Tweet Tales Tuesday Week 250
March 8, 2017
For most of the past three weeks I have been out of town, with intermittent internet access for a chunk of that time, so I’ve skipped a few posts. That means today’s post is going to be a whopper since of course I have to chat about all the cool things that happened since the last post.
 
During the first five days of the hiatus, I attended the Beaufort International Film Festival with my brother. Our short film Saying Goodbye was part of the festival five years ago, and our short High Heels & Hoodoo was a selection four years ago, and we just adore this festival. The entire town of Beaufort embraces the festival and makes the filmmakers feel like treasured guests.
 
It felt like the entire population of Beaufort attended the opening ceremony. Local restaurants had food samples, and I embarrassed myself by getting three cups of the she-crab soup (so yummy!). In fact, that was a theme for my entire Beaufort trip – eating waaaaay too much super delicious food. We chatted with people we’d met at previous festivals, met new folks, and got our picture taken against the fancy BIFF backdrop.
Brian and Jocelyn at BIFF opening ceremony
 
The films started screening on Thursday, and the first one we watched was an excellent student film called Rocket. I’m expecting big things from the director, who just happens to be a women. In fact, women kicked butt at this festival. I was thrilled to discover many of my favorites were written and/or directed by women when the credits rolled.
 
Thursday evening was the screenplay readings, which was exciting for me because I was a screenplay judge this year. Yep, I judged screenplays!! It required a lot of reading, but it was a huge honor to help select the screenplays that shined. A group of actors read five pages from the top seven finalists, and it was fun to see them in action.
Screenplay readings at BIFF
 
There were a lot more films (and food!) on Friday, and then on Saturday I attended a bunch of workshops while Brian watched more movies. I learned tons of cool stuff and met several folks working on projects I can’t wait to learn more about.
 
Sunday evening was the award ceremony, which was another memorable moment for the Rish sibs because Brian and I got to present the award for best short film. I’ve always thought it would fun to do the “and the winner is…” thing, and I GOT TO DO IT!! Brian and I came up with what we hoped was an entertaining schtick to do during our presentation. Here’s the video of our big moment if you’re interested.

2017 Beaufort International Film Festival – Best Short from Beaufort Film Society on Vimeo.

It was yet another amazing BIFF, and huge thanks to Ron, Rebecca, and all the volunteers who made this such a fantastic event. Here are pics of some of the fun folks we hang out with every year at BIFF: the amazing festival directors Ron and Rebecca Tucker; fab fimmakes Uyen Le and VW Scheich; talented actor Gary Weeks and his lovely mother Sara; Brad Jayne, who not only helped us with both our films, but was given the Behind the Scenes Award at BIFF because he rocks.
 
After BIFF was over, Brian left me in Beaufort for my critique group’s (the Sisukas) writing retreat. One of the women has a family house on the water in Beaufort, and it’s an amazing place to get together to write, critique, rest, laugh, and eat.
Beaufort house
Sisukas
 
We brainstormed a bunch of projects, wrote a lot of words, and, oh yeah, ate a lot of food. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I think I gained at least five pounds the past few weeks.
 
After five more days in Beaufort, it was finally time to return home. But I had barely unpacked before it was time to take off again. Turns out I made the final round for a grant I applied for. And so did my brother! Dun dun duhn! We’ll be competing against each other! But in the meantime, there was a workshop in Columbia about how to apply for the final round of the grant. There is a huge, massively scary budget spreadsheet involved and lots of questions that require tons of research, so this workshop was to help the finalists get started on the right foot. Things seem less scary now, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. Wish me luck!
 
Continuing the good news trend, I found out on Sunday that I got picked for a #PitchMadness team – Team Gumdrop Mountain. The odds were pretty insane, so I’m thrilled to be part of it. Now I’ll be working with the fabulous team hosts Heather Cashman and Nikki Roberti to polish my pitch and first chapter so it can be presented to agents next week. Eeeek!! Wish me more luck!
 
Whew, okay, I think that about covers the last three whirlwind weeks, so now it’s time to catch up on some 15 Minute Tweet Tales:
 
contrail – visible trail of streaks of condensed water vapor or ice crystals forming in the wake of an aircraft.
 
2/21 – She leans back on her elbows, watching the contrails drift in the wind, but jumps up when she realizes they're reforming into her name.
 
diastema – a gap or space between two teeth.
 
2/28 – He thought her diastema made her adorkable. Until they had dinner. He lost all desire to kiss he with spinach nesting between her teeth.
 
drupelet – one of the small drupe-like subdivisions which compose the outer layer of certain fruits such as raspberries or blackberries AKA the bumps on rasperies. 
 
3/7 – She picks a raspberry, then notices the drupelets are iridescent colors: pinks, reds, blues, purples. The taste of magic awaits her lips.
 
Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?
For most of the past three weeks I have been out of town, with intermittent internet access for a chunk of that time, so I’ve skipped a few posts. That means today’s post is going to be a whopper since of course I have to chat about all the cool things that happened since the last post.
 
