Summertime and the Living is Not-So-Easy

It comes every year.  I've warned you about it before.  It's almost here.  Merely days away.  After this weekend, you and I are looking straight at it, right into the eyes of that dreaded beast.  

What is it, you ask?  The June slowdown.  Nearly all of television is on hiatus and the army that runs it is out of dodge for the next month and a half.  Stars and above-the-line-crew are on fancy vacations in the tropics.  Casting directors are enjoying much needed rest away from the hectic office.  Agents are taking their first deep breath since pilot season started and exhaling to evaluate their client lists, making cuts and gearing up for the cycle to start over again.  (Fortunately for me, I don't think I'm in any danger, but I guess you never know.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.)

This is the time of year that those of us who don't work enough to really need a vacation find ways to keep busy during the break.  We catch up on sleep and seek out hobbies to keep our subconscious minds from doing that thing we all inevitably do this time of year... freak out and worry that the reason it feels slow is because our careers are falling apart and we'll never work again.  (Have you been reading this blog long enough to figure out that this is a reoccuring theme in my life?)  The only saving grace is that feature film production tends to pick up a little in the summer, so it's a good time of year to get on a project and ride it all the way to Cannes or Tribeca or SXSW.  

It is also the time of year that coffee shops start to fill up with wannabe screenwriters out-of-work actors trying their hand at producing their own material.  I'm no exception.  I guess someone has to be the cliche... I write to you from one of my favorite little neighborhood spots.  I've had an incredibly successful and momentous first half to the year, so in an effort to keep the irrational self-doubt at bay, I'm putting my extra audition-free daylight hours into something I've wanted to do for a long time.  I have a couple screenplay ideas swimming around in my head, and I did win a "most promising young writer" award about a million years ago, so I've decided to stop thinking I should and just do.  Even if none of it sees the light of day and it ultimately becomes just a creative outlet during the June slowdown, I'll try my hand at a little FADE IN/FADE OUT action.

Waiter, another latte please!!