survival of helpless populations of ‘expendable’ humans around the world.  

Story:  The continuing saga of John Baldino, MD, Ph.D., who is now an agent working with other officially-dead scientists.  He is assigned to get the bottom of a suspicious epidemic of brain tumors on an isolated Apache Indian Reserve, specially chosen for his intellect, moral fiber and neurologically-verified ability to cross the life-death line.

According to the party line medical ‘experts’, the Soul-debilitating new disease is due to ingestion of an unknown type of peyote, used by members of a highly-secret Cult which has resurfaced after a century, along with its highly-clandestine Traditional Religion.   

John’s first assignment is to infiltrate Scientific Institutions he used to work with, undercover, as a female reporter.  After adjusting to the strangeness of it all, he finds his ‘feminine’ side becoming more and more real.  His mind is visited by the ghost of a slain Apache girl, bringing both of them into the center of one of the most Powerful Cults known to Indians or Whites, and the middle of an internationally-orchestrated plot to rule the World in ways even he never thought possible.   He teams up against the most powerful and manipulative agents of evil that the political and scientific realms can produce, doing so with the help of the brilliant, emotionally-intense woman he went to medical school with who he almost married, who is living a very underground life, with dark secrets she has never shared with anyone, for very very good reasons.

John finds an ally in Erica, a renegade scientist working very underground against the establishment researchers who are serving vicious and manipulative governments.  Erica was John’s lover back in the medical school days, before she vanished without a trace.  The woman John almost married, or wanted to anyway.  Erica was betrothed to an Apache activist and Shaman who was killed in the epidemic.   It is to John, and not Erica, that the secrets of the outlaws and illegal religion of the Apaches are entrusted, given to him after he goes to the Rez and has a Vision, after which the dead woman’s spirit who was his ‘feminine side’ is returned to her ancestral homeland.   John and Erica gather evidence that definitely refutes the contention that the epidemic of tumors on the Rez is a result of a cancer-causing peyote, and discover instead that it is manufactured disease originating in the University lab, formulated by a professional-climbing hot-shot scientist and his mild-mannered colleague who work for White Supremacists working within the CIA with a down and out pharmaceutical company.  Their plan---create a disease that can be sent out to the world, along with ‘cures’ that will be allocated only when it suits their mutual political aims, financial objectives and professional careers.

But Erica has developed another toxin which causes diseases, which only she can cure, and which she will release upon the children of ‘mainstream America’ if any more ‘expendable’ third world people, or Indians, get sick .  Or so she threatens the head of the operation with.   Is she faking or telling the truth?   John is not given a truthful answer when he asks, only a bitter-sweet peck on the cheek and loving hug just before she heads down into a subway station with the ‘counter toxin’ in New York, never to return to him again.  

Comment:  Gender-bender aspect of the novel has special appeal to gay/lesbian readers, or to those who wonder what it is like on the other side of the gender line.  Metaphysical themes mixed with commentary on what science today is REALLY like from the inside.   

REVOLUTIONARY BLUES (novel and screenplay)
Published with Goss Publishing/Quality Press, 2001, company disbanded 2008.  All rights owned by author now.

Logline:  American expatriate Revolutionary who inadvertently made deal with the devil for super-powers to do good  is hunted down after leaving his former boss/mentor  in battle of wits and wills in both the real world and spirit realm (dream world, huya aniya) that starts in the trenches of WWI and ends in the mystical Bacetette Mountains of Mexico, integrated with and affecting outcome of the Yaqui Indian revolt in 1926.

Story:  A Faustian Western set against the backdrop of the 1926 Yaqui Indian revolt in the rugged and mystical Bacatette mountains of Senora, Mexico.  For three days, several thousand Yaqui Indians kidnapped the Mexican President, demanding land and liberty promised to them 10 years earlier in the Revolution.   To this day, NO historian knows exactly what happens, who was involved, and why.

Oppressed by the prospect of growing into a manhood of comfortable mediocrity, Charlie O-Brien, a restless, idealistic, American expatriate, made a deal with British Industrialist Lord Wentworth for money, education and power to save the world.  Charlie instantly became a world-famous scientist, politician and revolutionary.  He also spent several years with the highly-spiritual Yaqui Indians and an even-more special Native nurse-practitioner, Diana.

Charlie fought for the underdog in countless revolutions, until he found himself in the middle of the Great War in Europe.  Only then did he see that the O’Brien inventions meant to improve the human condition were being used to kill and maim millions.  Only then did he find out that the deal he made was too good to be true—Lord Wentworth WAS the devil incarnate, and Charlie was now Satan’s favorite lieutenant.

By 1917, Charlie wants out, no matter what the cost.  The most highly-decorated soldier of the Allied Army deserts, seeking one thing – return to Sonora, to the haven created by the Yaqui mystics and the warmth of his old flame, Diana.  The problem – the pilgrimage back home takes nearly a decade, blocked by Charlie’s getting involved with other revolutions, other downtrodden underdogs, and a one-way love affair with Wentworth’s daughter, a sweet socialite who wants to be a social revolutionary.  The manhunt is vicious, Wentworth taking no prisoners, particularly when it comes to people Charlie gets close to.  The final chapter of the ongoing war between Charlie and his once-trusted mentor/patron comes when Wentworth manipulates the Mexican government to attack the defiant and undefeated Yaqui nation.  The final showdown between Charlie and Wentworth takes place in the ‘huya aniya’, the Yaqui parallel universe ‘dream’ world which influences all human ‘reality’.  The fate of the Yaqui people, the United States and Mexico depends on a surreal battle of wits and will between ultimate evil and the tenacity of the human spirit.   

Though the tale is very dark, deep and the battle if for keeps, humanity (Charlie) winds up not only turning around the certain defeat of the Yaqui people by the Federales but de-possessing Wentworth as a result of his battle with the Devil (as Wentworth) in the huya aniya. 

      

PROFESSOR JACK (novel and screenplay)
Published by Goss Publishing/Quality Press, 2001, in collaboration with Overland Press.  Former company disbanded 2008, all rights owned by author now.

Logline: Old coot hiding out in the contemporary New Mexican desert claims to be John F. Kennedy, kidnapped and given facial reconstructive surgery by the Mob and Illuminati after a double was assassinated in 1963,  recruits cynical, on-run-from-the-law, street kid, pulling him into dangerous plan to destroy his former captors and regain power for political comeback of the century.  

Story: JFK IS ALIVE!  HE’S BEEN KIDNAPPED, TORTURED ND DIS’D! HE WANTS JUSTICE, AND REVENGE!

Professor Jack—an old coot hiding out in the contemporary New Mexican desert-claims to be John F. Kennedy, kidnapped after a double was assassinated in 1963.  He remembers being given mind-altering drugs, facial surgery and an ultimatum---to NEVER enter ANY political area again, or harm will come to those closest to him.  He knows who did it, and they are in the highest positions of global power.

Enter Harry Diamantis, burnt out 17 year old ‘punk’, semi-literate drifter on the run from the law after his cop-turned-mobster father frames him for murdering his mother.  Harry has a sister somewhere on skid row and a brother in a heavily armed mental institution.  Harry wants a re-union with his siblings and justice for his treacherous father.

The mystically-clairvoyant Professor Jack offers to help Harry in his quest, but with one condition---that young Sir Harold be his star knight in a plan to infiltrate the highest positions of power and re-establish a Camelot dedicated to universal compassion and human freedom.  The time for this last-chance Revolution is now, and there is no turning back.    The list of enemies the two noble knights must face include the Illuminati, the mob, the American military-industrial complex, and themselves.

But even if Professor Jack pulls off the greatest political comeback in history, it will cost him and his often-reluctant protégé their lives, sanity or both.

Comment:  Though a Quixotic tale about a young ‘male knight’ and an ‘old man’, the story appeals to women as well.   Hard-edged tale about how JFK was, or perhaps still is….Harsh language in places and hard-edged settings, but then again, when the Mob, CIA and Illuminati meet head on, one has to expect them to play for keeps.

RAISING CEASER (novel)

Logline:  Nazi neurosurgeon/scientist trying to make right what has gone wrong turns Jewish imbecile prisoner into genius, with plans for said genius to write and direct film which will turn the German public into opening its eyes to what Hitler has become, the screenplay involving Adolf himself playing a leading part.

Story:  In 1933,  Major Dieter thought that his trench-mate from 1914, Adolf Hitler, would see that reason is the best way to bring Germany to its true potential.  By 1943, Dieter has acquired a medical degree, a prestigious career as a neuroscientist and the realization that ‘the Housepainter’  (a once-aspiring artistic painter) must be stopped.   From INSIDE of the collective German mind, a mind that has been perverted into moral ‘mush’ by the most effectively designed propaganda machinery in history.

Dieter devises a daring political and brilliant medical plan.  Can he turn the most imbecilic Jewish prisoner into an Einstein with his new ‘circuit growing’ electrical implants?    Can said prisoner learn to become an artistic genius?   And once accomplished, can be shuffled through the German Film Industry to make the propaganda film that will show the German people who Hitler REALLY is?    And once made, can he get it seen?    Most importantly, will ‘Movie Producer’ Deiter and his Mission be betrayed by the most trusted Comrades he can muster in a world where it is rapidly become every man---or woman---for him/herself.

Comment:  Dark, but not without hope, and humor.   For the strong stomached reader who is not afraid to see the Nazis, Germans, and everyone in between as who they really were, or could be.

PROMETHIAN FIRE (novel)

Logline:  Revolutionary American expatriate hippie-classical music conductor/composer (Alan) is reunited with his ex-hippie, now ultra-conservative and re-married lover (Jennifer) in 1967 Greece just as the American-supported Fascist Junta takes over the country and is jailed, Jennifer dedicating herself to freeing him, and all political prisoners, as her own soul is awakened to Universal Enlightenment. 

Story:  It’s Spring, 1967. Another season for American ex-patriot hippie-classical music composer/conductor  Alan Kewalski to ‘wow’ international audiences with his unique brand of ‘rocking-rebellions’ in service of his REAL bosses,  Beethoven et al.   A former American draft resistor who went to jail for his convictions, Alan spends his days working with stuffy classical musicians afflicted with ‘dull out virus’, his nights with young revolutionaries-in-training who desperately need his help in areas artistic, political and moral.   In his ‘spare’ time, Alan taunts Captain Spiros, a glory-seeking Fascist whose political views keep him from advancing up the ranks, but whose manipulative and sadistic ‘skills’ keep him from getting discharged.

Enter Jennifer Pappas, Alan’s ex-wife, once his most trusted Companion and beloved life-infused ‘co-revolutionary’ musician.   Jennifer is now ultra-conservative, politically, culturally AND emotionally, engaged to a lifeless, boring yet highly-powerful American Ambassador, who is Alan’s arch foe.  The Greek and American governments assign by-the-numbers Jennifer to work with infinity-is-the-only-number Alan to co-ordinate visits of influential dignitaries and their families.   Jennifer finds her Soul startled, then awakened by Alan’s vitality, though she’s still woman-enough to defend the Red, White and Blue and her newly-found Right Wing beliefs against any man, even Alan.  

Then…in the dead of night on April 21, Greece, the birthplace of Democracy, is taken over by a Fascist, Right Wing Junta backed by the United States, the new Police State which VERY-forcefully bans everything from men wearing beards to unsupervised meetings of more than 5 people.  Spiros finds himself promoted up the ranks, doing his part to ‘sterilize the Communist cancer’ by enforcing bans on free expression in the arts, Alan his main target.  

Unable to go back home, but unwilling to comply with the “Christian American” culture of the “New Greece”, Alan does what he can ‘within the system’ to fight back, mostly through his (now banned) music.  Before long he’s jailed, subjected to ‘special torture’ in a prison that was used by the Nazi’s during WWII.  It’s up to Jennifer to get him out, a process which will require revolutionizing her perspectives and courage in ways she never imagined.   It’s up to Alan to…stay Alive.  Its up to both of the American expatriates o then end the reign of terror that is secretly supported by their own country’s government, and unknown to any of their friends back home.

Comment:   Romantic epic, which brings back the ‘golden times’ of the 60s for those of us who lived through them.   A believable and colorful love story as well as a saga of political defiance.   Liked by baby boomers in general, but no specific demographic beyond that yet identified.  

GRASS WARS (novel)

Logline:  Local dispute over the right to grow grass on your own lawn as high as you want to escalates into winner-take-all between rugged individualists and hard-core administrators, digging up family dirt and town secrets which have to date been sleeping very comfortably underground and crimes perpetrated by ‘solid citizens’ which are far more serious than not maintaining neighborhood botanical beauty.
 
Story:  ‘Old Man Dan’ was a decorated Korean War veteran way back in the 1950s, then moved to the booming working-man’s-Paradise of Huntingshire, Long Island, then the ‘woods’ where a man could commune with Nature and become the rugged individualist that he wanted to be.   A well-liked and highly-skilled and eccentric handyman, Dan broke no laws for forty years, at least outside the walls of his own house, a dwelling now in a ‘living beautification’ zone, on a plot of land that someone very powerful wants, at any price, or will obtain by any means.

But war comes back into Dan’s life with McBride, a washed-out, embittered, politician who is demoted to “Quality of Life” ordinance inspector, a job he takes quite seriously.   As seriously as Dan takes the right to let the grass on his  lawn, which he owns, to grow a millimeter, inch or even a foot taller than City Council bylaws dictate is legal.   The public arrest and the consequences bring in Dan’s loyal stay-at-home attorney daughter, his estranged daughter and son-turned-daughter, and unfinished issues about his departed wife.  From the outside, powerful friends and enemies in the War to decide if Old Man Dan gets to keep his house, or gets put into a mental institution for the rest of his life.   The fate of Dan’s family and the town depend on the outcome.

Comment:  A ‘small’ novel in terms of setting, taking place in ‘normal’ suburban locations, but with secrets held by all.   Some gender-bending aspects to plot-line and characters inserted to add spice to the sauce.   Specific demographics not yet thoroughly researched.

WAR WHORE (novel)
Logline:  Free-spirited female American Socialist/Scientist framed for murder by up-and-coming G-man in 1933 gets released from prison in 1939, sent to spy on Germany and Russia during days of non-Aggression, then given special assignment of getting into Hitler’s bedroom, and head, but winds up  pregnant with Adolph’s kid, then stranded on Russian Front with Red Army and the Nazis both after her and the child.  She decides to raise without ANYone’s interference, protected by an illusive female Russian Major with whom she experiences something never experienced with anyone else---love.  
 
Story: 1933---Karen Lubinska, idealistic, dedicated and very-hot-looking American Socialist-Activist/Scientist is framed on charged of murder and treason by an up and coming G-man, Buck White.
1939---Joseph Stalin and Adolf  Hitler sign a non-Aggression Pact, Eastern Europe gobbled up by both of them, Western Europe and Britain about to collapse under the Blitzkrieg.   In order to get the goods on both dictators, White makes ‘Commie whore’ Karen an offer she can’t refuse..   She is given quick course in espionage at Camp X, and sent off to Europe to infiltrate Germany as a guest from Stalin’s army of Scientific Advisors, with selected missions including sneaking out scientists to the England, and if he has anything to say about, the US.  
1941---Karen is getting the reputation of being the best ‘War Whore’ in White’s ‘stable’ of spies, and given a special assignment---get into bed, literally, with known sexual pervert Adolf Hitler, and get the goods from him about the time for the rumored invasion of Russia.  Adolf coughs up the info, but with some unexpected developments.  First, she is knocked unconscious while engaged with his excessive sexual perversions, waking up in a very protected  German hospital.  Second,  ‘the Housepainter’ gave her the wrong date for the invasion, making her report of such irrelevant and discredited to her bosses back home.  Third, there is a life incubating in her womb---Hitler’s baby.

Through a series of espionage related accidents initiated by some friends, and some enemies, Karen finds herself stranded on the Russian Front as the German Army, the Red Army and Armies of uncertain alliances converge.   The price on Karen’s head and the child/’demon seed’ in her womb escalates, her strength diminishes and she becomes increasingly dependent on her ‘protectors’, some assigned by Washington, some by London and some by ‘chance’ encounters with Red Army and Partisan units.  The only person who Karen can trust is the child within her womb, the only innocent person in Karen’s life, including herself.  And a veteran female Red Army Major with whom she finds herself falling in love.  A feeling that (for the moment anyway) the Major with the mysterious and dark past has for her and the child as well.

COMMENT:  A woman’s book about the horrors of war, and the Soul-opening opportunities it can present.  Enough edge and action for male readers as well.   Inside stories about the vast, wild and ever-changing Russian Front.  More about the people than the details of the times, but then again, the Russian Front was a very isolating place to be.   Special appeal, perhaps, for gay/lesbian market in later part of the book given relationship the protagonist has with another woman as a lover, ally, and betrayer.

MIRACLE CENTRE (tv series, screenplay)

Logline:  Mary, wife of Pastor dedicated to taking care of homeless people’s real needs despite their theological beliefs steps up to the pulpit/plate when she has to take over the Ministry after her husband is incapacitated  with a heart attack, challenged by a new insensitive and ignorant city council, her teenaged ‘problem grandchild’ dumped on her doorstep by Mary’s junkie atheistic daughter, and Mary’s relationship with God regarding His real nature and intensions.  

Story: Half hour tv series about real-life married Pastors in Interior British Columbia whose street ministry aimed at feeding the bodies of the homeless/poor as well as the souls of everyone else is profoundly affected by their relationship to each other, and the ‘flock’ of children and grandchildren they made mistakes with in their past.   The main character of the story is Mary, self-taught Toronto-raised educator and part time Pastor who has to step up to the plate, and the pulpit, when her husband Pierre, staunch wilderness-raised French Canadian, gets a heart attack and has to hand over operations to her.   Mary is very new at the Calling of being a Minister, made even more challenging by her very rocky relationship with her own substance-abusing, actively-atheistic daughter and the added job of caring for her ‘experimenting with different moral values’ 15 year old grand-daughter to whom she is abruptly entrusted.    What Mary believes about herself, the people around her, and the God she is trying to serve under progressively trying circumstances undergoes twists and turns which don’t follow any Bible Study book that she knows, or has access to.   Also featured are many different characters who inhabit the real lives of street ministries, as well as ‘homeless’ people in ways that reveal their real reasons for their fates, and choices, and an inner humanity to them which is often more noble than those who live in paid-for houses.    

WAGON WHEELED (novel)

Logline:  Series of mysterious deaths occur in Post-Civil War when wagon train of Union supporting sodbusters led by ex-Black Slave  and ex-Confederate cattle drovers combine forces to pass through hostile territory, the culprits NOT being hostile Indians, a ten year old White girl (Ward of ex-Black slave) being key player in figuring out who done it, and why.

Story:  A Wagon Train of Union-supporting sodbusters led by an ex-slave/self-taught Scholar (Homer) on its way from St Louis to California just after the Civil War has to join forces with Mac McCloud and his all-ex-Confederate free-range cattle outfit in order to survive.   Battling hostile Indians with secret scores to settle and Mother Nature on a PMS rampage is hard enough.   But there’s an enemy within the camp, killing cowboys and sodbusters alike in ways that are painful, horrifying and for reasons no one can figure out.    According to calculations, there won’t be anyone left by the time they get out of Oregon.   Everyone has a secret past, and agenda, even the noble Homer, who may know more about why the other Wagon Bosses were killed than he reveals, even to his adopted White daughter, nine-going-on nineteen year old Angelica, his Old “Masters” daughter.

The story is told through the eyes, and mind, of Angelica, a girl who has to grow up very fast to stay Alive, and to keep those she cares about from getting killed.

Comment:   Cross genre, multi-cultural Wild West tale mixed with mystery who done it as seen through eyes of a small girl, but written for an adult audience.    

HESSIANS (novel)

Logline:  Two dirt-poor, freedom-seeking brothers in Germany sign on to fight for King George in America putting down freedom-fighters there as Hessian mercenaries, taking with them their ‘owner’s’ high-born woman who they both love (in different ways), then winding up on different sides of the American Revolution, finding that freedom, love and power come with high prices and responsibilities.
 
Story: A little-appreciated fact about the American Revolution is that half of the men fighting on the Loyalist Side for King George were Hessians, dirt poor German mercenaries and conscripts who barely knew English, and even less about what the War was really about.  By the end of the War, at least an estimated quarter of them had joined the Rebel side, another portion disappearing into the woodwork of America and a small portion returning home to Europe with their oppressive British ‘comrades’.  

‘Hessians’ is a fact based tale about Hans and Albert, twenty-something manure shoveling serfs in Hesse-Cassel, who join up to obtain wealth and freedom when given the opportunity to get away from their fates, and to get closer to Maria, adventure-seeking Baroness eager to escape slavery of another kind at the hands of her abusive father, Hans and Albert’s ‘lord and master’.

At first, escape from the old country and ‘settled’ fates is a liberating joy ride for the trio, who are the best of friends, and comrades.  But political forces and ghosts from their past pit Hans and Albert on opposite sides of the Revolutionary War for freedom, with Maria unwillingly becoming a wedge that separates them even more.  Each of the German immigrants become key players in the American Revolution, but in ways they never expected, or desired.   Internal experimentation and transformations occur as well along the way, including the requirement to ‘pass’ as members of the opposite sex on life and death missions which could change to course of the War, and of Western History.
.   
Comment:  Fact based account of Revolutionary times from perspectives of characters  who could very well be us today.    Gender-bending true-life stories offer opportunities for sales to lesbian/gay markets or those who wonder what it is like on the other side of the gender line.   But in its essence, a tale about  evolving and DE-volving human perspective under fire during a time when the whole world was changing very fast.

COLORS OF REVOLUTION (novel and screenplay)

Logline:  Three slaves on a Carolina Plantation in 1776 run by a benevolent, highly-educated, paternalistic Master wind up on different sides of the American Revolution through a series of accidents, opportunities and wrongs done to people they care about most, seeking above all something they never had and do not yet understand---freedom.
 
Story:  One fifth of the combatants in the American Revolution, on BOTH sides, were Afro-American.   Even less appreciated is that few really knew who, or what, they were fighting for, ‘freedom’ providing a very scary dilemma for those who won or fell into it.   And as for freedom, the British often promised and provided more of this elusive gift to African Americans than the ‘Patriates’ did.  

Colors of Revolution is a fact-based fictional story about three Negroes on a South Carolina Plantation initially bound by friendship, then separated by War.   Hector is a headstrong, handsome, strong, semi-literate young ‘buck’ who loves Athena, highly-educated and cultured ‘house nigger’ who is her benevolent, intellectual, philanthropic and married White ‘Masters’ best friend, and only real confident.    Hercules,  Hector’s best friend, is small, homely, always subservient, and kind, with gifts to heal human bodies, and souls, that few appreciate.   Life isn’t so bad on the plantation until a series of ‘accidents’ separates the three Afro-Americans, placing them on opposing sides of the war, with constantly conflicting loyalties, each seeking the thing they yearn for and fear most----freedom.

The three Afro-Americans eventually unite to fight a common foe, a sadistic and powerful British Officer with his own private army, who kidnaps and tortures Johnson’s wife and daughter, and who is her ‘loving’ husband, working with but not under their former master, ‘Colonel Johnson’, who at the time of dying, reveals to them their biological connection to him as their father.

Comment:  An epic tale, adventure and romance.   Specific demographic not thoroughly studied in marketplace.   

COMMUNAL CONFIDENTIAL (novel)

Logline:  Veteran NY Detective (Boris) whose father was vicious KGB mobster and brilliant junior-level female Canadian Coroner (Seana) who is still more connected to life than death to find out who is behind bizzare and ignored (by NYPD bosses) killings of  Italian and Russian mobsters in the Big Crab Apple which will take out even more innocent bystanders if not stopped.   
 
Story:  Italian Mobsters in Brooklyn are dying of a disease that no one can identify.  Close by are Russian mobsters ready and eager to take over their territory, and rule it with an ever firmer iron hand.   Investigating the murders, and trying to stop the inevitable consequences of their continuing, is Seana Ryan, Canadian coroner who still is more drawn to life than death, and Boris Federoff, NYPD detective whose father was one of the most vicious and corrupt KGB in the ‘old country’.   Working with them is Carlos, a half-insane but always-insightful aging Cuban janitor who sees conspiracy behind everything.   

The trio must fight the clock, each other, and the ghosts of their pasts in order to stop a mob war which take out many casualties, including innocent civilians this time, with biological warfare weaponry which Al Capone and J. Edgar Hoover  never even dreamed possible.

After discovering multiple problems with the Russian and Italian mob and things about Boris’ father that make him both fear and respect the old scoundrel, the trio of  indy investigators find out that the person doing the killing of mobsters is the mild mannered Catholic priest, killing the no-goodnicks with communion wafers drenched in ricin, as God’s special soldier in the Cause of righteousness, as well as to extract revenge for what both mobs did to a woman he wanted as a wife. 

SWIMMERS (children’s novela)

Logline:  Island of non-competitive, cooperative South Pacific Natives is introduced to the evils of competition by a clock that measures time, and embittered, beached English Sea Captain who sets himself up as kind of the game, till Albert Einstein educates him and re-educates the natives about the benefits of cooperation and drawbacks of being number one by stepping on number-everyone-else.

Story:   A short story by adult standards, perhaps a children’s book, or perhaps not.   Once upon a time there was a Utopian island known to the inhabitants as Concordia in the remote South Pacific where everyone shared what they had, and competition was something no one knew about…until one day, an English Sea Captain came ashore and introduced competition to the Natives.   The arena where it was applied first was swimming---the ones who swam fastest got more fish, then all the fish, at the end of the day.   Enter into the corrupted kingdom, Albert Einstein, having gotten lost while on his sailboat (which he in fact often did).   Albert challenges the English Sea Captain to a ‘duel’, winner take all, to see if Einsteinian humanity or British-like hierarchy will rule the island.   

SURVIVING THE AVION FLU (comedic ‘scientific publication’)
(in ‘Satire’ section of web site)
A tongue in cheek mocumentary ‘medical mini-text book’ on the ‘Avion’ Flu, the disease spread by drinking overpriced water at expensive ‘hip’ cafes that dulls out the brain, kills the Soul, and can turn even the most enlightened individualists into the most hated and dangerous entity know to man (or woman) kind----‘cool-to-be-cruel’, ‘hipper than thou’ Yuppie scum.     History, symptoms, treatments and cures offered.

Comment:  An ‘airport’ book, for those who perhaps question the sanity and worth of those sitting next to them in First Class, or any class back home.

999 AD (script and novel)

Logline:   Atheistic Jewish Scientist-Writer hiding out as monk in Christian Monastery in  last days of 999AD after abandoning his Jewish brethren from massacre to save his own ass has to rethink his theology when colorfully-dysfunctional villagers in his new home go missing then dead, victim of the ‘devil’ in wake of the Second Coming, or perhaps a more human cause,  the manifestations of the Apocalypse resembling the images in his heretical books and literary imagination.  

Story:   St. Pierre, an  isolated Christian French village in the Dark Ages during the final days of December, 999 AD.   Life is harsh, brutish and short for most everyone except the ‘Duke’ (a collector of books who is secretly illiterate, but who rules everyone’s pocket), his flirtatious Pagan wife (who has secretly taken most of the Duke’s serfs and the Monastery’s monks to bed)  and Abbott Phillip (corrupt head of the Monastery,  who has convinced the illiterate peasants that the world will come to an end at dawn on Jan 1, 1000 AD, Christ forgiving their sins if they give their wealth, and their children, to the Church).   

 In the middle of it all is Brother Thomas, a cynical wandering Jew with a secret and shameful past (running away from the opportunity to save his village of Jews from invaders, to save his own skin) who is one of the only monks who can not only transcribe books but actually read them, and who has secretly written his own, humanity-serving, philosophically-challenging tales of fantasy which feature real inventions that he had formulated.  He hopes that someday he can show these ‘heretical’ books to the world.  Thus far, the only eyes that have laid eyes on them are Thomas’, his cat ‘Gwen’ (who the Abbot keeps wanting to kill as she is, according to him, Satan’s minion), Blind William (elderly, dangerously-wise but discrete monk who is Thomas’ most trusted friend), and Christopher, (recklessly-smart 10 year old born to defies the monks and the Abbot behind the back of his mentally-slow devout mother).  Amongst the other colorfully-dysfunctional inhabitants of the isolated mountain community is Peter, stuttering village idiot and (with his hands anyway) master builder (Peter) who everyone in the village abuses and over-utilizes, except for Thomas. 

True to the Abbott’s prophesy, the ‘Devil’s invaders’ pour into St. Pierre on the last day of 999 in the form of a Viking Invasion, sending the village’s citizens into the Abbott’s ‘Last Cathedral’, a renovated underground Roman Pagan temple.  But as the last day of 999 AD progresses into night, villagers go missing, with horrifying deaths on the surface at the hands of Vikings, or perhaps an even more terrifying foe.   Thomas is charged with saving whoever is left, a task which he fails at miserably at first, due to his inability to think like a cruel man and his fear of those who are cruel.  But as time goes by, he ‘mans up’ as he becomes one of the only survivors, in a horrific wave of death and destruction for which he is more responsible than he can ever imagine.   No matter how hard he tries to save the men and women in his new home, they are caught up in a nightmare which omenously resemble the dark side of the dream-fantasy tales he has written about in his books, made possible by the inventions that came from his Promethian head.   

Thomas weaves his way through a myriad of demons, betrayals and discoveries of alliances he has to trust in order to save what is left of the village, and the world around it.     

After heroically fighting to save the lives of those he loves and hates, and after considering that maybe there really IS Someone metaphysical greater than himself (be it God or the devil, or both), Thomas discovers that the demonic changes above the underground cathedral and the demons in the tunnels is NOT the making devil, but the handiwork of Jesus.   More specifically, Peter, the village idiot, who is instructed in how to create the illusions in Thomas’ philosophically-enriched fantasy books using the inventions in his science writings, under the command of Blind William, who seeks to take the ‘show’ on the road to other villages believing in the supernatural so he can control them and make the population do his bidding, collecting wealth under the banner of ‘Jesus’ (a non-stuttering Peter) along the way.   

When Thomas refuses the deal, William uses Thomas’ devises to kill him, or try to, which leads Thomas to a room where William has kept the ‘dead’ in sleeping states, to be awakened when the time is right with the appropriate antidotes.     Thomas gets the antidotes to them before William does, sending them up to the surface before Thomas is inactivated by William’s gases.  But not before Thomas inactivates William, and his new Jesus, first.

  
 
YAKUTIA (novel)

Logline:  Idealistic young Russian Engineering Officer (Alexi) gets sent to Siberia in 1840s for what he thinks is a promotion, but he is actually being exiled by everyone he trusted, including his one true love.   After realizing such, Alexi is determined to build a Utopian paradise in a harsh wilderness inhabited by rebellious Natives, deceitful Russian soldiers and the discovery of gold that corrupts everyone who goes after it.    
 
Story:  Twenty-two years in-experienced Captain Alexi Kerisokov is on his way to 1840s Siberia, thinking that it is because he is being promoted and valued for his scientific skills which will be instantly applied when he arrives as a genius self-taught inventor with idealistic dreams that rival those of his executed Revolutionary father.  He soon finds out and his ‘promotion’ was a form of exile and humiliation from Moscow, and that Siberia is as far away from Moscow as one can get.  A ‘dear Alexi’ letter from his beloved Elena only makes things worse.  He meets corruption at every level amongst his own people in the Wild Wild East, finding a home very quickly with the Native Yakuts, but they betray his trust as painfully as Elena has.  Opportunities for advancing his Visions for a new compassionate, democratic Utopia, as well as intense personal heartache, materialize in the form of Katerina, a half-breed Yakut whose father is the most feared Native rebel bandit East of Moscow.    When gold is discovered, Alexi chooses to do whatever he can to make the Natives rich this time, not the ‘pioneering’ Russian soldiers, traders and missionaries.   But his plan backfires, setting up the most potentially-destructive Yakut revolt since the dark days of 1628, with elimination of Whites and Natives alive in the balance.

LOST TREASURES (screenplay)
Logline:  Naïve, dirt-poor Albanian idealistic university graduate who desperately wants to bring home money to his family and get enough status/money to marry his high-school sweetheart is recruited in stages into sex-slave/human trafficking mob operation by ‘cool, bad-seed’ boyhood friend, then works his way up the ladder till those who are closest to him become its victims.

Story 
A charming, compassionate, dirt-poor and intelligent 22 year old Albanian ‘chick magnet (Alex)’ can’t do anything with the university degree he worked hard to get in linguistics and computers and feels like crap for coming home from job search after job search with empty pockets for his broke, hard working yet proud-of-their-scholar-son parents.   Through Bledi, a boyhood friend who learned smarts on the streets rather than ideals in the classroom, Alex gets drawn into recruiting  teenaged Albanian girls into going to Italy to become models, dancers and actresses.  Alex’s motivation is money, which he wants to give to his hard working  parents and, if she will accept it, his childhood sweetheart next door, Marrianna.  Alex’s skills include the ability to speak alluring lies in seven languages to women of any age and have them believed, particularly an older woman he meets in a bar,  Melidi, who turns out to be Bledi’s boss.   Alex believes some of the bullshit himself, so it seems, as he is drawn to something in the aging beauty who is more intelligent than any girls he knows, including Marrianna.   Alex is very, very good at recruiting young women, and asks no questions as to where the girls are going after they go into Bledi’s limo for a ‘ride’, as the girls are happy, are getting paid, and can send money home to their deserving families, and most importantly, Alex has money to give to his deserving family.   Bledi is part of a large system of criminals organized in a pyramidal organization, and soon Alex rises above Bledi, pushing Bledi downward on the totem pole of the smuggling ring which operates on an International level, using Albanians as their main source of cheap ‘labor’. The reality that Alex doesn’t know, or seem to want to know, is that the ‘labor’ the Albanian girls will do in Italy is as prostitutes, whether they agree to it (which some do) or not.   

 The ‘recruiting’, smuggling and kidnapping ring is run by mobsters who are far more vicious than Alex can imagine, or is willing to really know about, and whose special skills include corrupting virtuous ‘employees’ into become corrupt and vicious people .   The bosses of the ring include Melidi, a sadistic aging Italian madamme/mobster (an ex-hooker herself) whose dwindling beauty makes her obsessed with making the young peasant ‘stud’ her most special lover, and who steals from her own boss (Luke).   Melidi also short-changes the goons who work for her, said goons also being ‘recruiters’ of girls for the sex trade who are jealous of the new kid (Alex) rising up the ladder so quickly, and have it in for the newby on the block.  Luke, Melidi’s sadistic and very intelligent boss, is looking for a young protege to be his adopted ‘son’  as he seeks to advance his operation up to the next level and is displeased with Melidi and most of his other employees.  Over the years, the operations have already kidnapped, enslaved or killed several hundred of innocent daughters of  parents who know nothing about where their daughters are, and if they did, must remain silent to save the lives of the people they care for most.   With Alex on board, the operation can move a new shipment of 150 Albanian girls who will be delivered within three days---a golden beginning for an escalation of Luke’s operation.   Yet, Alex still asks no questions about where the girls are to be used, naively thinking (or allowing himself to think) that they will be dancers, actresses and models  rather than slaves whose bodies are at the disposal of sex-hungry ‘clients’.  

Rescuing Alex from his ignorance of what he is doing, himself, his new ‘love’ (Melidi), and his newfound economic ‘success’ is Marrianna, and a ‘good angel’ boyhood friend of Alex (Arjun), who puts aside his studies as a Seminary Student to join in a risky undercover operation with Marrianna to find the missing Albanian girls, and to put Alex in jail before he gets in any deeper with the Mob.    Both newbys are recruited into the hunt for  for the mastermind of the smuggling ring, and for Alex, by a Crusader Cop (Astrit) who has powerful enemies in the Mob as well as even more ferocious foes in his own very corrupt Department.  To make matters more personal, Astrit’s own daughter is one of the missing girls about to be lost forever in the biggest shipment of ‘property’ from Albania to Italy ever.    

Astrit tries to get Marrianna to turn Alex against the mob  he is working for before it is too late.   She does so, but only after she is enslaved into the harem but a jealous Melidi, and Alex sees what Melidi is really doing to the girls he recruited, and the girl (Marrianna) who he finally realizes he loves more than life itself.  But…how to stop the next shipment of girls, and rescue the ones who are still rescue-able (those who have not lost their minds, self respect or lives due to suicide/murder)? 

Alex connects  intellect, courage and insight he never he had in an elaborate scheme to set the mobsters against each other, hoping that Marrianna, Arjun’s lives will be spared, knowing that his own will be forfeit.   

Doing the right thing, finally, Alex works with the Cop, and Marrianna, foiling the plot on Miledi’s plans to become the biggest female mobster in the human trafficking operation, just in time to get at least THIS bunch of girls back to freedom, forfieting his own to the authorities in the process.

Based on a true story about kidnapping rings which operated out of Albania on a mass level until only a few years ago.

GOLDEN GORE (screenplay and novel)
Logline:  Self-sabotaging young half-breed gold prospector blamed for rash of prospectors going missing or dead after striking it rich discovers that the real culprits are a highly respectable Bible-thumping (and pathologically-horny) old-hag Scottish woman and her pussy-whipped husband running the most popular stagecoach station stop in 1870s British Columbia, and it is up to him alone to stop them.   

Story:  A young,  down-on-his –luck, self-sabotaging half breed prospector (Jack Calvin) is ripped off by his older buds and accused of working with wild bush Indians who are, allegedly, killing prospectors who strike it rich, taking their gold and their scalps.  There is no better explanation for the rash of miners who go missing after they strke it rich, and Jack talks to ‘ghosts’ in the bush a lot.   On the way to nowhere with a price on his head and a busted leg in need of medical care, Jack runs into Steve Tingley, moral, strong and wise peacekeeper who is one of operators of the BX Stagecoach Company, innovative company moving people and goods from one part of the wilderness to another so it can become civilized.  

Tingley pities the well-meaning, mis-led lad, setting him up to work at one of the most popular stagecoach station stops, which is run by Agnes McFee, Bible-thumping, moralistic old hag Scottish woman, with her pussy-whipped husband and mentally-retarded brother in law.  Jack also meets an attractive tall-tale-telling, presumably classy Texas whore (Elizabeth), who steals his heart, repairs his leg, then disappears the morning after standing up to Agnes’ McFee’s rigid morality rant at the dining table.   Jack is accused yet again by Agnes of being involved with Indians who are killing miners and kidnapping young women, even convincing Tingley that such may be true.   One of the stagecoach passengers on his way to places where he can spend his gold is one of Jack’s former buds, old fart Robby Hoskins, who is now a big shit, with a trophy girl on his arm, who gives Jack a small purse of gold that he got from what used to be Jack’s claim.  

The next day, the Hoskin and his young ‘niece’ are gone, Jack accused of working with bush Indians to have them killed. Fed up with it all, Jack pays his debt to Agnes for his lodging, and Tingley for a horse, and takes to the outlaw trail, working with Lizzy to rob stagecoaches containing gold that prospectors stole from the Earth, and each other.  But Jack and Lizzy are as bad at robbing stages as they are young, and get caught, by Tingley.   Jack is returned to Agnes’ stagecoach station for ‘safe keeping’ before trial, not knowing where Lizzy is.   All the while, ghosts on the property talk to Jack, asking for his help.  Nothing unusual, as Jack is schizophrenic, hearing voices.  But when those voices belong to ghosts that he sees, including the ghosts prospectors who have been killed, including Hoskins, Jack knows that there is something very wrong going on connected to the ‘real’ world.   Young girls also beg him for help, from that real world, from below the floorboards of the barn at the McFee station, including Hoskin’s ‘niece’ and now Lizzy.   Jack is shackled, guarded very  carefully, and ‘cared for’ by a very horny and demented Agnes.  Armed with the knowledge that it is the McFees who have been killing and robbing the miners, and kidnapping the missing girls who are for sale to the highest bidder, Jack takes it upon himself to somehow liberate whoever is left, and stop Agnes and her cohorts and bring them to justice before they can kill anyone else,  which of course would require him not getting killed himself, or losing his now-beloved Lizzy.   

After a valiant escape from captivity from a sexually-obscessed Agnes, Jack frees Lizzy and the rest of the girls, standing up to Agnes and her very heavily armed ‘family’ alone, putting Agnes herself in chains.  But not without the help of the Native Shaman spirit who has been haunting Jack all along, and the ghosts of the miners who were killed on the land.   With Agnes’ husband dead, and her mentally-retarted brother in law not under Agnes’ thumb (and spell) anymore, Jack finds the gold and after giving what he can to the girls for their new lives, gives the rest back to the river, realizing that the Cree were right to call White men, particularly miners, ‘those who have gone mad in the pursuit of money’.  

A thriller/horror Western based on the real story of Agnes McFee, operator of ‘Hundred and Eight Mile’ BX Stage Station, who relieved nearly 60 miners of their lives and money, and untold numbers of young girls of their freedom during the rough and tumble Gold Rush days in British Columbia, Canada.  To this day, not all of the bodies nor the gold have been recovered.

LIARS, THEIVES AND TRAINROBBERS (screenplay)

Logline:  The REAL story behind old-but-still-defiant gentleman bandit Bill Miner in 1905 British Columbia, who lied so much that he believed his own bullsh-t about the identities he adopted, while all the while losing connection to his only trustable friend, Jack Budd, under-appreciated workhorse buddy who Bill pulled back into outlawing, then stole most everything he had, including the woman Jack truly loved.  

Story:  The REAL story behind old-but-still-defiant outlaw Billy Miner previously portrayed by Richard Farnsworth in ‘The Grey Fox’, based on very real (but often unrecorded) events revealed to the writers of the present screenplay by those who lived through it.   

After his release from two decades in San Quinton in 1904 at the age of 60, Bill Miner wandered up to Canada and started robbing trains, shocking the hated Canadian Pacific Railroad and becoming a hero to the general population whose livelihoods were threatened by the Iron Horse.   Between robberies, as ‘gentleman miner’ George Edwards, Miner was a charmer and teller of lies who believed his own bullshit.  He did this to the point of putting himself and those who trusted him in danger.   But when crossed or cornered, Miner was hardly the ‘gentleman bandit’ that his legends portrayed him as.   The story is told through the eyes and experiences of Jack Budd, Bill Miner’s old (and ‘wants to go straight’) friend who looked out for Bill when he could, and who paid the price many times when Bill Miner screwed up, or caused pain in other people’s lives.   But Jack Budd was loyal to the end, even when ‘George Edwards’ stole the woman Jack wanted, and deserved, to have as his wife.  And Bill Miner remained deluded till his eventual end.

Funded by Telefilm Canada.

KOLIKOTRONIS (screenplay)
Logline:  Fact-infused story about the Pancho Villa/George Washington of the Greek Revolution against the Turks in 1821, an honorable outlaw who did more to liberate Greece than his aristocratic backstabbing Comrades, and was tossed in jail after doing the job, only to be released later after the Turks invaded a divided Greece to save his country.  Story told from viewpoint of American ex-patriate who joined ‘Old Man Kolikotronis as a physician, and confidant, and potential link to the American government.

Story:  Fact-based story about ‘Old Man’ Kolikotronis, the George Washington, Pancho Villa and Socrates of the Greek revolution in the 1820s who led the revolt against the Turks, then was turned upon by ‘upper crust’ Greek Allies in a conflict that nearly started a World War.  The story is told from the perspective of a young American doctor/journalist (John Quincy Walton) who is swept up into the Revolution during his ‘holiday’ in Greece.  He finds himself intricately involved with Old Man Kolikotronis’ seemingly simple but in reality very complicated role in liberating his country.  Walton does his best against impossible odds to prevent the Greeks from making the same mistakes which were made in the American Revolution, or by revolutionary ‘heroes’ such as Walton’s ‘hero’ father, who in reality was no hero at all.  The conflict-heavy bond between Kolikotronis and the ‘young Turk’ American idealist is endangered by a beautiful woman with a mysterious past who threatens not only the father-son relationship between Walton and Old Man Kolikotronis, but the fate of the Revolution itself.

Comment:  Based on real events, as recorded by impartial historians.  Endorsed by former Presidential Candidate (and Greek) Michael Dukakis.

GHOST AGENT (screenplay)
Logline:  Prolific, dedicated and humanistic writer (Frank) who has sabotaged himself in marketplace takes up offer of embittered ex-wife plastic surgeon (Jennifer), fakes his death get new identity and life insurance money to remarket/produce his material, but is transformed into a woman (Taylor) without his consent and the money.  Taylor soon learns to use feminine skills to manipulate the corrupt/crass movie execs, sells Frank’s work to them, then gets corrupted by system herself, about to bastardize/commercialize Frank’s work till Jennifer and Frank’s post-marital girlfriend intervene, awakening Frank within Taylor.