During the first five days of the hiatus, I attended the Beaufort International Film Festival with my brother. Our short film Saying Goodbye was part of the festival five years ago, and our short High Heels & Hoodoo was a selection four years ago, and we just adore this festival. The entire town of Beaufort embraces the festival and makes the filmmakers feel like treasured guests.
 
It felt like the entire population of Beaufort attended the opening ceremony. Local restaurants had food samples, and I embarrassed myself by getting three cups of the she-crab soup (so yummy!). In fact, that was a theme for my entire Beaufort trip – eating waaaaay too much super delicious food. We chatted with people we’d met at previous festivals, met new folks, and got our picture taken against the fancy BIFF backdrop.
Brian and Jocelyn at BIFF opening ceremony
 
The films started screening on Thursday, and the first one we watched was an excellent student film called Rocket. I’m expecting big things from the director, who just happens to be a women. In fact, women kicked butt at this festival. I was thrilled to discover many of my favorites were written and/or directed by women when the credits rolled.
 
Thursday evening was the screenplay readings, which was exciting for me because I was a screenplay judge this year. Yep, I judged screenplays!! It required a lot of reading, but it was a huge honor to help select the screenplays that shined. A group of actors read five pages from the top seven finalists, and it was fun to see them in action.
Screenplay readings at BIFF
 
There were a lot more films (and food!) on Friday, and then on Saturday I attended a bunch of workshops while Brian watched more movies. I learned tons of cool stuff and met several folks working on projects I can’t wait to learn more about.
 
Sunday evening was the award ceremony, which was another memorable moment for the Rish sibs because Brian and I got to present the award for best short film. I’ve always thought it would fun to do the “and the winner is…” thing, and I GOT TO DO IT!! Brian and I came up with what we hoped was an entertaining schtick to do during our presentation. Here’s the video of our big moment if you’re interested.

2017 Beaufort International Film Festival – Best Short from Beaufort Film Society on Vimeo.

It was yet another amazing BIFF, and huge thanks to Ron, Rebecca, and all the volunteers who made this such a fantastic event. Here are pics of some of the fun folks we hang out with every year at BIFF: the amazing festival directors Ron and Rebecca Tucker; fab fimmakes Uyen Le and VW Scheich; talented actor Gary Weeks and his lovely mother Sara; Brad Jayne, who not only helped us with both our films, but was given the Behind the Scenes Award at BIFF because he rocks.
 
After BIFF was over, Brian left me in Beaufort for my critique group’s (the Sisukas) writing retreat. One of the women has a family house on the water in Beaufort, and it’s an amazing place to get together to write, critique, rest, laugh, and eat.
Beaufort house
Sisukas
 
We brainstormed a bunch of projects, wrote a lot of words, and, oh yeah, ate a lot of food. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I think I gained at least five pounds the past few weeks.
 
After five more days in Beaufort, it was finally time to return home. But I had barely unpacked before it was time to take off again. Turns out I made the final round for a grant I applied for. And so did my brother! Dun dun duhn! We’ll be competing against each other! But in the meantime, there was a workshop in Columbia about how to apply for the final round of the grant. There is a huge, massively scary budget spreadsheet involved and lots of questions that require tons of research, so this workshop was to help the finalists get started on the right foot. Things seem less scary now, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. Wish me luck!
 
Continuing the good news trend, I found out on Sunday that I got picked for a #PitchMadness team – Team Gumdrop Mountain. The odds were pretty insane, so I’m thrilled to be part of it. Now I’ll be working with the fabulous team hosts Heather Cashman and Nikki Roberti to polish my pitch and first chapter so it can be presented to agents next week. Eeeek!! Wish me more luck!
 
Whew, okay, I think that about covers the last three whirlwind weeks, so now it’s time to catch up on some 15 Minute Tweet Tales:
 
contrail – visible trail of streaks of condensed water vapor or ice crystals forming in the wake of an aircraft.
 
2/21 – She leans back on her elbows, watching the contrails drift in the wind, but jumps up when she realizes they're reforming into her name.
 
diastema – a gap or space between two teeth.
 
2/28 – He thought her diastema made her adorkable. Until they had dinner. He lost all desire to kiss he with spinach nesting between her teeth.
 
drupelet – one of the small drupe-like subdivisions which compose the outer layer of certain fruits such as raspberries or blackberries AKA the bumps on rasperies. 
 
3/7 – She picks a raspberry, then notices the drupelets are iridescent colors: pinks, reds, blues, purples. The taste of magic awaits her lips.
 
Play along and write tweet tales for the above words. If you’re willing to share, post them on twitter with the hashtag #15tt or add them below in the comments because I’d love to read them. Any thoughts about this week's tweet tales or #15tt words?

Jocelyn Rish

Jocelyn Rish is a writer and filmmaker who never imagined her cheeky sense of humor would lead to a book about animal butts. When she's not researching fanny facts, she tutors kids to help them discover the magic of reading. Jocelyn has won numerous awards for her short stories, screenplays, short films, and novels and lives in South Carolina with her booty-ful dogs.