In much the same way as I never considered being a poet, I never considered being a screenwriter. My dreams of being a writer always centred around the kind of writing I knew best: the novel. It wasn't so much that I actively discounted journalist; playwright; TV dramatist; etc; etc - I simply didn't think about them at all.
That started to change when I met Colleen Patrick, who was to become my screenwriting partner. When I first disclosed my desire to write she became a source of inspiration and active encouragement. One of the ways she did that was, over a period of some years, to share examples of her work with me. Work that included short stories, novels and screenplays.
I found the screenplay format very strange at first, but after reading several examples it soon became familiar. At that point though, I still was not tempted to try and write something in that format. I was focussed on my novel.
Then in 2004 the BBC announced a new writing competition - "End of Story" - which I decided to enter. By now it was standard practice for Colleen and I to send rough drafts to each other for proof reading and constructive criticism. After reading my first draft End of Story submission, she mentioned in passing that it would make a good screenplay.
Several months later when the competition results were in, and I hadn't won, she reminded me of her suggestion. After a short bout of email ping-pong we finally agreed to draw up a partnership agreement and turn the short story into a movie. About a year and a great deal of writing and rewriting later, "Train of Reckoning" was complete:
Gordon is a cold-blooded, cold-hearted hit man with a taste for high living who grows a conscience after his beautiful young wife falls pregnant with their first baby. But it’s too late... fate has already fingered Gordon for an horrific reckoning.
With the script completed in May 2005 we started to look for a producer. So far we've had a lot of interest, a lot of emails, an outline budget, a series of suggestions for actors to play the four main characters, a palette, some location scouting...but a year on and we don't appear to be any closer to finding a legitimate bona-fide producer than we were this time last year. Frustrating, but that's showbiz I guess!
Since there's not much more we can do with Train of Reckoning, Colleen and I began to toss ideas around for sequels. The first sequel is an unexpectedly twisted extension to the original story, picking up the plot twenty years later. The outline for this screenplay is complete and the script itself is about 50% finished. The second sequel is still at outline stage. It retains the moral message of the first two films but once again takes the story in a new direction. We are pretty certain that three films is the limit for these characters and we have no plans for a fourth in the series.