Story:  A kind-hearted, prolific, ‘hundred years behind yet a thousand years ahead’, severely ignored male writer (Frank Johnson) is a self destructive marketer, and a horrible lover to his neo-Hippie girlfriend (Susan) who wants and deserves to be more.   After self-sabotaging himself for the last time at the biggest Film Festival on the continent, making himself unmarketable to ANYone, Frank makes his final statement.  He goes to the steps of MGM Studios in ‘Los(t) Angeles’, places all of his scripts in front of him, and pours the contents of his gasoline container over him, but when he lights the match, he discovers that it has been replaced by Coolaid.    Frank’s estranged ex-wife (Jennifer) takes pity on him when she visits him in the nut house.  She suggests a plan in which Frank will fake his his death to collect insurance money and a new identity through which he can use said funds to market his work with a fresh start.  Jennifer is now a respected plastic surgeon who secretly envies his commitment to and abilities in the arts and is openly jealous of hippie-dippy Susan.   Completely unexpectedly, Frank Johnson wakes up on the operating table without his ‘johnson’, in the form of an attractive female with a new face and hot new body.   Jennifer has turned Frank into ‘Taylor’ for his own good, as well as with a bit of a revenge for his having strayed away from her and establishing a relationship with Susan.    But Jennifer isn’t cruel…she insures that ‘Taylor’ has enough salary money from ‘Frank’s’ insurance policy (which she ‘inherits’) to live and work as a normal person, and NOT a fame obsessed writer/producer.

However, Taylor learns that with ‘her’ new hot body, she can be a far better marketer than Frank ever was.  Representing Frank’s work takes to the festivals where Frank had screwed up and becomes a hit being the representative of the ‘dead’ writer’s works.  Susan is pleased, Jennifer is pissed off.  Then, Taylor becomes corrupted by the system Frank’s works were supposed to expose and reform.  She starts to bastardize Frank’s work to make it commercial, killing it’s soul.  Coming to the rescue, Susan and Jennifer working together to ‘deprogram’ Taylor so she/he could remember what the Core of Frank’s work really is.  

Jennifer, Susan and Taylor team up to convert the horribly commercial and ‘cool to be cruel’ promoting movie about to be shot into something Real, from the heart of where Frank’s writing came from, and from a place of Heart and Soul in which the three of them now live, very united.

SINGING FOR THE BOSS (screenplay)

Logline:  Woman with musical talent and vitality most shrinks and normal people envy who was put in psych ward by her morally-corrupt abusive ‘respectable’ husband (so he can get custody of her children) claims that Bruce Springstein is en route to rescue her and bring her into his band, convinces head-heavy,  soul-dead, introverted shrink that her story just might be real and that being insane is small price to pay for being Alive, big A.  

Story:  A brilliant, reserved shrink (Sidney Edelman, Ph.D., M.D.) dealing with mid crisis (dull out virus) and very visible demons he can see encounters a colorfully free-spirited ‘tall-tale’ telling ever-singing female psych patient (Monika Korinski) who finds a way to wake up his slumbering, guilt-ridden Soul, and who also claims that Bruce Springstein is on his way to ‘spring’ her from the ward and take her and her daughters on tour with him.

The obstacles standing in the way of Sidney letting Monika out and go on tour with ‘the Boss’ include, firstly, a research competitor (very proper, manipulative and secretly very sadistic Dr. Patel) who wants to shit Sidney’s innovative ‘anti-dull out’ research work down, and lock him up in his own psych facility.  Secondly, Monika’s husband, a suave and slick lawyer who knows who to pay off and what to say so that his wife remains inside the ward, thus allowing him to keep her money and her most prized possession, her two daughters, one of whom he is secretly abusing.  Thirdly, Sidney’s own biomedical judgment, which wavers between recognizing that ‘crazy songstress’  Monika is either the Sanest, most talented person he ever met or that she is living in her own delusional fantasy, making herself dangerous to herself, others and himself if released.  

SCARED SH-TLESS, INC (screenplay)

Logline:   Set up to scare a teenaged ‘problem child’ whose mother was married to Mafia don into going on the straight and narrow according the the dictates of said teen’s Preacher stepfather goes wrong when actor who plays teen girl’s ‘ultracool date’ kidnaps her for real, requiring mother to work with ex-Cop who hired the actor, and discovery that the Preacher she married is a bigger criminal than her Mafia hubby ever was, particularly with regard to her daughter.
 
Story:  ‘SSI, Inc’ brings young offenders into staged crimes where said offenders become the victims in order to show them the pain of being on the receiving end of cruelty.  The organization, known only to insiders in the Police and Justice Department, is run by Nick Dimitropolis, a highly un-orthodox ex-Cop who still has some (but not many) trusted friends inside the Force.  Something goes wrong when one of the actors hired by SSI takes his role too seriously, turning a safely-staged ‘date rape’ into a real life kidnapping of a teenaged ‘problem child’.

The problem child in question is Elaine, daughter of a widowed Mafia wife (Rayana) who decided to go Fundamental Christian as well as ‘straight’.  Rayana’s new hubby is a high-profile, super-moral, well-liked Evangelist who, behind the pulpit, is more cruel and crooked than any Mafia dud (or dude) Rayana ever met, a claim made by ‘problem child’ Elaine which Rayana does not believe and which cannot be proven. 

Meanwhile, mob-hating Nick and former Mafia-Princess Rayana must learn to put their differences aside to get Elaine home safely from the actor-gone-made Nick had hired to ‘kidnap’ her.   Standing in their way is (a) a police department that wants Nick’s ass in jail, (b) a progressively-demented kidnapper whose fantasies about being a ‘cool criminal actor’ become deadlier by the moment, and (c) Rayana’s Evangelic husband, whose criminal activities will be found out if Elaine if not  found by Nick and her mother before the ‘good pastor’ can shut up his ‘problem step daughter’ for good.

In the process of liberating Elaine from the clutches of the good Reverend, Nick and Rayanna form the kind of romance that is based in reality rather than fantasy, while mother and daughter unite in ways they can learn from each other.

 
LEROY AND THE ROACH (screenplay)
Feature length humanistic, and raunchy, comedy.
Logline:   A defeated-before-his-time millenial musician in NYC is recruited by talking cockroach (Myrna, terribly Upper class English female life form) to work with her to foil plot by the Planet Mediocra to distribute libido-draining, soul-numbing ‘dull out’ toxin into water supply of that most Alive city and then the world so that the reproductively-sterile and emotionally-dull Mediocrans can take over the planet, and the universe.

Extended  Premise:  A down on himself, given-up-on-life-before-his-time, easily intimidated ‘loser’ (Leroy) existing in a low rent apartment in Harlem is contacted by a highly intelligent, terribly English, upper crust life form from Outer Space, (Myrna).   It's a mismatch of mind and body as Myrna has taken on the form of a talking and very unaccustomed to New York cockroach who has been assigned a Mission to save the Universe, which can only happen if she works with Leroy.   The planet Mediocra has accidentally dropped off a vial of highly potent ‘dull out toxin’ near Coney Island which, when ingested, turns the most vitally alive people into lifeless geeks, and the hottest lovers into people who don’t even know how to breed.   Such is the only way that the Planet Mediocra, a place where Intimidation has become the way everything gets done, and inner vitality (along with the ability to breed) is now extinct.   

Leroy and Myrna must work with each other to find two little green guys (Grim and Dral) who have landed somewhere in the Big Crab Apple, and prevent them from retrieving the dull out virus toxin and distribute it throughout the universe.   In the process, our dysfunctional duo of heroes have to overcome their own fears, face their most horrifying demons, and deal with a romance that has materialized between them even with the handicap of it being an inter-racial, inter-planetary AND inter-species love affair.

Story:
It's a special night for Mission Control on Mediocra, where the reptilian-humanoid bosses rule by intimidating those below them. Those ruled do whatever they can to fake proficiency to and hide any expressive emotions from the bosses to avoid punishment, and advance themselves by viciously outdoing their comrades in kissing the asses of their taller superiors.    But the bosses, particularly the Intimidator General, have a big problem.  Mediocra is such a dull, boring and lifeless planet that they have lost the ability to breed, as romance is considered 'bad form' and reproductive parts on male Mediocrans have diminished due to underuse.  To prevent their planet from being overun by emotionally expressive planets where inhabitant can effectively reproduce, the Mediocrans have developed a Dull Out Neuterino toxin which turns even the most expressive life forms into boring, procedural and asexual beings.    The stockpile of toxin  was accidently left on planet earth, and is currently buried in a marsh somewhere near New York City.  Sent to retrieve the toxin (so it can be distributed thoughout the galaxy) are tiny-peckered Grim and Dral, two promising asskissing but still middle ranking Mediocrans, who have never experienced 'shore leave'  anywhere, but harbor a curiousity for what it's like to be an expressive and sexually active.   It's a no-brainer mission, except for the fact that sneaking on board the craft is an intelligent, upper-class 'English' female life form (Myrna) who has taken on the form of a cockroach to avoid detection by the Mediocrans.  Myrna's Mission-  Locate the agent her home planet has assigned to her, find the toxin, and destroy it before it can do any MORE harm (as it has dulled out so many artistically expressive humanoids on earth already, as well as inhabitants of her planet).    

Upon landing in an underpopulated area of Central Park, Grim and Dral come upon a Rasta stoner being frisked by a Cop, making friends with the stoner while pickpocketing the Cop (who doesn't see the little green guys), and admiring the size of the penis of both male humanoids.   They mistake a fountain spouting water for a verile underground earth god-man, who they give offerings to as they try discover masterbation.   Meanwhile, Myrna, as a talking cockroach, makes her way to the agent she has been assigned to work with, getting instructions from head  office on her all-head and little-heart home planet by spitting on manure, then reading the message.   After interacting with a homeless scholar, empowering a pussy-whipped husband to stand up to his domineering feminist wife, and arguing with earthling cockroaches whose talk she finds crude and vulgar, her path leads to Leroy Jones, busking outside the subway station.

Leroy isn't the most classy musician in the Big Crab Apple, but he's the most sincere, dedicated and expressive.   While still in his late 20s, he's a washout at everything he's tried. On occasion he dares to dream, but  has learned to dream small, if at all as the years have gone by.  The only accomplishments to his name were in his early teens, when he got second place in cross country running, after which even that athletic career went downhill.   He shares an apartment with many earthling cockroaches, who always get to his food before he does.  Shocked at having to work with such an unevolved and unintelligent life form (Leroy), Myrna introduces herself to him, and the Mission at hand.   Leroy disbelieves her, thinking that she is a hallucination from his acid-dropping days or perhaps a kinky, sexually alluring 'roach toy bitch' sent by his sister to scare him into going straight.   To convince him of her real identity, Myrna has been authorized to grant him three 'wishes'.   In response to that offer, the self-defeated Leroy asks for a Zagnut bar (that has not been eaten by roaches first), a job as an ASSISTANT playground supervisor (so he can discourage kids from bullying each other, as such was done to him at an early age) and then...to be able to pick up and be loved by any woman he wants.   Technical problems prevent Myrna from granting that third squandered wish, but instead, she accompanies Leroy to a classy, 'in crowd' cafe, planting herself behind his ear, rather than inside his crotch, which was his original plan.  

Through non-magical means, Myrna helps Leroy stand up for himself to the snooty  host and clients at the eatery he always got thrown out of, and coaches him in how to get the expressive,  artistic, hip and cool woman of his dreams who he spots at the pool table.  But just as Leroy is about to collect on his pitch to her, said woman turns into a dull, boring, lifeless, procedural, asexual Norman Rockwell Polka dancer (ala Lawrence Welk), along with the other  inhabitants at the bar, courtesy of a canister of Dull Out Neuterino toxin Grim and Dral dropped into the place, to neutralize Myrna, Leroy and a bunch of earthlings for further clinical trails.   Leroy somehow is immune to the drug, rescuing Myrna from the dreaded soul-killing toxin just in time.  

Meanwhile, Grim and Dral decide to investigate earth culture while getting bearings on where the toxin is.  Their first stop is a sex shop, where because they have lots of money in their pocket, the very small peckered and more kind than mean hearted ETs are invited inside by a money-hungry dominatrix. They then go into a tourist shop, coming out all decked out as out of towners, complete with books on the local lingo.   The manual they use is a book of slang insults, which they think is vocabulary one uses to shower praise on those whose ass you are kissing.   The two little green guys try it out, then find themselves being celebs to the tourists and the kids, taking a liking to earth culture, but then get word from the Intimidator General that the location of the toxin is verified.   To enthusiastic applause, they depart the tourist shop, grab a cab, and head to Rockaway Beach.  Following them is Leroy and Myrna, neither of which can get a cab.   But Leroy's feet can still run like the wind.  Leroys' athletic legs enable him to keep up with the cab, but he has stay hidden and get other transportation.  Stealing a stolen motorcycle from a Gangsta (a class of people he fears), Leroy continues pursuit, daring to take a jump over an open drawbridge that lands him in a swamp.  But, by crawling into Leroy's ass to get another nitrogenous template to spit into, Myrna finds the location of the toxin before Grim and Dral do.

Renting a boat, Leroy and Myrna dredge for the toxin in the prescribed location, during which Myrna relates the drawbacks, regreats and desperation of living on a more-brains-than-heart planet, fueling even more of a romance between herself and the emotionally expressive yet still intellectually unsophisticated Leroy.  They finally find the toxin, then are found by Grim and Dral.  A chase ensues, which takes them into the vicinity of a Tour Boat.  Using his brains in ways he never thought possible, Leroy tricks the Tour Guide and tourists to take pics of the chase, which is part of a movie, so he claims.  As a Producer-Actor, he promises the hot women on board that whoever shows their breasts to the little green guys (who are big stars under their suits) gets to a bit part in the film, and to whoever gets them laid first, they get a supporting role in the next film.  Upon seeing earth women who want them, Grim and Dral develop hard ons that knock out their weapons and the rudder of the boat.

Leroy feels really good about himself, for the first time in...ever.   But his mood diminishes when Myna leaves another message in the shit covering the back of the boat.  It says that she has been given orders to meet him at his apartment, and has to do another detour, solo.   Leroy comes home with the toxin, looking forward to a meal and maybe a romantic evening afterwards with Myrna, but instead finds a ransom note left by Grim and Dral.  They will kill Myrna unless he delivers the toxin to them, and will release her if she does.   The Rendevous Point is an abandoned amusement park where Leroy was scared to death as a kid.  Armed with a paint gun that falls apart after he goes into the Hall of Horrors, Leroy is determined to free Myrna, carrying the bags of toxin with him.  He finds her tied up, releases her, then tells her that he brought fake toxin with him.  Hearing such is Grim and Dral, who surrender to Leroy, as they don't want to go home, and they also want to destroy the toxin.   They adorn Leroy with insulting words intended to hail him as a hero, and inform him, through Myrna, that there are even bigger problems.  The Intimidator General is coming to Earth in 24 hours to retrieve the toxin, as well as the astronauts sent to collect it.  What to do?  Myna and Leroy come up with an idea.

As it is Halloween, Leroy is made up to look like a Senior Mediocran, who will challenge the Intimidator General to a duel.  At first, it seems easy---Leroy's penis is far larger than any Mediocran's, and such is currency on that planet.   As a reserve, Leroy will challenge the Intimidator General to a footrace, winner take all.  Upon landing, it seems like  the Intimidator General is an old fart who can barely trot.  But Leroy screws things up by trying to speak Mediocran that Myrna whispered into his ear, conveying to the Head Mediocran that he can use a champion instead.  Said Champion is a spitting image of the dude who outran and degraded Leroy when he was a kid, only he is bigger, and Mediocran.   The fate of the Expressive Beings of the universe is at stake, and there is no turning back.

By using determination, a few tricks from Myrna, and the Champion's lack of experience with pain, Leroy tricks him into going slower, and slower.  Meanwhile, Grim and Dral trick the Intimidator General into being held up by earthlings thinking that the race is part of a Halloween show.   Conquering his fears, and overcoming learned helplessness, Leroy wins the race, the well being of many Alive between the ears planets, and the ability of Grim and Dral to stay on earth.   When the Intimidator General scolds his Companion, trying to degrade him into feeling like a piece of shit, Leroy makes the Intimidator General feel like garbage, so he knows what if feels like.  The Intimidator General reconsiders the code of how one advances on his planet, and heads home.

Coming by is a Park Committee, giving Leroy an award for best outdoor costume and performance act.   Myrna asks him if he is okay with people not knowing what the award is really for, and he says that now, finally, he is.   Myrna is called back to home planet, and even if she doesn't go, she can't remain in her current body as a roach because such is failing.  She hobbles off into the sunset to a ship taking her home, promising to work with ANOTHER life form to save the planet besides Leroy, but promising to come back to him for more personal reasons.

Time passes.  Leroy has upgraded his life and aspirations.  The street musician who can barely spell opera is now composing his own operatic Works, with some success, mostly because HE believes in them.  While playing his keyboard, a roach comes upon the ivories.  He relates events of his recent life to the roach, thinking it is Myrna, but it is not her.  Instead, Myrna appears behind him, in very human form, as a beautiful woman, whose current life form is now owned, not rented.

BARKER’S BITE (screenplay)

Logline: Aged, Quixotic ex-Confederate Cavalry Officer (Captain Barker) seeks to redeem his less-than-stellar record during the War by stealing shipment of Yankee gold in 1868 with band of colorfully-dysfunctional misfits and use it to buy Canadian land to built a new Confederacy, with all the grace of the Old South and none of the racial/class bigotry

Story: An aging, ex-Confederate Cavalry Officer (Captain Barker) seeks to redeem his less-than-stellar record during the Civil War by stealing a large shipment of Yankee gold in 1868 with the plan to high-tail it to Canada and give it to exiled  President Jefferson Davis so he can buy a chunk of Crown land in Canada where a new Confederacy can be built, with all the grace of the Old South and none of the racial/class bigotry.   Barker also is determined to free all Confederate soldiers still imprisoned by the Union army, a large number of them (many of them having been captured while under Barker’s command) now imprisoned in privately owned and secretly operated gold mines in the West.   Holding the prisoners, as well as a lot of Yankee gold stolen from the South is  young industrialist-soldier  Major Forbes, a vicious and ambitious young Union Bluecoat who still has Barker’s captured regiment in chains, and who also stole his daughter’s heart,  convincing her to become his loving wife.     

Assisting the aging and deluded, but still determined Barker is a former Slave who found that freedom in the North was both scary and anything but free, a young Eastern College drop out who got tossed out of his blue-blood family in New York out to get rich enough to buy his way back home, an immigrant Italian who wants money to fund a Revolution in his own country,  and a half-breed half-mutilated Native Shamen who seeks revenge on all White men except, for now anyway, Barker.

DREAMBOAT REALITIES (screenplay, half hour series pilot)

Logline:  Talented, passionate, humanistic illustrator/cartoonist who is actively disrespected and ignored by everyone in the ‘real’ world given chance to live in an alternative universe where he can do anything he wants and which is occupied by a dream woman who appreciates his work, but none of what he does in that realm will ever be seen by the Yuppoid crap-heads in the ‘real’ world, forcing him to decide where he dwells.
 
Story:  Rich Morata is a talented cartoonist and portrait painter who is earning a living slapping paint on walls, mostly in places where ‘hip, cool and in-the-loop’ Yuppie scum sip their capachinos.   He is a struggling artist who has been rejected for so long that he is not demoted to being ignored, as a painter and a person.  He has no effect in the world no matter what he does or tries to do.   While driving to his one-person ‘hole in the wall’ home one day, he nearly hits a baby abandoned on the road.  At great risk to himself, he avoids hitting the baby, finding that it is a doll.   “Make a wish and it will happen” it says on the back.  He wishes to be in a universe where he can do whatever he wants, with someone to share it with.  The wish is granted when he meets Luna, hair down to her waist ‘hippie maiden’ with a warm smile and generous heart.  Rich and Luna live in their own universe, literally.   A time warp where they can do whatever they want and not be stopped by anyone.  He can rob banks, spill coffee on Yuppie scum, and even paint his own satirical cartoons on the Starbuck’s walls.    The only problem---no one will ever notice what he does artistically in this parallel universe except himself and Luna.  Rich has to decide whether he lives happily with the very lonely and deserving Luna, or go back to the trenches in the ‘real’ world populated by people with closed minds, eyes and hearts.

Rich makes the heroic choice of braving it in  the ‘real’ world as someone whose Art is real and whose enemies are many, rather than live as someone who is liked, and loved, for doing something that is appreciated for doing something that has no effect in the real world.

WISEGIRLS (screenplay)
Three women who have been abused by men in different ways.  Jenna was a fat, obese, always-ridiculed kid and is now using her surgically-altered hot, attractive adult body to lure in men, make them fall in love with her, then break their hearts after getting their money.   Gabriella is the smartest sibling in her Mobster family whose abuse, manipulative and less-intelligent brother Joey gets to inherit her beloved father’s empire.  Tanya was born to a manipulative, sadistic, and sexually-abusive KGB agent who is now even more powerful as a legitimate Russian-American politico in America.   The three women team up to extract revenge on the men, and gender, who abused them in the past, but once they taste the sweet nectar of revenge, they begin to turn on each other, their plans to enjoy a life of happiness, respect and prosperity don’t quite work out as expected.  

PARADICED (novel)
It’s 1905, New Revolutions breaking out or about to do so all over the world.  Sasha Barisnki  is dedicated to fighting for Workers’ rights, a free Poland and the well being of her fellow Jews all over the world.   She is more dedicated to finding her father, who was carted away by the Czar’s Army with the help of Polish turncoat Baron Dubrinski.   Papa left Sasha the responsibility to carry on his Work as a Polish Democratic-Socialist Revolutionary, and a map of a gold mine in Colorado from which said revolution could be funded.   An easy thing for Sasha to retrieve the gold except for Baron Dubrinski having set in motion a manhunt for her hide, a population of rather uncooperative townsfolk around the mine, and her own ‘duel’ identity as being half woman and half man, both in mind AND body, each of those entities fighting against each other.  Making matters more ‘interesting’---Papa may still be alive, but has turned into someone and something Sasha never knew, or expected.

BIG UNEASY (screenplays)
Women from different backgrounds (Italian-American mob Princess,  White Trash New Orleans, Stuck-on-the-Rez Native American, and  KGB/Russian Mob)  who were abused by men in different ways when growing up collide as adults, their association providing a vehicle by which they can extract their revenge on those who did them wrong, and others of the male gender.  The revenge fest gets out of hand, pitting the girls against each other, making them face their own demons and forcing them to realize that abusers are also haunted by demons.

Three different versions of the script written, each with a different demographic and storyline.   Some comedic, some more dramatic.  Adjusted to different locations and demographics.   Co-owned. 

SHOES (stageplay)
A pair of stiletto heels has magical powers to transform whoever wears them, for better or worse.  Subjected to the power of these shoes, directly or indirectly are (a) a burnt out, abusive, overly-intelligent New York Coroner who dances with the corpses in his lab because they make him feel more alive than real people, (b) a naïve Janitor who thinks he is Jesus, speaking Aramaic and welcoming abuse from others, and (c) a kind hearted single Mom from Arkansas who reactivates her career as a Pathologist in the Coroner’s lab for reasons that she hides from others, and herself.   

DEVIL IN HER DRONE (stageplay, produced as 30 min film)
An emotionally-intense renegade investigative Neuroscientist seeks to find the anatomy of evil, drawing him to dissecting the mind and soul of a Wicka serial killer suspect who he falls in love with.  Said Neuroscientist is aided by a comedically nerdy assistant who he ignores and  writes off as just another victim of dull out disease that happens in the modern technological world, until he realizes that the Assistant is the Devil incarnate, who spreads the worst kind of evil to unsuspecting victims---lifelessness.

GOLDPLAY
Stageplay, seriocomedic, with lots of political meat, and satire.

Logline:  Three dysfunctional yet potentially effective Revolutionaries are drawn to the same undiscovered gold mine in 1907 New Mexico.  A failed Bolshevik from Russia, a feminist who wants to arm women against men to take over America, and a Mexican Rebel who wants to reform his country his OWN way.   They are pitted against each other by the failed Bolshevik’s slow-witted Afro-American servant, who has designs on them and the gold that are not revealed until his secret agenda is well underway.

Story:  1907, globally a time for cultural and political revolutions with winner take all consequences.   Some revolutionaries are noble, accomplished and intelligent, others are well meaning and colorfully dysfunctional, with no shortage of hidden secrets and weakness.   And as for which Revolution is most important for world Enlightenment, passionate revolutionaries are in constant disagreement.  Particularly when they all seek to fund their revolutions back home by robbing a train filled with gold going through the rugged hills of New Mexico.  
   First on the mountain awaiting the train is Ivan, book-smart/people ignorant failed Revolutionary from Russia who was less than effective in the 1905 attempt to overthrow the Czar, with a mandate of returning back home with gold to fund another Revolution after he caused so many screw ups in the one he left.   With him, a slow witted Afro-American man, Leroy, who embraces being a slave to Ivan, even though Ivan does his best to try to liberate him and make him think for himself.   Ivan obtained partial information about how to pull off the robbery from a letter from an anonymous Socialist Libertarian, and is confident that he will be able to figure out the rest.   But, realistically, he can't.
   By 'coincidence', another Revolutionary arrives on the lookout site which is ideal as a place to rob train.  Fernandez is Yaqui Indian who is dedicated to starting a Revolution back in Sonora, Mexico, to liberate his own people and ALL of the Indigenous Tribes of North America soon afterwards.   He also has been given a letter containing some of the clues as to how to rob the train and get away with the booty.  It doesn't take long for Fernendez, (another under-achiever trying to make good on his past mistakes) and Ivan to quarrel about which Revolution is most important, and who should lead them, and who should take home the gold.  The pathologically kindhearted  Leroy provides 'comic' relief, while inadvertently making things worse between his Russian Master and his potential new Yaqui Master.
    Fighting about idealogy and gold escalate when a woman comes into camp, a Nun passing herself off as Sister Thelma.  She is a newby Revolutionary who is bad at deception, but dedicated above all else to funding the Liberation of everyone of her gender, something the two men dismiss as unnatural.  After she sheds her habit, and shows her real identity, she tries to pit the two men against each other with her feminine charms and dominatrix persona, so that she can keep the gold once they get it.   But reason and collective greed persevere, in part through Leroy's intervention. The trio combines abilities and information, successfully robbing the train.
   But gold fever hits hard when they get up to what they think is there secret campground.   Quarrels as to who should get what in the booty of gold, bonds and cash escalate, made even worse by the discovery that 90 percent of the booty is missing.  Each one of the trio suspects the other, with shifting alliances abounding.  But they finally bond together when the Pinkertons find their way to Camp.   
    The three revolutionaries make a run for it, after leaving the small amount of gold that is left in camp for Leroy to have, so he can buy his freedom, something which he has learned about and now embraces rather than fears as a result of being educated by the three idealistic and dedicated revolutionaries.   
    The Pinkertons start shooting the fleeing rebels, killing or capturing them all.  Leroy looks down the mountain and gives a signal to the bushes.  Emerging is a  White Pinkerton Deputy addressing his superior, Sheriff Leroy, with fear and subservience.  Leroy sheds his slow witted 'Uncle Tom' persona, and accepts his share of the booty from the train, which he himself had sneaked away from camp under the noses of his revolutionary 'masters'.  He keeps 50% of it, as the new leader of the 20th Century Revolution, in which Greed is King, Queen and President.  Then he proudly pockets the letters send anonymously to the three revolutionaries to get them all to one location so they can be snared, captured, and spill the goods on their fellow rebels who would depose Leroy's Corporate and Capitalist bosses.

FORBIDDEN MITSFAS (screenplay)    
An old man suffering from survivor’s guilt mistakenly believes that he was a child in the Concentration Camps during WWII, and wrote a book about his experiences, which has made his son and daughter very rich, and enables them to provide tax-free contributions to Israeli Orphans, and fun very  profitable ‘public serving’ companies.  Said son, against the wishes of his weaker but kind daughter, carries the illusion too far when, against his sister’s wishes, he starts to identify his business competitors as Nazi collaborators to his Papa, who then kidnaps (or kills) them, a task which gives his aging life purpose.   But things get out of hand when one of the kidnappings gets out of hand, the ‘mark’ clearly innocent, son and daughter finally dealing with the mess they created for themselves, the world, and their Alzheimer’s afflicted father.

Based on a true story.  One hour spec script written for ‘Flashpoint’, convertible into feature film in it own right or another Cop show that is appropriate.

GUSTAV

Gustav, a dashing 20-something fashionably-libertarian dude in 1848 Hamburg is about to enter a privileged life as a brilliant physician-scientist.  But his life path takes an unexpected left turn when he is summoned to meet an elderly mental patient, ‘Maria 5’, who claims to be his mother, informing him that he is non other than the son of Ludwig von Beethoven.  The clearly non-musical Gustav takes it in stride until he finds himself caught up with, then in the middle of, the Freedom and Enlightenment Revolutions of 1848 sweeping across the continent, then in the crosshairs of a diabolical and sadistic anti-Revolutionary tyrant in charge of the Oppressor’s Armies.  The battle between good vs. evil, democratic socialism vs imperialist capitalism, and idealistic fantasy vs. hard reality takes place against the backdrop of the turbulent political revolutions in Europe and then the wide expanses of the Texas prairies, the fate of Civilization on both sides of the Atlantic in the balance.

OM RANGE

Bluewater  is a small community nestled amongst the big mountains of modern day British Columbia.  Central to its life is ‘Doc Hans’, a reclusive modern day 80-years-young mountain man, backwater scientist, outlaw healer, animal protector and very Germanic philosopher.    Hans has saved the lives or livelihoods of most everyone in Bluewater at one time, its citizens honoring him by not asking him about how or why he came to Canada after the War.  Two of Uncle Hans’ favorite and most loyal helpers are 17 year old cowboy-to-the-core  Bill and  allergic-to-everything-natural science geek younger brother  John McClure.  But Hans has a special one-sided connection with Leonie, 16 year old super-hot self-sabotaging ‘Indian Princess’ whose IQ is through the roof, obsessed with  trying to get herself pregnant by a rich dude, while still harboring deep feelings for the dirt poor McClure brothers.

Secrets are safe and inner agendas not acted upon in Bluewater until a Toronto-raised, hungry-for-recognition-at-any-cost cop, Carl Stiller, comes to town.   The University of Toronto wash out lives in the shadow of his successful, deceased Jewish Mobster father, whose ghost demands that Carl do a Big thing in his life, while Carl’s Catholic mother begs him to do the Right thing.  The chance to do both, along with earning his way back to the inner circle of his father’s upper crust Jewish family, materializes when he stumbles on rumors that Doc Hans was a brilliant scientist working for the SS on Jewish prisoners.    Rumors that could be converted into fact as required, or desired to, with an added prize of providing the ‘rags to riches’ Pharmaceutical Company Carl’s grandfather set up after the war with even more stolen formulas that can be converted into big profits, at the expense of many innocent people.  Brother is pitted against brother in many families as the Truth about who Hans is and what he really did during the war is discovered, and dealt with.

SOCRATEASE (novel)
Recipe:
1.	A 23-going-on-80 year old ‘looking for a noble cause’ Greek Canadian geek-philosopher who composes music mathematically but, to his unending frustration, has no musicality in his soul.
2.	A chubby, ‘plain Jane’ 22-year old ‘looking for a loving man’ straight-A linguist woman whose feet and voice channel music too Alive for the ‘cool’ world to handle, or recognize.
3.	A 40-year old, snotty blue-blood once-great film star, on his way down to being a ‘commoner’ who will do anything to rise up to the top again.
Bringing them together, and tearing them apart---a mathematical formula which can be used to compose mind altering lyrics and music that will make ANYone dance, mark or kill to the tune of the person playing it.

Contemporary novel.  For young adults, as well as thinking adults of all ages.  

SLEEPSTALKER’S TRINITY (screenplay)

Logline:  Pacifist, street-ministering, people-serving rebel Catholic Priest (Father Sean) with sleepwalking problem is framed for rape and series of murders by son he didn’t know he had, then has to work with investigative reporter ex-wife to find the real culprits, high level crooked Cops who are Sean’s closest allies against crime and power hungry Priest who was Sean’s first theological mentor. 

Story: Sean Leary, a progressive, honest, deep-thinking, rebel, street-ministering Catholic priest who knows the real dirt that is going down in his city, but fights it with Pacifism and intelligently-designed non-violent resistance.   He also knows a whole lot of what really goes on with his fellow Priests who are far more religious than he is, though he refrains from assassination of the Church in general because there are a few Priests he really does, life and respect.   Though very healthy in body, Sean has some mental problems, most notably sleepwalking, with a violent alter ego that takes over when he does surrender to slumber.   While recovering in the hospital from standing up to a biker gang about to bring ashore a boatload of sex-slaves, giving the Cops enough time to come to the scene, Sean is visited by his ex-wife, Yolanda,  now a rich and comfortable LA producer/director who is assigned to do a documentary on ‘the homeless problem’, and is assigned by her company, and the Cops, to work with Sean.   Sean is not very excited about working with Yolanda, and she is even less enthusiastic about working with him, as they did not part company 15 years ago on the best of terms, and have had no contact since. 

Quite unexpectedly, Sean finds himself framed for rape of teenaged boys, particularly a street kid who remains nameless and has access Sean for spiritual guidance.  Sean has also been accused of being the serial killer who has been taking the lives of homeless people and respectable citizens.  The person framing him is the nameless street kid, who visits Father Sean  while he is locked up in the prison psych ward and tells Sean that he is his son, Jimmy, who is now demanding payback for being ignored by Sean, and thrown into the streets by his mother.   After getting out of jail, and making his way to Yolanda, Sean discovers that Yolanda didn’t even know their son was in the country, as he was sent to Europe to attend college.   Sean, a felon who has to prove his own innocence, and who may have passed his genetic predisposition on to his son, is on the lamb, along with Yolanda.  Together, they get whiff of who is really doing the murders, and it is NOT Jimmy, but people far more dangerous and psychotic---the head of Detectives who has been working with Sean for years, and the Priest Sean trusted most within his Parish.   And their next target is Jimmy.  And their motive---kill off Sean and his family, because they may know too much about illicit operations involving top level Clergy and Cops who can’t afford to have an altruistic people-serving street-Priest and his documentary-making ex-wife still alive.

DAWN OF EVEY (screenplay)

Logline:  A rebellious teen is brought back to her home in the rugged interior of British Columbia, discovering secrets about her real genetics, the families who spawned her, and a curse lingering on the multi-cultural town  in which she grew up which she must explain or untwist before another 200 years of agonies afflict the community that seems to be pristine and perfect to the outside world.   

Story:  Evey Smith, superbright, rebelliously moralistic, self-taught non-linear scientist and under-listened-to 15 year old First Nations-White halfbreed is being brought up in Western Canada by self-absorbed, psuedo-liberal step parents in New York.   She is  brought to her ultimate Destiny by (a) a lightening bolt that makes her forget much of her past then (b) a letter from her home town in British Columbia, Canada from her Uncle Eddy, requesting that she come back to the spacious multi-use Estate/Mini-Community her great-great grandfather founded 150 years ago when he formed a ‘special’ alliance with a colorful and smart Indian chief.   

Outside of some culture shock the fast-paced New York conditioned First Nations girl experiences upon arrival…No problem.   Until Evey re-discovers memories that her father turned from being a peace-loving draft resistor (who went to jail for his beliefs) to becoming a sadistic child and spouse abuser.  That her mother disappeared without notice, in a car ‘accident’.   That her beloved yet  more adventurous than bright younger sister, Renata left a suicide note in the woods on the night she went missing after her father went mad.   And that Uncle Ben, black-as-spades servant to Uncle Eddy, was always around to make things ‘right’, or at least comfortable.   After being greeted on the bus by a kind, collected and annoyingly civil Uncle Ben, Evey encounters a very rich, guilt-ridden, rapidly aging and mentally-unstable hippie Uncle Eddy who did not send for her and does not know who did.  Armed with a naturally inquisitive mind and one which is invade by psychedelic ‘visions’ thanks to the lightening that struck her back in NY, and something she senses is in the air, water or food around her, Evey sees more than she wants to.

 There are indeed  colorful and potentially dangerous characters in the town a built around ‘Smithburg’, the estate built around the trading post established by Jack Smith back in the 1860s, which was everything from an opera house, hospital, tourist resort and mining camp, each of its financially-successful owners having died insane, violently, or both.    There is Mayor Stony Buena, washed out and now mostly-stoned, always smiling, former rock star who still thinks that ‘all you need is love’.   Constable Wilson is the town Cop, adamantly against the weed-oriented culture that dominates the town and the Rez next to it, who is very concerned about Evey’s welfare and sanity.   Leonie Cloud, crooked Mafia don who runs all the legal and illegal affairs on the Rez.   Leonie is a descendent (and according to her pictures, an incarnation of) Chief Grey Cloud, the clever Indian Chief who made the first deal with the Whites that allowed the Abolishionist-anti-slavery New York based Smiths to establish a colony in Canada that made them rich, with the help of black servants, the ‘Browns’, who were always smarter, saner and poorer than their white ‘partners’.    Billy Cloud, Leonie’s crazy brother who claims to be Evey’s real biological father, and whose body is becoming more female by the day for reasons Leonie will not reveal.

Evey is followed by ghosts, some of them birds that talk, and one of them very human, her dead sister Renata, who may be hiding out in the woods, or merely in Evey’s progressively expanded imagination.  An imagination that could get Evey locked up, or killed, if she talks about it too much.   

But some things are very real, and of THIS world, including a hidden cabin on the Rez which houses biologically-altering drugs which were, and perhaps still are, being used on the White and Indian populations in and around Smithburg, under orders from the US Army, having been administered by Uncle Eddy and continued by others for reasons Evey must find out before it is too late for those unassuming victims, or her.   In the end, she figures out that like in Ancient Rome, it is lead in the drinking water delivered only to the wealthy which made the rich people crazy and self-destructive, something that started with Grey Cloud and which was perpetuated by the Browns, while both of them stole what they could from their White ‘partners’/bosses.   It was the lead that drove Uncle Eddy mad, enabling him to used mind and soul altering drugs on his own brother and sister in law and other human guinea pigs in town, including ‘Uncle/Auntie’ Billy.  And it is Uncle Ben, due to a long standing contract that was passed down from one generation to the next, who stands to inherit the now rich town of Smithburg, as soon as he and his US Army-contracted cronie (Constaple Wilson)  and Uncle Eddy are dead, and Evey is declared insane, or dead.   

RUN FOR THE FORTY-NINTH

Feature length screenplay, dramato-comedic contemporary Western.
   
Logline:  Two Canadian slacker ‘never been outside of rural Saskatchewan’ loser teens, an aspiring rodeo Cowboy and his trusted Indian buddy, cheat their way out of High School and fumble their way into the Montana Rodeo circuit in 1970 where they discover the 60s Revolutions, their manhood, and a Mexican weed dealer connected to crooked Cops who offers them the business deal of a lifetime that will enable them to return home as kings.  The arrangement works until the boys take it upon themselves, against the wishes of their powerful new bosses, take it upon themselves to return home to ‘nothing ever happens Saskatchewan’ without permission of their bosses to smuggle life-saving illegal medication from Mexico to their father back home before it is too late.

EAT, BEG, BARF
A satire on the book and film, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ from the perspective of a self-absorbed, deluded and ‘like-so-cool’ authoress.   Short story for those who (a) were disappointed with the book/film, (b) hated the film/book or (c) liked the film/book but can still take a joke about it.

ASSASSIN HERO

Novel.  
Logline: In a futuristic age where Democrats and Republicans have equally screwed up an expanding and corrupt American Empire (the UAU, which now includes Canada and most of Latin America), a popular Native American stand up comic (Whitey Green) runs for President but is in need of publicity.    An intelligent, homeless, burnt out Army veteran sharpshooter (Ivan Schaumburg) is hired to shoot Whitey to give his cause publicity, until something goes wrong with the ‘assassination’ plot, plummeted Ivan into a web of intrigue in which the Presidency becomes even more corrrupt than ever, with even more dangerous consequences for the citizens of the UAU unless the real operators behind the scene are found out, and neutralized.

CANINIS ORALIS (novella)

Logline:  Super-intelligent talking (to the reader) dog that is raising teenaged girl and her dysfunctional parents, has to double up his efforts when the girl gets pregnant by an unidentified boy after her first, and only, experience at partying.

Story:  A super intelligent, and very cynical dog has a history with his dysfunctional and not-so-bright human family that works itself out when his favorite member of the two legged ‘pack’, more caring than beautiful 14 year old Jennifer, becomes pregnant, refusing to seek help from her ultra-cool Hollywood Mom and always-at-work dulled out father.   Maarleey (smelt with an extra a and e, at the insistence of his barely-literate, rich owners) takes it upon himself to help Jennifer do the right thing and the practical thing, forcing the entire family to face their demons and hopefully come together, or to fall apart completely with the most severe consequences for humans and dog alike.  Twist at end is that Maarley in a previous incarnation was Jennifer’s father and her step-father’s best bud, and has a special mission with regard to Jennifer, and her mother, and the baby Jennifer should not abort.

SCAMMER

Stageplay, 3 acts.

Cassandra Dmitrotich, introverted, love-starved divorcee trying to make ends meet in her independent bookstore seeks and finally finds a life mate on line, correspondences with such splitting her very quickly from her money, her family, her friends and her true Life-giving self.   Trying to keep Cassandra from slipping futher into her fantasies and irreversible financial debt with the on line love interest who promises to show up but never does are 
---Professor’ Elliott, a middle aged ‘mench next door’ geeky, over-intellectualized failed writer whose love for Cassandra is never felt, nor acknowledged, 
---Curtis, hot-looking, slow-witted, fetal alcohol syndrome/bipolar stud foster kid who is in trouble with the law, but whose a whiz with computers.
---Adrianna, Cassandra’s once highly-rebellious biological daughter who made something of herself, despite the horrible father she had with a cruel and manipulative father who catalyzed the corruption and suicide of her biological brother.
---Lorne, dreamboat RCMP officer with a secret past, who takes it upon himself to look after Cassandra in the real world as she continues to look for love on line.  

THE SUIT
Stageplay, one act. (60 min)

Gary, middle aged ‘average Joe’ Canadian who always underachieved in life, is on his way to the alter.   He is assigned by his ‘Immortal Beloved’ (who he never calls by name, for his own inner reasons) to get fitted for a suit by Gustav, expatriate middle aged artsy German tailor with a very high IQ and an elitist cultural opinion about his home culture to match it.    Gary is uneasy about the wedding, and unsure about the sanity of the tailor who insists on finding the RIGHT suit to match Gary’s inner soul.   Gustav has his own problems, in the form of Elaine, a 22 going on 45 years- old ‘stable’ mainstream Canadian woman who wants Gustav settle down to a non-artistic life with her and her kids.  Pulling Gustav in the other direction, forty-something Wanda, gypsy-like former co-adventurous in Germany who begs Gustav to come back home to Germany to make another go of it as an actor, writer and director with her.  Gustav declines invitations from both women, not telling either of them why, but it is about more than Gustav having failed as an artist before in home country and refusing to give up on his dreams by settling into a 9 to 5 “commoner’s” life in Canada.    Throughout it all, Gustav and Gary share stories about themselves, life and death as well as issues metaphysical, which Gary avoids talking about.

Meanwhile, sparks of love and lust go back and forth between Gary and Gustav’s two women, and between the two women themselves.   Time clock ticks down to Gary’s meeting his bride at the alter, and finding the right suit to do it in.  Finally, he readies himself on the inside with courage, and the outside with the right suit for his eternal merging with his Beloved.   That Beloved is not a woman, but someone and something beyond both men an women---God.   Gustav sends Gary on his way to the alter of death, or rather ‘transition’, still not informing his two women about his secret and important job of preparing them for that Passage.      

COMMITTEE
Short story and 10 min film.  Fact-based satire.
Tale about a typical committee, explaining its anatomy and patho-physiology, and revealing why everyone on the planet has been either frustrated by being in a committee, or the victim of (mission-statement mandated)  inefficiency coming out of one.

PIZZAFACE
Edgy young adult psychological crime thriller.
Novel.
Danny ‘Pizzaface’ McLean has a rather uneventful life as an acne-plagued 17 year old in urban Alberta as someone who sees it as his job to be ridiculed and abused by others, as it makes others feel better about themselves.   Such is Pizzaface’s relationship with his boss Ivan, sleazy Russian owner of the pizza shop where he works as a delivery schlep.   Dad is a rich oil executive who is never home, and someone Pizzaface admires and fears.   Ashley, the girl of Danny’s dreams on his delivery route in the most dangerous area of town, throws sarcastic digs at Pizzaface every night, none of which he really understands.   Mom is the only person in Pizzaface’s life who calls him by his real name, Danny’s deep feelings for her being something he never shares with anyone else.  

All of that is changed when he wakes up one night from an uneasy slumber and is told that he murdered and raped his mother, presumably something he did while sleepwalking.   Danny is put in the nuthouse, on his way to death row for his 18th birthday, but is determined to get out and find out the real truth about his mother’s death, as well as the demons, and angels within himself.  His rights of passage take him into the world of drug, arms and people smuggling and enforced prostitution, aided by the ghost of his mother and a host of others who do what they can to make Danny a ‘real man’, or a dead corpse, their agenda changing without Danny, or Pizzaface, knowing about it.

