I picked up Kyle from the airport and we came directly to young studios. He will be working in my youth summer camp teaching videography. He will also begin working on graphics for the Diamond Ruff Project. Paris briefed Kyle on what is going on so far. I will have Kyle begin on doing final design template for the website homepage. I will come up with a work plan and do a two year summary.

I am thinking about raising the money to produce the book anywhere from $7,000.00 to $14,000.00. It’s kind of crazy when you don’t have money. But I have decided not be intimidated. How can I raise 5 million and be afraid to raise a maximum of $14,000.00. I have to stay focused and be positive. I will have to jumpstart the club and do research for grants. I will begin tomorrow with Paris to locate individual artist grants and look into my past and see how I’ve raised money before.

My son Kyle will be working with me this summer, he will be crucial to the success of the project. He works hard and he understands my style. He is also very versatile with computer graphics, animation, drawing, music and videography. He is film student at Columbia College Hollywood. His plane was canceled today but he will be in tomorrow straight from the airport and into my office, he understands the grind. He is probably the biggest asset I have to complete this project. In April I finished writing a first draft of the Diamond Ruff screenplay, Kyle helped me edit and put it in a screen writing program final draft. It will eventually be edited by a professional. Right now my focus is having the book edited I can’t afford the $3.00 a page from an editor. I will ask my wife Teressa to read and make changes. She is smart and an avid reader. Also I will call on my mother –in-law Maureen to read and make changes/suggestions and look for grammatical errors. I already have an outside person edit the 2nd draft. I believe regular folks can do just as good as some professionals. For the Chapter headings I had an idea to use verses for Proverbs in the bible. I think it will be cool and it will also balance from some of the street feel. I’ll look at Proverbs tomorrow.

Today is Saturday, I will have to work more than usual just to stay ahead of my regular job and concentrate on the Diamond Ruff project. I work 7 days a week. I have to do this. I’m trying to pull off an impossible task. People have told me I have no balance in my life. They might be right but, it is the sacrifice I must pay. But I don’t plan to do this forever. I want to come to a point where I can take a decade off from work if I wanted to and enjoy family and friends to the fullest and help others through the systems my team and I have created. Today’s focus is to work on book budget for Diamond Ruff (around 200pgs.). I found a guide/budget for a 5,000 book run in a self publishing book guide: $1,814.00- Editing and Indexing, $1,695.00 – Cover design, $2,173.00 – Interior Design and Typesetting, $7,216.00-Manufacture, $1,152.00 Shipping, Total $14,050. This is the actual rough cost ballpark figure to produce the book. I will use my experience in the non-profit world to raise the money through grants, Diamond Ruff Club, and asking consultants to reduce their price, in return I will brand their name with the project, which will hopefully be more beneficial than the money they will charge me for their prices. Truly successful minded people will see this. If not I will understand. I believe with this guerilla style approach of getting the book produced it will cost me in-between $7.000.00- $10,000.00.

Today is just another day that I’m trying to bring this project to fruition. I didn’t do the rough budget yesterday. I will do it today. I was busy with other things but sometimes I can fall short like that. In order to do the big things I have to do simple tasks. The key is prioritizing things. Instead of doing the rough budget I spoke with my friend about nothing last night, for an hour and I could have done the budget. Not to be rude to my friend or loose any of my friendships but, I have to put things in perspective. I’m mad cool with my friend and will support him in all I do, but if I loose my shirt on this project or reputation he won’t be able to help. The bottom line is if I say I’m going to do something then I have to do it!

I met with Iya Tucker last night she is a fabulous designer and painter. One of the best I’ve ever seen. I want her to paint the cover for the book. She will bring a certain quality and style to the project. I had a basic concept I penciled out for Diamond on cover holding Kendall Shariff after being shot on a theater stage. The work was rendered by artist Myrton Brewry who worked for me and Kyle. He did the lettering but I need something that will make someone pick up the book. I think Iya can bring that flavor. I met her over 18 years ago. She was a young 18 year old woman straight from the Ukraine. She and her dad heard about my work when I represented an artist and I got her a few drawing opportunities. We both went into other things in life and then we met again by accident at a friend’s birthday party. You never know when you will reconnect with someone so it’s best not to burn bridges especially with talented people. To help me out she will do a painting for $700.00 which is relatively cheap except when you don’t have money for it and I don’t. I will have to come up with creative ways to pay. Maybe an installment would be between $200 – $300. I have to find a way to jump on this opportunity.

