There are No Options Today

In the last serious conversation I had with someone interested in optioning my first book, Excavation, the ‘no’ was the exact kind of ‘no’ I had heard before.

The director had done a marvelous job approaching me. She offered her IMDb, briefly described her background directing work with subject matter related to my book, and expressed her interest in adaptation to tv series or film. Before bringing my (former) agents into the conversation, we exchanged a number of emails and had an hour-long Zoom conversation in which she described the specific perspective, the innovative angles she imagined for the adaptation. I left our conversation feeling positive about her and her vision. I also knew that there was probably no reason to feel particularly optimistic, because I’ve been through the Possibly, Maybe circuit a few times before. I also knew that my agents (literary and film/tv) would be unimpressed about the possibility.

This experience, though, was different from previous ones. We were in conversation and had a similar vision—the farthest I’d ever gone in the Possibly, Maybe circuit.