JESUS’  PAGANS
Novel.  For the ‘Game of Thrones’ demographic.  

Multi-character epic set in the hinterlands of Northern Europe as those still connected to the old, decentralized Pagan ways struggle with  the encroaching Christian world led by people who Jesus would hardly approve of.  At stake is a mountain formerly occupied by ‘the gods’ which is loaded with gold, a new ‘super-weapon’ (gunpowder) which can make anyone rich as well as powerful, and the ever-expanding mind of a young girl (Lydia) who was once a kind, trusting and abused village idiot who is becoming a super-genius, with the help of an aging former Wizard/Inventor now posing as the new Christian King’s Abbott.    Lydia finds herself unwillingly appointed the new Philosopher Queen of a People’s Revolt against the Papally-supported, recently baptized King, who was once a beloved, yet brutal, Pagan Chieftain.  

FREETHINKERS
Screenplay.  Epic character-driven Civil War Western.
Logline: A young German Pacifist-Revolutionary (Ludwig Steiner) who flees the failed People’s Revolts in 1848 Europe and settles in Texas.  Twelve years later he refuses to join the Confederate Army (which supports Slavery), hunted down as a deserter/Union spy and then by the sadistic Prussian Colonel (Vogel) who was responsible for the massacre of Ludwig’s Revolutionary Comrades in Europe.  The manhunt by Vogel involves as well a satchel of what could be Beethoven’s unpublished music which Ludwig was given by his certifiably crazy mother, who claims to have been Beethoven’s Immortal beloved,  powerful music in the wrong hands as they contain ‘musical formulas’ for manipulation of human emotions.   

Story:  As a young man, Professor Doctor Ludwig Steiner did his best to lead a Pacifist People’s Revolution for human rights in 1948 in his German homeland during the period when Revolutionary fervor threatened to bring down all of the Monarchs and Imperialist Capitalists in Europe.  But Ludwig had to flee when Colonel Vogel, an aristocratic Prussian officer working for the King, and himself, made it look like the crowd was firing on his troops, justifying a massacre of everyone on Ludwig’s side of the barricade, except for Ludwig.  Ludwig, like other ‘Freethinkers’, fled the failed Revolutions and moved to Texas, where he (like other Freethinker Germans) formed solid bonds with the Commanches, married a down-home Texan wife (Redskin-hating Southerner Lorena, who doesn’t share all of his political views but thinks she loves him anyway), and has a son (Gustav) who is a brilliant mixture of himself and his mother.  Ludwig is haunted by the memory of those who died around him in Europe, as well as by the ghost of his mother (Maria), a certifiably crazy woman who claimed to have been Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved, Ludwig Jr being the Maestro’s son.   When Maria disappeared from Ludwig’s life, she left him with a satchel of manuscripts which represent the framework for Beethoven’s unpublished works (which she claimed to have written with him).   According to her claim, and Ludwig’s experience with them, they have special power to inspire humans to do great and noble deeds, though when the notes are ‘inverted’ they can make compassionate and smart people do cruel and ignorant things.   

In 1861, Civil War breaks out.  ‘Doc Ludwig’, a brilliant physician-surgeon and aspiring cowboy, is integrated into every aspect of Texas society despite his poor ability to ride horses and herd cattle.  But he refuses to join the Confederate Army as it supports a country that allows slavery.   The ‘Injun lover Dutchie’ is ostracized by the racially-driven ‘real Americans’ around him, then put on an active ‘Wanted’ list by Vogel.  Herr Baron Professor von Vogel  has immigrated to Texas with his money and powerful connections with European nobility with the intent on carving out his own Empire in the Confederacy, and to get back the Beethoven manuscripts which would fetch a big financial fee once sold.   But if the music within the notes can be flushed out, it can make ANY man or woman march to the beat of his political/personal agenda, if the notes are properly altered (i.e., inverted).  For this, he needs Ludwig, who has a special connection with Maria, who knew more about Beethoven’s music than the Maestro did.   Vogel also wants to own Ludwig’s soul, converting the Revolutionary into a ‘son’ to help build his new Capitalistic ‘law and order above freedom’ Empire.    

The battle of wits, wills and shootouts between Ludwig and Vogel pull everyone into their personal vendetta, forcing life-changing transformations in Gustav, Lorena, the White Texans, the Commanches and even Maria herself, who it turns out, is far from dead.  Ludwig, who is not the most mentally-stable man himself, must deal with his ‘relational connections’ to both Beethoven and Vogel which become very, very real, and dangerous.

In the process of destroying of destroying Vogel’s private Army of Confederate soldiers who would take the institution of slavery to a new level, ‘Doctor Ludwig’ reconnects with his family in ways that Maestro Ludwig von Beethoven (his biological father) never was able to do with any family members or lovers.

JACK’S SH-T
Stageplay, one hour.
A Cop who was selected for the job because of his bullying personality, and conditioned to escalate it on the job, gets singled out to be put in jail for police brutality when the politicos are up for election.  When in jail, Jack does a moral turnaround, trying to make amends for the things he did, including having his best friend killed because he informed on the ‘Boys in Blue’, which also involves Jack taking care of his beloved and abusive widow for reasons he never reveals to her.

DAUGHTER DEAREST (Novel)
Logline:  Mother extremely jealous of her daughter’s beauty and musical talent has to put that aside when they both get involved with the wrong men, and pulled into a mobster-run slave and drug trafficking ring connected to the music industry.

Story:  Ashley is an introverted 18 year old classical music performer/composer with enormous amounts of talent,. a big heart, but a severely underdeveloped mind with regard to how people manipulate and hurt each other, still living at home with no plans to leave.  Her mother (Elena) is a failed concert pianist who envies her daughters talents, and looks, who lost her shot at being artistic and recognized when she married Ashley’s father, Steve, a manipulative and abusive mobster, from whom she is now finally divorced.    As a result of connections Ashley’s new boyfriend has,  mother and daughter are asked to be a ‘Classical Judds’ duo.  A win-win situation that would work for everyone except for the fact that Elena is highly competitive with her daughter and will do anything to win at contests with her that are artistic, and romantic.  Additionally, the power behind the musical promotion winds up in the hands of  Steve as well as his competitive mobsters.

 Ashley and Elena are forced to face the most intense mother-daughter issues imaginable while they attempt to pull themselves out from under the thumb of several men who are using them professionally, then pulls them into inadvertently working for a sex-slave operation they must stop to save themselves, as well as the girls whose new ‘owners’ they are forced to entertain with their music.

RIPPLE
Stageplay, one hour.  Serio comedic.
An overused, overly-responsible and under-appreciated aging female hippie widow operating a ‘General Health and Well Being’ Store on Vancouver Island deals with her beloved and delinquent ‘dreamer’ husband, who comes back from Purgatory with the agenda of seeing that she finds the right mate in the land  of the living so he can move on to his appropriate, and desired, post-death destination.    

GENIE SANTA
Novel, contemporary character-driven Christmas-theme thriller.

Logline: A cyber-Santa doll gets mailed to a bus stop/general store in a small British Columbian ‘on its way slowly to a ghost-town’ mountain community (Crystal River) from an unknown sender for an un-findable address.  Rubbing Genie Santa’s belly and giving a dollar to the town’s charity fund for starving kids in Africa will, according to fantasy that becomes fact, grant the wisher his/her gift.   There is no shortage of suspects behind the ‘make a wish and get what you want, even at the expense of someone else’s well being’ Santa doll that can walk, talk and see who is ‘naughty or nice’ on terms that are its own.  ‘Santa’ and his secret ‘backer(s)’ have taken it upon themselves to take over Crystal River and surrounding locations with ‘real’ populations in ways that are beyond their wildest imaginations, and worse nightmares.  The ‘Christmas Mission’ must be stopped before the chiming of midnight on December 25 by ‘ordinary’ colorfully dysfunctional citizens who have to become functional extraordinary supersluths.

FINDING SVETLANA

Logline:   Naïve, vitality-enriched, musically-talented young Polish woman abruptly recruited into Red Army in a mobile combat-medical unit at start of WWII, taken under the wing of over-experience, burnt out female Russian Army Major who has no vitality left in her, both women becoming friends then lovers, then foiling counterfeiting plot that could destroy Russian and Polish economies even if they do win the War.

Novel, WWII Russia, romantic and lesbian themes.

Story:  Sventlana, a naïve, very feminine 28-year old Polish musical protégée relocated to the assembly line in a Soviet Russian factory for most of her adulthood, has adjusted to her ‘go nowhere, expect nothing and open up to nobody’ life until 1940 brings in Hitler’s surprise attack on Mother Russia.  Just as the factory that has confined and defined her life is destroyed by a German bomb, she is given a chance to start a new life, heralded in by ‘Major Tanya’, super-heroine leader of a mobile Red Army combat-medical unit that is fighting the war on its own, with no communication or commands coming from anyone further up the line.   Though Svetlana’s fellow female factory Comrades adopt well to their new jobs as medics, mechanics, fighters and horsewomen in their new military-guerilla community, Sventlana is inept at everything, except for being able to play music, and to awaken the Life Spirit in her laconic commandress, Tanya, with whom she falls in love.  The officially-forbidden and clandestinely-developed relationship is tested and redefined by the invading German Army, a love triangle with a charismatic very manly Red Army ‘morale’ officer with a mysterious past, and a very secret mission back in her home village involving counterfeiting which, if it fails, will destroy her native Poland and adoptive-Mother Russia, even IF the Red Army wins the War.

NINA
Novel, contemporary character-based thriller.

Logline:  Mother made a widow by 9/11 and her daughter-in-law have ongoing rivalry about who said mother’s son loves best, his mom or his wife, but put aside their differences when said son goes missing after saying he want to ‘see that justice is done’, bringing his mother and wife into the  thick of a rogue operation aimed at killing everyone in Mecca during peak of pilgrimage season.

Story: Nina Alberghetti, a displaced overly-responsible Toronto Italian-Catholic living in the Interior British Columbia, has been a widow ever since her beloved husband Danny died at the World Trade Center during 9/11 after having taken a ‘business trip’ with his Israeli ‘secretary’ to New York.   More than ten years later, the only other man in her life, her son Denny, has vanished, his last message being that he has to ‘do something important, for the family honor’.  Equally in the dark about Denny’s disappearance is Ashley, ‘solid-citizen’ Denny’s very alternative-culture pagan’ wife, who is now unexpectedly pregnant.    Ashley’s hatred for Nina is equaled only by Nina’s jealousy of Ashley, particularly when it comes to who Denny ‘loves best’.  

But the culturally-mismatched mother and daughter-in-law  must form an uneasy alliance, which is not always honored, in order to find out what Denny is doing and then---stopping him from doing it!    They find themselves in the middle of terrorism and anti-terrorism groups that will stop at nothing to achieve their objectives, and who are harboring the most dangerous and personal kinds of secrets.  With ghosts from the past who become very much alive as the two Canadian women find themselves in the Big Crap Apple, Israel, then Mecca during the month when it if filled with Pilgrims, charged with stopping a plot to destroy the city and everyone in it.

Nina is reunited with her husband, who has been hiding out from both her and himself after faking his death with 9/11 and becoming  an Israeli Black Ops agent, lured to such by the secretary with which he was having an affair.  But when Denny doesn’t want to become a terrorist in the service of the Jewish State, he is locked up in a secret facility.   Nina and Ashley liberate Denny, working with a more sensible Israeli agents to stop Danny from releasing a biological toxic bomb in Mecca that will kill a million innocent people.

In the process of saving the lives of those who had nothing do to with 9/ll, Nina and Ashley become reunited with their husbands, with the actively atheistic Ashley considering that maybe there is a God, accessible through the Islamic religion.            

MECHANOS

Logline:  Village idiot in Ancient Greece taken on by a Teslian-like inventor who seeks to empower the common man but who also made deals with the Priests who control the commoners that he is trying to reverse, hoping that he can educate the village idiot to be his co-worker effectively enough, and before the Priests gain so much control that they will destroy everything.

Novel.  Character driven, family-friendly, but with a believable edge.  

Story:  A highly prolific and ingenious Tesla-like inventor in ancient Greece, ‘Mechanos’ seeks to serve common people with things they need for survival, but also has made shady and dangerous dealings with the rich nobles and power-hungry Priest to provide them what they want.   Some of those deals are necessary, and some are…moral miscalculations, which let the nobles and the Priests keep holding economic and psychological power over hard working, and truth-seeking, citizens.   While on his way to a ‘gig’ for questionable clients, Mechanos takes on an apprentice, a kind-hearted, deformed, and physically strong village idiot.  The village idiot, through whose perspective the story is told, is hired on as an assistant for the physical labor involved in building marvelous machines, as well as someone who the elusive loner Mechanos can trust as a confidant, and friend.  As the village idiot ‘comes of age’ under the Master inventor’s wing, he goes through an evolution that changes his view of the world, the gods who presumably control it, and himself that parallel the development of mankind in general from complacent-based servitude to Soul awakening Promethian Enlightenment.

OF LIONESSES AND LIONS Part 1
Novel.  Screenplay in advanced development.  

Logline:  Transgender (male to female) First Nations biologist/professor (Leona) is called back home to the Rez when her brother is murdered after working for Casino there that is under very White management, being used as front for international sex-slave/human trafficking operation, run by charismatic and powerful Russian mobster who was Leona’s best bud/mentor when she was Leon, male Special Ops officer and well-paid mercenary. 

Character-driven mob/action/metaphysical transgender drama, with comedic elements interwoven into the story, which delves into the realms of Native American Spirituality (vs, contemporary reality), sex-slavery/human trafficking,  transgender challenges (for both genders)and global dangers of bio-weapons sales.
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Story:  Leona, a Native American transgender (male to female) former Black Ops soldier who is now a biology researcher/teacher, is called back to the Rez when her brother dies of mysterious but uninvestigated causes. Upon arriving back ‘home’ in a new mostly-female body that few recognise and even fewer accept, Leona discovers that the Casino where her brother worked that brought in lots of money for the Tribe is being run by very White Mobsters who are using it as a sex-slave trafficking and super-weapons sales operation, taking full advantage of the Tribe’s legal autonomy from the White Authorities around the Rez.    Most of the once-traditional tribal members are okay with the operation, keeping their mouths and eyes closed while they are becoming ‘whiter’ on the inside and outside.  The only holds out against the ‘modernization’ that is occurring are Granny (an eccentric old Medicine Woman who is now considered ‘so, like, yesterday’) and Leona’s father, an ex-Red Power activist who has given up fighting Palefaces, advising his ‘daughter’ (who he still views as a son) to do the same.   A possible help, or obstacle, is Sheriff Stevenson, passive ‘I see nothing’ Tribal Cop in Boris’ payroll with a secret past that is activated upon Leona’s arrival.  At the head of the operation is Boris, ex-KGB mobster who once worked with Leona (when she was Leon) as a high-ranking mercenary in viciously-run Black Op missions that officially didn’t exist.   Leona is forced to dig down deep into herself to use the best elements of being male and female,  scientific and spiritual, kind and vicious so she can defeat the Army of Palefaces that have taken over her home and its people, amidst a myriad of obstacles, miscalculations and betrayals.

Leona goes undercover as Boris’ new partner in crime, offering him bioweapons as a new tool in his international sale operation, and her ‘at a distance’ affections as a woman as fringe.   The scheme involves Leona working with Rachel, the only real rebellious and thinking student she has at the university, sending her specialized biological toxins and microbes, and other ‘toys’ of potential construction and destruction).   But Granny is killed after she talks to Leona, and Leona finds herself trusting only her father, the only real ally she has left to fight Boris with, who warns her to not trust Stevenson too much, but Leona senses that she has to work with the Sheriff.  Tom’s warnings become reality when after the first  attempt to free the girls (made to go bad by several of the captured girls not wanting to be liberated and to stay with their ‘masters’), Leona wakes up in a hospital bed with Stevenson holding her hand affectionately, and Boris having a chain around his balls.    Then Tom is presumed dead, Leona’s TG-hating mother, Emily, kidnapped by Boris, perhaps for ‘export’ for a ‘specialized’ sex slave market.   Stevenson appears, with an offer of help that Leona can’t refuse, and entrusting to her at the point where she is about to leave him, and life on earth entirely, that he was transgendered himself.   They form an alliance to find Tom and Emily, and  foil the plot Boris has to import even more girls and arms, sending them out to the world for ‘fun and profit’.   In the process of doing so, Leona encounters Tom in the woods, and discovers that he is not dead,  and working for Boris.   The once-dedicated Red Power activist tries to persuade Leona to give up the noble fight against the Palefaces and join them, as it is ‘every Redman for himself now’, but Leona refuses.

Leona and Stevenson (initially disguising themselves as the man and woman, respectively, they used to be)  execute a brilliant and heroic raid on Boris’ wilderness compound, which involves improvised heroic deeds by Emily and Rachel, getting all of the girls freed and all of Boris’ goons killed, gone or inactivated.   Some kind of help came from somewhere, Leona not aware of who it is, as she fades into unconsciousness.  When she wakes up, only bad guy still remaining on the battlefield is Boris, who congratulates Leona, who he lets on that he knows at this point was Leon, for brave heroic action, which puts being cruel before being kind.   Just as Boris is about to kill Leona with an ultramodern weapon, regretfully but out of necessity, he is shot in the back by a traditional Cree arrow, fired by Tom, who was the brains and balls behind the assault on the compound that saved her.  He dies, having been the one man army, aided by some other Indians afterwards, who finally stood up to the Palefaces who took over the Rez and enslaved some of their daughters.    

At Tom’s funeral, Leona is reunited with Emily, who finally accepts Leona as her daughter. Stevenson is reunited with his job, the way it SHOULD be done.  The tribe reunited with its cultural heritage which will not make them rich in pocket, but enriched in Spirit.

OF LIONESSES AND LIONS PART 2:  Biting the Hand that Frees You
Novel.

After freeing her Reservation of the human trafficking/sex slave mobsters who took it over, transgender Neurobiologist Leona (once Special Forces 'Leon') Zimmerman is extending her 'ministry' to the entire world, extracting captured young women from the slave trade by some legal and mostly illegal means, then rehabilitating them to become free-thinking, PTSD-free people again at a very hidden compound in rural Pennsylvania.  The therapy is a mixed bag of common sense psychology, experimental neuroscience and basic (but often flawed) human compassion.   Working with Leona is love interest Bill Stevenson, fully transitioned male Reservation Sheriff who helped Leona clean up the Rez, and, like Leona, has no shortage of connections to potential allies, and enemies, on both sides of the law.  Rachel, Leona's protegee graduate student, left the University after her mentor did, and is using her brilliant mind to figure out the biological reasons for cruelty as well as PTSD, coming up with some very innovative potential cures as her unofficial 'thesis' project.  Emma, Leona's mother, has fully accepted Leona's transition, and does her best to look after her daughter as Leona burns herself  out looking after the victims of the sex-slave by putting her own life and sanity on the line way too often.   All in all, a dysfunctional family in the Calling of making the world functional again, until Leona is informed that one of the liberated girls is a mole, working for her former Slave Master and his International network of buds to find and destroy her operation.   The time clock ticks on the most important task ever presented to Leona.---find the mole and inactivate their bosses before they destroy the Liberation Facilities from without, or within.

GREEK PLAY
Stageplay.   Two person play, serio-comedic with metaphysical twists.

Nikos, a ‘normal’ Greek restaurant owner, confronts his past when it comes time to write a book about his relatives, and how they made him what he is.    Those who remain of the family and their children need to know the truth about his ‘sainted’ immigrant grandfather and the difficulties which he passed on to the law-abiding, morally-restrained family he created.   History also needs to know about their moral and interpersonal accomplishments.    Nikos is both pushed and assisted in the matter by a Greek Soldier in traditional 19th century dress who turns out to be far more involved in Nikos’ investigation than we realize, or can predict.

THE GODS’ HONEST GREEK TRUTH
Novel

Logline:  The ETs posing as Greek gods have to come to terms with the world they created down below (as well as themselves) Mt. Olympus when Athens and Sparta are about to go to war with each other, in part fueled by their rival ET ‘gods’ from their enemy planet, the Greek gods having to work with, for and under the ‘mortals’ they created for their own survival.

Story:   The Greek gods, who are in reality an expeditionary team of Orion extra-terrestrials, are not having such a Golden time during the Golden Days of Athens as they continue to supervise the development of Earthling humanoids without, so far anyway,  their real origins being known by any of the ‘mortals’.   Infighting amongst the gods is brewing, instigated by rival extra-terrestrials from Sirius, as well as perhaps traitors amongst the Orion expeditionary crew.   The once-all-powerful Zeus is reaching the end of his days as a god, as well as an Orion, finding that he values the relationship with the one true God above all the other gods more than anything else, needing to do the Right thing by the earthlings on their primitive planet before his demise.   Aiding and preventing him from doing so are his subordinates.   They include Promethius, who Zeus punished for having given fire, reading and the ability to question what you read to the mortal earthlings.   Apollo, Zeus’ first born son, is the natural heir to his Command position, but is severely under-qualified morally, spiritually and intellectually.   Zeus’ two daughters, Athena and Aphrodite, have a range war going on between them which is most vicious when they are alone.  Then there are the host of other gods, all of whom have as many humorous and dangerous flaws as earthling humanoids.   Complicating the matter are earthling-Orion hybrids who do not know their extra-terrestrial origins, as well as earthling humans with no Orionian blood who are often smarter and more innovative than their superior ET ‘educators’.   

Even more problems escalate when Athens and Sparta (the two ‘gems’ of the Greek experiment) edge closer to war with each other, with potential access to weapons that could destroy not only earthling humanoid life, but civilizations on distant planets.    The drama that unwraps itself involves not only the Greek gods, but influential earthlings such as Socrates, Hippocrates and Pericles, revealing very real heroic and comically-flawed traits that few people know about.           

ONE OF THE GIRLS

Feature length, family/youth.
Logline:   Nerdy, kind and wise-before-his-time 11 year old boy accidently winds up doing his first Scouting experience with a troop of girls, who eventually take him into their circle as he helps them deal with their personal life baggage, amplified by an adult-arranged competition with the all-boys troop across the lake which turns vicious, then becomes corrected by the kids themselves. 

 Based on real life experiences in Scouting, and life.  Told with edge, heart, intelligence and reality-based humor.

Story:  	Nathaniel, awkward, runty, nerdy, compassionate and wise-before-his-time 11 year old writer in self-training, is sent to Scout Camp by his life-embittered, ex-wife hating, macho father (Basil) to ‘man up’ like his older jock-mechanic sons.   To Nathaniel’s surprise, he winds up being assigned to a troop of girls, a result of the Scout troops going co-ed.   Nathaniel soon finds that his own problems at home, and the split loyalties he has between his father and mother (Charlene), don’t amount to a hill of overcooked campfire beans relative to the fellow Scouts with whom he will be spending the summer.
Sarah, a veteran Scout at the age of 12, is the hard working, ever-sacrificing but bossy den mother of the group, more proficient than any boy her age but underappreciated by her father, who still considers her inferior in status and ability to her fraternal twin brother Dylan, a brat who gets credit for doing nothing of merit and praise for being competitively-domineering by his machismo father.    Crystal is more interested in looking good in the mirror than seeing anything in the woods, due to her need to seduce boys and men into doing what she wants them to, as she was abused in the past by those of the male gender (not recalling the details or the assailant’s true identity), and seeks revenge on any man, or boy, particularly easy marks who are kind to her.   Jenny, who is pathologically humble and over-serving of others, was born to a Bible-belt family that never told her anything about sexuality, and even the biological things that happen to girls as they reach womanhood, including menstruation.  Sam is a Tom Boy who is fiercely competitive with everyone, particularly guys, yet yearns to find something feminine inside of her she can trust and share.   Scouter Gwen, the 25 year old who is supposed to be the Troop Leader, knows less about the woods and scouting than anyone in the troop, having taken on the job because it was a way to forget the agonies her boyfriend in the city inflicted on her when he cheated on her.   Scouter Vern, who is supervisor for the troop of all boys across the lake (of which Dylan is a member) is a hard core ex-military washout who seeks to mold the boys into machismo, competitive manhood which has no room for sentimentality, heart or independent thinking.   Finally, the supervisor of all the troops is Scouter Niel, 50 year old idealist who seems to have little idea about how the world works outside of the idealic woods that he sings to while riding his horse and promoting 19th century virtue to 21st century kids.  
A natural listener, and introspective thinker, Nathaniel helps all of the girls, including Gwen, deal with their own life problems, while still burdened with his own.   Things heat up when the usual ‘friendly’ competition between the girls’ troop and the boys’ is escalated by the presence of Lance, Charlene’s new fiancée, a hip-cool LA producer who sets up a ‘Survivor Kids’ show at the camp, with the kids as participants and the parents as eager, gung-ho fans.   By various means, he converts a friendly game in the woods into a winner take all, life or death struggle for emotional, then physical survival, turning the kids into vicious animals till finally, it is the KIDS who stop the game, and show the adults that cooperation is always better than competition, even though it means less ratings on the tube.  And that despite the trend in media hipness, it is NOT cool to be cruel.

SHORT STORIES
Ivan the Possible:  Low-born Cossack delivering love letter to High-born lady undergoes life changing transformation after completing his samo-samo appointed rounds.
The Architect:   Once-rich architect living as a hobo in a ‘cardboard community’ gets new perspective and prospects from an unlikely female roommate.
Anatomy Lessons:  A by-the-numbers female medical students gets a Soul awakening jolt in her education courtesy of the cadaver assigned to her the first day of training.
To Call or Not to Call:  Oil rigger working in the Canadian North gets unexpected call, and offer, from an old flame in what used to be home .
Tombstone Gold:  A bold, adventurous woman taking on job as Schoolmarm in the Old West encounters a student who presents far more color, danger and love than any gunslinger she read about in the dime novels.
Conquerer’s Palace:  A king in the Middle Ages devises a plan to keep all of his subjects both subservient and happy, in ways that only the most clever and devious of  leaders do today.
The Most Punishable Offense:   Old West Sheriff who thinks he is the most virtuous and enlightened citizen of his town discovers that he is guiltier than anyone he knows, in league with the most dangerous manifestation of evil West, or East, of anywhere.
Granny’s Baked Preserves:   An absent minded, old English woman is not so dumb when it comes to avoiding paying the landlord very overdue rent.
The Good Doctor:  Pathologically-altruistic Neurosurgeon finds under his knife a patient who did horrible, malicious things to him during his youth, and is doing even worse things to the public as an asshole, super popular television actor/producer.
 Belly of the Beast:   A writer’s work becomes far more fact than fantasy, for him anyway.
Submuloc:   A young, brash warrior and an old Sage in 1200 AD Maine decide to see if there is any intelligent life or lands worth exploring on the Eastern Horizon.
Cryptosporidia:   A draft-resistor American Pacifist who headed to Canada in 1973 and has lived as a complete hermit for two decades is brought back to US by his beloved horse, after she intentionally takes a wrong left turn, introducing him to an America that is not so different than the country he left and lost complete contact with. 

MONA: DO NOT JUDGE LEST YOU BE…

Feature-length screenplay and novel.   Thriller/suspense. 

Logline: Brilliant and dedicated neuroscientist/neurosurgeon (Mona) who was viciously ridiculed out of a Calling as a painter/writer by the ‘cool kids’ in High School encounters them when they return 10 years later to her hospital as backstabbing celebs shooting a film on a set in which debilitating diseases and ‘accidents’ occur which only Mona can stop, working with a now-responsible Cop who used to be one of the ‘cool to be cruel’ kids.   

 Storyline:  Mona Kilosevic, plain-Jane Serbian-American in her late 20s, is a highly accomplished and respected (by her patients anyway) neurosurgeon and an ahead of her time research scientist.  Yet Mona still yearns to be a painter and fiction writer, a dream she had when she was in High School which she was ridiculed into giving up by the elitist cool-kids.  The born into celebrity, ‘cool to be cruel’ clique did other horrible things to Mona as well, including a drug-fueled date-rape in which Mona was drugged into unconsciousness before they had their fun.   Under the influence of dope and demonic possession beyond their control, Jennifer, Brad, Eddy, Krystal, Carl and Taylor manipulated Sean Vogel, the not-stoned and not-born-into-celebrity-status member of the cool clique, to carry out the rape, after making Mona think that he was in love with her.   But, that was then.

Ten years later, the cool clique is reunited while shooting a ‘cool to be cruel’ Hollywood film at the university hospital where Mona practices medicine in service to humanity.   In front of camera are Brad, Eddy, Krystal and Eddy.  Behind it as director is Taylor.  In the wings, perhaps at a competing production company, is Carl.   Sean, now a very responsible and conscience-driven Cop, is cultural advisor and head of security on the film which is funded by sources no one knows about, and doesn’t ask questions regarding.   Mona is overpaid to be technical medical advisor on the film, but beyond baseline practicality, Taylor and her actor buds do not respect her or what she says, even when Mona says that medical procedures portrayed in the film should be accurate so that people don’t try to do them in real life where it will cost real human lives.  

Sean sees that Mona takes it all in stride, having given up the race to be ‘cool’ for the higher calling of being a responsible and effective human being in his new Calling as a Cop who seeks to protect, serve and heal.  Sean awakens Mona’s inner vitality by convincing her to take up art and poetry again.   They connect deeply both personally, and professionally.    

Several accidents happen on the film set which make people sick, the afflicted including Jennifer, Brad, Eddy, Krystal and Taylor, brought back to health by Mona, who gets gratitude, sometimes, from her old enemies.   On top of that, the top-of-the-heap actors and director who always have gotten along well together are pitted against each other by a competing company, Enlightenment Entertainment.    The most prestigious film critic in New York, Collin Woodworth, unexpectedly pans Brad, Jennifer and Taylor in the press, nearly destroying their careers, perhaps because he is working with Enlightenment.   And when Eddy and Krystal are wooed by the competing company to work for them, they encounter Achmed Rashim, a mobster passing himself off as a  pushover investor, who forces Eddy and Krystal to literally eat shit while he makes videos of them for the internet, after which he drugs them and sends them out the door with very unflattering haircuts and ‘love scars’.  Complicating matters is Sean’s romantic history and still-deep feelings for his boss, Captain Liz Thorverson, who he keeps away from the investigation, and Mona.   A raid on Enlightenment Entertainment reveals that the company is behind the ‘accident’s on set, and behind that company is Carl.

It looks like the moral books are balanced.  There are no more accidents on the set.  The cool clique is humbled, their old and new medical problems solved by Mona, who is invited to participate in the film as a primary writer.  Enlightenment Entertainment falls apart, and its silent boss, vicious mobster Hollywood mogul Carl (once a member of the cool clique in High School) is dead, ‘not able to face the music’, according to the note in his hand in his office.   Mona is back to painting and writing, bonding closely with Sean.  Sean does not buy that Carl’s death was a suicide, suspecting that Mona killed him, and he is very okay with such.   But when Sean finds out by accident that Woodworth did not write the reviews that marked the beginning of the end of Brad, Taylor and Jennifer’s careers as Idols, he discovers that it was Mona’s witty remarks that made it to the trade journals instead.  Through Woodworth, Sean finds out that Carl had no connection at all with Enlightenment Entertainment.

Reluctantly, Sean calls in Liz to the investigation.  They uncover evidence that Mona has been poisoning the cool clique with toxins that simulate real neurological diseases and take away their good looks, giving them just enough antidote to keep them alive, to live a life of mediocrity like the ticket buyers who they had spit on.  But the toxins that Mona uses to simulate disease are more harmful than she calculated.  In a mad rush, Mona goes into medico mode, and does keep four of the five alive, with the prospect of good health beyond it.  But as Brad is about to die, he confesses to Mona about the date rape, mentioning that Sean was involved.   Armed for vengence for everyone, including Sean, Mona goes on a mutilation and killing spree.  She saves Sean for last, just after drugging Liz and refusing to bring her back from the dead.   Sean goes after Mona, mortal combat to the death between the two lovers occuring, till it is stopped by a bullet from Rashim’s gun, which kills Mona.  Rashim, a member of a Justice seeking organization working beyond any law enforcement group, is Mona’s Uncle.   He informs Sean that Mona’s self-appointed elaborate mission to kill dishonorable people harmful to the collective human soul outside the law has gone too far, and it was necessary to neutralize her.  Before reversing the toxin Mona shot into Liz, Rashim makes an offer to Sean to join his organization.   Sean puts off saying yes to the offer, as he has other things to do first.  First on the list is selling Mona’s paintings to buyers who appreciate her art, struggle and brilliant, those patrons  being REAL people with heart and minds,  rather than celebs born to ‘coolness’ or fans under their spell. 

  

CIRCLE OF FIFTHS. Book 1
Novel, commissioned by and soon to be published through Overland Press, written with George Campbell.

Bob Galligher is a top-of-his-game blue blood Ivy League Eastern executive on his way to the top of the ladder at a Calgary-based Oil Company that needs a pipeline to get the oil to where it is drilled to where it can be sold so ordinary citizens can keep driving their cars to where they want to be and need to be.  John Denne is a passionately Traditional  Chief of a Native Band owning the land where the pipeline needs to go, charged with keeping his people connected to their Cultural roots and keeping their bank accounts from going even further into overdraft.    The politically and culturally mismatched moguls from opposing worlds are brought together in a board room in Calgary, working against the clock for the survival of the people they represent, and their own positions of power and influence.   The only way either of them can win is for both of them to use their brains rather than their egos, and to somehow find a solution that will work for everyone.   But those brains need some supplemental education,  provided by a Marvin, a homeless Sage who provides initially-reluctant students John and Bob with secret messages and teachings that they need to resolve issues regarding the pipeline, the fates of their own people, and their severed connections with their family members at home.

Time tested and innovative methods regarding effective conflict resolution as well as directing our own lives are intervowen into a tale which is informative, inspiring and humorous.   For the reader who wants to think, and to be a more effective instrument in getting others to expand their perspectives as well. 

CIRCLE OF FIFTHS: BOOK 2
Novel, commissioned and soon to be published by Overland Press, written with George Campbell

Radical Native Rights/Environmental Activist John Denne and Ivy League WASP Oil Executive Bob Gallighar, under the elusive and colorful mentorship of a homeless sage, Marvin, have walked in each other’s shoes/moccasins and used the third brain between them to find ways to serve both the needs of John’s people to keep their ecosystem and Traditional way of life as well as for Bob’s company to build a delivery system by which energy from resources in the North can be delivered to population centers in the South.   They have also been able to resolve conflicts synergistically at home, particularly with their estranged sons.  But John and Bob’s alliance, and now friendship, is expanding.  With the profits obtained by working together, they have formed a High School dedicated to teaching state-of-the-art holistic knowledge to kids of all races, with particular attention on ‘problem kids’, such as those who are on the verge of suicide or and embittered bullies.  To teach wisdom as well, they initiate a radical new program in which kids with opposing backgrounds and perspectives learn first hand what it is like to be someone else by making them be the people they hate, don’t understand, or are afraid of.   Completely unexpected results emerge from the experiment, forcing the adults, including masterminds, John and Bob, to be put into the ‘hot seat’ that they designed for others.    Though Marvin is the Merlin behind the scenes pushing for Philosopher Kings John and Bob to succeed, there is self-sabatoge afoot from an unknown source who seeks to destroy everything Bob, John and Merlin have successfully built.

An informative, inspiring and humorous tale interwoven with innovative methods for conflict resolution and ways one can better understand/direct ones own life.

BIG BARE BEAR’S 
Novel completed, rough of screenplay available.
Logline:  Colorfully-dysfunctional Mountain Man with access to a mountain-ful of gold who helps Indians and liberates slaves in pre-Civil West meets his match with a powerful Georgian White Slaver Industrialist who finds out his secrets, as does a female Indian gunslinger (and unexpected ally) with superpowers both in the real world, and the mystical realm. 

Story:  Big Bear, a five foot three White Mountain man with a passion to give as much as he can to others and a bad habit of falling in love with women who are excellent ‘takers’ is doing what he can in the pre-Civil War West to supply his adopted tribe of Lakota with what they need from the White World, protecting them from what they want from that toxic realm.   His self-appointed Mission in the White world is to free Colored slaves from their Paleface Masters, sometimes by using his gun, and sometimes by giving them gold which he brings in from a mountain which no one else knows about, even his Lakota friends, so he thinks anyway.  His passion is to fall in love with women who are gold diggers, each one of them robbing him blind before they dump him for a mainstream man who is ‘respectable’.  

On one of his routine ‘trading on behalf the Lakota’ trips to Utopia (newly expanded, highly industrialized and very prosperous town) in which he plans to liberate a few more Black (and Red) slaves from their White Masters, he runs into Blackjack, an ex- mountain man (and now sell-out businessman) with whom Big Bear shared many happy years up in the hills.  Big Bear also meets (and falls in love with) Kathleen, ragged whore with a heart of gold (as Big Bear sees it anyway)  in need of a man to save her from the shithead who currently owns her.  By ’coincidence’, Gwen, hot-looking Indian female gunslinger who combines her skill with a pistol as well as her abilities to use ‘magic potion’ explosives when battling Palefaces.    Big Bear’s plan to liberate another  few handfuls of slaves from their Masters, as well as Kathleen from her fate,  is foiled by more armed White men then he thought, all of them controlled and very well paid by Colonel Robinson, Georgian expatriate who has turned Utopia into a very prosperous mining town, by using slave labour as well as offering hard working White men the chance to get rich, as long as they can outdo and destroy their fellow Caucasian comrades.  

Gwen and Blackjack help Big Bear get himself and the slaves he liberates out of town, but the love-struck Mountain Man is unable to rescue Kathleen, as she scurries back to her owner, Colonel Robinson, being scared of both being shot as well as the uncertainty of freedom.  Blackjack sacrifices himself so Gwen and Big Bear can get away, a price he has to pay for having done Robinson’s bidding for so many years.

Gwen and Big Bear join forces to liberate a trainload of slaves en route to Robinson’s model American town, Gwen taking over as the ‘boss’ of the operations, letting on that she has been sent by a higher power to look after Big Bear, who she calls ‘Little Cub’ when he indulges in self-destructive but well-meant habits (such as falling in love with women who will bring him down).   Their success as liberators is a thorn in Robinson’s side, but the Colonel, who now has officially made his town a Confederate recruiting center with him as General and Governer of the region, has a master plan which is brewing, particularly when it comes to Big Bear and the tribe of thus-far  uncorrupted Lakota which he considers as family. He has a particularly strong connection with Stalking Elk, the aging ‘Old School’ chief who has much wisdom about the way things should be, and his wife, ‘Bitching Crow,’ a highly intelligent woman who knows how the world really is.  One of Robinson’s strategies is to cajol that Lakota tribe into joining his new Grey Coat army, something he achieves by giving them  things that Big Bear never would---money, creature-comforts, firewater, and the scalps of their enemy tribes.  Robinson is helped in this Mission by Growling Wolf,  a brave with a clever mind, dark magical powers and a hunger to bring his tribe into the modern world, with him on top.  Utopia becomes a model for ‘greed is good’ and  ‘cool to be cruel’, as long as one is a White Confederate, or willing to fight with them for the God given right of any man to own another man.  Those who resist, be they red, white or black, are imprisoned, mutilated or killed by Robinson.  

Gwen and Big Bear persist in their raids on Utopia with the help of some of the already liberated slaves.  But the slaves don’t show up, and there is an added sense of urgency.  When the call to arms comes to join the Confederate Army in the fight to preserve the institution of slavery, some refuse it.  Most of them are German immigrants, ‘Freethinkers’ who left the old country after having tried to overthrow tyranny in the 1848 rebellions there.   One of them is Hans Muller, a young doctor who is an ardent Pacifist, about to be executed for refusing to serve under  Robinson’s command.   Gwen and Big Bear devise a hairbrained plan to liberate Hans and his buds, and it starts to fall apart quickly.  In the nicke of time, Kathleen comes to their rescue, turning the failed liberation attempt into a successful escape for all of the Pacifists as well as the slaves still left in Utopia. At least for  those who have the courage to embrace freedom and leave the ‘security’ of being in bondage.

After giving the liberated Pacifists and slaves enough gold to buy a life of their own, and sending them off, Big Bear discovers that his mobile reserve of gold is gone, stolen by someone he can’t identify.  The logical and doable solution is to head towards the mountain where there is a seemingly unlimited supply of the gold, along with coins printed by a very ancient civilization, perhaps the ‘gods from the sky’.  The route there is rocky and hard on the horses, but even harder and more interesting for the quartet of Crusaders.   Big Bear finds himself in love with Kathleen and Gwen, but for different reasons. Meanwhile, Hans  (whose belief in Pacifism is fading fast, to overly-experienced-in-combat Big Bear’s dismay) becomes Big Bear’s best friend, though he wants to be his lover, terrified that the offer of such will blow any chance of such happening.   The distrust Kathleen and Gwen have for each other gradually turns into an alliance, then  bondship.  Gwen isn’t feeling so good though, contracting a strange disease that neither medicine nor magic seem to be able to keep away.  But the medicine wheel at the base of the cave where the gold is stored does bring her back to the land of the living.  

All seems to be going well, except for the fact that Robinson, his very intelligent Black partner/servant and Growling Bear have followed Big Bear up the mountain, following the trail Kathleen left by accident with remnants of her torn clothing, scraped skin, knotted hair, and perfume.   Knowing now that the mountain is soon to be discovered by the likes of Robinson, Big Bear extracts all he can from the caves, then blows up the entrance to them, making a getaway with it down the other side of the slope.  Meanwhile, Gwen uses her scientific knowledge and white magic (derived from the tools left by the ETs who first established the cave) against Growling Wolf’s manipulative mind and black magic.  Growling Wolf wins, Gwen’s soul ‘relieved’ of connection with her body.

Big Bear, Hans and Kathleen are exposed to Robinson and Growling Wolf.   It turns out that Kathleen, the whore with the heart of gold, was working for Robinson all along.  But just at the moment of truth, she turns on her old Master killing him.  Just as Big Bear is about to forgive her all of her past trespasses, she kills herself.  Growling Wolf in the meantime flees with the gold, leading Big Bear and Hans into a box canyon where magic has more power than manpower.   Hans is challenged to a duel, winner take all, while Big Bear is trapped in an illusory fog watches.   Growling Wolf is subdued.  But the manipulative Black Magic Indian is about to kill Hans soul by inviting him to become a vicious animal, possessed with the obsession to use black magic rather than wisdom. He is saved from doing so by Gwen’s not-yet-departed-from-earth spirit, as is Big Bear.   With detached determination rather than anger-infused rage, Hans kills Growling Wolf, thus ending his magic.  Such allows Big Bear and Hans to see where the gold is hidden---in front of their previously illusion-blinded eyes.  As to what to do with the gold, they ask the mountain for an answer.  

WOLF’S PACT
 Novel.  1970s murder mystery packed with psychological tension, historical introspection and dark humor.

It’s the early 1970s, a period of political turmoil and psycho-sociological assessment in many places in America, but not in Glenville Falls, small town nestled in the mountains of Western Colorado, where men are men, women are women and anyone who preaches Peace, Love or Revolution is either expelled or ignored.  But such changes very quickly when a serial killer starts torturing,  mutilating finally hanging  ‘Outside Agitators’ who, so it seems, have affiliations with Radical Left Wing groups in America, or KGB headquarters in Moscow.   The burden of finding out who is behind it, and why, falls to New Jersey expatriate Wolf Smith, Hippie-Cop who is disillusioned with the Revolution but still is trying to fight the Establishment to create an Enlightened world based on both intellect and compassion.   Wolf is helped, and hindered, in the murder investigations by his, thus far anyway, trusted Senior partner, Sam McDonald, veteran cowboy,  ex-Marine Right Wing Deputy who has kept the secrets of his ‘all’s well all American’ town away from the outside world, and his new partner Wolf.  Joining the tightly bound duo of politically-culturally mismatched lawmen is Lorena Jackson, former Miss Teen Colorado who is doing everything she can to be ‘one of the guys’ as a fledgling Assistant Deputy.  The twenty-year old’s buried feminine aspirations are awakened by the now celibate and burnt-out-before-his-time Wolf, something surrogate father Sam is not happy about. 

In order to stop the murders, or murderers, all three law enforcement officers have to face their inner demons and deal with their own dark pasts.  Most particularly Wolf, whose European roots and upbringing in New Jersey are central to ending a stream of killings that soon do not distinguish between the guilty or the innocent, revealing secrets about the colorfully dysfunctional town that could tear it and the world around it apart.

PROMETHIAN GREEKS AND YOUNG TURKS
Novel.   Three young rebels in the Greek Revolution of 1822 do battle in Crete with the Turks, and each other, in a myriad of  betrayals, including a deadly love triangle which can turn the tide of the revolt, for betrer or worse..  Historical fiction, character driven humor and pathos.

