Wade Bradford’s Blog

For the most part, when I lok back on all the silly stuff I’ve written, it makes me quite happy. I’ve got more than a few boxes of journals and dusty manuscripts that are delightfully ridiculous, magnificent failures, as I like to call them.

However, there is a long stretch of time that I’m not too fond of. From 1989 until 1999 I wrote screenplays non-stop. Some of them were awful. Some of them were pretty good. None of them sold.

Now, when I think of all those hours I spent writing those unproduced scripts I think: “Why didn’t I spend that time writing plays or children’s books???”

Fortunately, by the time I finished up college, I realized the joys of fiction and writing for the stage. By 2000, although I would occasionally dabble in scripts, I transitioned to other mediums, and have been much happier (and much more successful) ever since.

Of course, those scripts are still hanging aroound. I’ve even posted some of them on my website.

Visit Wade’s Script Zone.

Yes, when I’m not blogging here at Wadebradford.com or at my GuideSite at About.com, you can find me blogging about my families homeschool adventures.

During the past three months, I’ve only been posting about one blog a week — so I’m going to make a conscious effort this summer to blog at least once every three days.

This week I briefly discuss some of the board game ideas the girls and I have come up with over the years. Check it out at my site, “Homeschool Central.”

I’m just testing out the time stamp.

Hee hee!

Most of the time, when I write for About.com I am creating study guides for popular plays — the kind you might read while in high school or college. (You know, A Doll’s House, Death of a Salesman, that sort of material.)

But once in a while, I create original monologues and post them on my GuideSite at About.com.

Here’s a sinister seasonal favorite of mine: “Mrs. Claus Dumps Santa” (Brought to you by a brave YouTube Actress)

Well, I’ve been pacing back and forth, trying to decide how many days of the SCBWI conference to attend. Should I just stop by for a day… or should I make an entire weekend out of it?

On the one hand, I’m very excited to connect with fellow writers once again. I first attended the conference back in 2007 — and found it absolutely enthralling. When I attended the second time (last year) it was equally inspirational — but frustrating at the same time. To be honest, I was desperately envious of all the published authors surrounding me. And at times I felt pathetic when I would try to talk with editors, publishers, and agents.

Now that I have sold a picture book, I feel like I’ve magically entered this club… and yet not quite since the book won’t be in bookstores for quite some time. So, part of me is wondering if I should perhaps just attend Saturday… and part of me thinks I should spend as much time there — and that I should learn, listen, party, laugh, write, and network as much as possible.

So I’ll think about it. And I’ll keep you posted.

Back in the 1990s when I wrote about fifteen screenplays — each one a magnificent failure — I was an avid fan of Siskel and Ebert. These two distinguished critics had a television program in which they reviewed movies and often argued with each other — which was part of the fun. To some, they were simply known as the fat one and the bald one.

I learned a lot about movies and about criticism from these two authors. And since they loved movies so much, I imagined that it might be quite amusing if they stared in their own movie. So, I wrote a screenplay called “Thumbs Up.” It’s about two rival movie critics who are on the run from the law, framed for a crime they didn’t commit, trapped in a ridiculous plot similar to the bad movies they review.

You may have noticed that this script was never made into a movie — And sadly it will never star Siskel and Ebert since Mr. Siskel passed away in the late 90s, and Mr. Ebert speaks with the aid of a “robot voice.”

Still, I didn’t want the project to just remain in my office drawer, like so many of my other screenplays. So, I revamped the script and turned it into a stage play. It was published by Big Dog Plays — and I’m hoping to watch it at a regional theater someday.

We were trying to decide what to do for the Yorba Linda Civic Light Opera’s spring musical. OUr producer, Virginia DeLand said she wanted us to write an adaptation of a classic children’s show. She said, let’s do either Sleep Beauty or the Beast — sort of by accident. And I thought the title sounded so funny, I decided to merge the two fairy tale stories, thus creating a wonderfully goofy script that became: “Sleeping Beauty and the Beast.”

It was written around 1995, if memory serves. Like Sahara NIghts, the show was originally a musical, but when it was finally published by Heuer Plays, they went with a non-musical version. But for the most part, the script is pretty much the same.

Back in 2007, Tevas Drama Department posted this YouTube video, a collage of images from their rehearsals and performances. Looks like they had fun!

Way back in high school, 10th grade to be specific, we had this glorious thing called Mini-Term. Our second semester ended in early May. Then, students would experience Mini-term, a collection of fun elective classes allowed students to explore their specific interests. (You could also make-up a class.)

Anyway, during Mini-term the drama club put on a series of One Acts. (My favorite show by the way was I.T. — Improvisational Theater, by fellow drama buddies Ryan, Joelle, and other talented thespians.) I decided that I wanted to write and direct my own show. So I wrote: BananaNutSplit — all one word to be cool. It’s a pretty silly show with a rather sitcomish premise:

A young man is meeting his girlfriend at a fancy restaurant. He is going to propose to her. The problem? He secretly has split personalities, and whenever he gets nervous, those multi-personalities burst out of him. Wackiness ensues.

Yes, quite silly. But I had a great deal of fun directing the show. The drama students voted it Best Play — so that was an ego boost. And something else happened with it. Around 1988 when I was working at the Grand Cinemas, a smart, sexy manager named Cheri wanted to do a comedy for her college class. I suggested Banana Nut Split, she directed the play, and I got to watch adult actors perform the work.

Now here’s where I turn into Paul Harvey:

That sexy smart manager named Cheri, the woman who directed my first-ever play, married me in 1995 — and we’ve been living happily ever after ever since.

A few years ago, I found an old copy of the play. I dusted it off — updated some of the jokes — tightened things up… and then sent it to Big Dog Plays. And now, Banana Nut Split is a published one act play.

Learn more about Wade’s plays.

On my Plays / Drama GuideSite at About.com, I was just blogging about the “Three Piggy Opera.” This is a show I watched back in 1990 when my niece was in kindergarten. And I watched it about five years ago when my daughter was in kindergarten. (Or was it six years ago? Sheesh, time is flying by far too fast.)

By the looks of things on YouTube, lots of other kids have performed the show over the years.

It’s made me consider writing something short and simple like “Three PIggy Opera.” Although, I have a difficult time with simplicity. It’s a complicated thing.

Wade Bradford grew up in rainy Washington state. In 1991, at the age of 19, he moved down to California. Ever since then he has been complaining about how he “misses the seasons.” He has a beautiful wife and two adorable children. He also has a dog, a fish, a cat and a bird.

Okay, now I’ll stop talking about myself in the third person…

I have loved writing since I was a little kid. My specialties are: plays, young adult novels, middle-grade fiction, and picture books.

Exciting News!

My first picture book, “Why Do I Have To Make My Bed?” was recently sold to Tricycle Press! It will be in bookstores in late 2010 or early 2011.

In 2000, my first play was published by Eldridge Plays. Since that time, the following plays have been published by Eldridge, Heuer, and Big Dog Plays. You can find a complete list of the plays here.

During the last few years, I have fallen in love with blogging. Here’s some of the many things I write about:

Blog #1 : Wade’s Personal Blog
This is where I discuss my life (which is happily mundane), my writing (which is legendary in my own mind), and my teaching (which is incredibly fun for me – though I can’t speak for my students!).

Blog #2: Wade’s “Plays / Drama Guidesite” at About.com

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Blog #3: Children’s Literature and Young Adult Novels

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Blog #4: Home School Central – The Adventures of a Home School Dad

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Blog #5: Writing with Wade – A Guide to Writing Essays for High School and College.

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Blog #7: Charity Pages – Students Write About Non-Profit Organizations

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