By Guest Blogger Tanya Wright
www.butterflyrisingthemovie.com
I have been acting since I was seventeen (my first job was as Theo’s girlfriend on The Cosby Show!) but, the truth is, I was writing before I was acting. Yes. Writing was my first true love, and it has always been a dream of mine to write books and movies. Now, granted, I always thought my first book-writing experience was going to come when I was, say, sixty years old. When I was done with Hollywood and after I retreated to a castle in Italy, surrounded by butterflies and dogs, where I went to the farmer’s market every Saturday to buy fresh fruits and vegetables for the week. Alas, I birthed a book years before I thought I would! Wrote and directed a movie, too! My dreams had come true.
Rose and Lilah Belle– the two women from my debut novel– BUTTERFLY RISING— leave their tiny town, steal a vintage truck and set out on the open road to meet the mystical Lazarus of the Butterflies, a legend who can help “heal you and make your dreams come true.” Dreams are clearly a recurring theme in my life. I am a firm believer that DREAMS CAN AND SHOULD BE MADE REAL—they don’t have to be these ‘out there,’ ethereal things you only daydream about when you find yourself with an extra few minutes during your busy day. And they can earn you money, too. You CAN make them your job and not just your hobby! Fancy that! Ha!
But dreams are never made real alone. There are lots and lots and lots of folks who come along the journey to help you. Because of the time it would take to publish my book conventionally (plus the fact that I am an aggressively, do-it-yourself, independent sort), I decided to self-publish. After looking at all the self-publishing companies that are out there (and there are a lot! Oy!) I decided to go with CreateSpace, Amazon.com’s self-publishing company. The folks there are great and the process of creating my book from start to finish—from book cover design to copyediting– was seamless! Also, you can’t make a movie without money (well, you can, but…why make something that’s hard even harder! Oy!). I am deeply indebted to my investor, Wil Colom, for writing a check to help make my dream real. There are many, many people who came to my aid along the way– my movie crew, The Film Collaborative (a non-profit company in Los Angeles)– and countless others. No one has a dream and makes it real alone. No one.
Which is why I am so happy to announce an exciting contest on my FB page! Next week, I’ll announce a contest where I WILL HELP YOU MAKE YOUR DREAM REAL. Do you have a creative dream you’ve been dying to make real but just haven’t been able to for—whatever reason? The winner of the contest (which will be chosen by the community based on the number of ‘likes’ your dream gets) will have a private, one-hour consultation– with me– to strategize on how to MAKE YOUR DREAM REAL (I’ll also thrown in an autographed copy of BUTTERFLY RISING! to the lucky winner) I discovered I LOVE giving things away for free:)
Now, I’ll warn you. I’ll help you strategize, but MAKING DREAMS REAL takes A LOT OF HARD WORK BY THE DREAMER. Are you willing to work hard? Identify what motivates you to STAY FOCUSED. Are you willing to sacrifice creature comforts for an indefinite amount of time? MAKING DREAMS REAL is like having a new year’s resolution: lots of folks have good intentions to, say, lose 20 pounds on January 1, but when March 3 rolls around, are they still on the treadmill? Most of ’em ain’t, sorry to say, and thus the dream is never made real.
Whether you enter our Facebook contest or not, I love to connect with folks! There are many ways to communicate, depending on which one works best for ya:
FACEBOOK: Probably the best real-time way to get info on Butterfly Rising. It’s also where we’re gonna hold the contest! Yeah! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Butterfly-Rising/166995178653
WEBSITE: here’s all the info about Butterfly Rising—book, movie and all its forms… www.butterflyrisingthemovie.com
TWITTER: If you like to send and receive info in short chunks, check me out @tanyaTTwright https://twitter.com/tanyaTTwright
EMAIL: butterfyrisingthemovie@gmail.com.
That is all.
Hope to see you there!
Tanya 🙂
Tanya Wright plays the role of Deputy Kenya Jones on HBO’s TRUE BLOOD. Her self-published debut novel (via CreateSpace) is called BUTTERFLY RISING; it was deemed one of the ‘five finest debut novels of 2010’ by the prestigious Brooklyn Book Festival. Tanya also wrote and directed the film version of the movie that will make its way onto the film festival circuit in summer, 2011. Tanya was a semi-finalist in the Nicholl’s Screenwriting Competition (AMPAS) and a fellow at the Mark Taper’s Blacksmyth’s Playwrighting Program.