New Project

By Wednesday I received an email saying the editor loved The Nine Minute Disaster Zone. By Thursday I pitched her another idea. In this book a girl named Jazzy stands accused of murdering an Alzheimer's patient during her 40 hours of volunteer work. (the girl's not the patient's0

Tentatively, the editor has said she's intrigued but requires an outline and three chapters. For this project, so do I because I want to narrate it with clips from Jazzie's volunteer journal as well as trial testimonies. I want to be sure I can do it myself before I become locked into a noose tightening contract.

So It was off to court I went to observe a 17 year old on trial for manslaughter. I could not photograph the inside which was exceedingly bland anyway, masking tape coloured walls with no pictures except for a coat of arms.

The sculpture on the outside was cool I thought.

The trial itself did not resemble Ally McBeal or Boston Legal. Instead the crown interviewed witnesses on miniscule obscure details they had to remember from a year ago. It's a sad story. One teen teased another until the second teen, full of alcohol, got into a shoving match with him. The first teen hit his head. The injury was not evident till he began vommitting later that night. The next day a catscan revealed a cracked skull and a brain bleed. The young man went into a coma and after eight hours of surgery and a week on life support, died when his family made the decision to pull the plug.