That which is at a higher elevation

I always start these long overdue blog posts with some joke or excuse pointing out the fact that I’ve been away for too long. I started doing it again here and had to stop myself. I suppose you could say that this little preface to the post is attempting to do the same… in fact, something tells me I’ve even started a post this way before too.

Bottom line, I’ve been away for a while. No surprise there.

And now I’m back. Also no real surprise. At least I hope not.

But reading my last post, wow… I sure did leave you all with a pretty intense cliffhanger at the end of my month of blogging. “John Cabrera, Lost, Contemplative, Fearing the Worst.”

Well, good thing my life is not a Lars Von Trier film… or a Sean Penn film for that matter… cause as things tend to do in actual “real life”, the events of my little movie here have gotten a bit brighter since then.

One of the main reasons I’ve been so quiet lately is because I’ve been working a lot, or more specifically writing a lot. Aside from the work I’m doing on the finishing touches to H+ (drumroll please), I am currently writing my first big feature. And, well, the last few months leading up to it have been a lot of holding my breath about whether it would actually happen. I’d be disingenuous if I didn’t admit that there’s still a bit of breath holding going on these days (I actually just exhaled for the first time since starting this post). But that’s what you sign up for when you get into show business…

Anyway, I feel safe enough to share this much. And all that nonsense in my last post about whether I’d actually “have more to give” another project just turned out to be some much needed self deprecation. What do you know?!

“So what’s the feature, what’s the feature?”

Do you think if I was allowed to tell you that, I wouldn’t have just started this post with a link to the Hollywood Reporter or something? Come on now. Many of you know that it took a few Larks and half the run of Lost before I was ready to share deets on H+. The same with this project, I imagine.

And H+………….. Oh H+……….. What the hell is happening with you? We announced you in July? Where the hell are you?

Yes, these are all questions floating around these days. I’ve heard them, don’t chu worry. And if I could tell you anymore than “soon”, I would. Although “soon” is a pretty vague word, I’ll admit. So perhaps I should just give you my definition.

soon (su:n) adj. a. Not a year from now or later. “When’s H+ coming out?” “Soon!”
b. Hopefully not a year from now or later. “When’s H+ coming out?” “Umm….. soon?!”
c. But not before the end of this calendar year, sadly. “When’s H+ coming out? Oh no, wait, let me guess. Soon.”

But that’s not to say that we won’t be leaking more details and perhaps even early bits of the full experience. And hey, they’ve been showing trailers for Spiderman since Comic Con, and that’s not coming out until next friggin summer! So for all of you eager to see the series, thank you thank you for your continued patience. And perhaps be comforted knowing that we’re trying to get it in the absolute best possible shape before we unveil it. For example, we just shot some extra goodies for the series the other day.

So stay with us!

In other news from the day to day, I was recently in London (in connection to the feature project I mentioned above) and it was the second time ever I had visited the city. And unlike my first experience a decade ago, this trip was pretty amazing.

I’ve written a post which I’ll be publishing on Monday talking about my experience with the city (both this time and last).

I’m also looking forward to the holidays for whatever reason. I don’t typically get into the holiday spirit. And it’s mostly because I find it such a stressful time. But maybe it’s because of how crazy stressful this year has been with H+ and The Homes and all my traveling for work. The thought of some caroling is actually kind of nice.

Anyway, gotta get back to the writing. I’ve miss you all.

………

Oh come on! Tell me you’ve missed me too!

Dev Slate

So tonight I put together a list of all the projects I have on my development slate… AKA concepts for projects that are officially looking for a home. And man do I have a lot. Without giving an exact number, I’ll just say it’s over 10!

Some of them are just story concepts that would need a company to get behind before I’d be willing to put in more time to flesh it out. But many of them are more fully developed, with spec scripts, outlines, or full oral pitches written.

I guess the past year has seen so much creativity pumped out of me that, to be honest, I feel bone dry. On the one hand it’s exciting to look at this list of stories, worlds, characters and ideas and know that I can accomplish something like that. But on the other hand I’m still struggling to get all of this stuff off the ground… to get to that next phase in my career. Despite all the recent excitement around H+, this career is not making it easy for me.

And so I also look at the list and think, “these are cool… but do I have anything more to give?” Even if someone comes up to me tomorrow and says they want to put up funds to develop one of these projects… see it through to fruition… could I do it?

I guess I’m also talking like a guy who’s struggling to keep his eyes open at 5:14 in the morning.

Bottom line is the list made me both proud and slightly depressed. I mean, a couple of the projects have been on my dev slate for years.

The Green Dragon

If I owned a juicing bar, I would name all my juices in a Dungeons & Dragons theme. Here are a few of the drinks you would find on my menu.

The Green Dragon

If you like your sweet juices to have some bite, this is for you.

2 Celery Stalks
2 Green Apples
1/2 Lime
1/2 inch slice of ginger (1/2 inch diameter)
1 Hot Hatch Green Chile (New Mexican variety)
1/2 Cucumer (aprox 6 inches)
1 Leaf of Kale

Push the stick the ginger and lime in the kale bunched up and juice together with the apples. Then celery. Then chile. Then cucumber.

Ogre’s Blood

This is a serious drink for the serious warrior. Do not attempt this drink unless you are at least level 32.

1 Red Beet w/attached Greens
3 Roma Tomatoes
Bunch of Cilantro
1 Clove of Garlic
3 Celery Stalks
1/2 Green Pepper

First juice the red beet with it’s greens. Put the garlic clove in the bunch of Cilantro and push through feeder with Tomatoes. Then Celery. Then Green Pepper.

Arithluea’s Amulet

This golden drink was thought to exist only in legend. And then I made one the other day and was like, “What do you know? This drink is for real.”

2 Small Yellow Beets (no greens)
1 inch slice of Pineapple
2 Green Apples
2 Celery Stalks
1/4 slice of Ginger

Start with the Yellow Beets. Then the pineapple and ginger together. Then the celery. Then the apples.

I know what you’re thinking

“John… you missed a post yesterday.” Technically you’d be right… but biologically, physiolologically, spiritually even, you would be totally wrong. And that’s because today is still my yesterday.

I got my Playstation 3 delivered yesterday.
I went to the game store and picked up Fallout 3.
I also picked up Dragon Age.
I also picked up Heavy Rain.

And I have not slept a wink except in the the games themselves.

This is not an actual post (Let’s be honest, very few of them have been this month). This is just a little postcard from The Wasteland, letting everyone know that I’ve cleared out the Super-Duper Mart, Disarmed the Bomb, and now I’m on my way into that mine field.

I also have to cut this one real short so that I can get back to business.

I’m gonna try to catch up in the next few days so that I actually end the month on the 31st.

:)

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