Is This It? Part 2

All joking aside there is one large component that I have left out this story so far. It’s this thing that writers do because we know more than the readers, viewers, whatever and since we know how it all ends we hold back one piece of vital information that had you known it there would be no tension because the moment you find out about it you realize everything is going to be OK. See I can do this crap for a living! In this case the vital component is one Megan Welch, my younger sister and the director of END.

While I wish I could take credit for the wonderful woman my sister has matured into I don’t think it would be fair. When my sister was born 8 weeks premature, not breathing she proved before she could even walk or speak that she was a fighter. She showed the world that you would never EVER be able to keep her down and God help those who tried. The only thing I did was sort of make it so that she could NEVER escape movies.

Unlike most siblings my sister and I have a very good relationship. While growing up we had the normal animosities and petty bickering between us events transpired in high school that pretty much made us best friends. This was in large part due to the fact that due to circumstances outside her control she really couldn’t escape me and since I pretty much lived, breathed, ate, slept and drank movies from the moment I got into high school she was bombarded with hearing more about movies and seeing more movies than should can possibly be healthy. As an example I started working at Suncoast Motion Picture Company (A now pretty much defunct video store chained) and after a while she ended up getting suckered into working there as well and so on.

Now my sister has always been an artistic person. Painting, drawing, pottery, you name it she loves it and is pretty darn good at it. Having said all that I don’t think I could have ever expected the news she dropped on me one day when we were driving down to the San Diego Comic-Con.

Megan, unlike me had decided that she wanted to pursue higher education and was determined to get a degree no matter what the cost. Having gone through most of her general ed classes at Orange Coast College she was beginning to look into transferring and as such trying to figure out what her major would be. I feel blessed beyond compare that I was the first person she confided her choice in majors to. Apparently all those years of being stuck around me and her natural penchant for the arts had led her to the decision to become a director. No joke I was so surprised and so unimaginably happy that I literally almost drove off the rode and killed us both right then and there. Little could I know just how influential this decision would be on both of our lifes.

My sister was going through film school as I was pulling myself out of the mire of depression and apathy by writing JOSSINGTON FALLS. She was the one who graduated and decided she was going to fight her way into the industry no matter what. It was Megan’s idea to make the short films that we would shop around.

I can say with one hundred percent certainty that my dream would most likely still be floundering if not dead if it weren’t for my sister. My previous creative partnerships had left me bitter and wary about working with other people but the moment my sister and I put our heads together and started talking about working together we realized a life long creative partnership was born.

I know this is all A LOT of hyperbole but you’ve got to believe me when I tell you it’s important. You see what this post is really about is just how the heck I came about creating and writing END and before I can get into that you have to know about where I’ve come from, my relationship with my sister and just how vital of an influence and how much of an irreplaceable part she’s been in all of this.