The Chronos Prize in Screenwriting is a 50 thousand dollar prize given to a writer who has previously won The Kairos Prize in Screenwriting or who has had a script produced into a film.

I won the Kairos Prize back in 2013 and the screenplay that won (PLAY BALL) is currently optioned by a production company in New York (www.pateproductions.com/pate-productions-current-productions.php).

This past summer I worked on a new screenplay called WHO IS MOLLY STEELE? about a woman who has hid her true identity from everyone because of a painful past she has not reconciled with and wishes she could forget all together.

This week I was notified that WHO IS MOLLY STEELE? is one of 10 finalists in The Chronos Prize for Screenwriting.

Here is a list of the 10 finalists:

Brian Baugh of Lake Balboa, CA for A SEASON OF SOUL
Romeo Ciolfi of Toronto, CAN for WHO IS MOLLY STEELE?
David de Vos of Newbury Park, CA for FAMILY TREASURE
Justin Eade of New Zealand for THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST MAN
Randall Hahn of Miami, FL for ON THE SPARROW
Dave Alan Johnson, Gary R. Johnson & Joan Considine Johnson of Moorpark, CA for THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM
Charles Eric Johnson of Los Angeles, CA for ANGEL AND THE BABY
Katherine T. Koonce of Coral Springs, FL for THE GOOD STEWARD
Cheryl McKay of Burbank, CA for SONG OF SPRINGHILL
Herschel Weingrod of Los Angeles, CA for THE PROMISED LAND

And here’s a link to The Chronos site: www.chronosprize.com/2015_finalists.html

On February 6 one of these writers will receive the Chronos Prize. Right now it’s the waiting game. I wait to see if I get a call before then. I don’t know the time-line of this decision but I imagine I will know something in the next week or so.

In the meantime, I’m trying to remain focused on a new play I’m writing for the Toronto Fringe Festival to be produced this summer. Starting any new piece of work is one of the hardest things to do. I don’t enjoy staring at the blank page…it’s intimidating. I love this quote by writer Dorothy Parker: “I hate writing, I love having written”.

So true, I usually feel this most when I start something new. Having said that, I’ve been able to write down several pages of brainstorming ideas, have created 5 characters that will fill this drama whose overall theme is about truths and lies and the fine line in-between. For me, I’m all about plot and character. How do you construct a story around these elements that will bring out the themes you want to explore. I’m almost at the point now where I will actually begin writing the play which is both exciting and scary.

And so that’s where I’m at. I wait, with great anticipation…and write in the meantime…