Official Selection // Beverly Hills Film Festival

Hey all! I am beyond thrilled to announce that my screenplay, Artasium, is an official selection of the Beverly Hills Film Festival this year – which kicks off this weekend! Artasium is my absolute baby. I wrote Artasium first as a book back in 2009 when I was working at a cigar and scotch bar in Soho. I would literally have about 5 hours every shift to do absolutely nothing but smoke cigarettes (inside). Just like that, Piper Scotch was born. The book (which is about losing your imagination) morphed over the years from Mythica (and a failed all or nothing crowdfunding campaign via Kickstarter) to Piper Scotch and the Peculiar Tale of Artasium to simply,  Artasium. It was completed in 2011 in Los Angeles. And then it sat for about 2-3 years. I approached several agents with it who told me “dystopian fantasy wasn’t selling.” Cue the laughter. I soft-launched it as an e-book with no marketing behind it in 2014, around the time I released Mascara: Book 1. At the time, I felt confident that any money and marketing should be behind Mascara. I still think that was the right call. However, in 2016, I decided to hire a script doctor and repurpose the whole concept into a screenplay. I’m not going to get into the story of the script doctor (though there is one)(of course) but I will say that the partnership is now defunct so I took the entire manuscript and word for word rewrote it. Then I entered in BHFF. 

Last month, I started working with quite possibly one of the most talented artists I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, Ludwig Van Bacon. (You owe it to yourself to look at his work). He has commissioned me a piece (a custom cover for Artasium) in exchange for a PR campaign that we rocked. Next, we are going to bind the script with the art. Stay tuned.

With love and fiction,

APG