• Carolina (Jodee Thelen) played Adam Sandler’s sister in The Wedding Singer.
• The book Morgan is reading in the bedroom scene, Broken for You, was written by Stephanie Kallos, the wife of Bill Johns, Morgan’s TV husband.

Our show, which is set in Seattle, has still photos of the city that introduce each ‘chapter’. I was born in Seattle, lived here until my twenties, lived away until my fifties. Now, I’ve returned to a somewhat unrecognizable city, but I have fallen in love, again, with my birthplace.

It’s grey. Overcast. All the stereotypes. Every day, if you’re a Seattleite, you awaken knowing it’s probably raining. And, if the sun is out, you’re as happy as a six year old on the morning of your first birthday party. The neighborhoods are loyal and full of their own personalities. My neighborhood, Capital Hill, is a mix of big mansions/homes on one end and Broadway at the heart of the other. The big home neighborhoods are lovely to walk through – adjacent to the graveyard where Bruce Lee is buried. I often walk past that resting place to Volunteer Park and sit looking out over a reservoir at the city.

Broadway is rampant with personalities. A large gay contingent. Lots of homeless kids. Good restaurants and a potpourri of shops. Some of the best people watching in the city.

But, my favorite part of Capital Hill is 15th street. Halfway between the mansions and Broadway, it’s the perfect mix. Great coffee shops – August Wilson used to write in one of them. There’s a funky dollar store. A fabulous second hand clothing store that’s sometimes overpriced but has some jewels in the sweater/top section. Coastal Kitchen, a restaurant featuring food from different countries around the world is the anchor of the street. Guaranteed great food and SO Seattle. Further south is the best tea shop in the city with the friendliest staff – Remedy Teas.

The homeless people on 15th are mellow. My favorite is the gal who hangs out in front of the local drug store. She could sell anything to anyone and make money but for now she sells ‘Real Change’ – the newspaper homeless folks can sell and make money. Most of us buy several copies a month to support the cause.

So if the show continues you’ll see a lot more of Seattle. When our forum opens, be sure to send me ideas of what you love in your neighborhood.

***** BOOK CLUB IS GOING TO THE WEB IN MAY! WATCH FOR IT!***********

I remember first grade at Laurelhurst Elementary School in Seattle for lots of reasons.  One, my teacher, Miss Fay. As I was a ‘daydreamer’ (“Romney could be a better student if she applied herself and didn’t daydream all the time”) I got in trouble with Miss Fay.  Once, she shook me so hard, with her fingernails digging into my six year old shoulders, I cried. It was a horrible experience.  But, nothing topped, in a way, the day I realized that my drawing didn’t make the bulletin board.  I hadn’t done much coloring in my short life – no crayons at home – so coloring at school was an exciting venture.  The crayons themselves were a thrill to me, and the colors they produced when I followed our daily coloring assignment were absolute magic.

It must have been early in the school year when Miss Fay announced we were going on a field trip to see a weeping willow tree.  Upon our return, we were to record the tree of our memory.  I was ecstatic to show what I saw in that majestic trophy of nature.  Eagerly, I turned in my rendition with the rest of the class, awaiting Miss Fay’s approval.  The pictures were to be displayed on a designated bulletin board the next day.

I raced into the classroom the next morning to see only seven or so pictures on the board.  Mine hadn’t qualified.  As an only child, I didn’t understand the concept of ‘qualified’.  It either was, or it wasn’t.

As we’ve been going through the process of editing Book Club, I’ve been reminded of how scary it is to share your coloring.  I’ve had lots of fun visiting the willow tree.  Seeing it, smelling it, standing beside my classmates and experiencing its grand statement.  But I’ve become uneasy, recognizing I have to put in my rendition with the rest of the class, and maybe it won’t get chosen.

But, I’m not six anymore.  Coloring is fun.  It’s only one drawing.  I can use my crayons to draw anything I want, every day if I want, and it just . . . . . is.

We are halfway through editing. My editor and videographer, Kris, provided me with the first fourteen minutes or so of a rough cut today. I am trying to be as relaxed about this process as I have been throughout casting and filming, but, admittedly, the doubts are creeping in a bit. Mainly, “what if this is a piece of shit and I’ll disappoint all those folks who are really excited about this?” I met with my book club last night in Bellingham, 90 miles north of Seattle. (We’re the Book Club that doesn’t talk about books). These women have been in my life for ten years and we were trying to figure out how we could all see the show together before it goes live online. They, taking full credit for being the inspiration for the concept, assume they are somehow represented in the characters. They’re not. These characters are a composite of many women I’ve known over the years and some just showed themselves to me as I wrote. Now, they’re real people to me. And I want them to be real people to my audience. I want the audience to laugh with and at them, to recognize themselves in the vulnerability and self consciousness women can have when they first meet one another, and to revel in the possibility that these five women may have an ineffable bond with one another the way I do with the five women who live in Bellingham. Although I’d known one of them before we formed the group, I now know them, and they know me, in a mystical way – through ten years, once a month, of learning about one another (it helps if you don’t take time talking about books . . . .), finding ways to tolerate personality conflicts and differences, and, somehow, forming a sisterhood like I’ve never experienced. That’s what I want for Book Club, the Show. That’s the gift I want to give the viewers.