Story:  The Spring of 1821 brought to the Eastern Europe and the Middle East a crossroads of conflicting cultures, featuring in the forefront the Christian Greeks who had  been viciously oppressed for 400 years by the Ottoman Turks, and their Islamic Turkish Masters whose Empire is about to start crumbling.  Established political players with aims of liberating, and controlling, the Greeks are the British, Russians, Americans, French and the so-far neutral emerging nation of Islamic Egypt, ruled by reformer/innovator Ali Muhammad.   Crete lies geographically and otherwise at the center of the Greek Revolution.  Arriving to the shores of  this highly strategic island fueled by revolt appears, in the dead of night, Dimitri, as he calls himself.  Though he passes himself off as the over-educated  son of a European family, he is actually  Ali’s Prodigal son, who seeks to apply the democratic ideals he has learned about while being schooled in Europe by joining the Greek rebels as a doctor, scientist and economic supporter, using his ‘tuition and related expenses’  money from his father to do so.   Still keeping his pedigree secret, Dimitri joins a band of grass roots rebels led by Voula, self-appointed and visciously effective ‘Queen of the mountain bandits (klefti)’, who he fears, respects, befriends, then  loves.  The feelings are mutual, complicated by Panos, ‘workhorse’ klefti whose dedication to liberating his fellow Greeks from the Turks is matched only by his affections for Voula, which are not reciprocated.  Add to the mix Father Basilis, aged pacifist Greek Priest who turns mad  then clairvoyant after he unleashes anger for the Turks that he has been repressing for 25 years.   Dimitri’s effectiveness as a doctor, scientist than military leader is soon overshadowed when his identity is found out by a few Turks, then his father, Ali, who allies himself with the Turks against the Greeks.  But with very mixed and defective motives, all of which make life very difficult for Dimitri, Voula, and Panos as the War escalates with regard to cruelty, betrayals and creation of weapons of mass destruction, on BOTH sides.  

RIGHTWASCHED
Novel.  Character-driven, satirical crime thriller.

 Gone are the days when New York City is called The Big Crab Apple, thanks to the new Midwestern, Family Values Mayor, John White, who has cleaned out ever bit of grunge, and nearly all the spice, from of the Metropolis.  But a new kind of epidemic has emerged within the new Happy Harmony---Suicides and mysterious disappearances of the most influential celebs and politicos in the City, that never reach the press.   Stumbling on to the cases by a series of ominous coincidences is veteran NYPD Detective and burnt-out-before-his time Larry David-like cynic Yannis Dabaris.  Solidly with Yannis, or perhaps against him, is his two-months-away-from-forced-retirement partner of ten years, Isaac Rastovic, defiant to a fault Serbian immigrant dedicated to his job, as well as to Old World justice.  Enter into the mix, newby Detective Anna Tomaselli, Yannis' protegee and love interest, with secrets of her own that make the search for what and who is responsible for the rash of  suicides attempted and committed by those most dedicated to the service of Life, big L, even more complicated, and dangerous, for Yannis, his estranged family, and the gone-to-the-crapper city he still gives a crap about.  

THE BLUE, GRAY AND LAVENDER
Stageplay.  Seriocomedic.

Logline:  Isolated Union and Confederate soldiers stumble upon a cabin occupied by a musically brilliant but insane woman who make them forget about the War, and fight instead for her hand, and who is going to take her home with him.  But 'Lady Lavender' is not who she seems, and has motives that endanger both soldiers as well as their Comrades.

Story:  An isolated cabin in Eastern New Mexico just across the border from Texas in the middle of the American Civil War. Union and Confederate Armies are about to clash in one of the bloodiest and decisive battles of the War, in the middle of hostile Indian country.  Occupying the cabin, Nichole, solitary beautiful woman in late thirties who is a master at the piano, singing and cooking.  The only man she plays and lives for is 'Woodrow', whose portrait is on a very large locked box, the face of her beloved covered.  She yearns for Woodrow to come home, having set the table and prepared a banquet feast for his arrival.
A knock on the door---and on the other side, Major Benjamen Waterston, recently off the boat from upper class England, separated from his unit after a skirmish with rebels.  Above all else he is hungry, yearning for the pies Nichole put on the window ceil.  But Nichole, greeting him as 'Woodrow', insists that he partake of her sexually first, a request she makes while pointing his own gun at him.  Waterston does his best try to stay noble, while looking after the crazy, multi-personality woman's safety.  He tries to summon his men from the hills to come down to the cabin, and to help escort the clearly-in-need-of-treatment AND caring Nichole to somewhere safe.  Subconsciously, Waterston finds himself falling in love with the woman, as she reminds him of the girl he left behind in England who did herself in when he left for America.   Things get complicated when Waterston consents to give Nichole some need affection, but in a gentlemanly way, only to have her yell out that she is being raped.  Then changes personalities again to Waterston's wrist-beating schoolmarm English schoolteacher back in the UK. 
    Waterston's plan to reconnect to his men and get the self-tortured Nichole to an institution or perhaps a family member who can help her is cut off at the pass when another visitor comes to the cabin. Captain Eugene McGilvrey, isolated from his Confederate unit, seeks to help a woman in distress who yelled out that she was being raped, thinking that the assaulter was Yankee Invader Waterston. McGilvrey is a self-taught, dirt poor, heroic Confederate who is as colorful as Waterston is stuck up.  Though a series of intended actions, and incidental ones due to her changing personalities, Nichole disarms Waterston and McGilvrey, leaving them no other choice than to sit at the table and feed their very empty bellies, together.  While Nichole wowed them into a Christmas truce during September with brilliantly played Silent Night, the opposing military men share stories about the whys and wherefores about their lives, and the War.  They still do try to extract military info from each other while seeing who can drink who under the table with some very odd tasting rum.  But more importantly, they do psychological combat over who is to take Nichlole to a place of safety before the War or an Indian attack comes her way.
   Enter next, another 'Woodrow',  in the form of Hans, a German mountain man who has no use for nor knowledge of the Civil War or the industrialized East where it originated.  Though Hans brings gifts from the mountain which 'I work with rather than against' for Nichole, she insists that he leaves, immediately.  His insistence on staying makes her even more unpredictable, and crazy.  Hans informs Waterston and McGilvry that Nichole has no living relative, unless you count the ones who made her crazy by being abusive to her. But as Waterston and McGilvery see it, very clearly, Hans and Nichole have a history between them that is very volatile.   Their attempts to find out what is going on between Hans and Nichole wind up in dead ends, and almost the end of their own lives from BOTH of them.
   Outside the cabin, external volatility emerges very quickly as Union and Confederate forces find each other within viewing distance of the cabin, which they will destroy in the crossfire along with everyone in it, most particularly Nichole, and the kind, guilt-ridden, Indian-loving Hans.  Waterston and McGilvery do their best to divert the fighting elsewhere, and sneak Nichole out the back door, but before they can do anything, they are attacked themselves---by NICHOLE.  She insists that the Union and Confederate armies fight each other to the death, and signals for her Indian friends, who are also Hans' buddies, come in to mop up whoever is left.   
    Nichole disarms and contains the two Civil War Officers in her cabin with the help of her true beloved, who she drags out of the large box.  Her beloved is the severed head of an Indian chief, who ruled over a tribe that kidnapped her when she was in her early twenties, then treated her better than the white 'Woodrow' from whom she was taken.   It is revealed that after her release from 'bondage' at the hands of the Commanche, she used the Indians to kill her abusive white husband. She kept his head, dishonoring his memory by chopping him up into pieces and putting the flesh into the stew that Waterston, and McGilvery, but not Hans just ate.  Her intention is to kill Waterston and McGilvery, honoring them by keeping their heads in the box as her other Woodrows.  Hans stops Nichole from killing these two visitors who only had her best interest at heart, resulting in Nichole fading into a deep, but restful slumber.
  As to what to do about Nichole now, with even more Indians, coming, Hans offers both of the men pipes to put in their mouths---so they can be identified as Germans by the Comanches, who honor German whites but hate everyone else.   Waterston and McGivery plan to take Nichole to somewhere sane, seeking Hans' help with regard to a specific and safe location.  Hans declines, then kills himself as he had committed the worst crimes of all.  First, bringing White people out West to the Indians.  And second, leading the expedition that 'liberated' Nichole from her Commanche captors, the only 'masters' who showed her any kindness, and afterwards, having the Commanche chief, Nichole's most honorable 'Woodrow', killed.
    Left with nothing between them except the common cause of saving Nichole from the War, and her past, Waterston and McGilvery sign their own discharge papers from the Army and agree to take her, and themselves, to someplace sane. 

TEXAN SPLIT FIRE
Novel, Civil War era. 

Logline:   A young German intellectual, a good ole boy Texan cowboy and the Mexican woman they both fall in love get caught on opposite sides of the line in Civil War Texas.

Story:    The 1860 Texas Hill Country contained many well-meaning groups with very different political agendas that somehow got along very well.   Representing the anti-slavery, pro-Union, Pacifist Intellectual German 'Freethinkers' who fled the failed 1848 European Revolutions against the Kings and Capitalists is 23 years naive Hans Schmitt, a natural doctor and writer who wants above all else to be a cowboy, pushed to follow in his martyred Revolutionary father's footsteps by his Onkle Franz.   Hans' best friend is Jake Johnson, a cowboy's cowboy, raised on the heroic tales of his fallen father at the Alamo, who sincerely believes in the ideals of the Confederacy, including the fact that Negros are an inferior race who can't handle freedom, and will use it against themselves.   Maria is a beautiful, dangerously intelligent, and pathologically independent Tejano, who is actively Unionist, despite her rich father's suggestion that the best for anti-slavery, Catholic Latinos to beat the Protestant Anglos is to join them.   Hans understands Maria's mind, but Jake connects to her heart. 

When Texas decides to join the Confederacy, not everyone is in agreement with such.   Most particularly the Freethinkers and the Tejanos, who do their best to maintain good relations between their Anglo Confederate neighbors but also have to be true to their own convictions.  When Martial Law is established, those who refuse to donate goods to the Confederate Cause, or who decline the 'invitation' to join the Arm are persecuted in all manners imaginable.   Maria, Jake and Hans undergo major transformations  when the corrupt and blood thirsty Confederate Home Guard goes on the warpath, which include learning the art, science and price of being on two sides at the same time.  

Based in real events that occurred in the Nueces River Massacre, the most infamous 'battle' that happened in Texas during the Civil War.

EVERY MARTIAN NEEDS A BUNNY
Novella.   Metaphysical romance novel about survival of a Visionary Musical Protege on the contemporary Canadian prairies.

Story:  Michelle is a 42 years-vibrant pianist cursed and blessed with the ability to channel the music of the Old Masters in ways that they could never do themselves, with a special relationship to Onkle Ludwig (von Beethoven).   Her hyper-intelligent mind moves light years faster than anyone around her and her heart is far more open, but she is stranded in flatland (and flat-souled) Brandon, Manitoba.   Stuck in a life where she is horrible at making ANY money BECAUSE of her unique, immense talent, anyway.  Married to an abusive established 'christian' husband who doesn't respect her mind or heart.    Stalked by a lifeless geek 'protective big brother' who is jealous of her vitality.   And responsible (by her own choice) for taking care of an ailing life-embittered father who takes out all of his frustrations on her.  The only living being in the 'real' world who really appreciates Michelle's Creative Mind, and heart, is 'Bunny', a rabbit that comes to her window when she plays her piano.  And, perhaps, an ex-boyfriend who she reconnects to by a series of 'accidents' which could lead her into a Life of Liberation, or an even darker abyss.              

TRUMPED BY PARADISE
12 min, seri-comedic screenplay
        
Logline:  A procrastinating more-heart-than-brains Pakistani puppeteer in America is called to fulfill his jihadist duties by his domineering mother back home, but when he finds out what his reward will be once he does the only act possible to make his family proud, he delays doing it, forcing him to reveal to his girlfriend a secret he has been hiding for years, which does NOT have anything to do with his Islamic origins or affiliations.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME, SORT OF
Novel.   

Logline:  A more-heart-than-brains (but mechanically-talented) 18 year old farm kid from an isolated region of Alberta (Reed Johnson) who yearns for something more gets shipped to the big city after an unexpected leg injury, integrating with the best and worse elements in the populated world. He then has to find his way home and help those in need he meets in the city after being framed for a murder he did not commit while not endangering his beloved and severely-economically-challenged family back home.

Story:  Reed Johnson, 17 year old more-heart-than-brains farm kid (except when it comes to fixing anything mechanical) has seldom left the subsistence Alberta farm he was born on.  He is surrounded by a loving family.  Three generations of Johnsons  work together and stay together on the 640 acre farm that at one time was a very profitable 4,000 acre ranch, particularly when it was homesteaded by ex-Confederate Harry Johnson in the 1880s.  The expatriate Missouri farmer was the laughing stock of his fellow ranchers at that time for growing hay during the summer rather than relying on the grasslands to provide all the food cattle needed.  The blizzards of 1886  wiped out his free-range cattle-oriented neighbors, making Harry the richest man in the region.  Seizing the economic opportunity he never had back home, he bought up as much land at ten cents on the dollar so he could to feed his family, displacing many other families from their livelihood .  The crusty old grandmother of one  of those families laid a curse on Harry and his progeny, declaring that if they are be rich in love, they will be poor in pocket, and vice versa.   Reed Johnson and his 21st century family inherited  Grandma Agnes' curse just as generations before them did.

Reed is okay with staying on the isolated Flatbush  farm on which he had been home schooled by his recently-departed mother, but he yearns for something else, particularly after having spent the last year at public high school in Westlock.  While there, he was outclassed at every 'people' game he tried to play.  The 'cool' kids who he wants to get in with take advantage of his kindness mercilessly, often without him even knowing it.  After a surprise, gentle-humored birthday party at the farm given by a family who could not be more loving, and down-home neighbors who are very okay with the 18 year old Reed taking over the farm when his father takes to the rocking chair and his grandfather goes to his Last Reward, he stares at the distant moonlit horizon, yearning to find out what is on the other side of it.  Reed is particularly intrigued with the tales of big city life as told to him in letters sent by his Uncle Tom, who left the farm as soon as he could and became a success in Edmonton.    But Uncle Tom is success who Reed's father Jack considers a moral failure and disgrace to the family, because he never came home. And instead of helping out the family to hold onto the land, Tom said that 'it is a dis-service to common sense and family to throw good money after bad.'

Reed is torn between staying at home to help keep the farm going and following his inner passions to experience the world, as his Hippies-for-Jesus musician mother did before she decided to settle in on the farm.  Fate intervenes in the form of an accident that mangles Reed's leg.  He is rushed to the hospital in Westlock, where the family doc hooks Reed up to a team of experimental surgeons in Edmonton who can save his limb from become useless, or gone.   

The nature of Reed's injury makes him a prime candidate for the latest new technique in soft tissue repair.   A well-funded team of medical professionals sees to it that he is put up in the best lodgings the university can provide for the summer so they can follow up on the progress of this 'special n value' in their study.  Reed does whatever he can to extend his stay in Edmonton, pretending that he still needs more medical care, as he hopes to eventually hook up to Uncle Tom after his business trips are done with.  Such also allows  the 18 year old very-virgin Reed to experience big city folks he would never meet in Flatbush, Alberta, starting with Krystyl, an attractive and kind 30 year old nurse.  The crush on Krystyl escalates, then gets complicated when Reed finds out that she is a victim of abuse, resulting in his new love disappearing on him.  Reed then winds up befriending Glenda, a colorful artist who is a whiz at doing portraits with a pad of paper and anything that can make a mark on it.   Reed finds out that Glenda is a pysch patient, in a locked ward, put there by people who fear her artistry, intelligence and kindness.  She convinces Reed to help her get out of the Ward, which he does, uniting Glenda with Sasha, who he thinks is her sister .  In the process,  Reed gets in trouble with his medical hosts.  Reed gets in trouble with the law as well when he finds out that Glenda is really a hooker,  and that Sasha is her pimp, who gets her re-hooked on dope as soon as she goes back 'home' to him..   Reed's attempt to rescue Glenda from Sasha is rewarded by the two-bit mobster framing him for murdering her.

Reed goes on the lamb, unable to contact his father on the farm as well as his Uncle Tom in the big city.   He winds up finding refuge in a camp of homeless people who have set  up their tents and portable shacks in “River Valley Estates”, on the shores of the Saskatchewan River.  While there, Reed is taken in by 'The Professor', an old coot whose genius with a pen and wisdom regarding humanity are too advanced for the 'home-owning' world and, on a good day, partially appreciated by the 'citizens' the 'Philosopher King' tries to take care of in the hobo camp.   Not wanting to accept anything without giving something back, Reed, while hiding his identity and real reason for being in the camp, offers his services as 'fix it' man for anything mechanical, from vintage transistor radios to busted generators.   His skill as a hunter and fisherman keep his fellow citizens fed.

News of the mechanical whiz who is keeping the homeless community fed, supplied with mechanical equipment and infused with a new sense of dignity culminates in that community setting up free lunches in the Park for Corporate workers who have high paying jobs but low opinions about those who don't know how to make hordes of money.   Though Reed is still on the run from the law for the murder of Glenda, he feels accomplished, very much at home.   

Events push Reed once again onto a road he never imagined possible when he day dreamed about the world back on the farm.  First, 'The Professor' dies, leaving Reed with his treasured writings, which are far more extensive and insightful than Reed or anyone else in the camp ever imagines. But if Reed stays on in the community to take his place, he is certain to be arrested for Glenda's murder.  Second, the City Council, who is heavily influenced by Uncle Tom, sets out to make life hell for the homeless community.  Finally, Reed runs into an offer he cannot refuse.   Dimitri Bakala, a high level mobster who is a master at manipulation and cruelty, operates a chain of highly illegal chop-shops in Vancouver.  Hearing about Reed's mechanical genius, and the farm kid's need to keep his real identity secret from the Cops,  'Uncle Dimitri' offers to hire the farm kid, with money that Reed can do whatever he wants with.
 
Seeing the opportunity for survival, Reed accepts, no questions asked.  He also considers this a chance to get rich and send money back to the farm to help his family.   Reed rises fast up the ladder in Bakala's organization because of his work ethic, his determination to honor his word once given, and his 'dumb luck' at not getting entangled into any schemes by his co-workers to screw their boss.   Before long, Reed is making lots of money, and Bakala considers him a surrogate son.   In desperate need to have son he can bond with, the childless Bakala does his best to protect Reed from the law, but won't use his pull to get the charges dropped.   Bakala tries to teach Reed the ropes about how to get what you want with manipulation and cruelty, but the mobster starts to become converted to being a moral man by his still Gumpish surrogate son, though only to a point.   

Meanwhile, Reed keeps trying to send money home to his father on the farm, but it keeps getting refused.   To make matters worse, Reed is losing his humanity while making money and becoming an economic success story.   He realizes how dead he has become inside when he sees an injured cat on the street, and realizes that the love for animals which kept him sustained on the farm is gone, as his instinct for emotional empathy is gone.  In desperation, he chases after the injured animal to try to get it medical attention.  Awakened by his regained ability to save the animal's life, and his own Soul, Reed gives notice at the shop, asking if he can go back to the homeless community in Edmonton to help out.  Reluctantly, Bakala agrees, and wishes him well.  He also finally tells Reed that he's arranged for charges to be dropped with regard to Glenda's murder, the real culprit having been dealt with.  But he warns Reed to still keep a low profile for a little while longer.

Upon return to the homeless community in Edmonton, Reed finds the camp in disarray.  Reed does what he can for his former 'outside' citizens, and encounters one who is in particularly bad need.  It is none other than Tom, who did what he could to get Reed off the hook for the murder he didn't commit, as well as using his influence to have the Cops stop harassing the homeless and otherwise unfortunate inhabitants of Edmonton.  As a result of such, Tom is homeless himself.   Ironically, Reed, who came to the city to be rescued by his Uncle, saves said Uncle's ass.

Hat in hand, Uncle Tom finally returns to the farm to make peace, and amends, with his estranged brother Jack.  At the cajoling of Jack's new fiancee, a good woman he loves almost as much his departed wife Mary, Jack forgives Tom, finally reuniting the Johnson clan.  They are now rich with love again, in all ways possible.   

Meanwhile, Reed made a bet with Bakala that if the Old Professor's unpublished novels were a hit at the bookstands, the mobster would go legit.  After the novels championing intelligence and caring over ignorance and cruelty become best sellers, Balaka puts Reed in charge of his stolen car chop chop operations, which he has turned into legal repair shops that are making more money than they did when they were illegal, and which hire homeless people and 'problem' city kids as preferred workers.    Finally, Granny Agnes' curse is broken, the Johnsons being able to be rich in love as well as money.  But as for what that money is to used for, Jack, and Reed, decide that it is time to build the busted and broke farm community of Flatbush into the enriched cultural and education center that Harry Johnson back in the 1880s tried to set up, since 'the Good Lord allows you to be rich only if the money is used according to His Creative process'.

    

INVERSION:  RELATIVITY OF WEALTH
Novella.

Logline:  A hard working, just-turned-forty,  handyman-laborer (Carlos) on a harmonically self-sustaining independent island nation, population 2, challenges his Philosopher King boss/guru with the question of why he is so broke and everyone else on the mainland is so rich.   As a birthday gift to his beloved and valued servant, and the world, the Philosopher King sets in motion a chain of events that allows Carlos to get the material wealth and social status he seeks on the mainland, along with teaching the world a lesson in economics, greed and sustainability.    Social and political satire with warmth, edge and eye-opening believability.

ABYSS OF THE BRAVE
Novel.  Historical.

Marie LeBlanc, highly intelligent, musically-talented daughter of a mother who operated a top level Bordello in France until the wrong nobleman came in as a client escapes the law in the Old World, landing in Montreal on a cold day in 1752, as a promised bride to  one of the richest and most intelligent men in the New World.  However, 'king of the wilderness' Pierre Noir is rich because of his illegal smuggling operations with the English and his intelligence is confined to his dedication to forming an independent, free-thinking Wilderness State which he is determined will never be ruled by New France,  England or the Catholic Church.   Enter into the picture, Father LeFevre, idealistic French Canadian Priest born to poor English  Colonial settlers, raised by Indians and inspired by his unique Vision of a democratic New France.  A Vision which the self-educated scholar asserts requires firm control and guidance from the Church, even though the life-experienced, pacifist, still-virgin clergyman has lost belief in the Christian Heavenly Father.  The Priest and the Wilderness Revolutionary are both drawn to Marie, but for very different reasons.  The love triangle gets politically dangerous when LeFevre, Noir and Marie are used as pawns by French politicos who want to clandestinely escalate tensions with the English, setting in motion the French and Indian War, a vicious endeavor which tests the visions, survival and morality of all concerned.    

TUCKRUNNERS
Half hour filmable play.
Serio-comedic.

Logline:  A Canadian-born White female, a First Nations Mom, and a recently hired Islamic Immigrant refugee mother working for minimum wage in a Saskatchewan Restaurant are pitted against each other by a sleezy old Greek owner who is excessively cheap, fond of flirting with the help and considers vicious competition between his employees as something good for the restaurant, and them.   Big time power-shifts happen as the workers find out more about each other, their boss and themselves,  leading to struggles for survival and justice that backfire in ways they never considered possible.

 Story:  Outside a ‘stuff your face with food and you are guaranteed to be happy in all ways’ restaurant, a ‘homeless but not hopeless’ violin virtuoso plays to unappreciative passers by with intensity and compassion, even after he is tossed into a dumpster and pushed away by security.  Inside, three wage slaves are stuck slogging it out in a Greek Restaurant in contemporary Saskatchewan, Canada after legislation is enacted which mandates and pays employers for hiring of 'visible minorities'.   Ashley is a white, native born Canadian honors (and talented) student fine arts grad with big student loans who can't get work with her degree, and refuses to let her boyfriend take care of her economically.   Leona is a First Nations women who at the age of 23, is mother to four children and ex to an abusive deadbeat who left her with nothing.   Rashada is self-educated Islamic 25 year old refugee who is the sole provider for three kids, and the survivor of sex-slave/human trafficking, sent to the boonies of Saskatchewan by officials in Ontario who wanted credit for rescuing those in danger overseas but want someone else to figure out how to integrate them into the Canadian work force.   The owner of the Restaurant, Peter Pappadapolis, is an old, sleezy, horny, pathetically cheap, morally corrupt Greek who enjoys his one (and sometimes two) way flirtations with the staff, but gets a particularly thrill out of pitting one worker (and class) against the other to see who will survive working in his kitchen.  

The introduction of Rashada into the kitchen by Peter, and the favor he gives her, makes Leona and Ashley put away their ethnic differences as they try to trick the naive immigrant into discrediting herself.  But the two young Canadian women and Rashada soon learn that as lower caste schleps being ripped off by the bosses, they have a common Cause and very similar agonies in their private lives.  They band together to forge a fake love letter from Peter to the favored hostess up front, sneaking it into the hands of  Peter's wife (Tula), who does the accounting upstairs.  The attempt of the workers to take down their boss backfires when Peter's wife thinks that her beloved husband is in bed with Ashley et al, firing the lot of them.  Then firing Peter, who we find out does not own the restaurant because he was in over his head bribing the civic inspectors and their bosses to keep the joint open.   And it turns out that Peter never had relations with the hostess.   With management (Peter) and workers out on the streets, the Owning Caste (Tula) relates to the mascot mega-sized cockroach who lives very comfortably in the kitchen that as long as workers and managers do not realize that their real enemies are the CEO 1% people on top, the CEO's can rule over them.  

In the end, Ashley joins the homeless but not hopeless violinist in song, realizing that her fate, destiny and Calling is to play ‘real good for free’ rather than seek an ‘successful’ life filled with applause and fame.   Rashada joins her, accepting her fate as being underappreciated but talented from a lower station.  Leona, however, has decided to sell out again, deciding to be owned by soul dead, rich dude (and dud), apologetically ‘going with the flow’ rather than aspiring upwards.

LOONY LOIS
Novel.  Young Adult fiction, and adult fiction, with edge.

Logline:  Three mismatched, unassuming millennials from an Interior British Columbia community (an introverted 'patsy for anyone' stoner, an 'everything comes to easy'  First Nations pop music starlette, and an immigrant Russian filmmaker running from his sorted past back in the Old Country)  are recruited into carrying on the Work of a crazy yet Visionary Mountain Woman hermit after she is declared deceased, transforming the trio into enlightened, marginalized and endangered souls long before their time, with 'rewards' they find out only after it is too late.

Story:  
      Marcus is a 20 year old ex stoner introvert drummer/aspiring composer has a vulnerable heart, and a proclivity to  be manipulated by assholes in his British Columbia town to do their dirty work, and take the rap for it.  No matter how hard he tries to make something of his live, Marcus winds up coming back to his parents' basement.  Ivan, workahollic, service oriented masochist Russian filmmaker, came to the mountain town with his Vancouver-raised wife, Lori, to start a production company that will revolutionize the world.  Their marriage is not only on the rocks but about to be flushed down the toilet, due to Lori's obsession with finding someone who is about more than just work, and Ivan's inability to open his heart to the wife he so desperately wants to keep.   Locally born and raised Wendy is a First Nations pop singing star to whom popularity and money came all to easily.  Life has given her everything, except for challenges to her soul so it will be great rather than just popular.

'Loony Lois' is an old coot still radical Hippie Visionary who lives very alone up the mountain, coming down only to get supplies and to try to get the 'indoctrinated, oppressed and seduced by the powers that be' people down below to open up their minds, and hearts to what needs to be done.   To everyone in town, Lois is either a nuisance, a laughing stock, or a tortured elderly woman who should be put in a nursing home for her own good.  At one of the City Council Meetings when Lois rants on to the citizens in the valley about what is happening  to their town and themselves, Lois' very mainstream daughter and her lawyer husband cart 'the family embarrassment' away, for her own good, to live in a comfortable retirement home in the valley.   But within hours of Lois being admitted to the Sunset Retirement Home, she winds up being transferred to the morgue, for a closed casket funeral that very few people attend, including her very distraught daughter.

But Lois is far from dead, at least to Marcus, Wendy and Ivan.   Her 'spirit' visits Marcus, opening his eyes to just how small the town he grew up in is, and how much smaller the people who have lorded over him are.  Lois' influence on Ivan comes in the form of disrupting the equilibrium of his present marriage, inviting him to a Calling far Higher than being a husband, or even a father.   Wendy finds herself on stage as the center attraction at a 'welcome home' Powwow, visited with the realization that the music she has been performing and composing that is so popular is not only built on lies, has not a trace of real Creativity in them, and is toxic to her devoted fans.   

Enter Clarence Cochran, a skillful inventor and talented musician, who brings the trio together, bringing them to Lois' grave, where the three shocked out of their normal lives millenials are visited by Lois' spirit, or perhaps a hologram.  Either way, the trio is now locked into working together to tell the world what Lois was really about and to convey the socio-political messages she dedicated her life to in the form of a movie about her life.  A movie which would counteract the smash gone-viral hit documentary done by The Young Professors, four self-centered, vicious, manipulative and politically powerful 'rich kid' millenials, which ridiculed and discredited Lois.  A movie which Marcus, Ivan and Wendy all participated in making, not fully knowing (or wanting to know) what it would become.  

Standing up to the Young Professors, exposing the despicable activities that made them so rich and setting the record straight with regard to Lois is harder than it sounds.  The four rich brats who grew up to be the most powerful moguls the town own most everyone in it, including the Law.  To make matters worse, conflicts between Marcus, Ivan and Wendy emerge, fueled by Lori, Ivan's soon to be ex-wife, whose loyalties change with the wind.   In addition, Cochran, the trio's 'handler' with regard to making the film and communicating with Lois, turns tail and runs as soon as situations with the power that be get hot, revealing in the process that what he did to Lois when he was in her confidence was not much better than what the Young Professors did.  Then there is the matter of how dead Lois really is in the first place, as one agenda of her 'ghost' is to devise a special punishment for Marcus, Ivan and Wendy for being 'good' people who should have known better than to work with the Young Professors.

AND AFTER ELECTING THE ANTI-CHRIST...
Novel.  Fact-based political and historical fiction.

Extended Logline:   The International Committee of Three who are the seat of REAL power in the world decide that democracy has turned into a lazy, ineffective and dispassionate process, so they decide to challenge its existence to strengthen the 'morals' who say they value it.  In an unnamed country that claims to be the most powerful in the world, the Committee orchestrates the National Election such that Paul Devon, a Reality TV show celeb and competition-loving billionaire becomes Chancellor.   But when it comes time for the Committee to have 'the talk' with Devon, he turns the military against the Committee and rules the country in ways no one expected.  Morality, freedom, reason and compassion take a back seat to Devon's emotional whims and the underhanded dealings of the underlings he hires.  The country is plunged into a winner take all Civil War, as seen through a colorfully-dysfunctional ranching family who become key players on both sides of a struggle to save their country and, if possible, still maintain caring connections with their loved ones. 

Essential brain and soul food to anyone who has strong feelings about the 2016 American Presidential Elections, how it happened, what it means and what to do about/with it.  

NORMINA FALLS
Novel.  Historical fiction, Western.  Interactive format in second person.

Extended Logline:   Normina Falls, a once Utopian democratic Socialist Old West trading post and multicultural Paradise, is on its way to becoming the money making industrial capital of a territory about to become a state.   Championing the old ways is Professor Jack, idealist Harvard Revolutionary turned asocial Mountain Man.  Leading the struggle to make the town an example of the free market capitalist dream is Horatio Wilson, Industrialist and Preacher.  In the middle of it all:  
Jack's ex-lover, friend and comrade, Olivia, under-appreciated Philadelphia bred artist/entertainer who can't go home until she makes something of herself out West.
Looney Lois, universally-ridiculed destructively-kind 17 year old village idiot who is brilliant as a violinist, possessing the potential to become a genius with the right teacher, and protector.
The ghost of an Old Indian Chief killed in one of Jack's previous Revolutions that backfired on the Redskinned brethren he tried to bring into his ideal Paradise.
Albert Dickenson, academic colleague of Jack's and fellow Revolutionary who rejoins his old friend out West, inspiring a potentially effective Revolution for the People, while he is haunted by ghosts of his own from his past.

An interactive novel told in the third person through the eyes, ears, noses, fingers, and minds of all the players in a winner take all ideological conflict of wits, wills and very personal agendas, testing loyalties and values at every step of the way.

SAILORS
Filmable Stageplay, half hour, one act.

Two sailors become stranded on an island by an unexpected electrical storm.  Ralph is a hard bitten, grabbing what he can get, cynic who believes in going for what you want and need now. Willy is a pathologically kind optimist who thinks excessively about everything he does or is about to do.  The mismatched castaways are met by the marooned ghosts of Albert Einstein and Adolph Hitler, who are now in attractive female bodies, representing, respectively, ghost communities of 'do good doers' and 'bad doers', who need the two mortals to get them 'home' to their next incarnation, or last reward.    

BIDIRECTIONAL
Novel               

Carla and Karen Steiner are identical twins born to pathologically Norman Rockwell normal parents in the flatland  town of Hillside, Saskatchewan, Canada, where they brought up and expected to have identical lives as adults.  But things change when their ill parents die in a car accident on a balmy minus 30 degree afternoon, leaving to each of them a substantial 'buy whatever kind of life you want to build for yourself'  inheritance.  Karen decides to do the responsible thing, putting aside her talent and love for making music to attempt a go at medical school so she can find cures for the diseases that afflicted her parents, even though she has absolutely no fascination or interest in biology or medicine.  Carla decides to do the Alive thing, pursuing a career as a multigenre artist to serve, despite the fact that she has less talent in the arts a her sister and knows nothing about how cut-throat the Artistic world is.  The story about how their lives evolve, devolve and become redefined is told to an underachieving, cynical nurse at a psych facility by an eccentric Doc with deep, dark and powerful secrets of his own.

Story
The story opens through the eyes of an burnt out before his time brilliant and marginalized shrink (Doc Mikey)  in a mental hospital looking at Krazy Katey, his most valued elusive patient who sits alone in the garden on a cold Feb day talking the flowers into coming out of the ground.   Assigned by Doc Mikey to monitor Krazy Katey and take confidential notes on her is Nurse Andrea, an underachieving, cynical young Nurse who thinks Doc Mikey is as wacked out as Katey.  Still, Mikey relates the story behind Katey and her brand of Krazy to Andrea, as he has overpaid her to be the one doing this overtime shift.
  
That story starts with Carla and Karen Steiner.  They are identical twins born to pathologically Norman Rockwell normal parents in the flatland  town of Hillside, Saskatchewan, Canada, where they brought up and expected to have identical lives as adults.  But things change when their ill parents die in a car accident on a balmy minus 30 degree afternoon, leaving to each of them a substantial 'buy whatever kind of life you want to build for yourself'  inheritance.   After meeting with the family's lawyer, their uncle (who still addresses Carla as Karen and vice versa), who extracted much of the inheritance to cover 'standard legal costs', the girls have lunch with underappreciated self-taught philosopher Emilio Fernandez.  The aging and overworked Latino handiman who wound up living the life people assigned to him rather than the one he aspired to, tells the very Church going girls that the greatest sin in the eyes of the Lord is not violation of the Ten Commandments.  The most sinful act is to under-utilize opportunities and to not follow your deepest  Spiritual Passions. Still, guilt-ridden Karen decides to do the responsible thing, putting aside her talent and love for making music to attempt a go at medical school so she can find cures for the diseases that afflicted her parents, even though she has absolutely no fascination or interest in biology or medicine.  Carla decides to do the Alive thing, pursuing a career as a multigenre artist, despite the fact that she has less talent in the arts a her sister and knows nothing about how cut-throat the Artistic world is.  

Two years later, we find Carla as the most passionate, creative and (after putting in a lot of hard work) technically talented writers, musicians and composers in a Toronto Fine Arts Institute, at which she has spent a large portion of her inheritance for tuition.  She seeks above all to transform the collective human soul through the Arts, and is becoming very good at it, as a rebel, particularly when she takes on playing Beethoven's Appossionata with more texture, innovation and expression than her far more talented sister Karen ever did.  However, Carla's dream is halted by no-talent, fragile-ego, super-pretentious, by-the-numbers 'Sir Ronald Williams', who in his new position as head of the Department, sees to it that Carla is not only dumped from the program, but marginalized from the progressive Professors there and the hip and cool students.   Coming home to a pile of bills in her small apartment, Carla seeks the advise of 'Oncle' Ludwig von Beethoven, whose Spirit she experiences every time she takes on playing and expansively interpreting his music, and whose voice she actually does hear in her head, something which she of course knows to keep from anyone else.  The portait of Ludwig on her wall shares his own colorful and humorous war stories about how he survived and eventually thrived as an indy artist way ahead of his time,  very much alone.  Carla absorbs his wisdom and frustrations like a sponge but is not afraid to challenge him as well. But it's Carla's birthday, making this milestone of reaching the big 21 alone, even more painful.  She yearns to re-connect with her sister Karen.  A series of accidents with the answering machine, and some incidents at Karen's house at her big birthday bash, make Carla think that her sister didn't call her, enhancing her sense of isolation and ever-increasing distance from her 'responsible' sister.

Karen, who stayed in Saskatchewan and invested her inheritance into a premed program, is not doing so well competing with people in the 'real' world outside of Hillside either.   Though Karen knows 98% of the info for every exam, she is never able to break an 82% average. She doesn't know how to kiss the professor's asses and she hasn't learned how to cheat off her classmates, and  to make them look bad relative to herself.   Mall brats, Doctor Barbies and gold-diggers in training Millissa and Laura, two of Carla's former lab partners, have learned how to do so,  and have gotten As because Karen let them copy from her.  But there is one classmate who has been supportive of Karen, and considers her the most beautiful girl in class.   John Peterson is a big, strong and average-intelligence offspring of a down-home Saskatchewan farm wife and a father who clawed his way up corporate ladders that few people know about.   John suggests that Karen join him in a new Pharmaceutical Science training program, which does not require the kind of GPA that med school does.   He also wants to be more than just a classmate to her.  

At  Karen's birthday party, held at John's parent's house, her biggest birthday wish is to have a heart to heart talk with her sister Carla, some of which would be in the 'backwards' lingo they developed between themselves as kids.  But by a series of what seem like accidents, Karen gets no response from Carla, even after she called Carla's answering machine three times.  Karen feels bitter towards her sister, who she thinks 'is too busy being 'artistic' to return her calls', and is even more angry at herself for having to settle to be a biology technician instead of being a doctor.  Making matters worse, Karen  is beginning to experience regrets at having gone into bio-medical science (which she hates but is a prerequisite to finding cures for diseases that killed her mother and father) and not perusing a career in the arts, which is still a lingering passion.  Her request to take over playing the piano at her birthday party is stopped by John, who says that Karen deserves to have a rest and that his no-talent cousin was paid to play there and that his very linear family insists on him providing the entertainment.   But, there is hope for Karen when she is invited by John's father into the library for a private meeting.  Horatio Peterson makes Karen an offer she can't refuse.  Recognizing her talents in science, and being the very behind the scenes head of a very  large pharmaceutical company and research institute, he offers her special entry into a Ph.D. Program.  She accepts, thinking that it will bring in money, and that after providing biological cures for the world, MAYBE she can cure herself by becoming a well funded artist on her own.

More time passes....Carla puts her money where her Passions are, investing whatever funds she has left on her own indy projects, reeking of edge, humor, intelligence and intensity but lacking in fluff and  frivilous 'fun''.   She writes tons of books and produces lots of indy music.  With regard to the most powerful canvas in the world, Carla has poured cash from her own pocket and empty stomach into doing an independent film that she thinks will transform the world and allow her entry into the 'club' of the artistic elite who have power and influence.  The premier of  Carla's cinema Work is under-attended, most particularly by her sister Karen, to whom she sent multiple invitations.   Supporting the idealistic, intelligent, not-so-popular, and now pauper, artist is Peter, an English film editor and cinematographer.   Peter is the only living soul who gets most of Carla's jokes and is 'accessible but distant' as a lover.  Such is enough, as Carla needs above all someone who understands her Mind, a lover/mate who understands her heart a luxury she cannot afford right now.

At Karen's end of the universe, she has become a big time success as a research scientist at Saskatoon University, and well funded by Horatio Peterson, whose Pharmaceutical Company concentrates far more on making money than making sick people well.  Karen also has learned first hand how 'independent' scientists at the University stab, jab and sabatoge each other mercilessly to be the first to press, get tenure and obtain funding with the best data they can steal or fabricate. She has on occasion played ball with such people in their crooked dealings.  Still believing in her own very innovative research, she doesn't make waves, seeing the necessity to integrate with the system the prior to changing it.  Besides, she's on top of the ladder now.  It's Karen who is now who is the hottest looking woman in medicine, due to having access to the best plastic surgeons and beauticians available, for profession and fund raising purposes  reasons of course.  And it's Professor Karen who former Barbie bitch classmates and medical students Millissa and Laura are dependent on to get their medical degrees now, and drugs to overcharge their patients for later.  But inside, Karen couldn't be more miserable.  At home, Karen has a child, Jamie, who is a musical protege, whose skill at the piano makes Karen extremely jealous of her abilities, and envious beyond rage at her own inability to find the Artist in her now dead, dark, and corrupted Soul.   She's also taken to drinking booze from the store and massive doses of potential Soul-awakening drugs she takes home from the lab. Such is the only way to get through life with 'dream hubby' John, whose simplistic mind and seeminlgy caring heart has many deep, dark secrets inside it.

Back in the world of struggling Artists, Carla has taken on a job driving a cab to get seed money to maintain her writing, music and ultra-low budget film making aspirations, as well as to stay nurished enough to do them.  She finds herself dependent on Peter for both, as well as someone to really talk to at the end the day.  Communication diminishes when Peter gets stoned, Carla refusing to join him in that 'happy' place as she holds onto the Beethovian credo that  'Creative Madness is best enjoyed when straight'.  Professor, Friend and Mentor Kumar Patel, an elderly East Indian gentlemen who is also an over-educated employee who works at the cab company, offers her some advise.  He suggests that Carla meet Peter half way, so that Carla doesn't wind up on the first bus backwards to Hillside, Saskatchewan and the mundane, comfy life waiting for her with aunts and uncles who never left, and never will.   Patel, the only Mentor in the 'real' world Carla knows, is found dead the next morning, dead by his own hand or perhaps someone else's in a 'colorful' area of town.  

Carla goes back home to Peter, then agrees to share some weed from a fellow cabbie with him.  She then shares her unprotected uterus as well, as he expresses a desire to become a father, yet again.  Finally, Carla gives in.  But when the pregnancy test is positive, Peter flees the coup, terrified of fatherhood.  Carla is left with a pile of bills, and a fetus that she has to 'deal with', one way of another.  She finds herself determined to not get an abortion AND to continue her career as an Artist, but she needs far more money than what she was getting at the cab company.   A search in the personal ads leads her to a wife looking for a woman to woe her husband into an affair, and for an extra fee, an annulable marriage.  Carla recognizes the ID of the woman as Karen, as it is in the 'backwards' language she and her sister shared when growing up, that ID translated as 'lifesucks'.  

Carla flashes on an idea.  She mascarades as Natasha, a hot looking Russian woman on the rebound from a bad relationship who is admitedly at early stages of pregnancy.  When arriving to meet Karen face to face, Carla can hardly recognize her sister Karen, on the inside and outside.  Karen does not recognize Carla.  Karen has faked another all night and into next day emergency call to go to the lab, leaving 'Natasha' at the house with a broken down car outside, waiting for John, on his birthday. The plan is for Natasha to be the only guest who is around to celebrate John's birthday, to get him in the sack, to have the house cameras record the conversations, then to seem to get impregnated with his sperm.  Carla has of course brought protection for herself.  Karen will see that the lab identifies 'Natasha' as the John's elicit love child, solidifying a divorce on her terms, as John has refused to divorce her, on orders from his Pastor.          
   
Carla finds out, as Natasha, that John is not the belligerent, possessive, womanizing bastard Karen portrayed him as.  In fact, Carla begins to pity him, as he has a hurting heart and slow thinking brain. But...

As Natasha, Carla finds out that John is the one who has been intercepting her 'reach out and touch someone' messages to her sister Karen.  John has also been preventing Karen from getting cards, invitations and phone calls from Carla.  In addition, John has intercepted messages from anyone to Karen which acknowledge her skill as a pianist and asking her to perform, even the hospitals and nursing homes.   As to why John is keeping Karen and Carla apart, and preventing Karen from expressing herself as an Artist, he says it is orders from 'Pastor'.  Determined to get at the bottom of it all, Carla, as Natasha, asks John to take her to Church.  There, she discovers that 'Pastor' is not the controlling, corrupt and very rich Minister who preaches the virtues of poverty and charity from behind the pulpit, but a dog, who John thinks is talking to him.  Further, Carla finds out  from well-intended Parisioners that John in has multi-personality disorder along with other manifestations of mental illness which make a danger to himself, as well as to Karen. This secret is tightly kept by John's father,  Horatio Peterson, who rules everyone around him with an iron hand, including most probably Karen.  

