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THE SECRET OF SHANGRI-LA

Middle-grade Contemporary / Fantasy

The screenplay version of the novel was a 2024 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards Winner and also won the 2017 Grand Jury Prize for Nashville Film Festival Screenplay Competition. The script reached the Quarterfinals of the 2017 Nicholl Fellowships.

When eleven year-old Brandon’s mother dies, she leaves him with his pigheaded dad Alex and an ancient puzzle. If he solves this mystery, he figures he’ll find a way to reconnect with his mom one last time. Six months later, he finds a clue hidden inside the puzzle, which leads him to plane tickets Brandon’s mom bought. Except Alex refuses to travel to Kathmandu, Nepal. Luckily, Brandon’s a good liar so he tricks his dad into taking him there.

In Asia, once Alex learns his son played him, things between them get worse. Just another puzzle Brandon can’t solve--until he finds a book his mom left with coded coordinates to a secret temple in Lhasa, Tibet. Now Dad’s intrigued and together they find the temple, where they learn Brandon may have the power to gain entry into the fabled paradise of Shangri-La. With help from a cheerful monk, a female explorer and a magical tiger, they take a perilous journey to find the Hidden Waterfall said to conceal the doorway to Shangri-La.

But Brandon is chased by the rogue Captain Snake Eyes, who also seeks entry to Shangri-La. If the paradise exists, the Captain will use Brandon to get in and then kill his father. And if Shangri-La is just an invented hope of the desperate, the Captain will kill his father and Brandon—along with Brandon’s hope of saying goodbye to his mom.

TRIPPIN’

Young Adult Sci-Fi - in progress

Still reeling from the car accident death of her sister, LEXY, 16, finds a time portal hidden behind a wall in the lab run by her arrogant, belittling physics teacher MR. BLUHORN, 48. As Lexy and her brother KYLE, 17, explore traveling back to the past, they realize that they can go back to save their little sister. But when they try, they create alternate realities, upending both their family and the social order in their school.  

 

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THE THIEF OF ALBEE HIGH

Young Adult comedy - in progress

14 year-old Josh’s already low popularity bottoms out when his parents split up in a viral scandal involving a Challah bread at a Bat Mitzvah.  His philandering dad deserves a public beating with little bits of egg bread, but still, it’s embarrassing. After his dad moves out, Josh learns to take care of his devastated mom…and to steal. Thievery is a family curse Josh can’t seem to escape but that legendary larceny comes in handy for financing his own upcoming, one year late Bar Mitzvah.  Back at school, the worst kid ever finds out Josh’s secret and uses it to blackmail Josh into stealing a school test for him. But when Josh gets caught doing the right thing and putting the test back before it gets copied, this second scandal makes Josh a sudden school hero…for all the wrong reasons.

Now Josh has to decide whether to keep his newfound popularity by stealing more stuff or to renounce his lowdown life of crime. If he renounces, no one will show up to his Bar Mitzvah, his mom will plunge into a depression and then he’ll be forced to live with his dad, leaving his mom all alone.