I've had a very filmy 24 hours!

Last night, I received an email inquiring about film rights to The Book of Dead Birds. Nothing may come of this, but I found myself bouncing around the house like a rubber person after I read the message. It would be so cool to see my story come to life on the screen.

This morning, when I drove the kids to school, I noticed that a bunch of film crew trucks were parked at Fairmount Park down the street from our house. I had film on the brain, so I wandered over to the park a couple of hours later to see what was going on. It turned out that a Bollywood movie was being filmed there! Bollywood in our own backyard! I love Bollywood musicals--the lavishness, the melodrama, the wonderful corny-ness, of them. Unfortunately the cast wasn't filming a musical number, but I had the chance to meet the star, Anupam Kher, who played the father in Bend it Like Beckham. He is very kind. I also talked to the producer at length. He gave me some great advice about film options, and even talked about the possibility of acquiring my book (I gave him a copy, of course. I gave one to Anupam, too.) It was great fun--all the crew members were so welcoming. Later, they invited me and my daughter to be on camera as extras; we sat under a tree, reading my book (product placement!) while the principal cast ate a picnic on camera and other extras chased a soccer ball around. The crew asked my daughter to come back to the set tomorrow--they have something specific in mind for her. I'm eager to see how it all unfolds...

Needless to say, I never expected to spend my day this way. I'm very glad I followed my impulse to check things out; I love these sorts of surprises.

Another delightful surprise today--I found out that one of my short stories has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize! The same story is going to be read on air next Monday at an NPR station in NY.

Who knows what other surprises are on the horizon...