Needing money for her unborn child, info about the Peterson's, and to liberate her sister Karen so she can be brought back to who she used to be (who thus far has not noticed that Natasha is actually her sister), Carla maintains the illusion of being Natasha.  She takes such all the way to the wedding with John, according to Karen's high paying plan.  The next stage of that plan is to have the marriage annulled and to expose all of the Peterson's secrets and dirt. During the first dance with his beloved daughter in law,  Patriarch Horatio Peterson informs Natasha (or 'whoever she really is') that she is 'good medicine' for John and that she is now a member of a tight-lipped family that looks after each other, forever, till death do dissentors part.  Fearing that she has been caught in her own trap, Carla looks to her 'handler' Karen for help.  Karen, who maybe knows who Natasha really is, or maybe doesn't, gives Carla an 'I don't know' shrug of the shoulders while appearing to be an eager trophy wife for Lord Horatio.   Little Jamie, at the piano, playing music that Karen wished she could still play, gives Natasha an 'I sense who you are and advise you to get out as fast as you can' warning with her eyes, and burnt out well ahead of her time face.   

While still Natasha, Carla sneaks out of the house soon after the honeymoon, with John at home as 'Sister Mary', a self-punishing devout Nun.  Ducking the servants whose job it is to 'assist' her when out shopping, Carla makes it to a post office where she goes to a box she has taken out to get payments from Karen, under an assumed name.  The checks from Karen are delivered on time, as usual, but also present are letters from ALL of the lawyers Carla went to who now say that annulment of the wedding is now not possible to be un-revealed reasons.  Looking to get herself and her unborn child out of town, Carla makes a call to the airlines, but it is intercepted by Peter, who informs Carla that 'if I can find you, the Peterson Organization can.'   Peter proposes a plan.  Under such, Carla takes out a life insurance policy, leaving all the money to Peter.  They fake her death, Peter getting the money.  He gives it back to Carla somehow.  But soon afterwards, Peter is found dead in a car crash that was no accident.  On the run, Carla takes on a new identity and goes underground.

Back to the present....Doc Mikey relating to Nurse Andrea that he is Carla's son.  When 'Auntie Carla' comes into his office, under an assumed name and slightly altered face. She informs Andrea that she was Jamie, her memory of her past identity wiped out by her well-meaning non-aristocratic and non-cultured foster parents, hired by Carla.  And that she was taken away from John after his illnesses couldn't be kept secret, sequestered from her mother Karen by Sir Horatio's request.    But it's now time for sibling re-unions, as Doc Mikey pulled all sorts of strings to get Karen to give a seminar at the Hospital.  He, and Carla, have kept up with Karen's research inside and outside the lab, and it's ground breaking stuff.  But Karen and the work could still be owned by Peterson Pharmaceuticals, and its powerful patriarch, Horatio, who is concerned with profits at the expense of innovative therapies.  In addition, Peterson Pharmaceuticals is not above creating diseases in the real world to which they already have miracle drugs that they will sell to sick and dying patients to save them---if and when they feel like it of course.  Such are plotlines that Carla wrote as films and books that got her blacklisted with studios and publishers.   Indeed, Doc Mikey's headaches and failing neurological functions of late could be due to him being one of the guinea pigs in a Peterson funded study.   Part of him being 'randomly' chosen could be that he and Carla kidnapped John from the last locked facility in which he was hidden from the world, giving him the sex change operation he desired as his truest personality, 'Katey',  

The plan is designed by Carla and her son Doc Mikey.  Karen will speak about newest drugs available for neurological disease and mental illness according to party line, then be reminded of who she was and wants to be by presenting John as Krazy Katey, and introduced to her long lost daughter Jamie.  As well, Carla, as Research Doc alias, will ask Karen questions in the 'backwards' language she shared with her sister in the good old days, so that info about the real research can be related without being intercepted by Horatio's enforcers and informers.  BUT----Just before the talk in the big auditorium, Krazy Katey, Doc Mikey's 'date', sneaks away.  And in the audience, surrounded by powerful 'yes men' (and women) is none other than Horatio Peterson.  Andrea abandons the plan as well, having heard enough far-fetched madness, and claiming that she does not know how to play the piano anymore, if indeed she ever did. 

The plot to liberate Karen's cures to the world, and unite her with the only people who really love her, seems doomed as Karen gives a very by the numbers, smooth, suave scientific presentation of lies and bullshit.  But help comes from an undisclosed source.    Andrea braves reliving the past, replacing the mind-numbing, hypnotic sound track provided by Peterson Industries with a heartfelt version of the Appassiotta, a piece that Karen had banned anyone from playing in her presence while she was on her way up the ladder (as it would, as for Vlademir Lenin, open up her heart and thus prevent her from doing the necessary evils she had to do for a greater good).  Then Krazy Katey enters the auditorium, revealing first with his voice who he was as John, then singing his way into being the woman who he always wanted to be.  Realizing who she is with, what she has done with her life, and what she must do to turn it around for the Cause of Revolutionary Good rather than logically based reason,  Professor Karen shares the ground breaking work she did in her own lab that she was supposed to keep secret, reveals the truth about the claims about the so called 'golden' cures that Peterson Pharm Inc., and initiates a real dialog about real medicine with the 'yes men' she has wooed away from Lord Horatio.  

At the end of the story, it is revealed that such a tale could have been the imagination of Doc Mikey...whose mind is trapped in altered yet enlightened states....or that maybe it is true.  Believe it if you need it, leave it if you dare.

REVOLUTIONARY PRINCES, PAUPERS AND PRETENDERS
Historical Novel
Extended logline: 1773 brought to Russia the biggest, most deadly, most tragic and most controversial People's Revolution in the history of the Empire.  At the center of it was Yemelyan Pugachev, a  charismatic, deceptive, dedicated, deluded, effective and often cruel Cossack who challenged the oppressive Catherine the Great and the wealthy Aristocrats who kept most of the population hungry and subservient.  Behind the scenes however are many others.  A one time close friend to Yemelyan, Stefan is a humble, intelligent and kind Cossack who unwillingly finds himself being a central cog in the Revolutionary machinery that gets out of hand very quickly.  Over-read, hyper-intelligent but pathetically life-inexperienced  23 year old Countessa Sventlana is beautiful hot-headed Revolutionary who is prepared to dedicate her life and her very creative literary pen to the Cause.  Father Basili, a people-serving Pacifist belonging to the Old Believer sect, which is outlawed by Catherine, finds himself adminstering to the needs of peasants who rise up against their masters, but still sees God rather than guns as the means to saving his parishioners.   Mustafa, an old, learned and dedicated Islamic 'godfather' to his fellow Tatars, joins the Christian rebels, knowing fully well that some of them consider Allah as much of a manifestation of evil as Czarina Katherine.  On the other side of the War that allows NO one to remain neutral is Imperial Army Major Alexi Stralnikov, a scholarly, highly decorated and compassionate Aristocrat who does not agree with Catherine's oppressive policies, but fears the uneducated peasant rebels will turn into a mob if given power too soon, turning his beloved Russia into an oppressive and bloody Police State far worse than any Czar has instituted.  Assisting, and mentoring, the middle-aged Alexi is Michael Kosinko, an old, wise and crafty Sergeant who has seen, and survived, more war than most anyone on either side of the conflict.   As the revolt turns into a Revolution, the participants on both sides question their motives, as well as their loyalties, each becoming what they never bargained for.  

Story:

The story begins in 1772, with Father Vasili, a high-born aged way before his time Priest who has forsaken wealth and privilige, to become an 'Old Believer' Priest, dedicated to taking care of the poor and maintaining the Old Time Spiritual rituals rather than the new, improved Czarist approved old ones.  Working out of the fourth church he has build himself, as his sect is outlawed by Czarina Catherine, he has taken it upon himself to bury the body of a peasant serf woman who was brutally killed by her aristocratic master, without consequences for him, and to see her Soul off to a better place.  The devout Vasili is conflicted between his dedication to Pacifism and his burning anger at the ruling classes.  He would like to just ONE of the various people's revolutions succeed, but he knows they all failed, the peasants paying the highest price.  He yearns for the golden days of 1762, when Czar Peter III, then Catherine's husband, ruled Russia for 6 months during which he issued 200 mandates, all of which were aimed at human rights for all, freedom of religion and equal distribution of wealth.  His murder by Catherine put an end to all of that.   After the funeral of the slain peasant woman who dared to speak her mind, the still-behind-the-scenes Vasili is determined to bury her the Old Way, and begins to speak out against the Czar at the funeral, both of which is very illegal.  Alone by the river afterwards, he is arrested by a roving band of Imperial Army troops carting deserters from that Army off to jail, or worse, but is rescued by Stefan Ilonowick, a young Cossack who had deserted the Imperial Army when he found  out that his service to the Czar on the frontier in exchange for relative autonomy for  his village back home comes with a price of doing horrible things to undeserving people, most particularly Jews.  Stefan, whose attempt to fake his own death so he could go back home was reported by his own men to the authorities, not only liberates Vasili but one of the prisoners in the paddy wagon,  a fellow Cossack by the name of Yemelyan Pugachev.   It is not the first time that the low born, illiterate Pugachev has been in trouble with the Imperial Army, which he deserted, or Cossacks in his own home town, where he still has a wife and children who he has all but abandoned.   Vasili joins Stefan and Pugachev as on the run rebels trying to get a revolution started, Stefan being the one best at doing the fighting, Pugachev having the charisma to talk disgruntled civilians into joining the Cause.  Such often is done with tales of heroism which the heroic, thinking and kind Stefan, rather than he, performed.    To gain recruits, Pugachev tries to pass himself off as People's Czar Peter III, having escaped Czarina Catherine's executioners, emerging from hiding for the last ten years so at this very right time, he can depose her and take back the throne, for himself, and the people.  It's a story that seems to be bought by many of the uneducated, hungry and oppressed, but be it true or false, it seems to bring in more people for the revolution.  And it's a claim that Vasili supports very much in public to captive audiences.  

Word of the mounting revolt against the ruling class which is bringing in Cossacks, peasants, and disgruntled Tatars (Islamic Russians and other non-Christians) reaches estates of the rich, including that owned by Count Lazinski, who has a daughter, Svetlana, a beautiful daughter who he trying to marry off to a rich suitor so he can pay off the family debt and cheat his way back to the top of the economic heap again.  The highly-read, literarily-brilliant and but life-inexperienced Svetlana seeks to join the revolution, fighting for the Cause with a sword and a pen.   Her attempts to do so are twarted by not only the scared and dedicated-to-their-master servants who are assigned to look after her, but  (without her knowing such) Major Alexi Stralnikov, who made a pledge to Svetlana's father, an old military buddy, to see that his daughter remained safe, pampered and a servant of her caste rather than any democratic cause.

Stralnikov is highly accomplished, decorated. honor-driven and educated  middle aged Officer in the Imperial Army stuck in a loveless marriage to a killjoy wife who has trained his children to be as lifeless,  embittered and non-expressive  as she is.   When he is given the call to quench the rebel uprisings in the Cossack regions of the Empire, he welcomes the opportunity to get away from his wife.  Though not a supporter of Catherine's oppressive policies inflicted on the poor and lower classes, he believes that true democratization and equal distribution of wealth in his beloved Russia must come by working with the current system, and that letting illiterate, uneducated rebels have their way will lead to anarchy, destruction and regimes far more oppressive than instituted by ANY of the Czars.   Assigned with Alexi to take part in the Police Action is Michael Kosinko, an kindly, smart and crafty old veteran Sergeant who has been the Major's aid, confidant and mentor.   But the location for their assignment is Kazan, a mostly Tatar city in an uneventful region of the Russian Empire where there is no real fighting going on, making Stralnikov realize that the promotion to Colonel in this remote region is actually a demotion instituted by those in Moscow who want him out of the way and silenced regarding his intolerance for lack of vigilance and honor in the Army.   But once in Kazan, Stralnikov is ostracized by the men over and under him for his insistence on their taking defense of this city which is at a critical intersection of two trade rivers seriously.  He also takes seriously the task of keeping Countessa Sventlana out of trouble, which involved extracting her from a small group of Cossack rebels she joined.  He informed her that the unwashed, anti-industrial, pathologically-independent Cossacks were going to steal her jewels, money and  virginity, but Svetlana insists that it was Stralnikov kidnapped her.  Still, he and Kosinko do their best to keep the Countessa contained and entertained while in Kazan when her father is away on business. The rebellious, alluring and intellectually brilliant Countessa makes an attempt to ride her horse across the Volga back to the revolutionaries, but fails in this attempt to get away from her gilded cage as well.

The Revolution moves on the road, trying to enlarge its base.  Now a small army, the Revolutionaries arrive at the gates of an industrial Tatar city, prepared to offer freedom, food, money  and dignity to those who would join them, death to those who pass up on the offer.  They are greeted by one man, Mustafa Beloveg, Mayor and Employer of the manufacturing town as well as Iman for its Islamic Citizens.  A clever show of force by Mustafa's men once the surround the mostly Cossack and Serf Army with arrows against their guns indicates to Stefan, and Pugachev, that working with rather than over the Tatars will serve the Revolution, increasing the artillery arsenal of the rebels.

Fighting between the rebels and Imperials escalates not only in numbers but cruelty, on both sides.  Stefan does his best to be merciful to the enemy and the 'neutrals', as such could result in them joining the revolt, and such would lay down the groundwork for a humane Revolutionary regime after the revolt is over, but when Pugachev is around, Stefan has no choice but to follow the leader's often cruel orders and to quench and dissention within his own ranks.  Easing things up a bit is special duty Stefan is given as head of the 'decoy' brigade in which he poses as Pugachev so that bounty hunters and the Czarist Army remained confused as to where the real leader of the revolt is.   Such gives Stefan the opportunity to instill his own sense of Robin Hood democracy and justice.  Making things more interesting for the home-sick Cossack is the arrival of a runaway serf, Tatianna, whose features and essence remind him of his wife.  She is also highly skilled as a healer, inviting a wartime romance to begin to bloom.   He sets her up in a series of field hospitals in which all wounded and diseased are taken care of, thus giving the Revolution good PR and good karma.  

Back in Kazan, Michael Kosinko and Alexi Stalnikov (both of whom are on the outs with the Military rulers of the city) have been ordered to keep Svetlana locked up in a luxurious room with a chastity belt so she can be safely married off to a suitor of her father's choice, despite the fact that Svetlana continues to write Revolutionary books and has been secretly gathering info about the rebels outside the city so she can join and serve them.   Her writings have great persuative powers, particularly on Kosinko, who disguises himself as a Cossack and sneaks Svetlana out of the city pledging to bring defectors to the revolt with him very soon.   But it is a trick, Kosinko using the naive Countessa to find out where the elusive Pugachev is.  He and Alexi, with a special detachment of civilian-dressed Imperial troops, follow Svetlana to her rebel friends with the aim of kidnapping the rebel leader and ending the revolt for good.   But when the detachment of Imperials approaches the Fort in where the battle-inexperienced Countessa Svetlana has taken up arms, the  group of 'civilian Cossacks' approaching the fort to join the revolt are recognized as Imperial soldiers.   A flat out battle ensues, in which Sveltana is initially paralyzed with shock, noting that her most trusted 'Uncle Michael' Kosinko is leading the attack along with Alexi, who she was told by Kosinko had joined the rebellion because of her books and dedication to the Cause.   Svetlana's shock dissolves quickly as the battle ensues, becoming an effective, vicious and mad Warrior, who demands of the dead and dying Imperials that they tell her where Kosinko and Stralniko are.   Mustafa, one of the men who look after and admire Svetlana (particularly for being fearless enough to not believe in a God that takes care of you, as everyone else there does), is thankful for Svetlana's ability to turn the battle in the rebel's favor.   Father Vasili, who refuses to take up a weapon or shelter during the battle, says Mass for the living, and the dead, fears that  Svetlana's ability to kill men and not get a scratch on her is because she is possessed by the devil, particularly since Svetlana's battle cry is 'no master for anyone on earth or in heaven.'.   In the aftermath of the battle, some of the Imperials are spared by Stefan (none of them hung or tortured as was normal procedure), allowed to go back to their superiors with the news that Pugachev, who is in the other area of the fort taking care of the wounded, is a merciful and kind ruler.   The illusion about Pugachev and his real whereabouts thus remains intact.  

Time and many other battles between Stefan's rebels and whatever troops Alexi can muster take place over a cold and bitter winter, an into a muddy Spring which limits mobility but not bloodshed.   Alexi's luck as a military officer runs out when he is badly wounded, after which a weary Kosinko carts him off to one of the hospitals operated by Tatianna.  Tatianna recognized Alexi from a past she has kept secret from the rebels, pledging to save Alexi and keeping from her Cossack protectors the fact that he is a high ranking Imperial Officer.   Her past with Alexi involved the miserably married Officer falling in love with her at a local tavern for her brilliant mind (and body),  rescuing her from an abusive and powerful Aristocrat who owned her, then clandestinely putting her through medical school and setting her up in private practice under a new name.  As the revolution escalated, Alexi had asked her to infiltrate and spy on the rebels, which she did.  But after being with them, she has defected to their Cause.  After seeing what the Revolutionary Ideals were in the hospital that treated all according to need, irrespective of political affiliation, class or wealth, Alexi defects to the Revolutionary Cause as well.   But not Koskino, who is allowed to go home (her knowing he is an Imperial) with false information he will take back to his superiors.  But the crafty Kosinko has a plan.  While I benign captivity without chains or bars with the rebels, he finds out that Pugachev has a Cossack wife, Sofia, who is still at home with the Great Pretender's three children.  He rides to the village with the aim of kidnapping Sofia and her children, keeping her hostage in Kazan to (a) draw out the real Pugachev and (b) make demands for his beloved wife and children's release.  But upon finding Sofia, Kosinko sees that though Sofia is more against the revolution than most Imperials are, angry at her husband for being a fraud, deluded egotist, and now adulterer, as he is now engaged to marry a young Cossack woman he ran across in his exploits to make his 'Empress'.   She willingly allows herself to be kidnapped, Kosinko sneaking her into the gates of Kazan though a siege set up by Stefan's Army.

In Kazan, Stefan has set up a siege, banking on the citizenry seeing the futility of relying on the small detachment of Imperials there to protect them and having the good sense to join a Revolution (his version of it anyway) which is about human rights and equal distribution of wealth, as well as kindness.   But Mustafa, after sneaking into the mostly Tatar city to case it out, returns with bad news.  The 'captive' Sofia Pugachev is roaming the foodless marketplace along with the Christian Bishop has been telling everyone in town that Pugachev is not Enlightened Czar Peter III but her illiterate Cossack husband.   Stefan prepares to launch an attack on the city before it can be reinforced by the Imperial Armies roaming around the area, but is stopped, by Pugachev, who has received word of his wife and children being held hostage from Imperial Messengers and who sends men to arrest Stefan for his policies of being too soft on the enemy and promoting too much free speech amongst the rebels.   But aided by his faithful steed, Stefan makes a run for it, becoming a fugitive from his own people as well as being wanted by the Imperial Army.  Soon afterwards, Pugachev, with now an army of 20,000 storm the walls of the City, mercilessly killing any who will not support him and burning most everything in sight.  He liberates his wife, but does not claim her as her own, his escorts taking her away from Kazan to a location where she will remain quiet and complient with her deluded and adulterous hubby.  Seeing that there is a problem with the woman, and the way the Revolution is going, is Svetlana, who is wounded, and badly, for the first time in her illustrious military career.   

Exhausted from fleeing Cossack rebel pursuers, Stefan finally finds a secluded campground.  He wonders if he should go home to get his wife and family out of Russia, or remain on the lamb so they would not be hung for being related to a 'traitor' to the Revolution.  Then he considers finding Tatianna, who he loves more than his wife, and running away to Siberia with her.  His plans change when he is encountered by Alexi, also on the run from his people for defecting to the Revolution, who relates that he has rekindled and consummated a his relationship with Tatiana, who has eagerly reciprocated.  Stefan's love for Tatianna turns into hate when he finds out from Alexi that everything she had told Stefan about her background and political believes when initially joining the rebels was a lie.     

Meanwhile, Kosinko waits outside of the gates of the smoldering, blood drenched rebel held city of Kazan, greeting his contact, Imperial General Michaelson with insults and an ocean of anger.  Michaelson apologizes for not being able to bring more troops to save the city, and offers the ever loyal Seargent Kosinko a promotion to the rank of Major OR a free ride home as a civilian without repercussions.  The low born Kosinko decides to accept the promotion, and informs Michaelson about the layout of the now rebel defenses in Kazan, which he noted on his escape from there as a beggar.   Aided with Kosinko's knowledge about the weaponry and people defending the city, Michaelson leads the relatively small Imperial forces into Kazan.   During the first round of the battle, Father Vasili, who swore to God to never take a human life, even that of a Czarist, begins brutally killing then damning to hell any Imperial soldier who he can sneak a sabre, knife or axe into, until he himself is killed, by a stray rebel bullet, no one left to give Last Rights to him.  Svetlana acquires more wounds in the heat of battle.  After three bitter days of fighting, the rebels finally are defeated.  Pugachev escapes with 500 of his original 20,000 men army on horseback across the Volga.  Michaelson does not have enough horse to pursue.   Left behind, to be massacred with the other captured rebels, is still functioning Mustafa and badly wounded Svetlana.  Risking his own life, then eventually losing it in the process, Mustafa gets Svetlana across the Volga, along with the books about the Revolution she has written on paper and the ones in between her ears that she will put to print as a one legged writer.  

The revolt goes downhill, but despite Pugachev's diminishing army, he remains alive and destruction on both sides is massive.   Alexi and Stefan are captured, thrown into an Imperialism field prison, and offered an opportunity by now Major Kosinko to escape the noose or the firing squad.  In exchange for finding Pugachev and bringing him to Moscow for trial, the two former enemies in the field will be given not only pardons, but money to find new lives with loved ones somewhere far away from their beloved Homeland.  They accept the offer, knowing that the bloodshed has to stop, and trust that Empress Catherine's pledge to grant some concessions to serfs, Cossacks and Tatars will be honored.

Pugachev is captured, taken to Moscow, and hung in a public showing. The details about who brought him in and what the Revolution he initiated was really about would remain unrecorded and un-recordable,

WEATHER OR NOT
Novel.

Extended Logline:   Forest fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados, and blizzards reek unprecedented havoc on places that can least afford to endure them, economically and otherwise, but  this time Mother Nature nor a Creator angry with creation behind it. George Corman, expatriate NYC Cop who immigrated to the wilds of Interior British Columbia, suspects that it could all be man-made.   His hunches lead him to a Millenial genius misfit humanitarian/artist  (Tristan) who has the ability to build Tesla weather making machines, and more in his mobile lab cabin in the woods.  Each of Tristan's attempts to do good with his machinery and altruistic art leads to someone using them for destructive purposes.  Someone he is either protecting, or doesn't know.   George calls in his hot shot, 'been everywhere, done everything' lawyer father (Yannis) from the Big Crab Apple, threatening to reveal Yannis' dirty laundry to the authorities if he doesn't.   Enter Sophia Garcia, brilliant and beautiful undocumented immigrant on her way to becoming the top Meteriologist on the air in Canada, who has developed a unifying theory about climate which will enable anyone to deliver any climate anywhere at will.   Wendy, George's girlfriend, who wants and deserves to be more, is swept into a mix that turns families inside out, leaving no dark secret uncovered in which innocence and guilt become as clouded as a blue sky turned black by climatic disasters that have to be stopped before it is too late for everyone.    

FRENEMY ALLIANCE 1916
Screenplay and Novel
Logline:  Besieged by killer wolves with special skills and a taste for human flesh on the Eastern Front in WWI, culturally mismatched  Russian and German Captains, declare a truce to go after the common enemy.  They are helped in this endeavor by a deluded mountain man with multiple personalities, one of whom is Jesus.  While dealing with the head alpha wolf and his very well organized pack, the Captains discover things about themselves, and their 'trusted' men, that create conflicts of soul as well as flesh.  Based on very true story(s).

Story:  The Eastern Front in Belarus, winter, 1916.  German and Russian troops led by glory hungry, privileged officers have had enough of the war, but can't go home because they will be shot for desertion before they can get out of the back line, and if they do get home, will be turned in as deserters by spies who they considered comrades at the front.  The ecosystem has been destroyed for animals as well as people, most particularly an Alpha Wolf who has the responsibility to see that his pack survives the winter.  In a stroke of luck for the two legged intruders into said wolf's charred, lifeless domain, the two Majors on both sides die in a glorious assault, leaving in command two culturally and pyschologically mismatched Captains.   On the German side, the sincere but deluded Major is tossed out of his armored car, put out of his misery on the battlefield and sent to 'Valhalla' by a mercy killing by Captain Telemann, who orders a retreat back to safety for whoever is left.   The abusive, elitist Czar-serving Major leading the Russians into battle, from behind (who personally shoots deserters), is tossed off the only horse that has survived life in the trenches.   Captain Fedoroff, a 'dirty, ingrate, traitorous' Cossack, jumps on the horse, organizing a retreat for his men, from the FRONT, putting himself in harms way to give them cover, then sending the horse back to safety so 'we don't kill the rest of you'.  When the Major begs Fedoroff to put him out of his misery, Fedoroff puts a wounded enlisted man on his back, throws the Major a pistol and tells the officer to 'send himself to hell' instead of being sent to heaven by another man's hand.     

On the Russian side is Boris Fedoroff, highly independent 'stuck in the 19th century' romantic, non-conformist, anti-industrialist Cossack who hates the Czar and, despite his devout Christian faith, is devoted to a still-not established Communist Revolution promising democratic Socialism, and a non-hierarchical 'everyone gives according to their ability and takes according to their needs' ideal,  But he is honor bound to see that the men under his command all go home alive, even the those he suspects are working for the Czar's secret police.   Amongst the men Boris feels responsible for, in terms of their survival and political education, are Private Petitsia, a young, guilt-ridden Dukabor Pacifist who allowed himself to be drafted into the Army to become a man who has killed in order to not be killed (and to preserve the lives of his family back home).  Then there is Private Laski, a criminal who seems to enjoy killing, who tells his sadistic and self-effacing jokes to the ears and eyes on he necklace made from slain Germans.   Corporal Menovic is a mild mannered, hard working, and under-appreciated cook whose cuisine made from what is available is always mocked.   Sgt Petrovitch, whose uniform is always worn correctly and whose boots are always polished, takes notes on his dissenter 'comrades', claiming that when the slain Major's replacement comes back, they will be in big trouble with the authorities.

On the German side is Hans Telemman, a free market, pro-industrialist, Capitalist humanistic athiest who sincerely believes in the use of technology over passion to solve problems, competition as a way to make everyone stronger and that German culture if allowed to flourish will save the world from moral corruption.   Like Boris, his concern is for his men's welfare, a conviction which got him into hot water with his bosses a year earlier when he was part of an unauthorized Christmas truce with the Allies on the Western Front.  Under him is Private Bauer, wet behind the ears farm kid who just wants to go home, but believes he has to protect his family and community back home from the 'savage Ivan's' on the the other side no man's land.   Lt. Goldmann is a 'by the numbers' doctor with a big ego who does his best to keep the wounded alive, but is resentful when others do a better job at doing so than he does.   Sgt. Schneider has been through many wars before, and has miraculously survived them all, looking after the men over and under him like an old mother hen, despite the fact that if he was discovered as a Jew, he would lose prestige, rank and perhaps his life by Aryans in the ranks. 

In the aftermath of the battle in which both Majors are kills, Captain Fedoroff is visited in the Russian trench by Umalo, an old, hunchbacked, local lunatic mountain man who thinks he is Jesus.  Umalo's visit is welcomed by the wounded, as he treats them far more effectively than the Russian docs, using herbal medicines, insightful intuition and faith.  He also provides eatable and nutritious food for the men, angering Melovic.   After feeding and administering to the Russians, Umalo excuses himself to go assist the Germans.   Petistsia, Lanski and Petrovitch all point their guns at him, as it would give aid and comfort to the enemy but Fedoroff orders them to lower their weapons, which they reluctantly do.  On the German side of no man's land, Telemann's men are treated to top rate medicine for body and soul, which works far more effectively than anything Goldmann was able to provide, arousing the by the numbers physician's suspicions about who Umalo really is.  But Telemann has other things on his mind.  Due to better supply lines and technology on the German side, he is delivered a new shipment of weapons, including new, long range rifle that he play-aims at the Russian trench.  Sensing Telemann's brash 'high tech superior' weaponry, Fedoroff whips out his 18th century Cossack sword, daring him for a duel between German machinery and Cossack passion.  It's a stand off, though, that will await the next battle.

That next battle has Germans and Russians entrenched, waiting till nightfall.  Each side, not knowing what the other is doing, or enduring emotionally, gets attacked from behind.  The assailants are never seen, and unstoppable, by machine guns, grenades, or gas, and they leave behind mutilated bodies and defective limbs.  The next morning, Fedoroff assesses the wounded on his side, Bauer ascertaining the nature of the 'ghost soldiers' for his comrades.  The wilderness and farm raised men reveal to their men that their beloved comrades were killed not by soldiers but wolves, who make an appearance at dawn on the horizon, in numbers that excede that of their two legged foes.   Umalo visits both trenches, warning them of a special brand of wolves who will decimate not only the soldiers, but innocent civilians.  Fedoroff is the first one to take the next necessary step.  He proposes a truce to Telemann.  As such, they could combine resources and methodologies against a common enemy.

But, not all the soldiers under the Captains command agree with the truce in which Umalo becomes the main adviser to both sides.   They use human meat from slain solider as bait, as such is not only the meat left for bait, but that this pack likes human flesh in particular. The men under Fedoroff and Telemann;s command harbou fear and hatred fot soldiers on the other side.  After some tense and deadly confrontations in which the Captains antagonize their own men, for their own good, reason prevail.   While out trying to trap wolves, in groups of two (Russians with Germans, at Umalo's insistence) Fedoroff and Telemann hit on the realization that not all of the wolves are in on it.  They almost kill, the befriend a mother wolf with three white feet who is trying to feed her cubs. They spare 'Mama Three Socks', realizing that has to look out after her own family, as the soldiers are looking after their families at home as well.   The two Captains theorize that Umalo's theory that universal rather than selective compassion will be the only thing that will stop ALL of the killing is still unrealistic, but they yearn for it.   While going after the killer wolves related to Mama Three Socks.     

The wolves attack in full force.  Together, the Russians and Germans fend them off, not completely.  Making matters worse---Umalo gets wounded, having been bitten by the head alpha wolf, who is suspected of carrying rabies.  He goes into seizures, requiring him to be cared for in a proper hospital.   By 'coincidence', there is one close by.  An abandoned mental hospital in which skeletons of half eaten patients still linger, chained to tables and walls.  At the hospital, Goldmann is able to save the much needed mountain man mentor, assisted by Petitsia and Bauer, who believe that Umalo really is the second coming of Christ.  But more down to earth minds discover while rummaging through supplies papers which reveal that Umalo was a patient there, an accomplished animal behavior scientist with multi-personality disorders.  One of those  personalities materializes as he wakes up, then howls, calling in a wolf attack.  Banding together, the Germans and Russians fend off the attack, but Umalo, with a blank stare, walks out of the facility, unharmed by any wolves.  

The now banded together soldiers seek to use the techniques Umalo taught them to kill the 'demon' alpha wolf, and disable somehow his 'minions'.   Theories go back and forth between the alpha wolf being a devil who is leading the wolves (Fedoroff's theory), to a new form of rabies (Telemann's view) that makes sane wolves both hungry for human flesh and strong/.smart enough to get it.   Bauer and Petitsia, the most devout soldiers on both sides, both die at the hands of the 'demon' wolves.  Adding suspicions to this---Goldmann himself got bitten by a wolf, as did many of the wounded, making them potential 'zombies' if the cure for whatever was infecting the wolves is not found.  Umalo is presumed dead, but appears miraculously, with a plan.     Fedoroff and  Telemann set out to find and inactivate the alpha wolf, leaving their men behind to recover their wounds and kill whatever wolves come their way.   But Fedoroff and Telemann's attempts don't work, as the Alpha leads them to a bad snow storm.  In the aftermath of the storm, there is a massive attack from the wolves against the two Captains.  Schneider and Menovic come to the rescue with the few men they have left.  Wolves attack the combined forces of Russians and Germans, getting stronger as smarter, the latter involving stealing their ammo, bait, traps and medical supplies before they head off into the bush.  Fedoroff and Telemann spare Mama Three Socks, as she tries to prevent her cubs from stealing the goods from the men behind their backs,  The wolves are led in the attack by non other than Umalo as another personality, atop the horse Fedoroff saved.  Demon-Umalo is shot off the horse,  Alpha Wolf, who we now know had been given special injections by Umalo as part of his 'experiment' to test the morality of humans,  assesses the damage, heading for the hills with his pack, leaving his master seizing on the ground, then in a coma.    

Schneider and Menovic are reluctant to say what happened at the hospital and why they defied orders and left there, The always arrogant, tattle tale informant Petrovich is distant, and seems uncaring.  Driven to rage, Fedoroff grabs him by the collar to demand the truth, but it only sends Petrovich into deeper shell shock.,  Schneider, who finally confesses his identity as a Jew, revealed that their numbers at the hospital had been decimated not by wolves, but by men who have been bitten by the wolves and turned into vicious, destructive 'zombies' who had to be killed by their own kind.  Goldmann was one of those who had to be put down as he killed others.  To try to find solace, Schnieder starts to pray, in Hebrew, begging for forgiveness and salvation.  The Christian Germans and Russians join him in prayer.  The prayer awakens Umalo, first as Jesus who is pleased that the experiment to bring the soldiers together in Common Cause (a less selective compassion) .  But then Umalo wants to kill himself as punishment for the satanic personality in him, an effort which Fedoroff and Telemann stop by force and persuasion.  The next personality in Umalo is a Professor, who he was before all the conversions.  He has a plan---to take Fedoroff and Telemann ONLY to 'parle' with alpha wolf and for himself to 'become' the cure.  

Finally at a safe place where there are no other wolves around,  Umalo gives Fedoroff and Telemann a crash course in wolf talk, teaching them the vocabulary of the wild canines.  Most of it catches on, including colorful phrases shared with good humor.  But, it's back to work when the alpha wolf appears with his pack.  The plan is for Umalo to lure, with wolf talk, his rebellious ex-partner into a hole in the ground they have dug, where the wolf will be given an antidote, while his followers are told by Fedoroff and Telemann to go back to the woods and stop killing humans.  It starts to work, to the amazement of Fedoroff and Telemann.  Then a wrong phrase comes out of their mouths, so Umalo says, forcing Umala and Alpha, inside the pit, and out of sight from the Captains, to engage in a battle.  Converting again into Jesus, Umalo cries out to the sky 'Into your hands, I commend our spirits!'  A moment later, alpha wolf and deluded mountain man are silent,  Rushing up to see that is going on, with concern for both of them, are the Captains, and the wolves.  But their views are obstructed by massive wind that blows trees upon the trap, preventing entry from anyone.  Fedoroff and Telemann expect the worse, turn their guns on the wolves and expect to get eaten.  But Mama Three Socks takes over the pack, licking the men in freindship, the others following.

Fedoroff and Telemann, resolved now to never to to war against another human, or animal, joke with the wolves in their own tongue, then leave, knowing that the ordeal is over.  They arrive at a location near where their men were, and are greeted at an overlook by Schneider and Menovic, both wearing new uniforms, with higher ranks, and guns aimed at their heads, having informed the newly arriving Commanders that it was Fedoroff and Telemann who insituted the unapproved truce.    The two subordinates inform the Captains that they know the wolf danger is over, and that there are other agendas that have to be met.  The first one is to turn their former commanding officers in to the new Commanders of the German and Russian Armies that have arrived, with orders to resume the war.   Telemann demands to know why Schneider turned him in, and is told that it was because Jews who advance up th ranks can save other Jews better, both now, and in the next War to come.   When Fedoroff demands an explanation from the seemingly compliant and good-natured Menovic, he gets' 'I was just following orders given to me a long time ago'.   Fedoroff and Telemann prepare themselves to be shot for having the audacity to save their men from being slaughtered, but are rescued by Mama Three Socks and Alpha Wolf, who maul the traitorous subordinated Fedoroff and Telemann had trusted and cared about so much.   Umalo appears, on the horse Fedoroff had rescued and a second steed, and stops the slaughter.  He treats the wounds on the two men, and in the meantime, gives Fedoroff and Telemann each  a horse, requesting that they ride back to their home countries to tell the truth about how the experiment to teach men about universal vs selective compassion, and to be sure that the Revolutions about to happen in their home countries are in the SERVICE of humanity, internationally.

PORTHOLE
Novel, metaphysical character driven thriller.  Contains social satire and humanistic insights for ALL of the 'dimensions'.

Logline:  An underappreciated, pathologically-compassionate and rapidly aging Russian Neuroscientist (Professor Kinski) gets some unexpected help in building a porthole to a Higher Dimension and the Wisdom within it by an old before time American millienal publisher/producer  sent to do a movie on her Slavic relatives, a self-destructive Carnie Con man looking for a quick score, and an attractive, under-appreciated 60 years defiant KGB agent who aspires to more than what her male bosses  have in mind for her.   Something goes very wrong when what is on 'the other side' of the porthole prematurely comes into Kinski's new 'crew', and universe.

Story:
Professor Vladimir Kinksi spent his life doing the right, honorable and intelligent thing to the extent that he could as a neuroscientist who came to age during the height of the Cold War in the Soviet Union.   In 21st century Russia, the under-appreciated 70 year old researcher/professor is an anachronism, as he values kindness over competition, wisdom to cleverness and long term gains for humanity rather than short term glory now.  One of the areas of his research is in metaphysical physics and biology, involving transporting the mind, and soul, to higher realms of consciousness and enhanced psychic abilities which involve transport of matter, and people, to and from 'higher' dimensions.  Still, he is unable himself to make the journey to the more Enlightened universe(s) himself, or reliably send anyone else there to bring back the Creative Energy that will transform the 'real world', for the better.  Keeping the dedicated old teacher who is ridiculed by his younger colleagues and his students from falling into a pit of paralytic depression is his younger 'caretaker' Natasha, who seeks to be much more.    

Entering into Kinski's lab, and life, come several people to assist Prof Vlad in his Mission, or to transform it into their own.  The first one is Anna Fedoroff, a still-hot looking middle aged woman who, by 'coincidence' looks like the gypsy musician Vladimir fell in love with as a young man, before he put fences around his imagination to become a research scientist.  Anna comes into the under-appreciated Professor's lab as an eager mature student and fan who wants to resume the career in science she gave up to have a family, but in reality she is a hard working, under-appreciated middle level Old Guard KGB operative who seeks to acquire Kinski's psychic and trans-dimensional transport technology so she can rise up the ranks, and eventually become the bosses of her very male bosses.   After getting Kinski excited about taking her on as a student, she makes him fall in love with her, pushing Natasha out of the lab, as well as Vladimir's life.  But Anna's knowledge of science and her ability to become Vladimir's muse escalates the research to a point where transport of people to as well as energy from the 'Higher Dimension' is possible. The site for doing such is moved to Vladimir's 'wilderness lab', an isolated cabin far from the university.

Entering the picture, again by 'accident', is Rhonda Petrovitch, an old before her time American millenial who is a book publisher and film producer, yet seeks to be a creative writer and movie director.   Rhonda has written biographies about her heroic, artistic, mystical and revolutionary Slavic relatives, but writing about expansive people is all she has done with her life.   She is hired by execs on top to administrate, but not direct, write or act in, a dramatic film about her family.  One of her distant relatives is none other than Professor Kinski, whose work she winds up discovering while doing research about her family and mystical revolutionaries.    Rhonda has also published/edited 'Revolutionary Blues', a fictional book by an obscure author whose Faustian Western involves the hero going the Yaqui Spirit world, doing battle with the devil incarnate in that 'dream' state, and by doing so, changes the course of the Yaqui Indian revolt back in his 'home' universe.  Her suitcases containing the script, Kinski's obscure research papers, and the book are pilfered at the Moscow airport by Boris Dmitrovitch, a down and out, self-sabotaging Carnie Con man who is bad at his craft.   The only thing, aside from going broke, that Boris is good at is building high tech machines on no budget, most notably hologram machines that he uses in his Carnie shows, which is an essential ingredient of Kinski's porthole technology to take people, and other things from one dimension to another.  Or one planet to another, perhaps.   In any case, the charismatic Boris teams up with the reclusive Rhonda and somehow find their way to Kinski's wilderness hideout, offering their services to him and his Vision, or so he thinks.

Despite her hard edge, and yearning for power (rather than wisdom) obtainable by using Kinski's porthole, Anna falls in love with her Mark, and tries to defend Vladimir from his enemies, which in her mind include the sleazy ace mechanic Boris and the cowardly artist-wannabe very American Rhonda.   Without realizing it, the over-experienced Anna dares the under-experienced publisher/producer to taste rather than merely smell being made for a special meal to be shared by everyone as the porthole is being prepared.   Rhonda steps over the line, eating the stew before it has all of the ingredients added to it, and finds herself on a very surreal acid trip, which involves her bonding with, and talking to, Bolshoy Beter (Big Wind), the Professor's favorite horse.   Rhonda takes a ride on the horse, and feels like her heroic Cossack ancestors, then feels herself becoming them, most particularly when the horse takes her through the porthole without Vlad's knowledge or permission.   After battling real adversaries on her terms, as the heroine she has never been, Rhonda returns to the 'real' side of the porthole, as a pyschic who can read minds, particularly Anna's.   And as well, with superpowers and brilliant insights as a composer, writer and film director.  Her enhanced abilities as an artist and mind reader come with  personality that is not kind to 'lower' beings such as Anna (who seeks the power on the other side of the line), Boris (who seeks financial gain from the porthole and associated hologram technology)  and even Vlad. Disturbed at what Rhonda has become because she crossed the porthole without adequate preparation and protection, and the special power a sword from the other side has conferred to her, he isolates himself from the others, developing a mean temper.  

Making matters more complicated is a package from shunted aside Natasha addressed to 'Professor Kinski et al', containing Anna's favorite desert, which is spiked with hemlock.  Anna discovers the package before Vladmir does, and invents an excuse to visit her dying aunt.   Anna has Natasha arrested, discovering that she knows more about the technology than Kinski does, but does not say why she wants it shut down, revealing her American roots.  Still loyal to the Soviet system and Russia, Anna has Natasha disposed of, via suicide.  But when Vlad gets news about Natasha's demise gets to Vlad, he bashed through the porthole to the other side, searching for Natasha or the Wisdom to deal with her death.  Left on the 'lower earthling' side of the porthole is Rhonda, Boris and Anna.

A very creative but also very self-centered  'super' Rhonda (possessed by something from the other side) re-writes the movie her bosses says she should just produce, using holograms as actors.  Said holograms become occupied by energies and/or beings from the other side of the porthole.   Boris find himself falling in love with the 'newfound genius' who now uses, and often abuses, him.  Anna, who is shit on in all ways possible by Rhonda, finds evidence that she has plans to dispose of Boris, and presents it to the love-sick Con man.   He and Anna decide to form an alliance, but on Anna's terms, some of which involve Anna being taken to the other side of the porthole with Boris' help, so she can retreive the still absent Vladimir.

When Anna  reaches the other side, she finds Vladimir as she never knew him.  He is happy, not all interested in science, or what is happening on the 'earthling' side of the porthole.  In THIS universe, he is a talented and appreciated musician who enjoys playing for, and with, Julia, the artistic gypsy muse he let get away when he was a free spirited young man.   Indeed, in this universe, there are creative souls who are happy, carefree and brilliant.  But, they do not have to struggle, having everything they need except challenge.  Greeting Anna upon her arrival in the Realm of Light where nothing creative really grows, or gets exported to where it is needed, is none other than Natasha, who is an extra-terrestrial who has been charged for the last several hundred years with keeping the porthole open just enough to help humanity but not enough to dis-empower by making things on 'earth' too easy.   But, with the accidental opening of the porthole by Rhonda, the wrong kind of energy and beings have access to the 'lower earth' dimension, as indicated by newspapers from the future which report massive political, climatic and biological disasters.  And Rhonda is a channel for such ultimately destructive changes.  The women who fought for Vladimir's love, and technology, form an alliance, deciding to go back to the other side of the porthole and set things right.   By 'chance' , the newspaper articles describing what is and will happen on Vladimir's place of birth fall into his eyes, but Julia tries to keep him on the happy side of the porthole.  Valuing his Soul rather than happiness, or hers, Vladimir goes back to the 'earth universe' where life is hard, his efforts are under-appreciated, but they will have beneficial effects on both universes (as well as the others).   

Once Vladimir goes back, he is instantly made prisoner by Rhonda, as he watches the movie she has set in motion that is a mechanism to transmit destructive creatures and energy into 'lower earth'.  Ho observes possessed holograms do dastartly things, including a hologram of himself as an SS Officer, shaving the head of Jewish prisoners in preparation to mutilate them in other ways.  Two of the women are Anna and Natasha.  Risking life and limb, while he still has them, Vladimir breaks away from his chains and is about to be de-atomized by the monsters inhabiting Rhonda's soul when, out of the blue, Boris knocks her out.   Rhonda's holograms disappear, the souls inhabiting them turning back into themselves.   But Rhonda is about to dream something else, and whatever she dreams materializes in form.

