In Writing

I’ve lucked out in a lot of ways, and one of the best ones is in the family I’ve been fortunate enough to land in. My kids are witty and awesome (but, of course, they’re my kids, so duh), and my mom is just the proverbial mom-that-keeps-on-giving with about twice the energy that I have.

And then there’s my little brother.

I could tell you a lot of stories about my brother, but I’ll just tell you this: he disappointed me mightily the week he was born, but it’s all been uphill (the good uphill) since then. I was ten years old when my mom was expecting him, and the nine months of waiting for him to be born felt like about eighteen years. I swear my mother’s pregnancy was on the elephant’s time table. I looked forward to finally having a sibling, imagining all the games I’d play with her.

You see where this is going. But his failure to be a girl wasn’t his only newborn shortcoming. He was – what’s the polite way to say this? – boring. When he finally arrived, he just slept. And slept. My disappointment was bitter. I had gotten a dud.

Like I said, the story has a happy ending 30-plus years in the making. He grew into an adorable, precocious, sensitive little boy, then into a teenager who thought I could do no wrong. As he aged into manhood, he loved many of the things that I love – words, empanadas – and developed impeccable taste in clothing and stories.

It was this love of story that bonded us most of all. I love getting an invitation from him to edit an essay on Google Drive, with a casual “Will you read this and let me know what you think?” His publications in The New York Times and McSweeney’s have made me prouder than any of my own literary accomplishments. So when I got the invitation to check out some short scripts he’d written, for a web series he wanted to produce, I knew I was in for a treat. I didn’t know just how good a treat it would be.

Season 1 is finished and out in the world, currently nominated for a NYC Web Fest Award. (I now have an official IMDB entry thanks to my “work” of walking through a shot in the background of an office scene, although I believe my star turn ended up on the cutting room floor. Which is fine because my elbow looked insanely fat in it). You can check it out on YouTube (link below).

Season 2 is about to go into production, and they’ve got a rep and some ambitious goals now, and all that means money. As you’ll read in the crowdfunding page for Season 2, Season 1 was done on a shoestring budget (if the shoestring was lit on fire and its ashes flushed down the toilet), and this time they’ve got bigger plans.

Can you help? He’s got a bunch of fun incentives even at the $10 donation level, and it’s a chance to get in on the ground floor of a series that’s doing well, getting nominated for awards, getting picked up by a streaming service and is just generally awesome. The crowdfunding campaign is 1/3 funded on Day 2 of 30, so it is hot and picking up steam. Plus, I’m pretty sure the two guys who star in it are going to get mad famous, to say nothing of my brother who, mercifully, now does much more than just sleep all day.

Oh, and if you think this is just some post I put up, but I don’t actually mean YOU should support the production, no, I actually mean you. Please. And thank you.

Click here to check out the incentives and the rest of the story. I’ll be at Friendsgiving. Will you?

Click here to watch Season 1 on YouTube.

Oh, and here’s the video supporting the crowdfunding campaign. How are my brother and I even related? If this had been my crowdfunding video, I literally would have been in every frame in various costumes:

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