Peter Pan and a Manic-Depressive Mermaid

One of the cafés that I went to in Gothenburg had this book case with a bunch of books that you could take for free, with labels for this website called bookcrossing.com and basically, you sign up a book there and then you give it away, and then every person who takes it to read will make a note of it at the website before passing it along and that way you can follow your books travels. I thought it was a lovely idea. I took a paper back of "Peter Pan" and read it yesterday at work, now I'm going to check out the website and see if there's a listing of places that hosts the books and if there's one in Stockholm where I can exchange the book for a different one. Maybe add my own.


Had another idea for a film on the train home last night. A romantic/family drama about a single mum who falls in love with a much younger woman who turns out to be bipolar (unmedicated) and it brings her and her daughter closer together in the end, told with a magical shimmer from being viewed through a child's perspective. I was thinking that the first time they see the young woman, they're at the beach, and the little girl gets it into her head that she's a mermaid (kind of like the kid in "The reflecting skin" who thinks the lonely widow is a vampire) and later when they get to know each other and bond, the young woman plays along with the idea, making up stories about her home in the sea, and in the end when she drowns herself, the little girl is convinced that she's just gone back home, and her mother lets her think that, but it's clear to the audience what's really happened. (Although there's definitely an element of questioning, who's right, the child's imagination or the adult's fear-riddled narrow view of the world) And that's the kind of thing that happens all throughout the story, and that's what I'd think make the young woman's ummedicated condition (bipolar disorder) interesting too, if it were perceived through a child's eyes, her extremes explained with child logic. So, what do you guys think of that idea?

A day for camels.

My dad and I drove down to Stockholm with most of my things today. It was tedious four-hour-round trip stuck in the car, but on the way home there was signage eluding to free coffee, so we took a detour and took the sign people up on in, and that gave us the extra boost to make it home.

Now I'm severely exhausted, mainly cause I haven't slept in about a month and I'm also withering away on the inside for three reasons, one of them being that I'm in "pending mode" (or purgatory as I also like to call it) yet again and whenever I am I seem to go into mental and emotional hibernation for some reason.. I need to find the energy to finish my novel this month, if I can only get it done, I know I'm going to feel a weight lift from my shoulders or chest or wherever it's located, possibly my head..

I also had an idea for a drama. It involves an unwanted pregnancy, a dysfunctional family, lots of guilt and the bending of gender roles, as well as some testimonies of Fate's twisted sense of humor. Sounds like it's been done before, doesn't it.. well, we'll see..

Future Brain Storms

I just sent the director an email telling him off. It felt good.

On another positive note, the other day I was trying to convince my dad to read this book that used to be my favourite for the longest time as a kid, "Tordyveln flyger i skymningen" by Maria Gripe (I don't think it's been translated to english, but I'm not sure. I know my second favourite of hers has, it's called "Agnes Cecilia" and can be found in the kids' section at the Vancouver Public Library for those of you in Van...) and as we were talking my mum jumped in and started reminiscing with me about the story (we read it together the first time) and then she said, "I wonder why no-one's made a movie about that one" (they did about "Agnes Cecilia"...) and so when we got home I went online and did some research, maybe there had been a movie but we just hadn't come across (not very likely, and as it turned out, not the case...), maybe the person who owned the rights to Maria Gripe's books wouldn't let anyone make it, maybe no-one understood what a great story this was and what a great movie it would be...

And in my research I discovered that the book was in fact based on a radio play that Maria Gripe had written a couple of years previous to the book and her co-writer was Kay Pollak! So then of course the question naturally evolved from "Why hasn't anyone..." to "Why hasn't Kay Pollak..." and I couldn't for the life of my figure out a the answer, and then I realized, that's not so surprising, seeing as I'm not Kay Pollak...

So I emailed him.

Today he replies, very polite, thanking me for my email and saying how happy it made him to hear I enjoyed the book so, informing me that the radio play will be released on CD after the summer if I wanted to listen to it and then he said, lots of people have wanted to adapt this book into a movie but no-one actually made it that far...

That's all he said. Now, I'm sitting here, thinking... is this a sign? Because I could make a hell of a movie if I got the rights to that story and the resources I would need for the production... maybe an idea for a future projects when I have a couple of independent films on my CV and ca apply for funding from the Swedish Film Institute?