Before Rhonda dreams more nightmares that will become real, Vladimir and Boris rush her to his lab at the university, accompanied by a still-hair-bearing Natasha, and a for real head-shaved Anna.    Despite the Professor's technology, Rhonda is about to become a conduit for the wrong entities to come through the porthole, as well as maybe some right ones.  But there is one way to ensure that the demons stay on the other side of the door, and the good stuff can still filter in, as it has been doing for centuries.  Boris has to go into Rhonda's head, and stay there, to confront the demons and keep them out, till she is free of them.  No one knows how long Boris will have to remain in the 'Huya Aniya (Yaqui Spirit world) to keep both universes from destroying each other, and he becomes an unsung hero for an indefinite time.

Time passes, and Anna's beloved hair grows back, very slowly. She is asked by her KGB boss, and former lover, to report what she did with Kinski, and the goods on the technology that will make the Old Guard Russians the most powerful players in the world game.  She gives him a novel and screenplay in which the humanistic aspects of Vladimir's work are highlighted, but without the technology.  She offers the technology only after the world learns when and how to use it for communal good, not individual power or profit.     

GARDEN OF NEED EM

Novel.  Futuristic sci-fi thriller with social satire.  

Extended Logline:  In a futuristic spiritually-sterile, artistically-dead, high-tech and pathologically gender neutral earth that is rapidly moving from stress-less to globally destructive , two mismatched scientists are clandestinely assigned by their boss a special Mission. To create a new ‘Adam and Eve’ to spawn a new race of humans with vitality and intelligence. Such involves somehow teaching  two unwilling and uncaring candidates about the ancient, primitive and often destructive phenomenon called ‘love’ which current research says is the elusive secret ingredient during the time of conception and beyond that will save humanity from itself, and its new Big Boss, whose secret past and agenda is at the core of it all.

Story:  In a Futuristic, pathologically gender neutral, spiritually sterilize, artistically-dead earth, where, officially, stress is outlawed and pharmacologically eliminated, to a great extent by Complax, a required drug for all citizens that confers happiness and relieves stress, as well as challenge and individual thinking.  The realm overseen by the never seen but always present Professor Lord Professor Heway, the discoverer of Complax who has a very long history of keeping the primitive animalistic human race in its place, for its own good.  But problems emerge, the most recent generation being emotionally uncaring and, of late, destructive to the International Collective that has replaced nations, and regional culture.  A scientist still working for Heway (hybrid but mostly male Terry Patel) is charged with creating a new Adam and Eve who can spawn caring and intelligent offspring as a seed for a better race.  But the candidates whose genetic codes say ‘top rate intelligent’ are less than perfect in other ways. 

Overly comfortable Taylor, who represents most of the population, is a half male, half female hybrid who, due to’ accidental’ lapses in his legally prescribed and required stress-reliever medication, develops a life-threatening condition requiring the gender-neutral apprentice publishing editor with the best intelligence ratio genes to become a hyper-male.  He is unwillingly teamed up with Shelly, an embittered, love-less, mentally unbalanced hyper-female who has enormous breeding potential, but whose intelligence ratio genetics are top rate.  ‘Love’ is postulated as the missing ingredient in male and females who create children. But how to create love at the time of conception and beyond?  Patel, who grew up in the Himalayan foothills before most of them became under Heway’s benevolent high tech anti-nature domain and has become part of that system more than he wanted to, is perplexed as to how to teach the humorless/spiritually sterile Shelly and Taylor (who are now free from Complax and its withdrawl) about love, and vitality.  He enlists the help of Yoyo, his hermaphrodites sibling, who left a career as an top level scientist at an early age, and is now living out in the ‘contaminated arborized maze’ (the dirt and non-sterile ‘woodlands’), where he/she is living as a Hijra.  Yoyo takes on the role of male or female to minister to mutants, outcasts and other human’outliers’ when she is not looking after and being looked after by ‘wild creatures of unknown origin or purpose’ (dogs, cats, horses, cows and wildlife in general).

Under Yoyo’s mentorship, the most recent Adam and Eve are kept in the dark as to what happened to the horrible fates previous candidates for those highly prized position encountered at the hands of Heway, and themselves if awakened to their inner humanity/vitality/sexuality too fast.   Yet, with the help of her ‘still establishment’ old fart sibling, ‘Terr’ (who finds himself embracing rather than repressing the masculine side of himself as Yoyo increasingly uses and merges with her female side), the Patels teach, sometimes by direct instruction and sometimes by clever deception, Taylor and Shelly to become Alive, loving and even comedic lovers who are about to create intelligent, loving and precocious children.  Children who promise to be more intelligent, Alive, and caring than their parents, ‘grandparents’, or their absent and not checked in with anymore superiors.  

But problems emerge.  Heway fears that the experiment is getting out of hand, or rather out of ‘His’ hands, and local wars are breaking out all over the planet, threatening the very existence of the International Collective he has established and controls from behind a very well-hidden curtain.  The Chief of chiefs, who we initially think is Jahovah or the Devil (Yaweh, his name spelt backwards) or perhaps an ET mascarading as such, captures Yoyo and  demands to know where this most promising ‘Adam and Eve’ are.  She tells him nothing, despite being tortured.  She escapes the Almighty Chief, somehow.

Yoyo finds her way back to her brother Terry, Taylor and Shelly.  The time for delivery of the child who will be the model of a new humanity is coming, very soon.  They go to an Outlier clinic in the “Marginal” zones, where twins are born, named Pierva and Piervus (‘First’ in Russian).  But the dual birth ‘nativity’ celebration is short lived, as the babies emit a sound never heard in any nursery in the PM (Post Microsoft) age---laughter.  Rebel protector Terry Patel, his still shaken up sister, Taylor and Shelly, head off to the hinterlands to raise the twins in safety, and the wonderments of the ‘contaminated, toxic and inhabitable’ zones otherwise known in previous times as natural wilderness.   

Time passes, during which the twins become brilliant, caring and very precocious.  And in ways un-expected.  Piervus, born with all male parts, is the nerd and geek who lives between his ears with a highly developed often linear IQ, while his sister Pierva is a skilled painter with an intuitive I that is through the roof, who connects to the rugged woods far more than her scholarly brother.  Taylor becomes the emotional, ‘fun’ and artistic parent while Shelly is the linear, often responsible ‘caretaker’ of the new nuclear family.  A hamlet, town then small ‘nation’ forms around ‘President’ Taylor, “Mayor’ Shelly, Professor Emeritus Terry Patel, and ‘Granny’ Yoyo, comprising of fellow outliers, mutants (who have been cast out of the Centralized regions) and deserters from Armies that have begun the practice of international/regional war again.  The real head of ‘Chisn’ (‘Life’ in Russian) is Terry, who worries about everybody, most particularly Yoyo, who is becoming more despondent by the day, for reasons she does not talk about to anyone, not even her animals anymore.  Of primary concern is to keep Chisn available to all refugees who seek the Vitality and Truth it represents. 

Heway gets wind of what is happening in Chisn, but means we are not told about, and enlists the help of an attractive mutant secretary, Atti, whose only deformities are the well hidden lobotomy scars under the bangs that flow down to her alluring eyes.  Lobotomy scars that Heway inflicted on her when she disobeyed him one too many times while working under him in the research lab as an accomplished scientist.  And before that, as a second in Command a Mission to colonize and if possible civilize the Mediterranean region of earth, when she was known as Athena and he was known to his human subjects, and wards, as Zeus.  With adjustment of the implant he had put into his former assistant, comrade in arms and lover, Heway sends Atti to Chisn as a plant, to report back to him what is really happening there.  And to be sure that whatever is happening, is still in keeping with his ultimate ‘breeding’ plan for the planet, a plan he has still kept very much to himself.

Upon arrival at Chisn as a tortured escapee from the Asian Research and Containment Facility, Atti convinces everyone, even the highly cynical Terry Patel, that she is the real deal.  In no time, she befriends and becomes useful to everyone in Chisn.  She rapidly becomes beloved ‘Aunt Atti’ to Piervus and Pierva, a role that becomes even stronger when emotional problems emerge between Shelly and Taylor.  Such are amplified by both Taylor and Shelly falling in love, then lust, with the new arrival.  Such sets up an environment where the mandate for Shelly and Taylor to have more kids (so that the human gene pool is enriched with more super geniuses with big hearts) is severely handicapped, as love IS found as the missing ingredient that is required at the time of coitus to produce the better breed of children, or in Shelly’s and Taylor’s case, ANY children.

With her brother away on business gathering intel and supplies for the emerging and, hopefully, still secret community, Yoyo becomes even more despondent.  On a night when Taylor schleps up to her isolated hut to bring her firewood and other supplies from grateful villagers who she has helped, but refused any friendship from, Taylor finds a distraught Atti reading a suicide note written by Yoyo, bidding farewell to the world and telling no one where she took a big jump down a large cliff.  The search for said cliff is pointless for Taylor to undertake, as snow has covered every track available.  Instead, he and Atti find themselves relieving their grief by consummating their love for each other. 

A bit more time goes by, Shelly and Taylor having very intimate relations with Atti, but in different ways, and different times.  Whatever love existed between the transformed Adam and Eve is not lost, their hatred and indifference for each other kept between their ears as they are needed to minister to, take care of, and mentor the fellow citizens of Chisn. are not as evolved as they are pharmacologically, biologically and intellectually.  And there is the matter of Piervus and Pierva, who are still kept in the dark about why Mom and Dad don’t care about each other enough to even argue, and why Aunt Atti is more of a father and mother to them now than Dad or Mom.

Tell returns from a successful mission to the Centralized Zones, but notes problems between Shelly and Taylor.  But before dealing with that, he is informed about Yoyo’s demise, and is shown the suicide note.  He is not convinced that it is real, as the handwriting is not Yoyo’s.  Putting 2 and 3 together and getting and disturbing 4, he surmises that Atti was the one who wrote the note.  And notes that he ‘accidently’ saw Atti in the steep Northern woods on his return when she was supposed to be in the Western Valley on a picnic with the rest of the kids from Chisn.  And that the two kids with Atti may be Pierva and Peivus, who Shelly and Taylor had not seen all day.
The trio, united in search of the missing kids, and the perhaps not so benevolent ‘Auntie Atti’ set out to find them.

In the Northern woods, Atti leads Pievus and Pierva up a special mountain trail for a special lesson that only they, because of their advanced development, will be able to understand and benefit from.  But the kids suspect that something is up, particularly when they intuit, then confirm, that Atti is pregnant.  But Atti continues to move the kids forward up towards Heway’s Himilayan foothill facility, keeping the kids in the dark about who the father of her unborn child is.  She also feels free from many of the programmed thoughts and sensors that Heway put into the implant that is still in her head.  A device that she learned to inactivate and give false signals.  She is developing a new agenda in her mind.  An agenda other than her being the ET carrier of a half earthling child who will be brought up by and for Heway.  

Time passes, and Atti gains entry into Heway’s facility.  Yoyo is a captive there, having been brought in by Atti.  But her fellow prisoner is none other than Heway himself, who Atti has overcome as she takes over his position as Chief of Earth operations.  Both are shown but the power-obsessed Athena (Atti) a screen of a room where Pierva and Piervus are sleeping now, in suspended animation .  Meanwhile, Atti’s baby is now out of the womb and growing at accelerated rates.  Her plan---To have HER child mate mature fast, then mate with Pierva and Piervus to produce babies that are a hybrid between her ET DNA and Taylor’s, the latter being the best available on earth.  Such would replace the random and uncontrollable mating of Pierva and Piervus with fellow earthlings, creating yet another race of humans who not only weren’t gods, but who would grow into insolent creatures who didn’t worship them.  Yoyo asks if the acceleration of Atti’s child’s biology comes with development of the soul, or even if there is a soul in the lump of lifeless yet animated flesh, but such falls on deaf ears.   Heway warns Atti that being free of him is worth seeking, but being free to BE him is the most confining prison imaginable.  Still, Atti dreams of being Goddess of the Goddesses to planet earth, and the most beautiful babe at the ball for anything bearing a penis.
  
The once Mighty Heway finds himself in common cause with mortals, most immediately Yoyo, who still has remnants of an implant Heway had put into her head prior to her escape.  An implant that was still powerful enough to be used to locate where Chisn was. Meanwhile, Taylor, Shelly and Terry are on their way to the facility, walking into a trap that Atti set for their capture.  Knowing that is such happens, hope for earth as well as his own planet is lost, Heway, who is dying now due to Atti’s denying him regenerative juice required of very old souls.  Meanwhile, Atti, with her renewed beauty as Athena, is pre-occupied by having phone sex with controllers back at her own home planet.  While such is going on, a rapidly dying Heway, taking on his old role of Thor, offers Yoyo the last thunderbolts his deteriorating ET and human body can produce.  With such, he burns a hole into the restrains holding Yoyo captive, and a hole next to her through which she can liberate Pierva/Piervus and do whatever she has to with/for Atti’s ‘love’ child, then make a getaway with the last batch of magic still left in his control.  One such magic is the ability to pull out her implant, which if she does, will enable her to get done what has to be done, but at far more of a cost than any mutant experienced under his care, or the post-traumatic stress she felt after her escape.  
Not knowing what is involved with the deal, but having no other choice, Yoyo makes her getaway.

Outside the facility, Shelly and Taylor, being more mobile and impetuous than the aging Terry Patel, fall into a electric field trap that puts them into slow motion, then onto quicksand about to pull them underground into their own private cells.  Terry tries to pull them out, but neither science, nor raw strength, nor prayer seems to work.   Coming to the rescue, Pierva and Piervus, now technologically smart and strong 12 year olds thanks to being selectively accelerated by Yoyo’s use of Heway’s machinery.  As for Atti’s child, Yoyo was able to regress the adolescent back into a baby, but one who requires a lot of unlearning and reteaching.  To defend those who would do such, Taylor, Shelly and her brother Terry, Yoyo, who has been given the last of Heway’s magic is transformed from a hunchbacked old woman into a spry, strong and brilliant warrior princess.  As such, she shoots at and inactivates a large portion of the troops sent to retrieve Shelly, Taylor and Terry.  Terry, renewed in spirit such that his naturally aging body regains strength, inactivates more troops.  They retreat, for the moment, but are about to regroup en mass, no doubt at Atti’s orders from inside the mountain compound.  With the aid of a wooden chip with Viking Rhunes on in it, Yoyo, whose body is now aging at super rapid rates, points her finger toward the cliffs above the facility, emitting a bolt of lightning that buries the facility, and silences Atti.  For now anyway.  Using a radio transmitter that Taylor notes looks a lot like the Arc of the Covenant, and a code book she found during her escape, she relates a message in ET to the troops telling them to retreat, and hold their position until they hear otherwise directly from her.  Pierva and Piervus translate the message for their impressed but also alarmed earth parents.  As for what to do with Atti and Taylor’s child, Yoyo assured them that the new humanity could gain something with some fresh blood in it, and that Taylor and Shelly’s love can overcome any viciousness in Atti’s genes within the infant.  With that, Yoyo ages so rapidly that her skin shrivels into flakes, the skeleton underneath falling apart, then becoming dust that blows away in the wind.  A wind blowing Southward, which the newly-empoweredTerry says is Yoyo saying where they should go next.  With that, he heads North, alone, but not lonely.  

Shelly and Taylor, the new caretakers for the new humanity, head South with Piervus and Pierva, as well as Atti and Taylor’s as yet unnamed child.  A child who Shelly falls in love with, for now anyway.

PURIFIKATION
Novel.

Logline: Like virtually every other POW holding facility in North America, the German soldiers in Camp 359. buried deep in the Louisiana Bayou are given clothes, food, shelter, recreational activity and a healthy helping of Democracy which is designed to de-Nazify them.  So it appears in the press and to the brass anyway, though the reality of life there is far different due the wheelings and dealings of US Army Commandant Major Horatio Smith.  The former Police Chief of the Parish and local Kingpin abuses, sells, kills, steals from and extorts whatever he can from the German POWs just as he does to any Colored soldier or civilian who is unfortunate to be under his command, or within the boundaries of his kingdom. Attempting to see that the German POWs, most of whom were drafted and are NOT Nazis, are treated humanely, and that upidy Colored souls in Lord Horatio’s domain are spared lynching, is Major Wilhelm Whitaker, a brilliant and compassionate German Army Doctor who, despite wearing a German uniform, is as anti-Nazi as one can be.  Whitaker has a secret past which fuels his dedication to saving humanity wherever he can.   But if found out, it could severely limit his ability to help anyone in need, as well as allow the demons lingering inside of him to take him over.  By ‘coincidence’, Wilhelm’s half brother, a brutal, clever and brilliantly manipulative SS Officer, gets sent to the Camp, setting into motion a chain of events that not only threatens Whitaker’s attempts to save as many lives as he can, but could unleash a rein of Fascist terror that would destroy the very fabric of American Democratic life, even if the US forces in Europe win the War.

Story:
August, 1945.  As WWII officially ends, there is a public hanging for crimes against humanity on the parade grounds of a German POW Camp deep in the Louisiana Bayou where prisoners are about to be released.  The condemned man is at the Core of untold cruelty, only a single witness in the back of the crowd fully aware of what he did and why.

Flash back to 1943.  Doctor Major Wilhelm Whitaker, the ranking German officer amongst the prisoners, is having yet another face off with American Commandant Horatio Smith.  This time, it’s over why the German prisoners got meat in their stew for the first time in weeks, and who stole it from Smith’s private stash.  Unlike most Commanders of German POW Camps in the US, Smith starves, abuses, farms out, and extorts money from German prisoners, as well as ‘Coloreds’ in uniform and civilians, making whoever discovers his black marketeering disappear  in the swamp, or worse.  As a brilliant and very anti-Nazi doctor, Whitaker does his best to protect his men and as well as Americans from the racist KKK Wizard and regional womanizing Kingpin. But such efforts are unnoticed by the world outside the Camp, as well as the presently arriving International Red Cross Inspector.  The ‘above all do no harm’ Doc Whitaker has no choice but to do what he can for the helpless, as going public would invoke harmful reprisals.  

Meanwhile, there are some Colored soldiers under Smith’s command who make their own stands against Smith and his cronies.  Private Leroy Robinson fakes being a mathematically-declined ‘field Nigger’ who is easily stealable from at a late night poker game with two racist American soldiers and an Aryan German Lieutenant.  With some slight of hand, and the ability to count cards in his head, he winds up winning most every pot from the his smug White ‘betters’, thanks to ‘lady luck’.  

Though a vicious racist, and ruthless competitor in the black market, Smith is generous to his own kind, particularly the White patients at a local hospital run by Nurse Sally Jane Jackson, an ex-beauty queen who has lost virtually all of her external attractiveness but still yearns for romance.  “Santa Smith” delivers gifts to the kids at the hospital, a special dress to Nurse Sally, and the services of Whitaker as a Doc to her facility, as the aging/demented Doctor in charge of the hospital is killing and harming more patients than he is helping.  Whitaker, who is introduced as a Swiss Jewish Doctor, ‘John Rabinowitz’, performs medical miracles in the facility.  He refuses all pay, even the tips that the rich patients give him that would not wind up in Smith’s pocket, deferring the money to Sally’s personal hospital fund.  He quickly gains Sally’s professional respect, personal trust and, without the still handsome German Doc intending to do so, affection as a potential lover. 

At the end of a long day, Sally seeks Whitaker’s help in a more confidential endeavor.  She takes him to a very private hospital buried in the woods, a converted barn where all the patients are impoverished and Colored, supplied to a great extent by Sally stealing medications from the White hospital. The Black Doc who normally takes care of the Colored patients has been lynched for helping his fellow Negroes and standing up for them in town, and for the crime of ‘perpetuating a race that should be allowed to die out’. Whitaker does miracle medicine yet again, and at the end of the shift encounters a special patient.  ‘Olivia’ is a victim of domestic abuse by her husband, who thinks that she deserved the beating, and who is White.  Whitaker takes on treating her, but Olivia insists that he not give her any pain relieving anesthetics, as they are in short supply, and she is deserving of the pain.  Many of the Black patients agree with the latter.  But Olivia does want one thing from Whitaker to make the treatment work---his romantic affection, which he gives her, in front of numerous witnesses.

In an interview between Smith and a new arrival to the Camp, we find out that Olivia is Smith’s wife, who was converted to Socialist and Civil Rights ideals by rabble-rousers from the North, and who does not know how to keep her mouth shut regarding Smith’s private businesses.  The prisoner delivered to Smith’s charge, for reasons he does not quite understand, is none other than Whitaker’s half brother, Captain Schneider.  Unlike Whitaker, Schneider is hard core SS, a racist, and a highly manipulative wheeler-dealer who instead of opposing Smith’s illegal and immoral money making endeavors, may be a useful partner in expanding them.  An alliance is forged, both men seeing getting rid of Whitaker as their first order of business.
  
A few days later, Robinson is sent on a Santa delivery run by Smith, to the Colored hospital in the woods.  It’s a rare honor not only for the Black private but for the Negro patients.   When Robinson get there, all of the patients and staff are dead, most of them poisoned by medications and gas.  Above the burnt hospital is writing in German, saying that such was necessary to cull the humanity of inferior beings, in Whitaker’ hand writing. Hanging on a tree, after being raped, is the body of Olivia, a hammer and sickle and star of David carved on her forehead.  

Whitaker is swiftly convicted of the crimes and, most painfully, discredited to his men, who now think he is a murderous Nazi.  Such leaves Schneider in charge of the German POWs. Knowing that he has a sorted past as a  scientist who, indirectly or perhaps directly, in Germany before the War, made the Third Reich’s power possible, the good Doctor accepts his fate, but is then given a second chance.  Sally, sensing but not being able to prove that he was framed or the murders at the hospital, helps him escape. 

In Whitaker’s absence, Nazi ‘captive’ Schneider and KKK Wizard Smith have formed a partnership, viciously stealing what they can for themselves and their White cronies at the expense of everyone else, particularly Jews, and Blacks, still convincing the press know that the Americanization of German soldiers is going very well at the Camp.  In the White House, Eleanor Roosevelt, unrelenting champion of civil rights for Negroes, women and the poor, and the real brains behind her ailing husband’s Administration, wants to personally inspect the Camps that have taken on her deNazification program.  But she is still under the ‘protection’ of three men, Chief Secret Service Agent Iakoka, Southern bigot General McGilvrey and liberal Minnesota Senator Olsen who try to convince her to believe the reports from the POW Camps rather than taking the risk of going there herself.

One of the most Wanted men in America, Whitaker seeks to find refuge in Mexico, historically a country that seeks revenge on the US for stealing its land over two centuries.  From there, he perhaps will get a boat back to Europe to make right what he did wrong there, even it if was intended to stop the spread of Communism.  But when Whitaker arrives South of the Rio Grande, he finds out that the Mexican government is actively supporting the American War effort.  Faking an identity as a common Gringo criminal, Whitaker lands a job as a laborer, where he sees one too many abuses on Mexican laborers by American Industrialists.  After coming to the rescue of a woman about to lose her leg, and her life, and revealing his advanced medical skills, Whitaker is arrested, about to be hung or sent back to the US for worse.  He is retrieved from jail by ‘Gold Shirts’, Mexican Nazis working with an underground network of powerful KKK members and German agents.  They know his identity and what he did in the Fatherland as one of the most brilliant scientists there.  Whitaker can no longer hide his identity as a man who developed drugs to convert shell shocked soldiers suffering from catatonic Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome into functional men, and medications that would enable patients with debilitating diseases to access ‘magic powers’ inside themselves to empower them to ‘self heal’.  In effect, Whitaker’s advances in brain chemistry can turn cowards into heroes.  Such allowed lesser scientists to turn honorable heroes into conscience-lacking supermen who could withstand sleep debt, hunger and extremes in climate.  Another agent in Whitaker’s catalog of drugs is ‘Wotan 5’. It is a wondrous truth serum that loosens the tongue of any tight lipped discrete politician so that he/she reveals his/her agendas and plans (thus dis-abling them from going into effect) followed by a period of extreme depression, and, theoretically anyway, a manic episode afterwards in which the victim kills him/herself, after (ideally) killing those closest to him/her.  The plan is to give Eleanor Roosevelt the drug during a visit to Smith’s German POW Camp, turning her into a babbling idiot in front of the press then a suicidal lunatic, thus discrediting her liberal and humanistic Causes so that Aryan Fascist values can be re-instilled into American life, no matter who wins the War.  

Whitaker decides to provisionally join the elite group of International Nazis, to foil their plot and exposed who really is the real people on top.  The sense of urgency to do this comes when Whitaker finds out that Wotan 5 was tested on Private Robinson, who obtained it while at a poker game in the Camp where the Black Private was tricked into thinking that ‘lady luck’ delivered him a pile of loot, jewelry and high performance empowering drugs.  The author of the report was none other than Schneider, who speaks of the murdered and dissected civil rights activist as an expendable lab rat. 

Meanwhile, Smith takes his partner Schneider to a strip bar, trying to unloosen his tongue with women and booze so that the American KKK Wizard gets the goods on the SS officer who let himself get captured.  But it is Schneider who is now in control of Smith, reminding him of such, and informing the American Commandant that it was he who murdered his own wife in the heat of passion, and is easily framable for the butchering of the Coloreds in the hospital.  There is no doubt now that Schneider is Smith’s real jailor now.

Overcome by a change in heart, and the realization that a Nazi America is NOT what he really wants, Smith escapes from his own prison Camp.  He finds Whitaker, informing him that his new Nazi friends don’t all believe that he is with them, and that they have a powerful contact in the Washington---very specifically, Senator Olsen.  Whitaker thinks he has pulled a fast one by sneaking inactive ingredients into the vial of Wotan 5 which was sent to the Camp for insertion into her birthday cake personally made by de-Nazified and Americanized German POWs. But there is the chance that someone is about to put real Wotan 5 into the cake.  

Smith slithers away into the night, leaving Whitaker with a map of how to break into the Camp, and most particularly, the Mess Tent where the First Lady is due to have a birthday party in her honor, courtesy of grateful German POWs.  Smith was supposed to be part of the plan, but his efforts are thwarted, as Schneider has locked the American Commandant into his own windowless holding cell.  Meanwhile, Schneider poses as the American Commandant of the Camp, greeting Eleanor Roosevelt personally, accompanied by some of the German POWs that have been re-Nazified wearing American uniforms and carrying guns.  

Just before Eleanor is about to eat the cake, Whitaker pushes his way into the Mess Tent.  He knocks the cake out of her mouth before she can be poisoned by it, the action seeming to be a personal attack.  Schneider leaps to the first Lady’s defense, getting into a fight with his half brother.  The brawl that has been incubating for ten years ends up with a knife into Schneider’s belly, and Whitaker accidently ingesting the slice of birthday cake reserved for the First Lady.  When Schneider tries to kill Eleanor Roosevelt with his pistol, Smith rushes in, finishing off the imposter.  Meanwhile, Whitaker is about to spill the beans about how he, in the fight against Communism and depressive diseases back in the Fatherland, made it possible for common Germans to become supermen, then super killers. He makes a full confession, not knowing what he really said.   But one thing he did do right---expose the plot to discredit Eleanor Roosevelt and her humanistic agenda, as well as to ferret out Nazis in American who are standing in the wings to convert the US into a Fascist, racist nation, no matter who wins the war.

Flash forward to present, where Whitaker is to be hung for War Crimes, allowing such to happen because the formula in his head for mind empowerment is something humanity is not ready for it.  Watching on, Smith, who has demoted from Commandant who saved Eleanor Roosevelt from getting killed, and then to common citizen working for the cause of Humanity and Good, rather than the KKK agenda or himself.

BOLSHOY PHARMA
Novella
Logline:   Jack Bauman, humble, humanistic and mild mannered indy neuroscientist, assisted by his underappreciated yet beloved female post doc (Carla Timons), discover a drug (XY57) that cures learned helplessness in rats which promises to be a money making miracle treatment for paralytic depression in people, particularly those who need to find their inner Power and Real Voice.  Jack’s commercial, money hungry, fame-seeking and very jealous old guard competitor, R. Thomas Schleem, gets wind of  XY57 when Jack and Carla try to get the animal data published.  Schleem not only tries to sabotage the young Assistant Professor’s reputation in the scientific Academic circles, but sends in spies to steal the formula for the drug and the services of Carla.  Genuine scientific curiosity and the temptation to use XY57 to turn normal people into powerful supermen result in the highly addictive drug getting into key people in the general human population, resulting in a world where lower human desires and primal destructive urges threaten to destroy both intellectual reason and basic human compassion.   Alliances shift, then get redefined, as Bauman, Timons and Schleem dive deep into themselves, utilizing their special abilities to save humanity from itself, as well as to catapult it into self annihilation.

LUMINESCENT SISTERHOOD
Novella
Logline:  Elena Gonzalez Schwartz, 65 years still-idealist Canadian Socialist-activist writer and self-made contemporary mountain woman, has her hands full trying to (a) hold on to her job at a local newspaper where her attempts to write real stories are quenched by a stuck up and popular power bitch editor, (b) keep her own horses/dogs fed at home along with the strays that find their way to her door, (c) serving the medical needs of the neighborhood critters without a license to practice medicine and (d) processing the death of yet another Old German, her beloved landlord, who died of cancer in her beloved haven of Freshwater, BC, a small mountain town which is dying slowly, economically and psychologically.  Enter, unexpectedly and without explanation, Elena’s biologically younger but ‘more mature’ sister, Carlata, a Right Wing Capitalist who left her backwoods Canadian home to become a success in New York, and by all accounts known to Elena anyway, has become so.  Carlata and Elena are forced to deal with the legacy and circumstances of their Radical Socialist mother’s death, the finding of mineral wealth on the mountain which could change the future of Freshwater forever (for better or worse), and ghosts from their past who pit them against each other at a time when unification is essential for their own survival, as well as many, perhaps innocent, bystanders around them.

Story:  Elena Gonzalez Schwartz, 65 years still-idealist Canadian Socialist-activist writer and self-made contemporary mountain woman, has her hands full trying to (a) hold on to her job at a local newspaper where her attempts to write real stories are quenched by a stuck up and popular power bitch editor (Rita Tomkins), (b) keep her own horses/dogs fed at home along with the strays that find their way to her door, (c) serving the medical needs of the neighborhood critters without a license to practice medicine and (d) processing the death of yet another Old German, her beloved landlord, Hans, who died of cancer in her beloved haven of Freshwater, BC, a small mountain town which is dying slowly, economically and psychologically.  While riding her horse well beyond the limits of her property into abandoned plateaus at high elevations, she comes upon strange looking split rocks that seem to glisten, activating her always active ability to see ghosts and feel the presence of ETs, particularly with the strange swirling wind.  Interrupting her conversation with perhaps Hans, is an unexpected call from her estranged sister Carlata. Elena’s biologically younger but ‘more mature’ sister, a Right Wing Capitalist who left her backwoods Canadian home to become a success in New York, and by all accounts known to Elena anyway, has become so.  

Upon arrival, political differences between the two sisters escalate very quickly, fueled by Elena’s resentment of Carlata for leaving her with the care of their idealistic, activist and (according to the docs anyway) insane mother.  Still, Carlata is hurting inside, from something, refusing to tell Elena why, while still trying to micromanage her idealistic, pacifist, head in the clouds sister’s life. Carlata proudly notes that her making Elena angry results in her ‘above all do no harm’ sister coming out with sharper, wittier, more humous quips with her mouth than she ever put into print in her many unpublished novels, posted blogs and occasionally published newspaper articles.  

Meanwhile Dan Renshaw, born to the woods and anything it can provide self-destructive junkie (whose hurting body really does need drugs) who provides Elena with illegal drugs she uses for veterinary use, is having issues with his boss, pretentious, young ‘Professor’ F. Michael Carlson at the geology exploration camp up the mountain.   After pretending to be Dan’s weed smoking bud, Carlson confiscates the large stash of grass Dan has grown at home which he needs to sell to pay his very overdue mortgage.  In retribution, Dan steals something of Carlson’s, the briefcase in the safe in the trailer.

At the local Flying Saucer Café, Kelci Farnsworth, the hard working and still optimistic about life owner asks for Elena’s opinion about her new chili recipe, wanting and needing the approval of the half-Mexican, half-German mountain woman.  Elena fakes a thumbs up regarding the bland dish where all of the ingredients fight against rather than compliment each other, resulting in Kelci putting it on the menu.  But more to the point are the other guests at the table, a nosey Carlata and a very hungry to eat anything Dan, who presents Elena with the still closed briefcase he stole from Carlson, with the hope that she can do something about its contents in the press. 

In the meantime, an angry city slicker Carlson demands that local yokel RCMP Officer Glen Holz find his stolen briefcase, immediately, and do the search without telling his bosses.  Little does Carlson know that Holz has roots in Toronto, and a brother who worked his way up the social and economic ladder there, mostly by illegal means with less than legal affiliates.                

At the other end of town, Dan Renshaw  goes to the a new Doc in town seeking help for various unexpected ailments.  Though the new Yuppie locum Doc, who Dan hates, finally becomes convinced that it is something environmental and not in the chronically complaining junkie’s head, it’s too late.  Dan finds himself dying of cancer, in the same bed where Hans dies, supported and helped by Elena on the journey to the other side.  He begs to be put out of his misery rather than let the cancer eat him up slowly.  Elena fakes an excuse, heads out to the ‘store’ to buy him some ‘juice’ and returns with the needed drugs to put him out of his misery, something she was unable to do for Hans.  Upon returning, she finds that Dan has died, his body, the briefcase and all of his medical records vanished.
 
Fed up with Carlata’s living habits/perfumes, constant criticism about her sister’s lifestyle, and micromanaging, Elena utilizes an golden opportunity to put her somewhere else.  Hans, her former landlord, temporarily willed use of his house further up the mountain to her, providing both sisters with wanted and perhaps needed privacy.  Meanwhile. Elena discovers in the briefcase maps to new Uranium site, with ‘even richer materials if we dig deeper’.  Also present is a large amount of cash, in Euros, with postdated checks from several companies, most notably “Family First’ in Utah, and a large firm in Russia. Also present is research data on a new protective drug, said to prevent death from cancer and cancer-causing toxins.  She goes to Holz, with whom she had an unfinished love affair with years ago, for help.  He promises to do what he can.  She promises to get Carlata out of Hans house, as she just figured out via the maps that it is sitting on a hotbed of cancer-causing uranium.  Carlata doesn’t believe her.  Elena writes the most emotionally moving, edgiest and most revealing story of her life, submitting it to ‘Philosopher Queen’ Rita at the Tomkins River News for publication.

Carlata refuses to move away from the Hans’ house, even when Elena sabatoges the water system, claiming that she’s adopted herself to outback living and that whatever toxins are in the ground are not affecting her, as she (a) has cancer already, and (b) is taking a new wonder drug which can make the cancer, or any other ailment you have, go away.  Carlata takes on a surprisingly maternal role, offering to cook Elena a home cooked meal of ‘wonder drug’ comfort food.  Elena needs it, as when she gets on line, she finds out that Rita has fired her from the newspaper, and Holz is warning her that the Cops are after her for practicing veterinary medicine without a license, and that the SPCA is hot on her trail to seize her animals because of complaints from undisclosed sources of them being abused.  

Carlata offers to help Elena relocate.  The new location is far away from Freshwater, in an acreage with five times the land and ten times more comforts/conveniences, both for Elena and her animals.  In addition, Carlata has sent Elena’s work out to her literary contacts, who are amongst the many guests at Elena’s 66th birthday party at the palacial new place, which Carlata pays for, and co-inhabits, as a NON-intrusive roommate.  Adding a cherry on top of the ice cream, Elena has found a new potential love interest, Tom Fernandes-Erikson, a half Latino half Nordic fellow artist who is also a horse whisperer.  All seems well in Carlata’s world, until she gets a birthday card from Holz, delivered by none other than Rita, now fired from her own newspaper and tossed out of the town she think she owned, reduced to a wage slave courier delivery schlep.

Holz, who sold out to and was working with Carlson, is killed by the young geologist and aspiring mobster, who effectively made it look like a suicide.  But Holz was able to send out an envelope to Elena before Carlson and the higher ups working with him were able to rub him out.  In that envelope, delivered concidentaly by Rita (along with other birthday gifts) gives Elena passcodes to e mails and websites which lead her to discover that her sister Carlata was working with Carlson et al.  By what she reads and recalled from secretive comments made by Carlata, Elena puts A B, C and every other letter of the alphabet together into a frightening picture indeed. Carlata has written newspaper stories bearing Elena’s name to be published in newspapers that will reveal plans for dangerous strip mining of uranium, thus stopping that operation, and afterwards mining something even more valuable under them---diamonds, which are easily secretly mined and privately fenced.  In addition, Carlata has ghost written a novel bearing Elena’s name, to be published after her sister’s death, through the publisher that Elena in the present feels best about working with.  Topping it all off,  Carlata has been paid big bucks by Utah based ‘Family First Enterprises’ and the even larger company in Russia, whose name in translation means the same thing.  Some of those funds paid for Elena’s comfortable re-located life, some funneled into a private account overseas.  Elena also finds out that is was Carlata, through various personas on line and otherwise, who badmouthed her to Rita’s newspaper, the veterinary association and the SPCA, forcing her to move from Freshwater.  Just as Elena is about to dive deeper, to find out if her sister really does have cancer that has been put into remission by wonder drug U-Guard 92 (U being uranium, 92 being its atomic number), a car pulls into the driveway.

Thinking it is Carlata, Elena sets the screen up for viewing upon her entry.  This time, Elena will demand the truth, using a knife to Carlata’s throat this time to get it.  Enter, just a Elena is about to have the argument of a lifetime with her sister, is Sergei Petrovitch, Carlata’s ex hubby.  Sergei was the charming Russian  “Art Collector” who Elena secretly fell in love with at Carlata’s wedding, clearly now he is a mobster working out of Brighton Beach. Brooklyn, with all of his ex-KGB contacts very much in place.  After ‘dancing’ the knife out of Elena’s hand, and putting it onto her own throat, Sergei surmised that Elena has now joined Carlata, who was working for him but of late is stealing more from the till than he can abide.  The normally non-manipulative Elena, who still doesn’t know everything that is going on, is pushed by the sense of urgency into a bold idea.  Faking a role as Carlata’ new partner, who is still in love with Sergei (an arrangement that works very well for him), she accurately guesses most of what the plan Sergei and his assistant moguls are planning, suggesting embellishments of her own that he is intrigued by.  In essence, it involves using the finding of cancer causing uranium in Freshwater to devalue all properties there, buy up the whole town, then mine both the Uranium and diamonds underneath with unsuspecting workers who are expendable.  In addition, they would make a killing investing in U-Guard 92, a new wonder drug to fight cancer and carcinogens, according to the animal data anyway, and limited human trials, including uranium mining workers.  Of course, putting such into place would require Carlata being out of the way.  Sergei wants her dead.  Elena has a better idea.

With Sergei’s contacts, and her own prowess, Elena puts Carlata into a very locked mental hospital, under a different name.  Something that Carlata did to her own mother, presumably for her own good.  A mother who Carlata believed committed suicide.  But who, Carlata now informs her, was killed by mobsters.  Carlata warns Elena that the dangerous game she is playing with Sergei to find out who he is working for and disable them will get her killed.  Carlata also tells Elena that everything she did to her sister was for her own eventual good.  A leap of faith involves Carlata asking the ghost of her mother, who Elena sees above them, to intervene.  Carlata finds herself seeing and hearing the disembodied spirit of the intensely Alive Socialist Activist who she put away in a mental ward, for her own good, feeling forgiven by her.  But to get Carlata out of the ward, and Sergei et al out of Freshwater, the two sisters have to devise a plan.  To avoid being recorded and reported to Sergei, they write out notes in the secret language they developed when kids, during the only two years when they did get along.

Back at the Flying Saucer Café, the Sergei and his band of four ‘Gentlemen’, are dining at the local establishment yet again, pretending to be helpful economic investors to the local yokuls who they will screw over in the end.  The moguls hail from oil-rich Houston, Upper Crust London, High-Society Bejing.,   Representing academic and scientific staff is Carlson, who Sergei already has plans to have killed soon enough. The new waitress in the usually bland Anglophone establishment, a culturally colorful French Canadianne from Quebec, who actively flirts with a very interested Sergei, recommends yet another special, Mexican chili. In reality, the waitress is Rita, who fears that Sergei will now see through her disguise.  After ingesting the chili, a delight to the palates of all, Sergei demands to see the Chef, to hire him for a new chain of restaurants in the Big Crab Apple.  Or at least to ‘burrow’ the recipe.  Coming out is none other than Elena, who was supposed to have died in a car accident the previous day.  She informs Sergei et al that they have been ingesting rapidly acting carcinogens all week at the café, which they all believe due to the ‘flu’ symptoms they have been getting, and think are being amplified by what they just ate.  Elena offers a solution, a bottle of U-Guard 92, which everyone except Sergei fight over like hungry, desperate peasants being tossed a single loaf of bread.  Refusing to beg, and willing to die with dignity, Sergei, who knows that the drug is not as effective as the other investors or workers on the job think it is, demands to know where Carlata is just before he is taken away by the Cops, which now include local yokals who are deputized.  Elena informs him that she is ‘in a place that is safe, but that she is still hurting.’  Sergei’s sadistic smirk when hearing that Carlata is hurting pushes pacifist still Hippie Elena into rage. She grabs hold of steak knife, and cuts off a large hunk of Sergei’s long, proudly worn hair, including portions of the underlying scalp.

Some time passes, Sergei and his goons putting their plans for Freshwater and other unsuspecting communities on hold in exchange for Elena getting to them new and improved formulations of U-Guard-92 that will shrink the cancers growing in them.  Or that they think will grow in them.  Elena refuses to tell Carlata if she actually did give them carcinogens, because, as Carlata says ‘you’ll have to kill me if you do, right?’ The matter is academic, as Carlata is in a well equipped hospital bed in a cabin buried deep in the woods, dying of advanced cancer, for real, beyond the help of U-Guard 92. The snowbound cabin, which Elena was only able to get to by horse, is the dwelling where her intensely dedicated Activist mother intended to be the new Parliament House for a new country to be formed by thinking and caring anarchists.   Knowing that the end is near, and painful, and that lingering on will tie down Elena’s life, Carlata asks that her sister put her out of her misery with the drugs she now has available from her renewed without a license veterinary kit.  But with a proper send off so that, like Hans, she can ‘go to the White Light’ and not either a subdivision of purgatory or, even worse, a next lifetime as a Kardashian worshiping Mall Brat in New Jersey.   The music Carlata picked is not the ethereal Lohengrin overture Hans did, but “I Will Survive” disco, followed by “Dancing Queen.”  After sending Carlata off to the White Light, or Disco Ball on the other side of the veil, Elena’s horse beckons her to head down the hill as both of them have ‘miles to go before they sleep’, in the land of the living.

EXPERIMENTAL SAGEBRUSH MORALITY
Novel.  1875 Wyoming.  A female Pinkerton Agent/Human Behaviorist, Olivia Ponath, with a secret past and many private vendettas, rescues (then blackmails) three conscience-plagued outlaws who are horrible at being ‘bad’ from their criminal fate so they can help her destroy a powerful Mobster (Hardass Holmes), who has his own misunderstood sense of morality.  The first ‘volunteer’ in the ‘Crusade’ is Eli Jackson, disowned brother of famous ex-Confederate train robbers who he seeks to emulate, and imitate, but can’t because he doesn’t have the heart to steal and doesn’t know who is stealing from him.  The second is Lorena Parker, seductive hooker who is a master at finding out dirt about her clients with her sexual charms, but is reluctant to use it against them.  The third is Pierre McGraw, ex-mountain man, and present Democratic Socialist Revolutionary Activist who makes a living as a well known bounty hunter, made more dangerous by the fact that he is a Pacifist who, thus far, has never killed a man.  Olivia coaches her team in various Missions to destroy Hardass’s very interconnected, and often legal, Capitalist empire, with some successes but many failures, short-comings and unexpected happenings in her ‘experiment’ in morality with her three lab rats.  Such include each member of the Crusading team, very much including Olivia, finding out things about themselves which threaten the success of the Missions and their own survival, and the final showdown with Hardass Holmes, who is far than what he seems to be.
Voice/Narrator:   Hardass Holmes, similar to Al Sverenson (‘Deadwood’).

Story: 1875 Wyoming.  A female Pinkerton Agent/Human Behaviorist, Olivia Ponath, with a secret past and many private vendettas, rescues (then blackmails) three conscience-plagued outlaws who are horrible at being ‘bad’ from their criminal fate so they can help her destroy a powerful Mobster (Hardass Holmes), who has his own misunderstood sense of morality.  

The first self-sabotaging ‘volunteer’ in the ‘Crusade’ is Eli Jackson, disowned brother of famous ex-Confederate train robbers who he seeks to emulate, and imitate, but can’t because he doesn’t have the heart to steal and doesn’t know who is stealing from him, who Lorena buys from a railroad-company owned judge after being convicted of robbing a train on which he gave back all of his stolen booty to the passengers, then got pick pocketed by them as his partners abandoned him and turned him in.

The second is Lorena Parker, seductive hooker who is a master at finding out dirt about her clients with her sexual charms, but is reluctant to use it against them.  Posing as a male client, Olivia cajoles Lorena to tell her about herself, resulting in her getting fired by the Madamme of that establishment with nowhere else to do.  

The third is Pierre McGraw, ex-mountain man, and present Democratic Socialist Revolutionary Activist (for ALL races) who makes a living as a well known bounty hunter, made more dangerous by the fact that he is a Pacifist who, thus far, has never killed a man.  Olivia poses as a corrupt male ex-Revolutionary bandit with a price of $1,000 dead, $200 alive on her head, testing Pierre’s ability to find her, and then to see if he would kill for easy money or attempt to take him/her in for trial and a lesser paycheck.  

Once collected, Olivia coaches her colorfully dysfunctional, culturally and psychologically mismatched, team in the first Missions to destroy Hardass’s very interconnected, and often legal, Capitalist empire.  The target is a secret mine in the hills worked to death  by White prisoners the Governor buys from jail and kidnapped Indians/Blacks, sharing the wealth with railroad tycoons, European investors and Hardass Holmes.  Through deception and skill, the trio gets sufficient intel on the operation to stealing a shipment of gold coming down the mountain, replacing it with fool’s gold when presented to the tycoons and investors, getting the Governor jailed for fraud, sending the investors packing and (after blowing up the mine) liberating the enslaved laborers, after making it look like the mountain is haunted by demons.  While doing so, very NON-ex Confederate Eli falls in love with Yankee bred Lorena.  But Hardass Holmes is nowhere to be found.  Through narrative, in his voice, we find out that Holmes wanted to get rid of the Governor anyway, and was looking for an interesting way to distance himself from aforementioned  tycoons and investors. 

Prior to the next Mission, Olivia tests her recruits by offering them ‘bait’ from another employer.  Eli receives a letter from a key member of his brother’s gang, inviting him back into the fold.  Lorena gets an invitation from an unknown rich client she doesn’t remember going to bed with who infers that staying with Olivia et al will bring her no future at all and can advance her career as a performer/writer serving the people if she accepts his offer.  Pierre is offered the chance to leave the team and have a book written about him from an influential publisher which will reveal the truth about himself, advance the Revolution, and provide massive royalties to continue Pierre’s program to educate all children of all colors, and both genders.  All three choose to meet with their new patrons rather than rendezvous with Olivia for another briefing.  But Olivia (posing as the patrons)  is great with their choices, seeing that ‘the students want to excel and go beyond their teacher’, recognizing that they made more noble choices.   She sets her lab rats on more quests against Holmes and his empire.  In the next two Missions against Holmes’ associates and minions, it is Pierre and Lorena who are maximally used, Eli given minimal duties.  The result is more foiling of bad guys (with Holmes still at large), redistribution of their money, and liberation of the slave labor they own along with the bonding between Pierre and Lorena merging into romance.

At a ghost town (Unity) Olivia has reopened for ‘the business of justice’, the very independent Pinkerton agent establishes a new community with a new vision, many of its populous being those who the team liberated.  Pierre and Lorena get married.  Eli watches on, jealous and heartbroken.  Making his feeling of marginalization worse is that he is assigned shit jobs in the Missions, getting paid less in money and glory. His position as outsider to the group allows him to get suspicious as to who Olivia really is, what she is doing with all the ‘expense’ money from the expeditions that are supposed to be about robbing from the rich and giving back to the poor as well as trying to figure out what her real agenda is in these Missions that are always unable to capture Holmes.  He is sent on a Mission out of town by Olivia, alone, which he accepts, but not without taking a detour.

Eli sneaks into an obscure town, contacting the undercover Pinkerton who he had hired for the train robbery which got him arrested, then miraculously rescued from the gallows by Olivia.  One eyed agent “Patch Prussian”, who Eli finds out has two very good eyes, shares info with Eli, informing him that Olivia really is a Pinkerton Agent, but that she has a dark and sorted past with the Agency, and its founder, Scottish Immigrant Alan Pinkerton.  But he is disallowed by honor and necessity to keep his own head attached to his body to not say a whole lot more.  He suggests that Lorena use her charms against the gender-fluid Olivia to get the real goods on her.

Returning back to Unity, Eli delivers the goods Olivia sent her out to get (incriminating papers against more bad guys and some stolen booty to be ‘re-distributed appropriately).   He makes peace with Lorena and Pierre’s new marriage, congratulating them on the new baby that will arrive soon.  But, Pierre has fallen out of love with Lorena, distancing himself from her because of the ‘toxin’ inside of him that has been activated due to having to kill people for Olivia and the Revolution.   Lorena secretly yearns for Eli, but dares not make her feelings known.  But, bigger issues are at hand.  The trio agree that it is time for Lorena to use her seductive charms, moonshine, as well as the Pinkerton’s experimental truth serums, to have Olivia confess/relate, in the throws of carnal passion, who she is and what secrets she has been keeping.

The plan works, Lorena finding out that Olivia was one of Alan Pinkerton’s prized agents when the Organization he founded went up against Corporate Corruption in the private sector and the Slave-owning Confederate States during the Civil War.  The very married Scottish immigrant fell in love with Olivia, and her with him. But Olivia was on the outs when she asked that Alan leave his wife and own up to the child in her womb who is his.  She also feels betrayed by Pinkerton when after the War to free the slaves, he decided to hire his agency out in the service of moguls and tycoons who oppress laborers of all colors.  With regard to Holmes, Olivia’s obsession with stealing from his empire slowly, and eventually destroying him, ‘I will get back what is mine!’

The morning after at a hidden campground outside of Unity, Lorena secretly meets with Eli and Pierre, revealing the goods on Olivia.  But before the now united trio can come up with a plan to counter whatever she has in mind, Olivia shows up with several citizen goons of her own, aiming guns at Eli and Pierre, and putting a gun a Lorena’s throat, and belly.  The usually calm, cerebral and detached Pinkerton is furious at her new lover, Lorena, for not sticking around for breakfast after their night of Passion.  Knowing that Lorena cares for Eli, Pierre and the child inside of her more than she ever can for her, Olivia sends Eli and Pierre out on a final ‘no excuses this time’ Mission to capture Holmes and bring him back alive, or Lorena will be childless and headless.  

With clues given to them by Olivia, Pierre and Eli very easily find Holmes’ hide out in the mountains, and him.  Too easily, they note.  And on a trip where Pacifist Revolutionary Pierre has to kill more men, noting that he is enjoying it (as part of Olivia’s experiment with him).  Holmes does not meet the descriptors of being Horrible, Heinous, Hardass  Indeed, he saves Pierre and Eli from getting killed by the goons who are supposed to be in his employment.  Pierre and Eli share with Holmes the problems they are having with Olivia down below.  Holmes relates that he has had history with Olivia, which started when they were both Criminologists together then Robin Hood outlaws working on both sides of the law, who fell in love then broke up, with him leaving the bedroom first. Olivia framed him for crimes he didn’t commit, forcing him to become a Criminal for real.  But there is something that has to be dealt with first.  President Grant, a kind hearted President who is working for equality for all races and classes (but who can’t see who is trying to stab him in the back) is coming West on a train, along with none other than Alan Pinkerton himself.  The new trio surmise that Olivia, conveniently relieved of Eli and Pierre, is planning to kill Grant and somehow get her revenge on Alan Pinkerton, perhaps framing him for the murder and somehow involving Lorena in the process.  Eli wants no part of a Mission to save the life of the President who, when a was a General, raped his beloved Dixie.  But to save Lorena, and her child, he goes along with it.

Meanwhile, on the train, Lorena, to save Eli and with some misguided affections for Olivia, finds her way into Alan Pinkerton in the dining car, using her charms and Olivia’s newest truth serum to seduce him and finally gets him into his private sleeping car.  Lorena’s intent is to get more goods on the still very married head of the Detective Agency in the stupers of drunken passion, but he turns the tables on her, tricking her into drinking the elixor.  Lorena finds herself tied to the bedposts, threatened with disfigurement or worse if she doesn’t spill the goods on Olivia and her new team.  Coming to the rescue is Olivia, with a tranquilizing dart that enables her to strip Alan of his clothes, and pistol, planning to use the latter to kill Grant, framing it on her old boss.  Lorena convinces her ‘beloved’ (yet still feared) Olivia that her attempt to pose as Alan Pinkerton is not quite up to one of his female agents who posed as Lincoln to bait assassins back in 1861.  Olivia agrees, assigning Lorena the job of working her way into Grant’s car to kill him.  Trying to buy time, Lorena agrees.
 
Meanwhile, master tracker Pierre and major schemer Holmes, using gunfire, the corpses of the the dead goons, and special effects, they pretend to be a mob of Slavers who stop Grant’s train to rob the train of its gold and ‘human livestock’.  Coming to the rescue is Eli, as the sole ‘Grey Ghost’, saving the terrified citizens and guards from being robbed and kidnapped.  The only passenger assisting in the fight against the bad guys up in the hills is President Grant himself, who invites Eli to share a drink with him in his private car.  Once inside, Eli discovers that the former Union General has a lady friend, none other than Lorena.  While Grant’s back is turned, Eli relieves Lorena of the silencer-gun in her hand, kicking it outside the car.  Very soon afterwards, Olivia, posing as one of Grant’s guards, works her way into the car.  Just as she is about to kill Grant, with the intent framing it on Alan Pinkerton, Lorena gets in the way of the bullet that Eli intended to take.  Devastated by having  just shot an apparently killed her beloved Lorena, Olivia shoots herself in the head.  The bullet blinds her, leaving her very much alive and in agony.

Eli, a still live Lorena, and a grateful President’s private physician head up to the hills where they rendezvous with Pierre and Holmes, the train moving along with Grant having secretly hired Eli and his team to work for him.  Saving Lorena’s life is easy.  Keeping Holmes alive is harder, as his cancer has advanced to a point where he is not far from dying.  As a last statement to the world, he requests that Eli and Pierre help him write his memoirs as well as the aforementioned accounts for ‘whoever is open enough in mind and bold enough in spirit to believe them’.

THE PRICE OF KNOWING: THE YOKIVA FACTOR
Novel.

Logline:  Yokiva root, a rare plant that grows only in a small, isolated valley in Eastern Russia, which allows those who eat its extract to be able to tell the future, is rediscovered during WWII by the German and Russian Armies, as well as several unsuspecting refugees who want nothing to do with the War, Hitler or Stalin.  Who gets it, and how they use it, will affect not only the outcome of the War, but the Fates of those who survive it.  Particularly those who attempt to defy Fate Itself.  Amongst the players in this very high stakes game are Katerina, a young Ukrainian Major whose simple life of ‘mastery in servitude’ is catapulted into chaotic purposelessness by her escape from a POW Camp after losing everyone she cares about.  Gustav, a German Army deserter she meets on the road who harbors a secret past and multifaceted life agenda.  Commander Holzmann, power hungry SS Officer who is determined to recapture Katerina, as he is convinced that she is his long lost daughter, and lover.  Nicholi, Katerina’s scientifically brilliant and mystically gifted Cossack father.  Ivan, Katerina’s indestructible abusive ex-hubby who she framed for sedition so she could escape his ‘loving’. Uliti, elected and respected Yakut Chieftain of the Yokiva valley whose love for humanity, reverence for the Spirit of the land and trust in compassionate wisdom costs him more than he could ever envision.  And a Russian General whose honor and dedication to his troops may just cost all of their lives.

MIRRORED
30 min, screen/stageplay
Serio-comedic
A downtrodden, burnt out, yet still-defiant cynical 45 year old unrecognized writer (Avery ’Every’ Mann) does a mirror check before going out to hit the bricks with his newest novel that could save the world from itself. He is delayed by characters in the reflective surface (played by the same actor as the writer) who represent paths not taken and opportunities Avery still could be talked into.  After defending his case against their claims about him, Avery has to educate those personas about their own flaws before he can be freed of their influence.  

The characters include:
-A homeless Hobo, who still retains his dignity, reminding Avery (who wants to avoid him at all costs) that he is one bad economic decision or paycheck away from sharing a cardboard box with him on the streets.
-Avery’s happy, jovial, love is all you need Santa Grandpa, who refuses to buy into or adjust himself to be a fighter in a cool to be cruel world   
-Avery’s domineering, socially-integrated ex-wife who refuses to let him be an independent thinker and defiant soul
-Trudy, a 12 year old, who was sexually abused as a child, because she/he let it happen.
-A Nazi SS officer who seeks to enroll Avery into the Fascist ranks, offering pride in oneself and empowerment as the benefits of such.
-Harold, intimidating big star/producer with larger ego, the head of the cool crowd who always kept Avery out of the elite loop, no matter how hard Avery worked or how brilliant, or needed, Avery’s work is.  
-Buddhist Monk (which Avery almost became) whose calm, non-confrontational grey answers to all of Avery’s desperation-based  yes or no inquiries confound, and instruct, sort of.
-Anarchist Radical, whose hipness in alternative political lingo way and urge to disrupt the system outdoes any of his ability to think, or put himself in the place of his ideological opponents.
-Transgender Dancer, who seeks to lure Avery into exploring what it is like to live as the opposite gender, for real rather than merely in a secret imagination.
-Redneck Beer Drinking Slob, who professes that it really is fun to be dumb, and drunk, inviting the Crusader Avery to give up his pen for a six pack of beer, a boink under the sac with the barmaid and a free lobotomy
-Soldier, who the draft-evading, pacifist-globalist, conflict-avoiding Avery didn’t become, and who suggests that the only way for Avery to see what he is really made of is to expose himself to combat in the military, as prey and predator.
-God, who the constantly-questioning agnostic seeks to know and serve, even if He/She doesn’t really exist.

OLYMPIAN REVOLUTIONARIES AND RASCALS

Novel/Feature length screenplay

Logline: Harvey Millhouse, underappreciated, hard working, brilliant, always rejected from every ‘club’, pacifist New Jersey suburban geek/nerd in 1970, seeks to do something truly Revolutionary, particularly when he realizes, as the low man on every ‘hip’ totem pole, that the Revolutionary Movement has been corrupted from the start by the ‘cool’ kids.  After faking his death to avoid being conscripted into the US Army, he makes his escape to Canada with the help of a hot, intelligent, emotionally intense Russian dissident with a dark secret past (Wanda), then inherits his eccentric Mohawk Grandfather’s mountain, with a hotel at the base.  A facility where guests come to become personas they were in past lifetimes, or wanted to be, so they can return to the world as Enlightened Souls rather than people who are part of the problem rather than the solution.  Things go very right, and wrong, resulting in a pitched battles of many kinds between the colorfully dysfunctional Enlightened and the well armed, and lucratively funded, establishment.  Such winds up involving Harvey’s father, his grandfather, Wanda’s family and a corrupt Chief of the tribe Harvey’s grandpa was thrown out of far more intensely than Harvey and Wanda ever realized, with stakes that are very international, and beyond.  The story is told from the perspective of a very learned and clairvoyant Old Harvey, having hidden underground for leading a dangerous cult, being captured, then being helped to escape by a young Doctor who has more connections with the infamous, and poorly understood, Revolt on the Sacred Mountain than he realizes.    

Synopsis

The story begins with Harvey Millhouse, a lone 75 year old clairvoyant renegade who the world knows as the leader of an infamous Revolutionary Cult from 1970, at a hotel at the base of a ‘magic’ mountain where a major violent stand off between colorfully-dysfunctional eccentric idealists and the Corporate-Industrial Establishment took place half a century ago. Old Harvey has been hiding underground ever since.  His escape from recent captivity from a very-locked mental ward was aided by a young, pathologically-linear psychiatrist, JW Jones, and JW’s on-off-again girlfriend/Police Detective, Anna McGilvry. JW, whose freedom and medical licence can be taken away for springing Harvey, is determined to use Millhouse as a model for his new theory of eccentric personalities so he can advance his way up the professional ladder as a shrink. Anna does not want to continue the investigation for reasons she is hiding from JW.  But Harvey, who takes on the job of ‘mentoring’ a very unwilling JW in what it is to be Alive, big A, has a completely different agenda for telling the real story.

The story begins in 1970, when Harvey is a 20 year old nerd/geek, still living at home in ‘go nowhere’ suburban Hackensack, New Jersey. Despite every one of his efforts to be recognized as a writer, musician and Revolutionary social innovator for the Cause of Good, he fails miserably, even at getting into colleges he is overqualified to attend.  He’s at the bottom of every social totem pole, and in an age of free love, doesn’t even know how to buy it.  Harvey’s seemingly doomed attempts to succeed at ANYthing are mocked by his parents, women, and the cookoo bird in the clock in his room which was made by his crazy and runaway Mohawk Grandpa.   An audition with the hippest and coolest Revolutionary Rock Opera musician in New York results in ore disaster for Harvey, as he is laughed out of the revolution ,yet again, because though he is talented, sincere but  not ‘cool’.  Harvey realizes, yet again, that the Revolution has been corrupted and taken over by the ‘cool kids’ almost as soon as it started.  The naïve competition-hating workaholic idealist returns home to find waiting for him a hot looking woman who really DOES want him---offering him a chance to join the Army with special opportunities for promotion made possible by his father.  Harvey refuses to take the offer, despite the fact that if he doesn’t report for duty in 5 days, he will be put in jail.  In a fit of defiance, the suburban nerd who has never been west of Philadelphia or North of Albany claims that he will run away with his books, visions and freedom, to Canada.

Harvey fakes his own death, poorly disguising himself as an old man at his gravesite in the ‘wilds’ of Northern Westchester County, having written an article about young Harvey’s brilliant and underappreciated works for the Valhalla Gazette.  He is met there on horseback by Wanda Petrovitch, a hot, hip and highly intelligent Soviet dissident writing revolutionary articles who is currently the main writer at the Valhalla Gazette.  Taking a liking to him, Wanda decides to bugger off to Canada with Harvey, so both of them can start a new life in the pristine North.

Harvey goes along with Wanda’s plan of sneaking across the border as a married couple with fake passports, he being the wife and Wanda the hubby.  Using his feminine charms, Harvey evades the American border guards looking for draft dodgers trying to escape to Canada.  The relationship between Harvey and Wanda deepens when they check into a hotel run by First Nations owners, but the morning after finds Harvey wondering what Wanda is really up to.  He discovers that she has wads of cash in international denominations, is carrying lots of illegal weed as well as other drugs (which he still refuses to take because he doesn’t trust what they will to his truth-seeking head), and is a master forger.  His attempts to find out more about Wanda are interrupted when she makes a quick getaway after the arrival of Ross Cuthand, refined corporate lawyer/administrator of Harvey’s Grandpa’s tribe, having located Harvey there because he left one of his bundles of manuscripts with a waitress at a local diner, thinking she would be his literary agent.  Cuthand is looking for the free-wheeling, freedom-promoting Wanda, showing Harvey a picture of her as a KGB Major.  He also informs Harvey that he has inherited his Grandfather’s hotel and associated ‘magic mountain’, said Grandpa finally winding up dead in an accident that puts the old eccentric coot out of ‘his misery, and everyone else’s’. Without any more getaway money of his own, and nowhere else to go, Harvey heads to ‘Olympian Mountain’ in the sticks of Ontario to take over the establishment, in a car that breaks down just as it gets there.  The only thing that remains intact is the cookoo clock he left behind in New Jersey which Harvey must keep with him at all times or forfeit any inheritance, a device that talks to Harvey on its terms no matter hard you try to shut it down.

Harvey is greeted by a Nick, an old fart New Yorker who thinks he’s a reincarnation of Socrates.  Nick flashes a mirror in Harvey’s face, asking him to look as deeply as he can inside himself as he will find that the view ‘is not so bad’.  But the usually tolerant and understanding Harvey is in no mood for a philosophy lesson.  Harvey’s attempt to make the old man face the real life problems he has had in THIS lifetime causes Nick to direct the anger he feels for the people who had shit on him back home into fists that wind up in Harvey’s gut, which the young pacifist (who Nick calls a whimp) does not return. Approaching to break up the ‘fight’, clad as a Greek goddess, is none other than Wanda, who explains to Harvey that his Grandfather’s mountain and hotel below is a haven for those who seek to become Great People they were in past lifetimes or wish they had been, so they can return home more Enlightened and productive Souls.  And that sometimes this is done with the help of mind altering herbs collected from the mountain and elsewhere which Harvey, as an anti-dope and anti-drinking person, opposes.  She also explains, particularly when stoned, that miracles (along with light shows from the clouds above them) come from the mountain, accessible to mortals below only if they don’t climb up into the sacred mountain.   To keep the hotel his Grandpa willed to him, Harvey is legally obligated to keep it running as the ‘down to earth responsible’ person amongst delusionary Visionaries, which he does, and does so very well, aiding in their becoming even more Enlightened.  Harvey confronts Wanda, demanding that she tell him about her KGB past, which she does, explaining that she has turned her life around, though her father, a powerful Soviet authority, will do most anything to get her back home, and crucify anyone who stops such.  He also tells her that it is vital to investigate whether the gods, or Spirit big S., really do dwell up on the mountain but she refused, terrified of finding out that God, Spirit or the gods do not exist and that the universe is a random, cruel place where virtue is irrelevant and useless. 
 
Coming along to offer Harvey a way out of the deal is Cuthand who, with Emily Halson (very attractive, classy and media connected 25 year old First Nations co-operator of the Band) offers Harvey the chance to sell the property to the Band at a big price, taking it off his hands.  But something in Harvey says to not sell out the mountain so it can be converted into a strip mine above and casino below.  Maybe it’s Revolutionary Vision he has acquired, or maybe the ghost of his grandfather who visits him in very vivid dreams while ‘sleeping’ under the cookoo clock  (warning him to not trust Cuthand) is real.  Perhaps what Harvey does in the dream realm (huya aniya) does affect what happens in the ‘real’ world.

Meanwhile, time passes and Harvey has become an effective Philosopher King of the mountain and hotel for Enlightenment seekers below it.  Still he hasn’t gone up the mountain to confront ‘the gods’, as those who have done so have died horrible deaths, according to Wanda and the skeletons in the foothills.  But one night, when having conversations with the cookoo clock (initiated by the bird more than him), Harvey sees that the clock is bugged with listening devices and voice transmitters made by the factory where his ex-military father works.  On that same night, Wanda appears at Harvey’s window, having discovered bugs in her bedroom made in Moscow.  As dawn approaches, the hotel is visited by unexpected and uninvited guests, backed up by well armed and privately paid Canadian Cops, Tribal Police and US Army troops.  Their bosses are Ross Cuthand, Wanda’s sexually abusive Mobster (now Ambassador) Father, and Harvey’s own Dad.  The trio demand, after getting a court order, acquisition of the mountain (for purposes they don’t reveal to Harvey), extradition of Harvey to the US for induction into the Army, and return Wanda to her rightful place with her ‘loving’ father.  Tensions mount, Wanda fleeing up the mountain, warning shots at her father at her advise.  But the warning shots are misinterpreted as deadly, resulting in gunfire from the trio’s army at Harvey, the hotel and guests.  The guests, very much living as personas in past lifetimes, return fire in various antiquated forms.  Cuthand, Ambassador Petrovitch and Harvey’s father (who is CIA connected) retreat, vowing to regroup and see that justice is done.

Meanwhile, Wanda, who has been hiding away from everyone (even Harvey) has written inspiring articles about the revolt of Enlightened idealists against the Corporate-Military-Establishment that wind up in every newspaper in the country. Such brings in hundreds of revolutionaries, partiers who want to be revolutionaries, and a variety of hippie ‘businessmen’ who want to make an economic killing selling books and songs about Harvey, and the revolt.  Included in the latter category is none other than pop-star Brad Youngblood, the elitist pseudo-revolutionary musician who laughed Harvey out of the Revolution before he fled New Jersey.  Amongst the crowd of curious and converted journalists is Emily Halson, who falls in love with Harvey after reading his original (not watered down and popularized unauthorized versions) books, and who presents a threat to the romance between Harvey and Wanda.  

Tensions mount, the non-violent protestors getting very colorful in the weapons they are using, which include throwing pies in the face of Cuthand, Petrovitch and Harvey’s dad, then cow dung.  It looks like the Enlightened side will win, without firing a shot.  Then Harvey sees Wanda’s footsteps heading up the mountain.  Fearing that she is not ok, he goes after her, discovering en route to the forbidden peaks his Grandfather, who is very much alive.  Grandpa, an ace mechanic and engineer, operates a battery of special effects/climate changing machines buried within the gold and uranium enriched mountain, which made it seem mystical). He also maintains  paths between pools of hidden quicksand/hotsprings that line the mountain and, most importantly,  medicine wheels. The wheels are portholes which, when entered before one is ready, result in old fashioned spontaneous combustion or being sent to another realm for reincarnation at a future time, or something far more dangerous.  Wanda’s footprints lead up to one of the portholes.  Determined to find Wanda, despite his Grandfather’s stern warning and without his knowledge, Harvey steps one and a half feet into the wheel, after which Wanda appears, from outside the wheel.  Down below, instantly, angry at Harvey coming up the hill, and terrified of what just happened below.

Mischief combat by revolutionaries and partiers results in severe gunfire from the now heavily re-enforced troops directed by Cuthand, Petrovitch and Harvey’s dad.  The weak in heart and cowardly of soul flee like rats from a sinking ship. The hip, cool, popular Youngblood goes catatonic, pissing in his pants in front of his fans, afterwhich  is evacuated by special envoy sent by Cuthand.  The press is paid off, strong-armed into silence and evacuated by Harvey’s Mob/CIA connected Dad.  Petrovitch leads the charge against the dissidents to get his daughter back, at any cost.  Harvey and Wanda do their best to evacuate the wounded to the hills where Grandpa puts them into the caves.  Braving the fire from bullets, and banishment from her tribe, Emily Halson goes on camera to report events as they are, but is halted by Cuthand, who threatens to have horrible things done to her children if she doesn’t tow the line.  With extreme regret, she reports to the world that the Revolutionaries are delusional, insane, vicious and deadly anarchists, the broadcast of which makes her instantly famous.

Up the hill, the advancing troops gain ground on the protestors, about to kill them all, when Grandpa maneuvers the ground under the mountain, creating a firewall that protects the fleeing Enlightened ones and separates the now fleeing troops from their crazy leader (as he tries to shoot them in the back), Ambassador Petrovitch.  But Petrovitch threatens to call in air support to blow everyone up.  Wanda steps forward, surrendering herself to him and his sexually perverted and deluded soul, offering to be whatever he wants her to be.  Reviving past ‘good times’ in her father’s past, she dances him, and her, into a medicine wheel, which results in their disappearance in a cloud of mystical smoke.  As the smoke clears, an ET craft comes above, shuttling the ghost of Wanda, and her father, into its doors, and in the aftermath, blasting the earthly choppers sent to demolish the mountain back home.  Harvey is left with his Grandfather, who passes on the baton of taking care of the mountain and its precious resources (which the ETs need to keep humanity from destroying itself).  

The story is told in segments from the perspective of Old Harvey observing Officer McGilvry thinking she is Wanda, then realizing that she is a reincarnation of that beloved, complex and emotionally challenging soulmate.   Doc JW realizes that he was Petrovitch, Wanda’s father, in a past lifetime, now charged with having to do good and truthful deeds now so that he can redeem himself for the horrible things he did to so many in Canada and the USSR in previous incarnation.  Old Harvey goes back up the mountain, getting younger with each stride, particularly when Officer Anna McGilvry, JW’s girlfriend in this incarnation, becomes Wanda again.

BROTHERZ  
MJ Politis and Punky Jennings
Novel.
Logline:  Nick and George Petrakis are twin brothers with a common physical biology but who are very different between the ears.  From the first time in suburban New York that he could count money, extravert Nick knew the art of getting more of it while at the same time being popular, and maintaining moral standards in a realm of social/ economic competition where taking care of family/country first is essential.  Introvert and ‘above all do no harm’ aspiring Globalist Socialist George was always service rather than profit oriented, devoting his life as an artist/scientist to discovering Truths about humanity and medical science,  while being pathologically ignorant of the world as it is.  The two politically and ideologically mismatched brothers serve and help each other as pre-teens and teens. But the bond is tested, then destroyed by first a woman both of them desire in different ways, then a world that puts Capitalists and Socialists into opposing camps that have stopped listening to each other.  As the boys grow into manhood, they each become internationally-recognized leaders of their conflicting ideologies.  Such becomes more than just a problem as to what to talk about at the Thanksgiving dinner table when an epidemic of brain/body killing cancer arises, pitting George and Nick against each other in a deadly battle of wits and wills with the world’s survival in the balance.         

Story:
The story opens up in present time, with Father John giving last rights and perhaps a good word to the Governor for a pardon to Inmate Petrakis, who is convicted of disrupting the foundation of the American economy and the family-first agenda it promotes.  Petrakis, who has self-mutilated himself as well as being beaten by the guards, is resolved to his fate, But more importantly, the shaved head prisoner demands that Father John, a conservative (and in some ways corrupt) Greek Orthodox priest, hears the real story about what happened between him and his twin brother, both of whom, Father John knew from the time they were baptized, of so he thinks.

Flash back to decades earlier, when 9 year old George and Nick Petrakis head out to shovel out their neighbors in suburban NYC after a huge snowstorm.  George, a masochistic, more heart than head Socialist in training, seeks to be of service to people in need, taking only what is fair compensation for manually shoveling them out with hard work.  Nick is smart, clever and charismatic, knowing how to maximize profits from people shoveled out, and is willing to take chances George doesn’t even think about  (i.e., burrowing without permission the an absent neighbor’s snowblower).  Nick shares the money earned for the day’s shoveling with George, because he’s family, ‘for now anyway’, saying that the essence of American Capitalism is to do right by family and fellow countrymen first.

By the time the lads get into High School, Nick has learned how to take risks, assess what people want, and make himself rich while not ripping off anyone, while being liked/admired by everyone.  An example of this is sneaking out during study hall to buy ingredients for sandwiches to sell to his fellow hungry students as well as his nearly broke economics teacher.  In contrast, George has turned into a idealistic philosopher Socialist and aspiring Medical Researcher who writes insightful books the cool kids and the actively illiterate both ridicule.  He’s also a pacifist whose principles thus far have not been tested since Nick, behind his brother’s back, has put out the word that anyone who beats up his brother will fall out of favor with him.  But George’s pacifism and commitment to global, universal compassion  (vs. selective compassion for only fellow countrymen, friends and family) is tested when Vinny Belonise, ‘Commie, hippie, fag hating’ Redneck Greaser begins pounding on George when he is walking down the hall reading and thinking about Plato and Socratic ideals. Rather than run, hit back, or go catatonic, George just keeps walking, paying no mind to his assailant.  Vinny runs away, ridiculed by the crowd.  Said crowd still barely notices George. But one onlooker admires George for ‘doing a Ghandi’ on the redneck asshole.  She is Lorena, a thinking, caring, intelligent and (behind the black rim glasses) attractive girl who George falls in love with instantly, but doesn’t act on that yearning because he doesn’t consider himself worthy and he wants to establish a mind-to-mind connection with her before becoming romantic.  

Nick has formed a band, his charasmitic voice and guitar playing making every guy wanting to be him, and every girl, but longer haired brother George knows that Nick’s true love is Calvin Wilson, Nick’s dream of dreams to be his wife, with, perhaps a change in gender.  George, who has now dedicated himself to becoming an effective artist and scientist in the service of humanity, answers Nick’s request to write a song that will woe someone he loves a lot to say ‘yes’ to the question of questions’  George writes a brilliant and heart moving song, which Nick sings at the Prom.  Nick sings the song to Lorena, who falls for him and accepts his proposal for marriage.  George is not surprised that Right Wing Capitalist Nick, so he can become rich and powerful in the financial /political realm or perhaps honor his homophobic parents) , is hiding his sexual preference, but starts to develop intense anger.  Anger at Nick for not telling him that he wanted Lorena.  And anger at himself, for not going after Lorena more assertively.  Small compensation is that Vinny because of being “Ghandized’ has become George’s friend, giving up his desire to be a Commie killing redneck to becoming a Chaplin in the Army to minister to soldiers in need.

The socially-conscious, conservative and reserved Petrakis parents die in a car crash, leaving the lads with equal inheritances.   Nick uses it invest in the stock market, then build an economic fortune landing him as head of many powerful companies, enabling him to shower all of that wealth on family.  That family is Lorena and the children she gives him.  He is determined  to give them the best of everything, including educational advancement, even if they don’t deserve it, and top rate health care, pushing them ahead of the line in front of indigent deadbeats and other strangers who are in far more need of medical care.  Nick offers George said insurance coverage, but George refuses to accept it, as he believes that EVERYONE should get treated according STRICTLY to medical need and NOTHING else.  

George uses his inheritance to obtain a Ph.D. and MD, and to self-fund writing innovative social, political and artistic books, and films.  He is helped, and hindered, with regard to the latter by Nick, who secretly takes control of distribution companies who take on George’s work, but with the proviso that said distributors ‘strongly encourage’ George to make his writing far less Socialist, idealist and unpatriotic, and see that his most ‘subversive’ works do not get published, so he doesn’t get a bullet through his head.  One of those works, “Flagstaff Conspiracy”, is fiction based on very possible fact novel about a crooked Pharmaceutical Company, a discredited Blue Blood scientist and White Supremacist organization working the CIA manufactures a disease to which they have a cure already in house, then releases the disease on rebellious, expendable and non-compliant populations/countries, coming in to ‘save the day’ just in time to teach the rebels a lesson about life and of course to bring home big time profits.   

Ideological differences between George and Nick escalate, and finally come to a head at the baptism of  Yannis, Nick’s most favored son.  It’s the last time the brothers talk, the focus of the problem being Lorena.  As more time passes, Nick moves up the socio-political ladder as a Right Wing ‘family and country first’ Free Market Capitalist.  At home, he secretly and illegally buys every advantage possible for his kids, encouraging them to believe that you’re number one or number nothing.  At work, Nick hires Calvin Wilson to be his right hand man in power-plays (including pharmaceutical companies competing with George that he has bought) and becomes his clandestine lover.  

George becomes the most colorful and influential artist-scientist for the Democratic Global Socialist Left from his university research lab where he has developed, amongst other things, a cure for new brand of cancer that is afflicting the general population at escalating rates.  He still yearns for the very absent Lorena, giving ‘Lorena’ Oscar-like statues to his students/protégées who accomplish feats of innovation in the Arts and Sciences in service of the Global Revolution of curing the collective human body and Enlightening/awakening the collective human soul.  One of the prize students is Deanna, a brilliant and innovative young woman who fun-fearing George has feelings for.  But he holds back, as it will jeopardize the mind to mind relationship they have, and that he fears that the ‘dull out disease’ inside of him will deflate Deanna’s natural vitality.  However, Deanna has romantic feelings for George.  

Meanwhile, Yannis, Nick’s favorite and oldest son, has acquired his father’s economic smarts, the need to win at all costs and, more importantly, how to manipulate people into thinking he’s a humanity-serving saint.  The ‘mark’ he has most convinced of this is none other than his mother, Lorena.  But the beloved, for different reasons, Yannis contracts ‘C’ disease, an epidemic of cancer that is killing rich and poor alike at alarming rates.  Nick knows that George’s independent lab has concoctions that work far better than any of the drugs from the companies he owns, and sees it as necessary that Yannis get that treatment.  But to ensure that Yannis be put in front of the line, and not in a clinical trial where he could get a placebo, Nick suggests that Lorena join George’s multi-discipline Art and Science lab as a mature grad student, and warm up to him as much as necessary.  George is suspicious of the ruse at first, but falls in love with Lorena. She, without meaning to, falls in love with George, in deeper ways than she ever felt about Nick.  Yannis’ is cured of the brain and body killing cancer, with an interesting and unexpected side effect.  The areas of the ten year old boy’s brain that made him a manipulative asshole are shut down, while the compassion and empathy centers activated.  The lad decides to give back the scholarship Nick bought for him, admitting that he cheated on the science project that got him the award. Such leads to lots of rich and powerful parents being arrested for fraud, including Nick.   Meanwhile the deepening relationship between Lorena and George for what he did for Yannis, makes Deanna very jealous and bribable.

Nick moves heaven and hell to get George framed for scientific fraud, charitable fund embezzlement and raping Deanna, and is put into jail.  In retribution, George’s loyal students and Revolutionaries beyond the lab have Nick arrested for being a major player in the buy rich kids into prestigious schools scam.   While being loaded into the Cop Car, in front of George’s crew of Revolutionary filmmakers, Nick viciously orders Lorena to call Calvin Wilson, to get him sprung.  Seeing that the brothers are in an all out war to destroy each other, and the world as an innocent bystandard, Lorena has other ideas.  

Through her contacts with Father John, who is now head Chaplin in the prison owned and operated by one of Nick’s companies, Lorena has George and Nick put in the same cell, forced to work out their differences or to remain there for a long time.  A deal is struck, a truce of sorts, but the terms of the truce are not quite honored.

Calvin Wilson spearheads an operation against George, on his beloved Nick’s behalf, causing George to be thrown out his lab, lose all funding, and to hide out in clandestine locations.  To assist in this endeavor, Nick’s favorite Right Wing Capitalist, who he has funded in previous years, has become an asshole Fascist who, with Nick’s help, winds up becoming President after the Prez and VP die of C-disease, or perhaps other causes.  George continues to escalate the distribution of his special anti-C disease treatment, at no cost to patients, on the basis of need, though he intentionally puts the rich, privileged and socially important patients well in back of the line.  Yannis has joined him in the Revolution against the rich, powerful and privileged as C disease, and a new variant of it, continues to kill rich and poor alike.  Nick is determined to not only stop George, but to find Lorena and bring her home, unaware that Father John has given her and the rest of her sanctuary in secret location.  Calvin and fate provide the bait that will bring George out of hiding.

While assessing the publications in the established literature, George discovers a publication that mirrors Flagstaff Conspiracy. It’s from Prof. DeVree, a rival from previous times, a high roller in Nick’s pharmaceutical companies.  Nick smells ‘Flagstaff Conspiracy’ all over it, intuiting that DeVree et al. have manufacturesd a new variant of C-disease that they are sending out into the world, targeting poor, rebellious, Socialist, non-Christian, and non-White populations, keeping ‘cures’ in house for release when the ‘welfare and other un-American rebels’ change their ways, with the side effect of the Big Pharma company making lots of money.  But George doesn’t know where Devree’s secret lab is.  Yannis knows the location, revealing that it was DeVree who built the science project that got him the Top Young American Scientist award when he was a snot-nosed, social-climber trying to please his father, Nick.  But, everyone in DeVree’s lab and institute knows George.  Yannis volunteers to seize the disease-inducing agent and the ‘cures’, replacing them with inactive ingredients.  But Nick refuses to let the lad go, protecting Yannis, as well as inviting harm to himself for not being as effective against Nick as he should have been.

Masquerading as Nick, to the best of his ability anyway, George infiltrates the lab.  After some rocky faking, George, as Nick, sends DeVree and everyone else in the lab to a well deserved banquet lunch across town, to a stolen luxury yacht.  Said high end floating restaurant is operated by Yannis and other young Revolutionaries who do not want to grow up to be their rich parents. They vow to extract information from DeVree gently if they can, by more pharmacological and forceful means if necessary.

With DeVree et al. gone, prematurely, George discovers a very locked safe in his office which has to be opened.  Former artist-Revolutionary-neo-hippie Deanna, clad in high end, power business suit and heels, interrupts George.  His initial thought that she came to stop him, turning against him again, is halted when she shows him her back, whipped marks put there by Nick’s associates as entertainment, perhaps with Nick’s knowledge, or perhaps not.  She offers her friendship and love to George, both of which he accepts fully.  Knowing the combination for the safe, Deanna opens it, taking out the large sums of money, and the special stash of C-disease inducing virus, along with the cures which she says only work temporarily.  As in Flagstaff Conspiracy, Deanna, helps George escape, leaving with him out the back door. But unlike the fictional book, Deanna slips, falling down the stairs to the open door.  George tumbles with her, seeing her escape, then hiding in a dumpster.  But he is arrested, his Nick wig falling off, revealing to the security guard that he is actually George.

Back to the cell in the present with Father John, Inmate Petrakis, who we intuit is George, is ready to die, to be punished for his sins of omission and lack of effective action.  But Father John knows figures out that ‘George’ is actually Nick, the physical evidence of such being that George has a natural large bald spot on his head.  And that Nick’s attempt to shave his head was not complete enough, as there is a full head of hair on its way to growing back all over the crown. Father John fills in the gaps, intuiting (and informing) Nick he met with George and worked a deal whereby George is given a new identity, and sent back out into the world with Lorena, to find cures for C-disease and the new variant, and to undo the horrible things that Cal Wilson and (by not recognizing what was going on) Nick, had set into motion. As for Deanna, she is in hiding as well, with real C-inducing virus she will release into populations of rich, important Whites if any new epidemics occur in poor, expendable diverse populations.  

Nick is determined to pay for his sins and be sure that ‘George’ officially dies in custody, a martyr, so that his books and scientific work is read by more people and immortalized.  Asking God and Father John to forgive him, Nick kills himself with a cyanide capsule, asking Father John to send Lorena and the kids to George.  And to affirm that he will die in a car crash officially in 24 hours, with a Will that gives all of his money to Father John, to do the Right thing with this time.

UTOPIA FALLS
Novel
MJ Politis and Punky Jennings

Extended Logline:  Utopia Falls, Wyoming, 1869, a new town in a new territory which attracts determined people from conflicting political ideologies, nationalities, races, ethnicities and genders, all wanting to create a Paradise resembling what they had at home, but with them on top this time.  Very much in the spotlight is the issue of giving women the right to vote, hold office and own property, along with whether Utopia will be run by profit-seeking Capitalists who believe in survival of the fittest, or service-oriented Democratic Socialist ‘Anarchists’ who want an ‘each gives according to their ability and takes according to their needs’ mandate as the only law enforced.   Orchestrating and studying the events behind the scenes is Harvard-educated ‘Doc’, an academically-altruistic James Spader-like intellectual who uses his position as the town doctor and his skills as a clever manipulator of people to set up interesting social experiments, intended to study human nature and create an ideal Enlightened society that he can show off to his family and friends back East.  But, Doc winds up becoming part of his own social experiment, suffering the consequences of the liberations he makes possible, then having to correct them by dealing with powerful adversaries he has made, basic human nature and complications originating from his own Wyoming-based family.  In 1921, this sole, now mad, remaining citizen of Utopia relates the tale of the noble experiment to a young female doctor/aspiring Western writer who is lured to the ghost town, who he hopes will set the record straight regarding Utopia, and the real history of Wyoming that the Dime Novels and Cowboy Movies do not dare reveal.         

Story:  The story begins in 1921, soon after woman’s suffrage is finally law across America. Melanie Hamilton, MD, a very progressive, smart and liberated physician and aspiring Western novelist and screenplay writer, is called away from her mostly pro-bono medical practice in California and ongoing frustrations trying to break into the writing world as a woman, by the death of her estranged High Society mother in New York. The last wish of Melanie’s self-centered, gold-digger, socially-conscious mother is for Melanie to visit a patient in a very locked and guarded Sanitarium in Denver, and present her with a picture taken 50 years ago, and honor whatever said patient wants her to do as her last request.  Two things are promised to Melanie in her mother’s will, delivered on her deathbed.  Doctor Mel will inherit large sums of her mother’s estate, and have access to information that will make her the most sought after writer in New York and California. The restrained, elderly and nearly dying patient ‘Marie’ defiantly denies that such is her real name, spitting on the picture of Melanie’s mother with whatever strength she has left, which is one of many reasons why Melanie develops a bond with the old woman.  “Maria” is unwilling to relate her real name, and requests, just as she is about to separated from Mel by the guards, that she goes ASAP to Utopia Falls, Wyoming, in order to retrieve her diary.  

Drawn to the request and the old woman in ways she doesn’t understand, the very urban oriented Melanie finds her way through the most uncomfortable transportation possible to a location where, she thinks, Utopia used to be located.  Guarding the somehow still-standing one-house ‘town’ that used to be a fair sized city from any ‘real world’ intruders or ghosts is ‘Doc’, an old Teslian-like madman inventor.  After seeing the faded 50 year old photo, and sizing up Melanie, he decides to not kill the young Doctor/writer but to relate the story of what happened there to her.  Melanie senses something familiar about ‘Doc’ and ‘Maria’.  She is determined to get a hold of Maria’s diary, but is disallowed the aforementioned until Doc finishes telling his side of the story about what Utopia was, and could have been, and currently is, very much in the first person.

