Losing Normal News #1

It started as a dream…

Four years ago, I was sitting a 10-day meditation course. With nothing to do but eat sleep & meditate, my dreams were very vivid. In the one that prompted Losing Normal, I was sitting in an office while Mindy Kalin, her back to me, was reading a script I’d written.

In my waking life, I’d seen her on The Office, but had never watched her show, The Mindy Project. In my waking life, I’d never even considered pitching to Mindy Kalin. Not my kind of show. But there I was. She turned to me, holding up the script. “This is pretty good,” she said. “Did you write it?”

My dream self was insulted. I had a snarky answer: “No. I got it from the Story Store.”

“I got it from the Story Store” is an ancient gag, a writer’s response to the question, “Where do you get your ideas?”

Thus was born The Story Store. It took three years (& a couple of futile but friendly interventions) before I realized what a crappy title it was. Many re-writes later, Losing Normal came to be.

Got another nice review from Kirkus Reviews, which you can read here. But here’s a teaser: “A well-plotted story that gives a voice to an offbeat protagonist.”