Weekly Blog 2

Yesterday, my daughter and I found a caterpillar and we put it into a bottle. This morning she called me on my cell phone while I was at work to talk about the metamorphosis of the caterpillar. At her age her mind is eager and wanting of knowledge and experience. Her mind is like a sponge ready to absorb everything that it touches. I think it is the best time to work with a child therefore I try to spend as much time as possible teaching her. It is those times that I look forward to and enjoy the most because we could have fun while she learns. After work, I’m eager to go and pick her up from my mother’s house. My mother who has given me so much still continues to be a vital part of my life. Whenever I meet a woman I always tell them that there is a pecking order in my life and it goes like this. My daughter and my mother come first, then my family and everybody else after that.

Presently, I’m not in a relationship but I do see women. I don’t want a relationship because I have a goal in mind. My focus now is on my daughter and my commitment to my writing career. I’m not twenty something anymore therefore my time cannot be spent on frivolous pursuit not to say that love is that. Love is beautiful but it is selfish and in that selfishness is the inherent commitment to the disbursement of time. I love women and I do believe in relationships even though I think fidelity is for dreamers. People don’t see it but the writing is on the wall: we are moving away from that ownership detail in a relationship. A person is not a piece of property therefore they shouldn’t be treated as such. If you look at the world today, there are a million different kinds of relationship. To say yours is right and another is wrong is unfair. Right now, the only person I feel that I have to commit time to is my daughter and that supersedes my writing career.

I spoke to a lawyer who was referred to me by my friend Nancy who is also a writer. She recommended a brother who is working in entertainment. I called him this morning and he told me that specific lines have to be drawn when dealing with investors. He said there are three ways I could go about doing this movie. The first is to hire individual people to do the film, like director, producer, actors etc. The second is to give a company the rights to produce and direct the film. And the last option would be to write a screenplay and shop it around and let someone else do the movie. Well I thought about it and I think I want to retain control of the film. My last book was published by Simon and Schuster through Strebor books. My expectation for that book was that it would outsell the Blackfunk trilogy because I think it’s a very good book. But Simon and Schuster wasn’t willing to put any money behind the book to make it a success. They gave me a few dollars up front to do the book and that’s it. The money they gave me, I could have made it with my first print run. But the problem with being self-published is that your book distribution is limited. I saw Tears on a Sunday Afternoon in Barnes and Noble on Court Street in Brooklyn something I was unable to do with Blackfunk. But there is a catch 22 with that, getting the book into the store is one thing but making the readers aware of the book is another. Simon and Schuster did one but not the other. Now I’m back on the grind trying to get people to go to the stores and pick up the book. Well what does that have to do with the Blackfunk movie? I feel that if I let someone else do the movie, they will do exactly what the publisher of Tears did, which is get the product out there and flip a coin to see if it becomes a success. In addition to marketing the book, I also want to have some control of how the movie is made.

I have a vision for the opening scene in Blackfunk. Let me share that with you. I know you might have read Blackfunk a few years ago, so your memory might be a little faded. I want the movie to open with Kim and Rashaun’s best friend in law school. It was that videotape that sent Rashaun in a tailspin with women. The scene has to be raw and vicious but not pornographic. There has to be enough body parts to emphasize the raw uncut blackfunk. I don’t know if you saw Saving private Ryan with Tom Hanks but that opening scene at the beach is what I want Blackfunk to be like. I don’t know how you can create that scene but that’s what I have in mind.

My vision for the movie is useless without financing, so to that end I have started making calls. Now seeing that the estimated budget is a million dollars I cannot ask friends or family to invest a thousand dollars. I think the minimum I could ask from an investor is a $100,000. This sounds like a lot of money to people who are barely trying to get by, but for people who have money to invest, it’s not that much. I don’t know if anyone told you that but to make money you have to have money. It’s basically why the rich keeps getting richer and the poor—well you know the answer to that. The first person I contacted was my mechanic. Lets call him H. H owns a mechanic shop and he has a few properties. I mention to him what I was doing and he said that he was interested. Of course I told him we aren’t talking about little money and he understood. I’m meeting with a gentleman that I know who have a few properties in New York on Saturday. They are not recently purchased properties so I know he has access to the cash if he comes on board. But no one likes losing money especially people with money, so he has to be sold on the idea that Blackfunk could make money.

