July 2021: The Shepherd, a feature horror-Western in Navajo, was accepted into Cine Qua Non Lab 2021 Script Revisions.
May 2021: a screenplay I am working on with Jorge Sermini, a feature-length thriller, Niña Buena, Niña Mala (Good Girl, Bad Girl), was accepted into the Cine Qua Storylines lab! This lab designed for narrative feature film projects from early concept to treatment stage.
July 2020: Another market for one of my projects! The Shepherd is an official selection for the Frontières Fantasia International Co-Production market. The Market showcases 20 genre-focused projects in development (10 European and 10 North American) which are presented to a large and diverse group of prominent industry professionals (producers, financiers, sales agents, distributors). Normally happening in Montréal, this year the market will be virtual, due to the pandemic. Read more about our project and others here: https://frontieresmarket.com/en/coproduction-market/2020
May 2020: Niña Buena, Niña Mala (Good Girl, Bad Girl) was selected for the 16th Annual NALIP Latino Media Market. NALIP stands for National Association for Latino Independent Producers. The Latino Media Market is held annually and brings its fellows into a forum where they can meet other industry reps in order to usher their projects into the completion.
October, 2019: a screenplay I co-wrote, The Shepherd, a period supernatural horror film, was a semifinalist in the 2019 Slamdance Screenplay Competition in the Horror category! The script was in the top 31 out of over 4000 scripts submitted.
August, 2019: Good news for Good Girl, Bad Girl (Niña Buena, Niña Mala)! The script advanced to second round judging for Sundance 2020 Development Track, and was in pre-selection for the Hubert Bals Fund.
October 27, 2017: My novel-in-progress, Song of the Nightshade, is a semi-finalist in the 2017 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition. This is a historical fantasy set in Prohibition Era New Orleans.
October 16, 2016: My feature romantic comedy Dear Gina, Wish You Were Here, Love Jesús, won “Best Romance” at the 7th annual Oaxaca Film Festival in Oaxaca Mexico! Wish I could have been there, but jobs and aerophobia kept me here at home writing. My filmmaking partner, Jorge Sermini, was able to attend on my behalf.
October 4, 2016: Yellow Bird Editors runs a bi-annual first page contest, where writers can submit the first page of what they are working on. This fall, Song of the Nightshade, one of my novels-in-progress was a finalist! This is historical fantasy set in New Orleans during the 1920s.
September 7, 2016: I’m super happy to have one of my feature scripts, Dear Gina, Wish You Were Here, Love Jesús, win Best Romance at the 7th annual Oaxaca Film Festival in 2016. It competed this year in three categories: Best Overall Script, Best Original Concept, and Best Romance. My filmmaking partner, Jorge Sermini, traveled down to represent the script. He went last year when my script How to Eat Pho was accepted into the film festival, although it did not compete.