Stephen Stonebraker Writing Projects

TITLE:  Wrestling With Reasons
TYPE: Novel
PAGES: 241
WORDS: 72,182
STATUS: The Publishing Mill got the best of me on this one. I was a young and impatient writer, too eager for my own good. After a year of sending out query letters and either getting no response or negative responses, I was coaxed into Publishing through PUBLISH AMERICA (Now America Star Books.)  One of my biggest regrets as a writer and something I wish I never would have done. I can only hope that it doesn't damage or blackball my career.  It was completed on June 30th, 2011.


PLOT: Del Martin is a forty year old man who lives a mundane and boring existence. In the realms of a midlife crisis, he comes to the conclusion that he has nothing more to look forward to and that life is as good as it will ever get. Thinking of all of the failed dreams he had in life, he decides to commit suicide by jumping off of a bridge. When he goes to jump off the bridge, an Indian comes out of nowhere to save him. As he's trying to figure out who this Indian is and where he came from, a man in a jeep drives by and ask him if he's ok and if he needs a ride. Del looks back for the Indian who is now gone, and noticing that his vehicle is also missing, decides to take the ride. As they ride back into town, the man who appears to only be in his thirties keeps calling Del kid. Del gets a kick out of this until he sees his reflection in the mirror. He's no longer his forty year old self. He's 15.  What is going on here? Who was that Indian? Why is he 15 year again? Is he getting a second chance in life?

BACKSTORY: My sister Sydney Rochelle Lee died on March 3rd, 1998. I had a Hell of a time dealing with her death. It haunted me for years and it is still something that to this day I think about on a daily basis. I tried a number of ways to deal with it. Professional therapy and counseling. Masking the pain with pills. You name it, I tried it.  I found that writing about it was the best therapy that I could give myself. Only when I tried to write about it outright, I discovered that it was too difficult to put into words. I began writing a nonfiction account entitled NOTHING BUT HEART in the winter of 2004. I got no where with it.  Kept on getting between 75 to 90 pages and then axing the entire thing. I did this about ten to fifteen times over the course of the next three years. Then in late 2007, I threw my hands up in the air and said the Hell with it. I didn't write anything for the next three years.

The story lingered in me but I didn't know how to get it out of me.  It's like the emotions and the feeling were all there but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't put them into words.  Then one weekend I was visiting my cousin Cody Tompkins up in Waterloo.  On the way back home to Iowa City, I missed my turn off and damn near ended up in Dubuque. As I turned around, I noticed a sign for Dyersville, Iowa, where the film FIELD OF DREAMS had been shot.  I decided that since I was so close and since I had never been there, that now was as good of a time as any.

I remember looking around at the farmhouse and the baseball field and feeling a sense of magic. The second, and I do mean the very second my right foot touched the baseball diamond, I suddenly had the entire plot of WRESTLING WITH REASONS in my head.  I went home and wrote the rough draft in three months.  Didn't quite have the experience with it that I wanted, but it was great therapy for me. It is what allowed me to finally get over my sister's death.



TITLE: What Really Happened to Aric?
TYPE: Novella
PAGES: 103
WORDS: 31,733
STATUS: Finished in May of 2012, I let about a dozen friends read it. They all came to the same conclusion. Loved the story. Loved the characters, the build up and the suspense but HATED, and I mean H-A-T-E-D the ending. Everyone hated the ending. It was too unrealistic, too graphic and too nonsensical.  As a result I must have rewritten the ending thirty times or more and still, no matter what I did, it didn't work.  So I shelved it and on the shelf is where it has remained for nearly seven years. 

PLOT: Larry and Aric are best friends, have been since elementary.  Attending Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa the two attend a party one night. As they go to leave, they say they'll see one another back at the dorms. Only when Larry wakes up the next morning, he notices that Aric never made it back. As the day goes on, Aric still hasn't made it back. The day turns into days and Larry realizes that something is wrong. An investigation is done and it is discovered that Aric's truck ran off the road and into a lake. Supposedly his body is in too bad of shape for an Open casket funeral. Upon speaking to Pastor Stribbly, he tells Larry that he's almost positive that it isn't Aric in the casket. He asked to see the coroner's report and they denied him access. Larry knows something isn't right. He's being lied to and he doesn't know why. What really happened to Aric?

BACKSTORY:  I drove a cab for three and a half years in Iowa City. One night I gave a handicapped man a ride from the University of Iowa hospital to the small community of Clarence, Iowa. He had an old Victorian home. It was intimidating from the outside and rather frightening on the inside. When I wheeled him from the cab into the house, I looked around and noticed the many doors leading to many rooms. I couldn't help but think of people being locked away in the rooms as I helped the man get situated as best I could. As I drove back to Iowa City, the story unfolded to me.