My child’s mother has my daughter this weekend so I have a little bit more freedom to move around. I don’t know if you know but having one child means that you are everything to that child. When you have them you are father, mother and playmate. But life is short and because I don’t know when it will end I’m trying to as much time with her as possible.

Who should play Rashaun in Blackfunk The Movie?

Let me know who you think you should play the lead role in Blackfunk.

I was thinking Djimon Hounsou, Tyrese or Omar Epps would portray Rashaun, but your opinion MATTERS the most.

Send me your messages and tell me what you think.

Making BLACKFUNK into a Movie, While raising a beautiful girl!

First, I think an introduction is needed. I’m Michael Presley the author of the BLACKFUNK trilogy and my most recent work Tears on A Sunday Afternoon. I’m in my forties and most people say that my personality is like Tony Dungy, quiet but strong. I rarely believe that it is necessary to get into anyone’s face unless it is in defense of myself or a loved one. I’m humble but dedicated and persistent. The most important person in the world to me is my daughter whom I’m presently raising. She is four years old and I have had her since September of 2006. In addition, to this project I’m also trying to write The Last Black Man, my next novel and keep my full time job.

Blackfunk took me over four years to write. In the original book, the main character died, but Debbie, a friend of mine convinced me to change it. The book was also more than five hundred pages with a lot more sex scenes which my friend also convinced me to limit. I’m hoping to publish a limited run of the original book sometime in the future. I couldn’t contain my pride when I received Blackfunk from the printer in June of 2001. My first print run was 1000, but the boxes seem endless as I carried them from the UPS truck. It cost me approximately 5000 dollars to print the books and if those books didn’t sell I was going to be giving Blackfunk as a Christmas gift to everyone I knew. But it did sell and it did feed me well. Presently, Blackfunk has sold more than 100,000 copies and the complete trilogy has sold about 200,000.

I remember going to Newark to take the plane to Atlanta sometime in 2003 and to me you haven’t made it as a writer until you see your books selling in the airport. My friends have always seen people reading my books in the train and on buses but to me the airport test was very important. I had traveled a lot doing book signings all over the country but I had yet to see my books in a bookstore at the airport. So before boarding the plane in Newark I did my customary check of the book shelves on the airport. And there they were Blackfunk and Blackfunk II sitting on the shelf needless to say I asked the clerk if I could sign them and she obliged. I have always set goals for myself. I’m a procrastinator but when it comes down to meeting a goal, impossible is a foreign word. My next goal is to see one of my books made into a movie. I love movies and I use to go to movies religiously. I remember sitting with my friend Eleise in the movie house and saying to her that one day I want my name to be up there in the credits. I don’t want to be a movie star or anything like that I would rather be known but not seen. I hate taking pictures but I like meeting fans of my books. In other words you won’t see me but you’ll know that I’m there.

Blackfunk, the movie. I have a wish list of actors/actresses I want to play the main parts. My number one choice is to have Halle Berry play Andria or Kim. For Rashaun I would love to see Djimon Hounsou of Blood Diamond or Derek Luke of Catch A Fire. For the soundtrack I want Jay-z to write and rap the theme sound. But back to reality… yesterday I received information on how to turn a book into a movie. After Tears on a Sunday Afternoon came out I hired a publicist to help me get the word out about the book and she referred me to the some guys in California so I contacted them. They told me it would cost a million dollars to make a decent movie of Blackfunk. But I have to come up with the million dollars. I don’t know about you but I sure don’t have a million dollars. Let’s start with the first thing to do when going down an unknown road. When you can’t get a guide you get someone to help you stay out of danger or help you when you get into danger. I have contacted a lawyer and everything goes through him.