15-year-olds unite!

    So I was on the Southern Literary Trail site (I say "so" way too much) looking for places to go in Florida and discovered we must be an island, because it seems we've been cut off the Southern trail?
I need to have a talk with these people! We've got authors as well as sand, sharks, attractions and alligators. We deserve to be recognized! Can I get a witness?


   Anyway, as I was looking around and I found this quote from one of my favorite authors. Actually,  Margaret (Gone With The Wind) Mitchell is my favorite. I discover we have a writer's bond that begun when we were 15.

 

     At 15 she wanted to do great things. At 15 I wanted to do great things! Do you see where this is going?  Mine weren't as noble as hers, but I set a goal to have a daughter named Marquel and write a book with that title. I have done that. She set out to be a writer and she wrote a phonebook of a novel (For millennials who don't use phonebooks, that means a thick novel). I also had a daughter named Blair and titled a book after her, St. Blair: Children of the Night. Together my novels don't have as many words as GWTW. But that doesn't change the fact that Margaret and I were amazingly determined 15-year-olds. Right?

    Now, I'm no Margaret Mitchell, but I am hoping to be the Susan Boyle of Writing (she's the Britain's Got Talent winner). I will be the United States Late Bloomer Overnight Author Sensation! I picked it, people. The United States Late Bloomer Overnight Author Sensation, soon. Very soon. You can't take it. Make up your own status. No copying. I already have the ability to make this happen! Remember, the 15-year-old me? I got this down.

   This will also be timed with the discovery of our amazingly talented daughters. Look around the blog, people. My kids are plastered all over. Share their story. Grow the vision. I need to get on with the U.S. Overnight Sensation thing so I can live the dream. Late Bloomer means now, I'm not any getting younger.

    While I am at it, I will manifest that my husband get a great role in a commercial with the Dos Equis guy. The Most-Uninteresting-Man-in-the-World meets The-Most-Interesting-Man-in-the-World. Whoa, I sound like Chris Jenner booking everyone in house. Slow down, film mom.

  Just kidding, Tom. Tom is my husband. It's a commercial, Tom, not real life. But I know you just want to drink a Dos Equis with the Dos Equis guy. We'll go for that. Or a Depends commercial. What? It pays!

   Sorry I took that break to talk with Tom, so if you want to see any great Southern Literary landmarks go to the site listed below and tell them I sent you. Also, tell them to have some respect for Florida! Because the United States Late Bloomer Overnight Author Sensation Emily Skinner resides there!

The Literary Capital of Alabama

    My husband and I went to Monroeville, Alabama a few weeks ago to see the seasonal amateur play, "To Kill A Mockingbird" in Harper Lee's hometown. The townspeople of Monroeville put on the show for 8 weeks in the springtime.
   Act 1 (weather permitting) is outside with a stage of small of 3 little homes that represent Boo Radley's, the Finches and 2 other neighbors. The 2nd Act is performed in the courthouse (where Lee's father tried cases) and 12 white men from the audience are selected to sit in the jury seats.

    What is truly amazing about the production is the dedication the whole town shares in representing the heart of the famous author's Pulitzer masterpiece. These untrained actors own their roles. They say that vile "n" word the way the novel depicts. Both casually and accusingly. The way the south did.
    I have to say, the show will make you very uncomfortable about this period in U.S. history or it should. Well, it made me uncomfortable.

    To think that racially-demeaning-societal-acceptance even existed in this country is well worth the reminder. The story takes place in the 30s, but I remember the 60's as not too different from Mockingbird.

    But I came to Monroeville as a writer looking for inspiration. I wanted to understand the place where Harper Lee and Truman Capote grew up. Where Harper (Scout) and Truman (Dill) lived and developed their passion to tell stories.
    Once you tour the courthouse museum that displays their story in the times leading up and during their famed years, you'll fall in love with this special place.

    Capote is represented, but perhaps still needs some serious fans to push for his place in the city. Maybe a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" play in the winter months? A professional troupe that can entertain the locals and the out-of-towners?

    Monroeville has two stand out eateries that we tried, David's Catfish House and Prop and Gavel and has plenty of space for a small Truman Capote coffee shop or writing room. Something.

    The museum runs the video of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" in the courthouse gift shop, but they were discontinuing the Capote shirts due to a lack of sales. I personally expressed desire for more Capote. I realize maybe they wouldn't want to have "In Cold Blood" t-shirts and who knows what the licensing is for Audrey Hepburn's image as Holly Golightly, but I would have spent more on Truman goods. I really admire the diversity of his work.

    Regardless of the commercial appeal of souvenirs, I loved every minute in the museum and walking the square and just knowing I was born in the state that claims these literary giants as their own.

    

Act 1 Stage Outside the Monroeville Courthouse

Statute of of Scout, reading her story

Boo Radley's tree mail. LOL

Mail box marking the 50th anniversary of To Kill A Mockingbird

Exterior of courthouse where Harper Lee's father tried cases. It is now the Monroeville Museum

Inside the courthouse where Act 2 of To Kill A Mockingbird takes place

Truman Capote is featured in the museum. He started writing as a child.

Storyboards from the film

More about the film

The town has a landmark for Truman Capote

In the town square

Alert the media

So proud of our daughter, Blair Skinner!

Here is an article about her web series Stand Up Girls Show in Backstage Magazine!

Being a Film Festival Sponsor

   Sunscreen Film Festival has been instrumental in helping our daughters' in multiple ways, so
I figured what better place to promote a Hollywood novel, than a film festival.

   The "Marquel" book trailer screened before most film blocks with a few exceptions. It was a real honor to been seen. I am so late in the game promoting my book that I'm trying to think outside the bookstore and library and just be creative. Bringing my novel to potential readers in unlikely venues is my new goal.

   I am still amazed that Eric Roberts portrayed my character, Zach Manning. I am also so proud of our youngest daughter, Blair, who directed Roberts and her sister, Marquel in the book trailer.

    Just a few photos of the the book trailer shoot.

Marquel Skinner, Eric Roberts, Blair Skinner

   

Marquel on ID Channel show Blood Relatives

Marquel was on a recent episode of the ID Discovery Channel's Blood Relatives.

She also appeared in their promotions for another show last year, Redrum.

This time Marquel was on an hour-long episode playing an upstanding Christian woman who was suspected, along with other family members, of murdering her husband.

Here are some photos from the show.

The books have arrived!

So excited to share with those who voted for the print cover on Facebook.

Thanks to all who have been so kind to read, review and stay in touch!

I will see you at Sunscreen Film Festival!

I will be signing copies of my Hollywood novel Marquel at the Sunscreen Film Festival - time to be determined the weekend of May 1 to 4 at Muvico Baywalk in downtown St. Petersburg.

I chose to be a sponsor as they have been instrumental in helping both Blair Skinner and Marquel Skinner with their careers.

Blair met Brunson Green, the producer of "The Help" at Sunscreen and that was before he landed the producer role. He was a just another filmmaker. She did the followup and kept in touch and that's how she got started.

Marquel attended a workshop that the casting director for Twilight (forgive me for not knowing the name) held at Sunscreen and that led to her theater work, then TV/film.

And both Marquel and Blair had web series that screened at last year's festival in California.

So why not have "the film mom" screen her booktrailer that Blair directed and Marquel starred in along with Eric Roberts at the festival that got her daughters off to a great start!

I figured a Hollywood novel would be fitting for a film festival audience.