TITLE: The Weird Stories of Seventh Grader Smith Jones
TYPE: Novel
PAGES: 225
WORDS: 70, 988
STATUS: Finished it in 2014. Still in the revision process I guess. Originally wrote it as a reflective piece. An older man looking back on the seventh grade. Was told by a numerous amount of individuals that past tense novels are a difficult sell. It was hard to tell who my demographic was. Was I wanting to target middle school readers or was I wanting to target adults who long for their past? Some of the subject matter was too heavy and intense for the twelve to fourteen year olds who might pick up the book. Some of it too juvenile and trivial for the adults who might be interested in such a book. Got sick of revising it after a while and moved on to something else.

PLOT:  New building, new classes, new teachers, a chance to try new sports, and above all else, girls!!! Seventh grade is an exciting and yet terrifying new world! Can Smith Jones handle it? So many changes and so many new experiences. It's overwhelming. It's challenging. Follow Smith as he does his best to make it through the seventh grade.

BACKSTORY: Seventh grade was a rather monumental year in my life. The transition from being a child into man I believe began at this time for me. A lot of who I am, in my beliefs and core values began to take shape around this time. I figured it might be the way for others as well. So I sat down one day and began writing about a kid entering the seventh grade. Before I knew it, I had a full length novel.

The name Smith Jones came about in a funny way.  I don't particular care for common or popular names. I enjoy giving my characters names you don't hear every day. A friend of mine, who is a successful, published author was giving me a lot of shit one day about how I refused to use popular names like Josh and Matt.  Realizing that Smith and Jones were the two most common last names in the United States, I decided to rebel in the most pompous way possible by naming my main character Smith Jones.


TITLE: The 0 and All Harris Bulldogs
TYPE: Novel
PAGES: 155
WORDS: 43,107
STATUS: Finished on June 16th, 2017.  This particular novel I wrote in the spirit of THE GREAT GATSBY, where my main character was more of an observer than he was a participator in the story. This of course, when talking to potential agents and publishers once again presented a huge problem.  "Characters do things. They don't observe" I was told. "Y.A. novels are not written like that."  I have to admit that I got lazy and discouraged, so I moved on to something else. It's still technically in the revising process.

PLOT: Tim Straube blew it. He had his chance to be the hero and he blew it. The Harris Bulldogs have never beaten the Roberts Academy Friars in anything and if he hadn't missed that extra point earlier in the game, they would have finally beaten them in football. He could have been a hero, remembered forever as the guy who scored the final point in Harris's first victory over Roberts Academy.  Instead, he'll forever be remembered as the guy who missed the extra point. This is Tim's fate, he has came to accept it.  Or so he thinks, until he comes across an article in the local paper that might save him after all. Roberts Academy is going to be the first high school in DeSoto county to field a varsity wrestling program.  This is it! This is Tim's chance to redeem himself. If he can convince Harris to field a wrestling program, this might be the one sport that they can finally beat Roberts Academy in!

BACKSTORY: I attended a writing seminar where a woman stood up and talked about how writing stories for young people was so much more than the story itself. How you had to go beyond your story and realize that writing was so much more than just writing.  I thought ok.  What are some issues that I care a lot about? How could I use my writing to better the world around me? 

Two issues came to mind.  First off the state of Mississippi is the most illiterate state in the country. There are more non-readers in Mississippi per capita than there is in any other state. I figured if I set the story in Mississippi, that it might interest young people in reading it.

Secondly, the state of Mississippi is the only state to not have varsity high school wrestling. The wrestling community has worked vigorously over the years to sanction wrestling, but it still isn't in Mississippi high schools yet.  A few have club teams, but to this day there is still no varsity wrestling in Mississippi. My thinking was if I could get this novel to sell, I might be able to use its popularity in helping to get wrestling into Mississippi high schools.

TITLE: The Gifted Greg Franklin
TYPE Novel
PAGES: 122
WORDS: 63,431
STATUS: I finished this in September of 2017. Literally right after I finished THE 0 AND ALL HARRIS BULLDOGS in June, I began writing THE GIFTED GREG FRANKLIN and had the rough draft complete in a little less than three months.  The problem again with this novel was that the ending again didn't satisfy. That and some of the transitions were rather rocky. I've brainstormed quite a bit and I'm at a point now where I think I know how to revise it. I don't know for sure. A mixture of frustration and fear has kept me from going back to the story.

