Hanging 'em out there...

So I'm at it again.  Back at the keyboard.  Trying to pull some 'magic' out of my...

Imagination.

By way of background:

For the past six months, at least, my business partner and I have been 'courting' a significant deal with a major television network.  I can't remember the number of times we've thought the deal's dead but I recall clearly that by the end of this summer my wife and I were looking for a 'day-job' for me.

Now it's quite common for people in show business who're working at 'breaking in' to have one of those- a job that keeps them fed- while they wait, and wait, and wait to see if they're going to get their break.  The thing with me is that I've got four kids.  'Yup, count 'em. 1...2...3...4!  All under the age of seven.  My house is busy and my bank account, in the year and a half since leaving my former career (as a Church planter), mostly hovers on the edge of some degree of panic.  A day job's not really an option for me since most of 'em don't pay nearly enough to float our family-packed boat.  For me it's either 'this works' or 'we're dead'.  

And as uncomfortable as that kind of intensely 'faith-demanding' lifestyle is, the thing that occurs to me is that living this way is almost pre-requisite for 'making it'. The more I read, the more common it seems that my experience is.  Somebody leaves their old 'way' of living to pursue (or more fully pursue) the way they've always thought they should be living; and that kind of a 'lifestyle choice' comes at a cost.  It's almost always at the end of their rope that things come through.

And if you're reading this you're thinking, "Yeah and that's saying nothing about the countless thousands who take the leap and fall.  Straight up fail."  You're right. That's what makes this so terrifying.  

We have babies to feed.

So, back to the 'craft' (I'm always trying to mix something 'spiritually useful' with something productive for those of us living in 'the biz') part of this post.

We've got four (like the kids...how scary is that?) deals pending right now.  Three TV series (for a combined total of 364 episodes!) and one new media project.  As they firm up I'll talk more about them, but for now it's enough to say that this deal is the biggest of my career so far.  

And it just won't close.

It was supposed to close a month ago and every week that passes brings with it a new 'hoop' I have to jump through.  I'm blogging today to say that I'm almost through the last hoop. 

The biggest series (aka: most risk-filled for me and the network) is the one holding up the whole deal right now.  Until I've got them fully and finally 'hooked' on this one they won't approve the other three which are, otherwise, almost academic. So I've been sitting at my desk, mostly procrastinating, waiting for the muse to sing loud enough and for time to work its magic strong enough so that the disparate ideas floating around in my head combine into something that looks like something a TV network would like to plop down some serious cash to have.

How scary is that?

I have to write it.  If they like it, we're good.  If they don't, my kids don't eat.

So as soon as I finish this I'ma kiss my wife, sit myself down at my desk and do my best to pull magic out of thin air.

"Faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things not seen."

T