My first published novel

I had no idea that The Gallows Flower was still available anywhere.  I just found it on Amazon.

It even has a review! Apparently it coaxed someone into making his first e-book purchase.

The Women in Horror Film Festival

The Family Way feature screenplay is a finalist in the Women In Horror Film Festival taking place in Peachtree, GA in September!

Duckie and I will be attending the festival to enjoy all the activities and see the films.

Hatchet's 8th Annual Shark Week Photo

I know, it's a little late. But it did happen!

And a trip down memory lane...

And of course Hades had to get in on the shark week action. But he also had to have his prized snake collection in the photo.

More kind words for Coming Home!

This review popped up on my Twitter feed earlier this week from The Slaughtered Bird.

 "Writer/Director Shiva Rodriguez’s short film THE FAMILY WAY: COMING HOME hits all the right horror notes. It’s decently crafted, well-written, and paced just right. There are a few plangent tones here and there (to maintain the musical metaphor), but it does what it’s supposed do: leave you wanting more."

See the whole review.

Double Good News!

Looks like both The Family Way feature screenplay and "Coming Home" short film made the semi-finals of the Women In Horror Film Festival.  I should know soon if one (or dare I hope, both) make it to the finals.

I'm really hoping that at least one of them does because I would very much like to attend the event as a film-maker.

Coming Home review

Another review came out for "Coming Home". Not the best review we've gotten, but not horrible either.

Severed Cinema's Review of Coming Home

Honestly, this is the second time that a review has criticized my choice of a goth aesthetic for the character of "Crawford". (Although the first time the reviewer also mentioned that the decision made sense by the end of the film.)

I don't mind the criticism. I want honest opinions about these things because I am planning to direct the feature film associated with this short and it helps me to figure out what works and what doesn't with these characters.

In "Coming Home" Crawford is a scrawny, dorky, teen-aged boy who has put up with years of abuse from his classmates and has finally snapped.

He came up with a plan to get his revenge on the worst of the bullies. It's a horrific plan that leads him down a very dark path once he gets a taste for murder. But it all started as a power play. He wanted his victims to fear him, but he knew that no one was afraid of him at school.

So I got to thinking, What kind of look would a teenager think was scary?

I wasn't about to go with a mask. One of the things I like about villainous characters are their expressions, especially when they enjoy the horrible things that they are doing. (I'm practically in love with "Julian Slink" in the Blood Drive TV series for this very reason.)

I knew that the goth aesthetic was something that was considered strange and creepy to the so-called "normal kids" back in the day. I also knew that clowns rank pretty high up on the phobia scale.  So I told the wardrobe and makeup people to combine the two.

Not because I thought the audience would find it scary, but because Crawford would have thought it made him look scary.

Perhaps that didn't translate as well as I'd hoped on film, even with the contrast of the most dangerous characters in the story being incredibly normal-looking. It does give me something to think about for the feature.

Another Coming Home review

 "We hope that ‘Coming Home’ is just a pilot episode, or a trailer to an upcoming movie that will change everything we know about films of this kind. Yes, we truly hope so, because what we’ve seen in those fifteen minutes was absolutely astonishing."

Coming Home Review from Feel The Reel.

I'm so glad that "Coming Home" is doing exactly what it was designed to do... get people interested in what happens next!  I think doing a prologue short film instead of a spec trailer was one of the best ideas we had when it came to providing a visual pitch for The Family Way.

I have papers now.

This came in for me today from the AAB Film Festival.

It's the first time I've ever been singled out for accolades as a director. 

I'm getting used to seeing laurels come in for the films that I've directed, but that's the project entire being recognized as a collaborative medium with a lot of really talented people working on it to earn those ribbons. I don't even like calling them "my films" because of that, but it's usually my name listed next to the title.

So even though this particular festival singled me out for an
award, I still say that it wasn't all me. A lot of people worked on "Coming Home" to make it look good, and this director's award is actually a lot of praise heaped on to the cast that I gave the direction to. If they couldn't pull off great performances, this paper would have never been sent to me.

Coming Home in India

This is a first for me... I just won "Best Director" for The Family Way prologue film "Coming Home" in the June edition of the AAB International Film Festival.

"Coming Home" continues to impress.

Over the last 48 hours I've had two bits of news about this short film that I directed come in.

First, a Review of Coming Home from Indyred.

Not a terrible review. I know to expect both good points and bad points to be mentioned, as that's what reviews are all about.   Bt when the last paragraph reads like this, I call it a win:

"As a full film, "Coming Home" manages to get it's point across in a decent, entertaining way. It's a fresh take on so many movies we've all seen in the past... and that "freshness" was welcomed in a huge way. The real kicker here? This is the set-up to a larger production and it does it's job perfectly. I personally look forward to seeing the bigger story unravel. I can't wait actually. Director Shiva Rodriguez sets out to entertain... and entertained I was. "Coming Home" could be the start of an exceptional story. I can't wait to see how it all turns out."

Then today I got a message from the Spotlight Horror Film Awards. This was a pleasant surprise: