I Win!

I am now officially an award-winning screenwriter. Andromache won the 2008 CSU Media Festival's Rosebud Award for a feature screenplay and the Best Screenplay Award from my university in one sweep, earning me a glass award, checks, a t-shirt, and much pride and praise from my university. This is wonderful news and I am so very proud. However I was very hesitant to post this information publicly. Why?

I'm shy about sharing this big news because I don't want to be a braggart, I don't want to appear to think too highly of myself, I don't want to seem "better than" anyone else. And so I almost didn't share this news. If you've noticed, in the past, I have made the deflective attempt to hide the news of my successes as muttered sentences at the ends of posts, like this one, and in humorous musings, like this one.

But then last night I came across this article in Bitch Magazine, called "The Ambition Condition: Women Writing and the Problem of Success." So yes, here I am, no longer falling into the trap of disparaging my work and/or accomplishments before I even share them. I am so proud of my script and my success, and, um, hell yes I have ambition with my writing.

Yesterday I came to meet with my screenwriting professor to talk about my current script, but instead he was so happy that I'd won that he wanted to talk about my award. He looked it up on the festival's website and grinned. "I think you're more excited about this than I am!" I joked.

"You don't realize what a big deal this is," he replied. "I feel like we should have people carrying you around on a chair. This is the Day of Kellie Rice!" Bless his heart! True to his word, he suddenly said, "You know what? Come with me."

I followed him out of his office with a laugh. "Where are we going?"

"I'm going to show you off."

We made our way through the building and he introduced me to the department chair who said that they were going to put my name up on the marquee, and that she was so proud. "I'm proud to make you proud," I answered. We then cut across campus to see the dean, stopping to introduce me to any of the other screenwriting professors or people my teacher knew along the way, then checked with the secretary and went in to see the dean. He was also very happy and took my picture a few times for the school's website. Apparently no one just walks in to see the dean, but my teacher often needs to run production issues by him so his co-workers are jealous of his privileges.

After the parade, we went back to his office and discussed the game plan for using the momentum of both of these wins to seriously secure the attention of an agent. In a moment I need to go rewrite my query letter to send out again with the information on these new awards I've earned.

The attention and praise has been delightful yet overwhelming! Here's to hoping that it's just the start of Andromache's success! This is the first time anyone from our university has won, and it was a good year for our school -- most of the other finalists were also from my university, along with the film that won the Audience Choice Award!

To change topics back to what I was discussing last week about the unfairness of Prop 8, check out this eloquent, heartfelt commentary by NBC's Keith Olberman, whose political criticism has always inspired me with its candor and passion.



On yet another side note... I've recently set sitemeter up on this blog. That means that I can see how many hits and visits Moldy Pumpkin gets, how long people stay, etc. I have two regular commenters (yay!) and several friends who also follow this blog (then make fun of me to my face rather than leaving comments!) however... there is no way that I have enough friends for this blog to be averaging 17 visits per day and 117 visits this week.

Which leads me to my question of.... who are you people?!

And just to be even more random, check out our new video poking fun at the insane teenaged fans of the Stephenie Meyer series, Twilight:

Breaking Afternoon: What Twilight Fans Look Like to Everyone Else

And in case you're thinking this video is a little extreme... trust me. It's tame in comparison to reality. Seriously. Just... wow. And apparently this is happening wherever this poor guy goes. I hope he gets a secret service contingent! Someone might shoot garlic at him or something one of these days.

And here's today's music selection. Lately I've been into Evanescence's early music, such as this beautiful song, "Before the Dawn."

"Before the Dawn"

theincrediblemo -- I need to check out those pictures, I'm sure they're awesome! :D

mackenzie's momma -- Wow. Your "friend" was probably just responding to an immediate emotional reaction of disappointment, but um, as you said, being a grown-up means not acting on those feelings, even if you have them. I'm sorry. That's really lame. And you have every right to be elated. This truly is an historic dawn.