Annmarie Morais

I’ve known this beauty many years.   We met at York University.  I was majoring in Creative Writing (Playwriting and Screenwriting).  She was majoring in Film Production.  We met in Science and the Environment.  You read that correct.  Science and the Environment.  It was one of those elective courses we all had to take in our first year.  I hated it and got my lowest mark  in 4 years of university (C+).

And yet, if it wasn’t for Science and the Environment, I would have never met Annmarie Morais.  Our lives would have been different.  Suffice to say, we have been pretty much inseparable since that first day in Science and the Environment (an important topic I might add!).  When my sister and I moved in with my brother in an apartment building across from York, Annie also moved into that same block of apartments.  When I graduated from York and my sister and I moved into a new apartment in a different part of the city, Annie lived 5 minutes away in a basement apartment of an old Jewish woman.  She was always nearby…but even when she wasn’t, she remained close.

You would think when Annie left for Los Angeles (after winning the most prestigious screenwriting award out there – the Nicholl Fellowships), we would have lost touch.  But no, we actually grew closer and talked practically everyday.  As long as I’ve know Annie, she has been writing and  such a talent with words.  I’ve told her on many occasions that she should write a novel.

After L.A., she moved back to Toronto, but now, she has made her most significant move to date.  She has purchased a log-cabin house in New Brunswick.  You heard it right, New Brunswick (this ain’t L.A. anymore, that’s for darn sure).

These last couple of years Annie has been working as a showrunner/writer (along with Marsha Greene) on a new show for CBC/BET – an 8-part drama series called THE PORTER.   Annie wrote two episodes, but if you know anything about being a showrunner, you are involved with every detail in every episode.  Writing on a tv show is about the constant flow of notes the showrunner receives and must address day in and day out.    Here’s the premise of THE PORTER: Inspired by real events and set in the roar of the 1920s, the journey of an ensemble of characters who hustle, dream, cross borders, and pursue their ambitions in the fight for liberation on and off the railways that cross North America.

THE PORTER begins streaming Feb 21 and you can watch it on the CBC network that same night @ 9pm.  Check out the trailer HERE.

This girl who grew up in Brantford/Ontario, has been doing her thing all these years.  Her tenacity and strength has given me hope in tough times.  Her commitment to the truth stands out.  She keeps things in perspective and we talk about so much more than just writing.  Most of all, we laugh a lot.  We can all use a little more  laughter in our lives.

Speaking about “doing your thing”, I have completed a draft of my newest screenplay A PROMISE I MADE TO MR. BAGELS.  This script has had a long journey but it’s finally finished and I look forward to reshaping it in the re-writing process.   Here’s the premise:   A reclusive children’s author with OCD tendencies and dysfunctional family, has lost the will to write when one of his fictional characters, Mr. Bangles,  comes to life and demands the writer kill him in his next book like he promised. 

Finally, contest news to report.  LET IT SHINE, has landed in a couple Quarter-final placements.   Read about them below.    Until next time, do your thing or find your thing, but most of all, do not despair.  Life is short.  Laugh a little…or LOTS!