PLOT:  Things are going pretty good for Greg Franklin. He's going to have a blast with his friends in his final summer in Ottumwa and then he's going to have one Hell of a senior year, graduating with his friends in the spring. Then his dad loses his job and announces the family is moving to Moline, Illinois. He doesn't want to move to Moline. He wants to stay in Ottumwa. There has to be a way.  There is. He can move in with his uncle Eddie. Uncle Eddie the estranged member of the Franklin family, that his father can't stand. Eddie is a whacko, he makes a living as a masked  professional wrestler.  After a long fight, Greg's parents agree to allow him to stay with Eddie so he can stay in Ottumwa.

Things are going great. Greg's having a blast living with Eddie, but then disaster strikes. Eddie breaks his wrist during a match. This means that Greg may have to move to Moline with the rest of his family after all. What can he do? Messing around with his friend Tony one day he puts on Eddie's mask. The two of them realize that with the mask on, he looks just like Eddie.  Suddenly Tony gets an idea. What if Greg were to replace Eddie in the ring?

BACKSTORY: I did professional wrestling for six years between 2006 and 2012. I worked on the independent circuit mainly for Iowa based promotions, although I did work in North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Illinois and Texas. A friend of mine who is a successful published author, making aa decent paycheck and traveling all over the United States and Canada to do signings, talks and seminars believes that my background as a professional wrestler could be my ticket to finally making it as a writer. 


TITLE: The Profile
TYPE: Screenplay
PAGES: 63
STATUS: I wrote the fourth and final draft of THE PROFILE on December 12th of last year. One of my best friends, Jason Janes who teaches Screenplay writing in Orlando, Florida read it over and we both believe it is submission ready. We just need to submit it.  I think it'd work great as a LIFETIME movie,but we'll see what happens.

PLOT: One day at the public library in Ottumwa, Scott meets a friendly middle aged man named Russ. Russ is having a Hell of a time making a profile for a dating website and ask Scott for his help. This begins a friendship between the two that last until Scott makes a horrible discovery. There's a man in the area that has been meeting women online and then sexually assaulting them. Scott discovers that it is Russ and that Russ has been using the profile that Scott helped him make.  What is Scott to do? Russ has given him money to help him from being kicked out of his apartment. Russ paid for his schooling so he could get a trucking license and get out of his dead end job of delivering pizzas. Yet he knows what Russ is doing is not only wrong, its horrible.  What is Scott to do?

BACKSTORY: I got to a point to where I was completely burnt out of trying to write novels and novellas. I had been at this for a long time and I had nothing to show for it. I'm still a nobody. Nobody knows my name. Nobody knows the stories I've written. I got to a point to where I was so angry and so depressed that I literally got sick whenever I thought about writing again.

My friend Dennis Woods Doderer, who struck gold in 1998 and wrote an episode of NYPD BLUE (Weaver's Tale) suggested to me to try my hand at writing a screenplay.  I've always wanted to write screenplays. It's been my number one dream since I was twelve years old, but I've always hesitated to write one because I know how difficult it is to break into the business. My screenplay writing professor in college, Jamie Durham (who write reenactments for UNSOLVED MYSTERIES) once told me that I had a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of ever making it. Nothing against me personally but that's just how cutnut the business is.   

Yet I was bored and I figured, why not? So I thought about an experience I once had many years ago. Of how I helped a man in his mid forties to make a dating profile on plentyoffish.com.   We became friends and hung out quite a bit for a period of about five months.  Then one day, out of nowhere he disappeared.  His phone number lead to nowhere and his facebook profile suddenly disappeared. I went to his house to visit him a few times and everything was dark.  A few weeks later all of his stuff was gone and there was a for sale sign in the yard.  Years went by and I never knew what happened to him until I heard someone mention his name one day.  I asked the someone if they knew what happened to him. They looked at me funny and asked, "You honestly don't know?"  I said that I didn't. He then showed me a newspaper clipping. My friend had been sent to prison for the next twenty some years because he had been using the dating profile to lure women on dates and then he was slipping roofies into their drinks and date raping them.   It was a surreal moment. I felt betrayed and guilty at the same time. Even though there was nothing I could do about it and there was no way I could have known that was his intention when I helped him make the profile I still felt very weird about it. I still feel weird about it.


TITLE: Suddenly Incredulous
TYPE: Screenplay
PAGES: 63
STATUS: I finished Suddenly Incredulous in May of last year. I want to find filmmakers here in Iowa and see if I can't develop a relationship with a director. I think I have a good script here if I can simply find a crew to make it into a film. Iowa has a film festival every year but it is very secretive and closed doors. I want to try and become a part of it.

PLOT: Matt Medeiros is the biggest swimming and diving fan on the planet. When it comes to collegiate and Olympic swimming and diving, you won't find anyone that knows more about the subject than Matt. A walking encyclopedia, Matt dreams of one day being able to cover the sport he loves and is so passionate about for a living. Hank Anthony, who runs a website and a radio show sees this passion in Matt and decides to use him exploit him for his own gain. Matt is so clouded by his love for Swimming and Diving that he isn't able to see that he's being used before it's too late.