Doc begins by relating how the town was established by a crazy, visionary, and genius in his own universe Canadian Mountain Man who wandered South in the late 1850s, ‘Beaver Whisperer’ Jean LeFevre, who claimed to have trained beavers to build dams in the river in locations he chose for them to his specification.  LeFevre expands his ‘everyone gives according to their abilities’ paradise for rugged individualists from a trading post into a real town, along with several traditional holidays and traditions established by the self-taught scholar Philosopher King, naming it Utopia Falls. After the Civil War ends in 1865, and LeFevre passes on to the big beaver dam in the sky due to mysterious causes, Utopia Falls is invaded by a wide variety of immigrants. They are from various races/ethnicities with conflicting agendas and ideologies (i.e., White Supremacist Capitalism vs. Democratic non-racial Socialism). They all seek to have what they had left (or lost) back home, but with them on top. Of course, as women  (who are outnumbered by men 1 to 8) still don’t have the right to vote, hold public office or own property, their attempts to climb up the totem pole are a lot harder.  Fueling and possibly preventing that attempt of Utopia to grow into a Paradise is grassland for cattle, soil for crops, liquor, hot loose women, gambling, coal, gold, silver, a new railroad system, and of course, the luring of suckers to Utopia thinking they will get rich off the above.  

The key post-Civil War residents of Utopia include ex-Confederate, former Georgia Aristocrat Colonel Joseph Adams, who cajoled, paid for and/or cheated his way into becoming Mayor of Utopia, bringing with him a Capitalist agenda where White Men, in charge of taking care of the inferior races and weaker gender.  His new wife, Sally Ann, widowed Mississippi Belle with four children, quietly tries to negotiate conflicts between powerful combatants with the aim of minimizing conflict and maximizing rights for the oppressed.  Firey and intensely intelligent schoolteacher Hanna Steiner, daughter of a German Freethinker, Socialist Revolutionary and active opponent of Slavery slain by the Confederate Home Guard in Texas for not joining ‘the Cause’, is determined to turn Utopia into a Democratic Socialist Community with equal opportunity or both genders and all races.  Lydia Thundercloud, half Blackfoot/half White misfit doesn’t fit into the White world or the Indian one, but is very much at home in the mind and arms or her lover, Hanna.  ‘Lord’ William Samuel Gunderson, sleazy English con man owns the Wildcat Saloon, and control of whatever legal and illegal trade goes through it.  Kitty, Gunderson’s most experienced prostitute, wants out of the profession but is stuck there because of many debts she owes and is unable to pay back due to drug and gambling habits.   Lilly, 17 year old pleasure-provider in the Wildcat, enjoys her work thoroughly and is becoming very addicted to the economic and social perks of it.  Alicia, Black hooker at the Wildcat is, for the moment anyway,  well paid for being an ‘exotic’ pleasure provider, as long as she keeps her mouth shut about the horrors of having been a slave as well as the rights of Afro-American men and women who are supposed to be Emancipated.   Negro Noah Winters, master cowboy and horseman, is well liked and well respected by all for that skill, but not for anything else.  Fat cat Oliver Walton, regional rep for the Union Pacific Railroad and the coal mines it now has a monopoly on, is well on his way to becoming far more powerful in position and wealth, through being a crafty businessman with politicos and cleverly-oppressive boss to his laborers.  Liam Casey, dirt poor Irish immigrant is a self-assigned Labor Union organizer, fighting for a respectable wage for his fellow Irish laborers. Wang Lee, scholar and doctor from China, had to flee his native land, and is currently an active advocate for lower class Chinese laborers as well as provider of herbs for anyone in need of them.  Sheriff Sean McDonald, current sheriff, faithfully carries out orders given to him by the higher ups, and when he can, is a helper to the oppressed.   Pancho Fernandez, former Sheriff of Utopia, was framed for murder and robbery, due to his Mexican roots, and dedication to doing the right rather than the legal thing. He is now an Outlaw hiding out in the hills leading a small Revolutionary Band dedicated to robbing from the rich and, most of the time anyway, giving to the poor.   Laundress/cleaner Catherine Mary Brady, homely, gimped, pathologically humble, semi-literate Irish immigrant is saddled with three hungry children, the burden made harder after the murder of her abusive husband by unknown parties (perhaps McDonald), who because of being a woman, is, by federal law. She is forbidden to inherit the homestead her husband owned, having to scrounge living in town, property-less.  Delfina Valdez, highly intelligent unmarried nurse/self-taught doctor, has been burdened with taking care of her younger siblings after her once rich Mexican parents were kicked out of Texas then California by the Anglos, but still believes that standing up for your rights by legal means is the only effective way to survive, and grow.  Her sister, Anna, is an Anarchist, actively fighting a losing battle against the White, Male, American establishment.  Immigrant Russian Jew Jakov Lazinski is valued by the community because of his ability to fix any broken machine, and invent new ones that can make WASP Christians money, but his defiant, super intelligent, independent and proudly Russian Jewish wife is ostracized by the community.  Then there is Pastor Horatio Johnson, old and bitter before his time 25 year old Fire and Brimstone Preacher who is laughed at by the free thinking populous and drives the fear of God into emotionally vulnerable parishioners. 

Then there is Doc, the narrator, through whom we get to know everyone else.  He comes from upper crust Boston blue blood stock, a Harvard educated physician and social scientist.  To pay the bills and establish a secure position in Utopia he doctors anyone who needs it. But his real aspiration is to become famous back East by manipulating the citizenry of Utopia into interactions they would not normally undertake, so he can assess human behavior and build an ideal society based on benevolence and intelligence, with the intent on publishing a Master book that will make him more famous than any European or North American social scientist, philosopher or psychologist. But his means to this noble end are not always ethical.  He routinely shares confidential truths about one patient with another, and sometimes turns them into half truths or lies (along with noting what they say when under the influence of his tongue-loosening formulated anesthetics) for the purpose of creating an ideal society in Utopia for his human laboratory subjects, and himself.        

We (and Melanie) are introduced to the aforementioned characters and Doc while they are in the middle of a ‘Surrender to Spring’ supper in 1869 where Doc is the head cook, server, and the organizer of who gets to sit with who, and whose dish gets to be sampled and criticized by selected people so as to pit one ideology against the other to see which one would naturally ‘win’.  The main ‘event’ is a heated, then vicious, philosophical debate between ‘benevolent’ White racist, still-Confederate Capitalist, male chauvinist Adams and Socialist, anti-Confederate, ant-racist, feminist schoolteacher Hanna Steiner.  The entire town gets drawn in as spectators then active sideline participants until Sally Ann tries to be moderator between her husband and the teacher of her children, then calms everyone down by singing Lorena, ‘touching’ Civil War song that both sides sung which was forbidden to be voiced because it warmed their hearts too much and took the ‘fight’ out of them.  But at the end of the music and dancing (where handsome, popular Sheriff McDonald invites a self-effacing, homely Catherine to dance with him now, and for many years to come) the men smoke the cigars and drink the whiskey while the women do the cleaning.  Joining the men, disrupting Doc’s experiment, is Ester Morris, old, ugly and dedicated ‘just passing through’ woman’s rights activist who challenges the men (Adams in particular) philosophically, then invites any women in town to come visit her in her hotel room during her temporary stay there.

The July 4th in-town rodeo that year, where the men show off their skills to each other and more importantly to the women folk, is unlike any other. Black as coal Noah Winters usually outshines any White cowboys in the ‘break a wildie horse in 5 minutes flat’ event.  But he has broken his leg in an equine accident, ignoring Doc and Delfina’s advice to have it amputated. He blames them for the limb getting worse, harboring an even worse grudge after seeing that the Doc had written him up in his ‘Theory of American Psychological Personality’ book.  The stallion to be tamed this year bucks off every man who tries to ‘hard break’ him, even Pancho Fernandez, who sneaks down from the hills as an Outlaw with a hefty price on his head.  The women in town, who are usually the handmaidens for the rodeo and who have all spoken with Ester Morris during her two day stay in town regarding women’s suffrage, right to own property and right to hold public office, collectively suggest a waiver to the men.  If any of the women can tame the wild stallion, the men have to live, dress and be treated as women for two days so they know what it is like to be a member of the oppressed gender.  If the chosen female rider gets thrown in the process, the women have to give special pleasures to the men for a month.  The bet is accepted by the overconfident men, who traditionally break horses using force and extreme restraint. Delfina volunteers to be the rider after secretly-scared Hanna tries to wiggle out of the deal after having picked the short straw.  Horse whisperer and Shamaness Thundercloud intervenes, using gentle tack/handling and spiritual prayer to calm the horse down before Delfina gets on.  Assisting her on is Doc, who, sneaks an herb into the steed’s mouth he gets from Wang Lee. The combination of Thundercloud’s gentle (and to some ‘witchlike) handling techniques, Delfina’s courage and Doc’s herb results in the wild stallion turning into a happily ridden horse.  

Having won the bet, the women have their day, or rather two days.  Men have to dress as, be treated as and live as subservient women for 2 days, while the women, literally, get to wear the pants in the Utopian ‘family’ as men.  Some men take in stride, becoming enlightened as to what it’s like to walk in someone else’s high heeled booties, very much including Sheriff McDonald.  Others, most particularly Walton, Adams, Gunderson and Pastor Johnson vow vengeance against the women, and their male ally, Doc.  But during the ‘switch gender’ parties and dances, Doc connects with self-made med student/Nurse Delfina emotionally, as well as professionally. 

In the aftermath of the bet the men lost, and which the women turned into the most interesting Social Experiment Doc was instrumental in starting, there is an understanding between the sexes that works for everyone.  Women are empowered and men are, far more than Doc thought, educated about human rights and empathy.  Violence and abuse against women is significantly down both in the homes and the brothels.  And cooperation between laborers of different races (Chinese, Black and White) reaches an all time high.  Yet, resentment and mistrust of Doc mount, particularly amongst the men in town, as well as a healthy respect for his ability to manipulate others.  The first Wyoming Territorial Assembly Meeting is set up, each town asked and required to send a representative.  The city council members, all of which are men, decide to vote Doc as the one to represent their interests in Cheyenne unanimously, Doc being the only one opposed to it. Doc is told that the best politician is one who doesn’t want the job, after which he is informed that fellow Utopians are on to him as someone who can’t be trusted to keep secrets secret, that they prefer, for medical and personal reasons, to be doctored by Delfina rather than him. The latter point pleases and intrigues Doc and as the honored position of being Utopia’s first Territorial Senator is an offer he can’t refuse, he accepts it.

But before being sent on his way, Doc has one official function to attend. In a gesture surprising everyone, Sheriff Sean McDonald, who could have any woman in the territory, marries Catherine Mary Brady, a widow who still is legally not allowed to inherit her dead, and probably murdered, husband’s homestead, a plot of arid rocky land which is barely ranchable and not farm friendly, but finally she has a home, legally.  Doc also finds out that Delfina is pregnant, something which makes him feel really good, but which Delfina is not so happy about, for reasons she doesn’t reveal. 

Once in Cheyenne, Doc discovers that he is indeed a master people manipulator in the political realm amongst liars, cheats and braggarts who call themselves representatives of the people.  But he does meet one honest man, William Bright, from South Pass City, who is there to propose a proposition that women get the right to vote, own property, hold public office and serve on juries.  As to the ‘why’ of it, Bright says that his wife convinced him to do so, after talking with Ester Morris.  Bright is of course cagy about any other events (i.e., possible cross dressing experiments) that initiated his conversion to the Feminist Cause.  Doc and Bright form an alliance and friendship.  The bill is shut down on first ballot, after the naïve Bright asserted the practical and altruistic reason to give women long denied basic rights.  During a recess in the lobby, Doc uses his unique people manipulating skills, informing his fellow testosterone-valuing males that the proposition will bring in more women to Wyoming.  Such would enable every man to have a wife, mistress and lover who he doesn’t have to share with anyone else, and would never have to settle for unattractive hags.  More women and potential wives would increase population in the resource-rich territory so it can become a very wealthy state.  And pleasing ‘the wives’ at home, who will naturally vote according to the wishes of their husband, doubling a husband’s effect at the poles.  Doc also informs the men that fresh women are needed in Wyoming at the brothels, as there is a new communicable disease going around, spread  by healthy, attractive female carriers which, if caught by men, will cause severe damage to their reproductive organs, eyes and brains.  The women’s rights bill passes, the official reasons being that it would draw in more population, enhance family values and provide new perspectives to a New Territory that will grow peacefully into sustainable prosperity.

While relating the aforementioned events to Melanie in 1921, in stages, Doc becomes more mysterious and dangerous to himself and others.  He shoots at ghosts, attacks Melanie, and tries to hang himself yet again.  Particularly when Melanie wants to find out who Doc, who has not revealed his name, really is.  And what the truth is behind the strange connection she feels she has with him, and ‘Maria’, who by now she figures out used to be Delfina.  But before Melanie can find ‘Maria’s’ diary, she is told more story, which she has to listen to, and learn from.

Wyoming becomes the first territory or state to give women the right to vote, hold public office, own property and serve on juries. Doc, due to the many things he did in Cheyenne which benefited Utopia regarding issues beyond women’s rights, is elected Mayor of the booming community, replacing a bitter and angry Adams.  Delfina takes over the clinic, aided by Doc supplying her with the best forged university degrees bearing her name that are buyable.   Doc and Melanie get married, officiated by the duly elected Justice of the Peace, Hanna Steiner, a union cursed by Pastor Johnson, claiming that they will give birth to a demon seed.   Doc looks forward to having a really big family, Delfina wanting no more than one child. And with even that one, Doc is told he has to take over 50% or more of the child-caring duties.  The wedding reception, which is supposed to be without hard liquor, gets raunchy due to Walton sneaking spiked booze into it so that his Chinese, Black and White laborers get drunk and begin fighting each other rather than banding against him and the other bosses.  The fist and knife fight is put to a stop by gunfire, from Pancho Fernandez, who rides into town, protected from arrest by twenty multi-racial Robin Hood bandits in the hills.  He drops off a wedding gift for Defina, Doc and the town---A copy of Das Capital, primer for Democratic Socialist Revolutionary ‘Anarchists’ who want to bring down the upper classes and elevated the lower ones.  

Several years pass by.  Utopia becomes richer and more populated.  Rich Capitalists battle with Democratic Labor socialists. White Christian Americans do whatever they can to see that only those ‘of their kind’ make it to the top of the new totem poles emerging.. Many ‘liberated’ White women become oppressors of other women on the basis of race, religion and nationality.  Delfina runs the medical clinic, Doc’s Mayoral duties as Enlightened (and often frustrated) Philosopher King taking up too much time for him to do medicine.  But he always has time for his daughter, Isabel, who he considers his most significant life accomplishment.  The 6 year old beauty is highly and, to some, frighteningly intelligent, preferring to be debated with rather than hugged, and ‘advises’ adults in Utopia with more wit and insight than even her father, resulting in her being liked and respected by nearly everyone.  Such pleases her head-over-heart White American father, and very much concerns her heart-over-head Mexican mother.  

Despite Doc’s intentions to educate Utopia and manipulate its citizens into doing the Right, Kind and Intelligent things, he still has many enemies.   He finds himself framed for the brutal murder of Kitty, head prostitute at the Wildcat who he, yes, did meet many times to help her form a Labor Union for pleasure-providing women in town, but who he never had carnal relationships with.  But there is heavy evidence against Doc, including love letters he never wrote (and is not allowed to see), a trustable eyewitness (who he is not allowed to know about so that no harm comes to that witness) and empty bottles of mind-altering drugs in the room of the dead courtesan.   Every member of the City Council seems to be behind his arrest, or has been convinced by some mastermind of Doc’s guilt.  They include political opponents Sheriff McDonald, ex-Major Adams, Wildcat Saloon owner Gunderson and Railroad tycoon Walton, as well as fellow People’s Revolutionary Democratic Socialists Irish Labor Leader Liam Casey, Chinese patriarch Wang Lee and Black as coal cowboy Noah Winters, and even self-made inventor/Jewish humanist Jakov Lazkinski.   

Doc’s solitary confinement without windows stay in the town jail prior to his guaranteed hanging is highly uncomfortable and mind altering.  His first visitor after 4 days is, despite his hallucinations, not the Grim Reaper but Pastor Horatio Johnson, who offers salvation to Doc if he repents his many sins, no doubt so that the ‘trial’ will be more spectacular.  Many of those sins involve Doc’s telling half truths and half lies to one person about another, and not keeping confidential things told to him secret, which Doc did thinking that it would make it a better town and model for an ideal society, but which Johnson did with his parishioners to put the fear for rather than love of God into them. Doc plays along with the self-deluded embittered young Pastor, until Johnson asks the Lord Above to forgive Doc for giving birth to a demon seed who is the incarnation of evil, namely Isabel.  Doc goes ballistic, attacking the ‘good’ Pastor with seemingly the intent to choke the life out of him.  McDonald and his deputies rescue the Johnson from Doc, now that they all have witnessed that the ‘good’ Doctor really is capable of murder.  McDonald then gives the urine soaked Pastor (who is supposed to have so much faith that he doesn’t fear death) money, for his services as ‘bait’.  

Doc’s next visitor is Delfina, who is convinced that he not only did the murder, but that he has been sleeping with Kitty and many other women behind her back.  She brings him a bowl of chili, as a last meal, never wanting to see him again.  The next visitor to the jail, as midnight approaches on his last day on earth, is Catherine Mary, Sheriff McDonald’s wife who Doc has treated many times for ‘falling down the stairs’ or being ‘kicked by a cow’ on the homestead where she lives with her clearly abusive new husband, who owns the property.  Property which Doc has seen dead bodies around as well as No Trespassing signs on while making house calls in the area.  Catherine, freshly bruised, brings with her an apple pie, offering it to her husband at the front desk, as an apology for being so difficult to live with at home.  When Doc sees this, he flippantly asks if he can have some of it.  Catherine turns around to Doc, blasting him for being a godless champion of undeserved rights for laborers, Indians, Blacks, Chinese, Mexicans and women, saying that the pie is for Real Americans like the Sheriff.  McDonald smiles with pride, now that Catherine has finally given up her defective idealistic political views.  To insure that he eats the pie, and accepts her apology, she puts the pastry on her breast, lying down on his desk, naked.  Several bites later, McDonald falls sleep into a very deep slumber.  Catherine grabs the keys to the cell and his gun-belt, throwing both to Doc, informing him about the whereabouts of Revolutionary Bandit Fernandez, who now will welcome him as a full time member of the Robin Hood Army rather than just a Doc who is brought there blindfolded to treat the wounded and sick.  Meanwhile, Doc sees Catherine grab the ownership papers for the land McDonald ‘owns’ (because he married her before women could legally inherit property), forging her signature on the deed/will, so she can now legally own the worthless land which is rich in oil.  When Doc asks what she will do, she says she is heading to Denver to retrieve her children from the ‘exclusive boarding school’ their step father has ‘put’ them so she obeys at home.  But McDonald wakes up, grabbing hold of Catherine, a knife to her throat.  Doc shoots McDonald, the first time he took a life, preventing him from killing Catherine.  Doc finds out that he enjoyed doing what was necessary and that he was a good shot, both being requirements for his new life as a Revolutionary bandit.   

Doc spends time as a physician/surgeon and warrior with Pancho Fernandez, working side by side with fellow misfits/rebels, including Delfina’s sister, Anna, who fights against the rich Anglos with a gun rather than a stethoscope.  The sometimes real and sometimes made up exploits of Doc as a vicious, murdering revolutionary bandit make it to the newspapers, and Wanted Posters. Meanwhile, Utopia has become a paradise for exploitative White Capitalist men who oppress the ‘lesser’ races and weaker gender, setting them against each other and making them broke, unless of course they fit in with the new very rich elite.  The people on top have learned well the art of dividing and conquering people on the bottom.  There’s help needed ad for new schoolteachers, Revolutionary Free Thinking Intellectual Hanna Steiner and her ‘witchlike’ Blackfoot lover, Thundercloud, have (according to the poster) ‘left the territory for another offer’.  Tasha Lazinski is still a free thinking, expressive, plainly dressed, multi-lingual Jew, who still honors her heritage, but less people listen to her than ever, even though her now well dressed husband Jakov has given up his Hebrew heritage and is as a highly paid inventor/genius machinist.

On one of Doc’s incognito visits to Utopia, as a woman, to case out a new bank to be robbed by now ‘General’ Fernandez’s army, he sees first-hand what has happened in the town he had guided towards relative Enlightenment.  Railroad tycoon Walton cuts wages for all of his workers, knowing that the Chinese under Wang Lee’s protection will work for the reduced pay but the Irish laborers, inspired by their leader Liam Casey, won’t stand for less pay for even more dangerous and back breaking work in the mines and on the rails, and are about to strike.  Walton sets up a table manned by very Federal troops who were ‘just passing through’ and new town deputies where any laborer who still wants work, can sign on for another shift.  Verbal debates then arguments between Chinese who need to work and Irish who refuse to begin. From the back of the crowd, gunshots are fired by a Deputy pretending to be a Chinamen, aimed at the Irish Strikers. An all out battle between Chinese and Irish commences, ‘broken up’ by armed soldiers, deputies and company guards, who leave a pile of dead and wounded laborers from both sides on the streets.  The whole thing is watched with delight from the Wildcat by a smiling Adams, Walton, Gunderson and now head pleasure-provider Lilly, and reluctantly by a well-dressed Lazinski, who Lilly is assigned to caress into compliance.  The ‘women folk’ are pushed away from the riot as they try to break it up, including White Sally Ann Adams, and Black demoted-to-floor-scrubber (and once well paid courtesan) Alicia.  However, Delfina defiantly comes back early from ‘coincidental’ house calls out of town, rushing in to do what she can for the wounded.  Happening to walk by is Isabel, called in by her mother to help the wounded.  Isabel begrudgingly assists her mother, but her talents do not include being a physician, which is painfully clear to Delfina, as well as to Doc, who must slither out of town before either of them recognize him and have him arrested.  

By now, Melanie in 1921 has figured out the Doc is her grandfather, Delfina is her grandmother, but can’t believe that Isabel is her now departed mother.  Diverting her from examining that latter possibility, Doc goes on with the story of the past.

A few more years go by, Doc rising up the ranks in Pancho Fernandez’ Robin Hood band.  After visiting a village of non-reservation Blackfoot where they drop off books to Hanna and Thundercloud to teach the kids about the Whites (and themselves), and guns to help them both hunt for whatever food is left in the wilderness as well as for their final perhaps victory fight against the Whites, Pancho confesses to Doc that he is dying, and that Doc should take over the band.  Pancho asks, rather than demands, that Doc spearhead a critical and perhaps final Mission that will bring down the big wigs in Utopia who have destroyed its moral fiber and turned it into a place where the rich oppress the poor.  Walton, Adams and Gunderson, the trio who run the town now, are putting on a grand over the top ‘buffalo’ hunt, inviting powerful investors and politicians from the East, and Europe, have the ‘Wild West’ experience while seeing how rich, industrialized and civilized Utopia has become.  Doc accepts the challenge to disrupt the proceedings, embarrass its hosts, and if possible, extract revenge for being framed for murder and made a hated stranger by his daughter and wife.  

After Fernandez’s death, not a whole lot of his army wants to follow Doc into this suicide mission.  But some do. Anna, Hanna and Thundercloud are his most reliable and motivated Revolutionary Comrades, along with no more than seven of his own gender.  The time and place for the ‘wild hunt’ is a valley accessible by newly built railroad where buffalo have been herded into corals with mobile noise-making machines Lazinski has invented and, paradoxically, sedating drugs which Doc had snuck into the mouth of the wild stallion during the men vs woman rodeo bet that started the women’s liberation movement 8 long years ago.  On the train, hosting rich and powerful investors/politicos are ‘future governor’ Joseph Adams and future owner of ALL of the Union Pacific lines Walton, being entertained by head Mistress Kitty, and waited on by ‘lower wenches’ Tasha Lazinski and Sally Anne Adams.  Most of the townsfolk have come out for the event, complete with bands on board the train blasting out inspiring patriotic anthems.  The train is well guarded, outgunning the handful of Revolutionaries atop the hill above by 30  to one. The buffalo herd waits in the pen, minutes away from being released into the ‘wild’ and slaughtered by the European and Eastern dignitaries.  But the head buffalo ‘speaks’ with his still defiant eyes to Doc, above, and Thundercloud, giving them an idea.

Doc orders his small band to put branches behind their horses, race around the hills above, and yell like ghosts, while shooting at guards troops, so as to look like an Army of demons  that will scare off their enemy below.  A trick that Adams pulled off many times when fighting superior numbers of Union forces.  The plan almost works, then falls apart, until Thundercloud yells out something to the head bison, and his herd.  The bison wake up from their stupor, but don’t know what to do with their regained consciousness, until the gate of the coral is opened, by Lazinksi, commencing a buffalo stampede on the train and its inhabitants, buying him a bullet from Deputies behind him.  The stampede sends panic into everyone on the train forcing it off the tracks and its inhabitants into a mad rush for survival.  The bankers and politicos get away, convinced that the valley is haunted by ghosts that are real, and thus a bad place for ANY investments.   Walton is not only embarrassed, but killed, by bison who run him into his own Iron Horse.  Adams is paralyzed from the neck down, and tended to by Doc, as he still does have a medical conscience.  He begs his ‘demoted’ (and recently battered by him) wife Sally Ann to put him out of his misery, and to forgive him.  She initially refuses, then gives in, shooting him in the head, then weeping over his dead body.  Lazinski calls for help, and is assisted by his wife Tasha.  When Doc goes to help the now on the right side of the fight inventor, Jakov tells him that ‘I’ll be alright’ and that ‘we’ (him and his now reunited wife) will be alright too, but that there is trouble brewing in town, that Doc should attend to, pronto, at the Wildcat Saloon.

Thinking that it is Delfina and Isabel who are in danger, Doc races to town.  At the Wildcat, he discovers the remnants of chains used to bring in and keep sex slaves.  One slave, with no shortage of fresh whip marks on the back,  is left in chains, who, when ‘she’ turns around is Gunderson.  Alicia appears behind him, giving her former boss another lashing.  She informs Doc that she drugged Gunderson, the new ‘Masser’, and liberated the girls he was about to enslave, or sell, and that they all took horses from the stable and are on their way to somewhere else.  Three of the girls however still remain in the Wildcat, one white, one Native and one Chinese. They put their chains back on, having been conditioned to being slaves and terrified of freedom, begging Doc to be their new Master.  Gunderson, meanwhile, in severe agony, begs for medical help or a bullet into his brain.  Alicia prepares herself to deliver the latter, but is prevented from doing so by a round from Noah Winter’s revolver as he hobbles in.  He proposed marriage to Alicia, even though, by her own admission, she is not only a Wanted woman now but a multiply violated one.  Noah and Alicia take on the job of liberating the souls of the still imprisoned women whose bodies are free. Doc asks where Delfina is.  Both of them look at each other, telling her that Doctor Delfina closed up her clinic for good recently, leaving no forwarding address.

Desperate for answers, Doc rushes to the clinic that had been his and which was carried on by Delfina.  It’s exactly as he left it, complete with his favorite drink, soft apple cider, on his desk.  Reading material awaits him at the desk, a letter in his handwriting to Kitty, admitting that he was her lover and telling her that he can’t be anymore because she is a worthless, lying, cheating piece of garbage who should kill herself if she has enough courage to do the right thing.  “I wrote other drafts, which maybe I should have found instead,” Isabel says as she slithers in from the adjacent room, showing him other ‘Dear Jane’ letters to Kitty, asking about how well the literary style of them are, after which she reveals how she ‘witnessed’ Doc giving her mind altering drugs, such as the one in the jar she present to him.  She then shows him her own book about human personalities, which is very much like Doc’s. Doc realizes that she was not only the one who masterminded his being framed, exiled, and accused of horrific crimes as a Doctor and outlaw, manipulating others in town into believing so many things that are not true, but that….she has become just as clever and manipulative as he ever was, but for different reasons.  When asked ‘why’, his more white than dark skinned Mexican daughter replies ‘I wanted to be a credit to my race and class, and not a disgrace to it like you were.”  Isabel also says that that putting Doc, her most valuable teacher, through everything he went through from being framed for Kitty’s murder was ‘an interesting experiment’.

Doc presses his now clearly evil possessed daughter into telling him where Delfina is. Isabel replies that her Mexican mother was getting off balance, due to her inferior genetic, bleeding heart idealistic morality and defective brain chemistry. Isabel accuses Delfina of giving quality care to the wrong patients and ineffective treatment to ‘deserving, hard working White capitalists’, most of that claim being lies of course.  But she assures Doc that her mother is in a safe and comfortable place now.   Where her deceitful mouth won’t tell any more lies that will cost ‘good’ White Christian Capitalist-supporting people any more harm. 

Doc raises his hand to Delfina, about to wack the answer as to Delfina’s whereabouts from her. But before he can do so, Isabel rolls up her sleeve, revealing self inflicted bruises saying that she already did what he was planning to do.  She then opens the clinic window, a signal for a well dressed rich Preacher, armed with a gun, to enter the room, pointing it at Doc so he wouldn’t hurt her anymore.  The good preacher’s wife comes in, her new step mom who she found after emancipating herself, asking if Isabel is alright.  Isabel’s new father thinks he recognizes Doc from a wanted poster, prepared to send him to his maker,   Just as Doc is prepared to meet the Deity he so much tried to serve but Who he could not make himself believe in, Isabel intervenes. She tells her new step Dad (the Capitalist Preacher) that her cruel father died two years ago.  And that Doc is a bum who broke into the clinic, whose best punishment is to be tossed into a manure pile as the piece of detritus that he is.  Doc is tossed out the window, into a pile of dung, as Isabel and her new parents leave town.   

Forward to 1921, Doc looks at and into the setting sun, conversing with the ghost of  a young and beautiful Delfina emerging from the mountain, as the old and tortured ‘Maria’ has just died.  The ‘solidly grounded in science and realty’ Doctor Melanie feels, hears and sees it also.  As to the whereabouts of Delfina’s diary, which Mel came out there to get, it is in her heart and mind.  To be put into print as a novel and screenplay for those who want to know the real story about the Old West, the Paradise that was once Utopia, and the people responsible for ending its life so tragically and early.   Doc walks to the ghost, becoming younger with each step, merging with his beloved, then disappears into the wind. A horse comes up behind the previously equine-fearing Melanie, summoning her to ride into the next town to continue her Mission, and life.

EX’s
Filmable stageplay, serio-comedic, fact based.

Extended Logline: To save himself from dying of a Dull Out Virus (a debilitating brain disease that is about to destroy his ability to be creative, and Alive between the ears) and the Hiding Disease (a disorder that disables one from seeing who/who you really were and are) a masochistic, workaholic pathologically ‘push-over’ writer-scientist-veterinarian (Malcolm) reconnects with ‘ex’s’ in his past whom he left and/or who left him, for the right and sometimes the wrong reason.  The characters from Malcolm’s past range from childhood friends who he took for granted (having been an idiot and an asshole) to male mentors/professors, to 12 women whose lives he complicated and/or made more interesting.   As Malcolm relates real stories from his past to the audience/camera, as he remembers them, the people he brings to life often inform the audience about the real facts, as well as acting out events that show the good, bad and tragic aspects of Malcolm’s past, and their own.        

Eternal life vs.….Life
Novel.  Futuristic.
MJ Politis, Ph.D., D.V.M. and Punky Jennings

Mildly Extended Logline:  2099, NewER York City and surrounded regions.  One can  transplant a Soul from a dying /painfully aging human into a synthetically-fleshed vehicle (robot) that never ages, but with a price. The Soul forgets much of who he/she was when in a biological human, and happily/obediently accepts orders from its new human ‘masters’, with marked losses in vitality.   But whether one (a) lives a short, struggle-filled, challenging, pain-containing and (in one’s own way) accomplished life ,who dies naturally, experiencing Wisdom and revealing Insights not possible at any other time than just before death to the still living, or (b) gets to experience an eternal, painless, challenge-less, comfortable, secure, mindlessly-happy, sedate uneventful life is not always left to the individual in question.  Particularly when the new Technological Masters (such as 30 something charismatic, superstar celebrity-scientist John Newmann) cajole, or force, humans with naturally induced or clandestinely afflicted disease to abandon their transient, painful, degrading biological flesh to become eternally young and happy synthetic fleshed citizens.  

Resisting the technological ‘gift’ of eternal, playful, revolution-phobic youth is Doctor-Researcher Ira Michael Michalovitch (Doc M/M), a still-active, defiant, intense 80 year old Bernie Sanders like revolutionary who has lived way past the age allowed by Newmann et al., and 30 years past the mandatory age of retirement for any human.  But M still has some clout he can use against a world where he is the oldest living real human.  He had spearheaded the transplant technology when he was a young man, pushing it ahead before it could move the Vitality portion of a human soul/mind into a robot body.  His youthful, always helpful, more procedural than Alive assistant, Doctor Olivia, a synthetic fleshed human who can’t recall nor doesn’t care about her previous human life as his once vibrant and musical wife (who he saved from an internally painful coma), is constantly trying to get M to give up the Cause of trying to (a) find the means and clandestine location to transplant Souls trapped in dull out disease infested forever-young robot bodies back into transient, mortal, human ones, and (b) to convince humans to resist transplantation into robot bodies.  

M tries to humanize Olivia so she is awakened to her idealistic, revolutionary, Passion-loving life before transplantation, so she can become the first of many robot-trapped , devitalized souls to be returned to a real human body.  But altruistic virtues such as love, artistic creativity and intelligently-directed compassion are not all that become activated in Olivia.  Jealousy, the yearning for professional advancement , and growing affections for Newmann emerge in robot Olivia. Particularly when M falls in love, yet again, with Svetlana, a spy for the viciously-hunted Underground that wants to stop the robotization of human souls and liberate all robot-trapped souls, whether they want to be or not.  

Enter into the picture, Ivan, Svetlana’s Revolutionary ‘so two centuries ago’ Cossack husband, self-appointed leader of the Underground, who has a big price on his head, and no problem farming his wife out as a whore to important people to get info for the Cause.  And Angela, a genius-angelic child who ‘by chance’ is rescued by M and Olivia from Newmann and his goons, reminding M of the daughter who was killed by State Funded Cultists when he was a young, loving father, on the night that his wife Olivia was put into a coma after an unexpected vehicle ‘accident’.

A winner take all battle between masochist Revolutionary M and pragmatically state of the art Newmann takes place, which will decide if (a) science is to serve humanity or (b) if humanity will continue to serve science, and the presumably ‘human’ scientists who have now become more powerful than any kings, presidents or generals in the pre-robot previous centuries.             

More Extended Logline: The year, 2099, NewER York City and surrounded regions.  One can easily transplant a Soul from a dying or painfully aging human into a synthetically-fleshed vehicle (robot) that never ages, but with a price. The Soul forgets much of who he/she was when in a biological human, and happily/obediently accepts orders from its new human ‘masters’, with marked losses in vitality and creative expression.   But whether one (a) lives a short, struggle-filled, challenging, pain-containing and (in one’s own way) accomplished life ,who dies naturally, experiencing Wisdom and revealing Insights not possible at any other time than just before death to the still living, or (b) gets to experience an eternal, painless, challenge-less, comfortable, secure, mindlessly-happy, sedate uneventful life is not always left to the individual in question.  Particularly when the new Technological Masters (such as 30 something charismatic, superstar celebrity-scientist John Newmann) cajole, or force, humans with naturally induced or clandestinely afflicted disease to abandon their transient, painful, degrading biological flesh to become eternally young and happy synthetic fleshed citizens.  

Resisting the technological ‘gift’ of eternal, playful, revolution-phobic youth is Doctor-Researcher Ira Michael Michalovitch (Doc M/M), a still-active, defiant, intense 80 year old Bernie Sanders like revolutionary who has lived way past the age allowed by Newmann et al., and 30 years past the mandatory age of retirement for any human.  But M still has some clout he can use against a world where he is the oldest living real human.  He had spearheaded the transplant technology when he was a young man, pushing it ahead before it could move the Vitality portion of a human soul/mind into a robot body.  His youthful, always helpful, more procedural than Alive assistant, Doctor Olivia, a synthetic fleshed human who can’t recall nor doesn’t care about her previous human life as his once vibrant and musical wife (who he saved from an internally painful coma), is constantly trying to get M to give up the Cause of trying to (a) find the means and clandestine location to transplant Souls trapped in dull out disease infested forever-young robot bodies back into transient, mortal, human ones, and (b) to convince humans to resist transplantation into robot bodies.  

M tries to humanize Olivia so she is awakened to her idealistic, revolutionary, Passion-loving life before transplantation, so she can become the first of many robot-trapped , devitalized souls to be returned to a real human body.  But altruistic virtues such as love, artistic creativity and intelligently-directed compassion are not all that become activated in Olivia.  Jealousy, the yearning for professional advancement , and growing affections for Newmann emerge in robot Olivia. Particularly when M falls in love, yet again, with Svetlana, a spy for the viciously-hunted Underground that wants to stop the robotization of human souls and liberate all robot-trapped souls, whether they want to be or not.  

Enter into the picture, Ivan, Svetlana’s Revolutionary ‘so two centuries ago’ Cossack husband, self-appointed leader of the Underground, who has a big price on his head, and no problem farming his wife out as a whore to important people to get info for the Cause.  And Angela, a genius-angelic child who ‘by chance’ is rescued by M and Olivia from Newmann and his goons, reminding M of the daughter who was killed by State Funded Cultists when he was a young, loving father, on the night that his wife Olivia was put into a coma after an unexpected vehicle ‘accident’.

A winner take all battle between masochist Revolutionary M and pragmatically state of the art Newmann takes place, which will decide if (a) science is to serve humanity or (b) if humanity will continue to serve science, and the presumably ‘human’ scientists who have now become more powerful than any kings, presidents or generals in the pre-robot previous centuries.         

Twilight of the Possibly Immortals	(Mortaldammerung)
 60 min drama with MANY comedic moments.  And novella.
Logline:  Genius Visionary composer Richard Wagner is awakened in Purgatory a century and a half after his death in the 1880s, his Mystical Enlightenment-inducing Music set to be forgotten for the rest of recorded time unless he can answer for charges of inciting WWII with his anti-Semitic writings, intense connection to the best/most intense elements of German culture, his secret LGBT life and other transgressions which were part of his unique Creative Process.
 
Synopsis:  After passing due to a heart attack in the 1880s, Richard Wagner remains asleep outside of a Medicine Wheel in 2020  ‘Purgatory’, a light projecting/accepting circle of luminescent rocks which is a porthole to Heaven (or Nirvana or Valhalla),  Hell or another lifetime to work out karma or fulfill further dharma  Wagner’s-Spirit inspired overtures have led pilgrims leaving their body to the Wheel, and to various Heavenly locations afterwards as they connect man/woman and Spirit if you listen to them deeply enough.  Wagner’s assigned ‘Guide’ to the afterlife  is a First Nations Shaman comes by to wake him up, on schedule, getting a message on his cell phone. He is also a Jew, assigned as a defense lawyer for Wagner’s upcoming trial.  The accusation:  He incited WWII through his promotion of German Culture in the Arts, and anti-Semitic writings and, according to some critics, operas.   If he is convicted, Wagner will go to Hell, or worse, Jewish hell, which is having whatever Great Deeds you did in life forgotten forever, or discredited.  

The trial takes place in a courtroom, where Wagner vehemently claims that his anti -Jewish sentiments and grudges against those who happen to be Jewish was never intended to encourage persecution of Jews, but to convince Jews to smarten up spiritually and discard their defective religion and cultish habits.  Indeed, Wagner claims that he seeks through his very expressive and hyper intense music to liberate humanity from ALL Mind-restricting and Spirit-sedating religions.  And that he seeks to liberate women and men from loveless marriages and ‘samo-samo’ normal ‘lifeless’ self-restricting lives, his justification for having affairs with married women when he was alive.   Ideologically, he believes in liberating the German people so that they can reach their full artistic and creative potential, but not that they should conquer the world, which was the Vision of the Democratic Socialist Revolution of 1848 in which he participated, and as a result of such, had to go into exile in Switzerland for 12 years.   The prosecuting attorney in the trial which now brings multiple charges against the very expressive, creative and self-confident Wagner, is a straight laced Russian, who wants to see Richard fry for being Hitler’s favorite composer and theological idol, who invaded and nearly destroyed the Soviet Union.  Said prosecutor is also a promoter of modern conformist society, which despite its liberal façade, wants to keep the public happy, contented, non-expressive, and security seeking, so that people do not initiate political, social or artistic revolutions.   The judge is none other than Richard’s first wife, Minna, who refused to join him when he dedicated himself to participating in the 1848 Revolutions, and who encouraged him to write ‘safe’ operas that don’t offend sensibilities or challenge ‘normal’ society perspectives.  She has an axe to grind against him for leaving the loveless marriage and eventually tying the knot, legally, with Cosmina, his passionate, socially committed second wife.   Always around, carrying out the orders of the court, when he is watched anyway, is a Stoner Slacker Metalhead Balif, wearing a horned Viking helmet, carting around a spear.  No one listens to the Bailiff, nor takes him seriously, including Wagner.

Three things Richard hides, from the ‘jury’ of history, as well as his own lawyer, are the real reasons for his anti-Semitic writings, a gay affair with his primary funder King Ludwig, and his habit of having been a secret cross dresser, which he feels the most shame about.   Amongst the witnesses hammering the nails into Richard’s coffin, with him being sent to hell and his music being made to be forgotten, is Adolf Hitler.  He is accompanied by Wagner’s grand-daughter, who visited Adolf while he was in jail and who praises her grandfather for writing music that inspired her and Adolf to found Nazism.  Wagner states that he never approved of pre-Nazis in his lifetime and his active distain for the Nazis who emerged 50 years after his death.   Minna lays the final accusation against Wagner---his being intense, different and being obsessed with liberating humanity, which is happiest in comfortable chains of ignorance and mediocrity.

During a critical recess, Richard is kept in a holding cell, where the lovably comedic Bailiff shows him how various people have acquired his music and used it towards their own ends, including Buggs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.  Wagner doesn’t mind Flight of the Walkurie being converted into ‘Kill the Wabbit’ lyrics, and takes a liking to Buggs, until he sees the cartoon male character in drag, singing one of his arias with altered lyrics.  The naïve, kind and hungry for real information, and respect, Bailiff brings up references in Wagner’s operas that are claimed to be anti-Semitic, which he discredits.  But Wagner can’t deny the writings about Jews which he did put into print.  Thinking that the Bailiff is not going to be listened to by anyone, Wagner admits that his hatred of Jews is based in snooty Jewish gatekeepers in the French Music world who ridiculed him in his early career for being intense but not refined or ‘cool’.  Also, Wagner relates that he was born in a Jewish quarter, to a father who abandoned him.   But Wagner hides his being gay and a cross dresser, despite the fact that the seemingly brain dead Bailiff reminds Wagner that he should be who he is, not anyone else, advise the composer gave the Bailiff when he was ‘down’ on himself earlier during the conversation in the cell.

Back in the courtroom, the Prosecution in cahoots with the Judge blow up Richard’s infidelity in his first and second marriage as character flaws which required persecution.  They also bring in King Ludwig, who lovingly hugs Richard, as he was in love with the Visionaries music and the man.  As to what to tell the court about it, the Balif comes in as a female shield maiden, suggesting to Wagner that it was a good and necessary thing for him to embrace and express the female side of his soul so he could be an effective artist.  Bringing up another accusation of such is one of Wagner’s most valued friends, a French novelist, poetess and singer, who does admit to helping Richard order female clothing that would suit her well, during and after the time they had an affair.  Wagner finally ‘man’s up’, admits to being a cross dresser and gay, as a necessary part of his Creative Process.  He also discovers, and expresses, his reason for promoting German Culture.  He asserts that in his time, the Fire and Intensity of the Liberation promoting German Spirit was in danger of being extinguished by mediocrity-loving, ‘flowery’ cultures around it.   And that the Core of all cultures must be preserved and expressed, somehow, including the First Nations Culture (which Germans very much embraced and helped promote), Russian culture and even, as long as it doesn’t rule the others, Jewish cultures.  The final judgment is due to come in, but it doesn’t come from the judge.  The real ‘boss’ of the courtroom, and Purgatory, is the Bailiff.  With a voice that is intelligent, colorfully expressive and kind, the cross-dressed Bailiff dismisses the two lawyers and the judge, informing Wagner that judgment from ‘above’ has been rendered to Richard.  Because he is very Creative and dedicated, Wagner is not sentenced to hell but to another lifetime on earth, as an artist whose work will innovate humanity, but only after he dies, because he will be disliked by gatekeepers in a Jewish dominated entertainment industry.  BUT, the Bailiff snuck in a perk for Wagner.  He gets to be a woman in this next lifetime, unburdened from hiding his Core sexuality. 

After Richard is sent on his way to the next incarnation, the Bailiff turns to us, challenging us to pass judgment….on ourselves. 

THE REAL ABDs and Zs of INDEPENDENT FILM MAKING
A terse yet colorful and useful manual about how and why to do meaningful/fulfilling independent film production for very little money, and with a lot of Passion.