We spent last weekend on an intensive shoot; lots of interior shots. When you shoot a scene, you typically incorporate a master shoot, close ups, and additional shots like a ‘two shot’ (two people, etc.). The set, my living room, dining room and kitchen, is small but we worked efficiently.

Kris, the videographer, and Lindy, his wife, assistant producer extraordinaire (“I’m OCD and it works for me!”) operated with professional efficiency and goodwill. The cast was stellar. They all get along – all have amazing senses of humor, so there were lots of laughs, but, once I yelled “Quiet on the set” they were ready for take after take after take.

Again, there’s magic when it works. When everyone on board is committed, well prepared and passionate about the work – it flows. After the first day of shooting a few of us went out for dinner, and, of course, we talked movies. We were ready to leave work behind, but not our passion.

This weekend – some exteriors and location shots. We begin editing next week.

There was a moment, after I’d left auditions and had called the actresses I had chosen, when I was hit with an overwhelming, heavy stream of tears. I was grateful that what I created, what I dreamed, what I’ve hoped for – is happening. And whatever occurs as a result of this day, with these actresses, and all those I hated to leave behind, (because I’ve been on that side of things) – the process is what I’ve been committed and dedicated to, and in the moment with, as much as possible. So thank you Eckhart Tolle, for reminding me of what’s important, and to my crew, a wonderful, young couple, Lindy and Kris (www.firstsightproductions.com) that can talk about any (good) TV show, citing episodes with extraordinary fluidity. And my friend Sue Doupe – who is what the show is all about - strangers that you meet that become part of your family. I met Sue when I was still acting – she did my headshot – and we decided to exchange my marketing skills for her photography expertise. Since then, we’ve traveled to the ocean together, been naked together at Olympus Spa – a Korean spa in Seattle that is a completely restorative adventure (and a tough one to leap into) and gone to Weight Watchers and lost almost a total of 35 pounds together. She’s a part of my Seattle heart and landscape, and she just happened into my life – just like Morgan, Amy, Carolina, Jameson and Wednesday, my characters, are happening into one another.

We had a great response for auditions, and the five lead roles had forty five contenders. The first day was a reminder of how quirky auditioning can be. There were good actresses that read well but didn’t have the right look; there were actresses with the right look that somehow couldn’t nail the character. But what happens in callbacks is, you get lots of good actresses – all reading well, and lots of surprises. The biggest surprise was Morgan – a role I had imagined as a 50-something woman – and I had a great actress I thought would get the role. But a 30-something actress, Natalie, brought that ‘certain something’ to a reading of the role that somehow captured the essence of the character, and then it didn’t matter how old she was.

Like most women, friendships with other women have always been a huge part of my emotional food bank. As an only child, girlfriends and women friends have always fed my heart and nurtured my soul. Ten years ago I became part of a book club with five other women, four of whom I’d never met. Ironically, the group (except for me) chose not to discuss books beyond the first three months – they just want to meet and talk, and that’s what we’ve done, once a month, for ten years. So I invited myself to another book club – a tennis friend, in her 30’s, graciously accommodated me (I’m in my late 50’s). That group, not only twenty years younger but filled with interesting, bright women, talked about the book for five minutes, then their personal lives. And, I’d done the kids/relationship breakups/career issues with my other group and didn’t need to go there again. So I started another group with a gathering of women I really didn’t know very well. We’re new yet, and we’ll see. But I’ve heard stories of book clubs that have lasted for decades, book clubs with varying formats – but all have the commonality of creating friendships and bonds that sustain. And that’s what my pilot is all about – and, hopefully, the series will be – about what happens when women with conflicting lifestyles and philosophies join to talk about ideas, characters, style and content. The unique role of women’s friendships within book clubs and because of book clubs is filled with stories and the guts and what women mean to one another.

The website has a place for book clubs all over the country to send in photos of the club and lists of recommended books and critiques. There’s a spot for individual women to do so, and for independent bookstores to link in.

Great dream, great idea, huh? But, to go ahead with a dream, worried about someone picking up the idea, worried about money, concerned about burnout, frightened of failure and feeling very alone in the endeavor, is a challenge. So I invite you along. So I don’t feel so lonely. So I have a place to connect my dream.