BACK STORY: This happened to be as an amateur wrestling writer/journalist. I was working for a website and I was being abused and mistreated by a guy who used me as a tool to benefit himself without any regard for my feelings or the negative effect it might have on my life. When I finally saw the light and realized that I had been lied to and that he never had any intentions of ever coming through on the promises he made me, I went home and wrote this screenplay in a day.  I was so filled with anger that I literally wrote 63 pages in a single setting.


TITLE: Pilot - Episode One-We Have Everything
TYPE: Screenplay
PAGES: 34
STATUS: Finished in May of last year as well. Waiting on pilot season of 2019 to send it, along with the rest of the episodes of season one of WE HAVE EVERYTHING to various studios including NETFLIX, HULU, AMAZON PRIME and other markets where we might stand a chance of getting it somewhere.

PLOT: Marty is a down on his luck young man who just can't seem to get a break in life. He could use a little good luck in his life and right when he's about to give up for good, it appears.

BACK STORY:  Jason Janes and I are both writers. He writes his own stuff that I read and critique and I write my own stuff that he reads and critiques. We decided, why not put our heads together and do a co-project? He came up with an idea for a television series called WE HAVE EVERYTHING.  A show in the same realm as QUANTUM LEAP where a man with a magical store travels throughout the world in search of people who are in need of the stores goods and services.

TITLE: The Dog - Episode Two - We Have Everything
TYPE: Screenplay
PAGES: 51
STATUS: Also finished this in May! Ha May was a good month for me last year I guess. Same status as the other episodes of WE HAVE EVERYTHING.

PLOT: Steve has been having these terrible visions and nightmares of something that happened when he was really little. Only he isn't sure if it is something that really happened or if its simply a horrific dream. He thinks when he was four or five, he might have accidentally killed the neighbor's dog. With the help of Mr. Green and the We Have Everything Store, Steve discovers the truth. 

BACKSTORY: This happened to me. I used to have these nightmares about killing the neighbors dog. I was horrified that it might actually be true.  For years I didn't say anything to anyone.  Then I asked my mom, my older sister, my Dad and everything I could think of to ask. Everyone says it never happened. Nevertheless I made a screenplay out of it.

TITLE: Perry Fee Fie Foe - Episode Three - We Have Everything
TYPE: Screenplay
PAGES: 51
STATUS: Finished up the final version of this bad boy on September 11th, 2018.  Feels longer ago than that, but that's when it was.

PLOT: Working for Meals on Wheels, Randy delivers two meals per day to an old alcoholic named Perry that does nothing but sit out on his porch and drink beer all day long. One night, Randy finally gets Perry to talk to him, as he gives Randy advice on how to build his biceps at the gym.  Looking into Perry's past, Randy discovers that at one time Perry was a champion body builder and he trained an assortment of celebrities including Hollywood actors and musicians. Wondering what happened to Perry, Mr. Green and the We Have Everything Store gives Randy all of the answers he needs.

BACKSTORY: In the early 1990's, it was alleged that there were individuals in the World Wrestling Federation that were committing acts of pedophilia against young boys between the ages of 12-19.  Someone to speak up and bring this to the attention of the media and authorities was professional wrestler Barry Orton.  Upon bringing this to the media's attention, Orton was blackballed from professional wrestling for good. His career was over. The individuals who were accused of the abuse against the children were never brought to justice and got to keep their jobs.  Orton slipped into a huge state of depression to which he never quite recovered. He essentially did the right thing, and had to pay a huge price for it.  I've always found the story very fascinating.  The character of Perry is based on Barry Orton.


And there you have it! Those are all of the major writing projects I've worked on thus far in my writing career. 

As you can tell my greatest weakness is revision. It's not so much that I hate to revise as much as it is, I don't know how to do it.  I go over my stories again and again, until I think they're perfect. I don't know what else to do with them. I've edited them to death, I've gone over the story a thousand times. I'm at a loss. I don't know what else to do with it and I'm often treated when I submit the fiftieth draft, like it's the first draft I ever wrote. It drives me nuts. It's very depressing and discouraging. I want to be a writer so bad that if I were a religious man (which I'm not) I'd have sold my soul to the devil by now. 

I also blog all the freaking time too for whatever that's worth.

StephenStonebraker.blogspot.com - I blog whatever's on my mind

Johnnythompsonnum1.blogspot.com - If you're an amateur wrestling fan, you'd enjoy this.

Stonebrakermoviereview.blogspot.com - I review all films I see for the first time

Stonebrakerbookreview.blogspot.com - I review all books I read too. Obviously seeing that the last one was in July, I don't read nearly as much as I should.