I submitted a screenplay to Scriptapalooza today. See scriptapalooza.com. The first deadline is Friday the 5th. The real deadline is April 15. I think first prize is $10,000, but the main thing is that real Hollywood industry people read all of the scripts, so maybe even if you don't win the contest you might still have your screenplay optioned or bought and made into a movie.

My screenplay is called Slight Detour. [Ended up being called Operation Detour.] The novel/novella version (Kindle version here or paperback version here) was panned by one brother (harshly, but I don't care) and one sister; given faint praise by my wife and her sister; and actually liked by my Dad and another sister.

I almost forgot, I also submitted that version to Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award competition last month. I didn't even make the top 1000 submissions in that one. 🙂

When I saw that all of the judges were women, I knew I didn't have a chance. My story is geared toward guys, regular guys, not intellectuals and especially not pseudo-intellectuals (like that brother). So, I reworked it a little bit, especially the beginning, changed things around, added/deleted here and there and, voilà, it's a screenplay!

I don't expect it to win, I'm just hoping to get noticed (in a good way). They don't announce winners until August 15, so I'll probably have completely forgotten about it by then. 🙂