THE ART OF STORY, THE CRAFT OF SCREENWRITING AND MORE

To my regular readers… please forgive me. I have been AWOL from this blog for far too long. I do have three really good reasons… I’ve been writing for a living, cooking up three new projects I’m very excited about and… oh yes… finishing this movie called The Shunning which premieres Saturday, April 16, 8 Central/9 Pacific, on the Hallmark Channel.

So I’m back to blogging to first do some shameless self-promotion. I hope you’ll have a chance to tune in. Michael Landon, Jr., and I have returned to Beverly Lewis’ world of the Amish one more time. We first journeyed there for Saving Sarah Cain a few years ago. That movie continues to have a loyal audience on Lifetime. This time, we’ve adapted Beverly Lewis’ first book in her long, New York Times best-selling career.

The Shunning tells the story of Katie Lapp, a young Amish woman who discovers on he eve of her wedding that she was adopted from outside the Amish faith, and that her “Englisher” biological mother is searching for her. The discovery so “ferhoodles” her that she walks out on her wedding and goes through an identity crisis before finally coming to peace with her situation. It’s the first of three books in The Heritage of Lancaster County series. The film stars Danielle Panabaker as Katie Lapp and Sherry Stringfield as her biological mother, Laura Mayfield. We’re hoping for some solid ratings so that Hallmark will want us to adapt the next two sequel novels into films. (If you’re interested in reading the novel, a special “movie edition” is being released on April 16 — the same day as the premiere.

Anyway, please enjoy this short behind-the-scenes documentary about the film, and let me know what you think of The Shunning if you have a chance to watch it.  If you don’t, not to worry, I’ll be hitting you up to get the Sony DVD when it releases in September. Like I said… Shameless.