I’m trying to write this blog early now. When my day starts it’s a whirlwind. As I begin this book/movie project the time in my day will shrink. I have to find good people to delegate the work to. I need people who aren’t just looking for a paycheck. I need those who understand hard work and education. I especially need to find people who have a positive attitude. I need people like that because that attitude will assist in dealing with difficult times ahead. A team like that sees the rain, thunder and lightening but they also see the flowers that bloom from the rain. Today I have to establish time frames and begin a work plan. I will develop a month to month goal character for two years and then begin the tough job of doing a work plan for two years, broken down by months and even weeks with all the logistics. This will be my blue print. We need money though to produce the book. I am behind on creating a rough budget. I will do it today. I discussed with Janis not to put a lot of my personal money in because of past financial/personal business commitments. She’s right but I will put a little a way a day even if it’s $20.00 I feel like I can’t ask others to invest if I won’t pay myself. I will rush to get websites up in a couple of weeks. That way I can see the Diamond Ruff memberships and parlay that into the book.

A great article came out in a local paper featuring myself and the work I’ve done over the years. It spoke about how my focus is more on commercial work and less social services, but social consciousness is involved. It also reflected on my present support, my sister Janis, my partner at young studios also my past support Paul Puzzo, who was the CEO/President of the community Renewal Team (CRT), The largest privately owned social service agency in CT. I was the community arts coordinator for 7 years. It was a great opportunity. I worked for them and they allowed me to run my non- profit there. It was a mutual benefit situation. I brought my contacts and expertise to them and they introduced me to social service systems and funding. The article also mentioned my mother, my family’s greatest inspiration. She was a gifted caring, women who had a vision. She was very spiritual and spoke about God often. I remember in 5^th grade a teacher told me I didn’t have what it took to be a writer. I went home distraught and my mother told me I could be anything I wanted and encouraged me to write. But she also reminded me that “Anything worth having doesn’t come easy”. Now a four foot by six foot poster stands in the hallway of my business. To truly honor someone when they pass is by remembering them.   

Today is another day juggling my full time work and trying to get a movie project. It’s tough. One of the ways to success is having good people around you to help manage other things. I gave Paris the assignment of typing up DR club mailing. She will write up content for ID card and cover letter. Then we will send the ID to Kyle to be designed. We first said $25.00 for membership, but had to work in expenses, t-shirt, mailing, printing etc. When people join they will get a free Diamond Ruff T- shirt, 10% off of items from Young! Studios, DR benefits, an e-newsletter and the ability to enter our crazy contests. We want our members to have fun, but no matter what, a percentage of this will go to diabetes research. We will have to find research organizations and start building websites soon. Kyle and I have already designed an initial template design. A lot is left to be done in development like budgets, projections and more.

Today is the 1s step as we embark on a historic journey to create a high quality feature film Diamond Ruff. It is scary as well as exciting.

Currently, The team putting this project together is myself, my son Kyle – who translates my ideas and pencil sketches them into beautiful graphics, my sister – partner Janis of our business Young Studios, who is my voice of reason…Her favorite word is “No!!!” and my daughter Paige, who supports with her enthusiasm and questions. It’s crazy because I won’t allow her to read the book until she’s 13 on September 5^th. Also helping is Paris Walker, A smart college student who is helping to create the framework to launch the project…It helps…Her dad is a well known pastor in Hartford. So she understands the spirituality of the book.

I called king printing today who have already published one book of mine which is called “Scruples, The legend begins.” They have some of the best prices. I called to get the cost for hard and soft cover of Diamond Ruff. I have put a budget together. Currently we have no money to do this project and I’m trying to figure out what to do next. I put one dollar in an envelope as a first investment. It’s not much but it’s big on symbolism. So we are four million, four hundred ninety nine thousand dollars short of my goal. We’re a long way but a lot closer.