“People would write me, 'you encourage me to keep going,' That gave me hope.” “That column forced me to write every week and keep my voice strong even when I wasn’t being hired to write,” says McMartin. Although the column barely paid and then didn’t pay, the experience was priceless. Mike Szymanski, editor of the gave her a weekly column to write about juggling being a single mom, having a career and dating. But I never let her feel the impact of my career and always made sure she felt safe and secure.” It’s going to happen,’” recalls McMartin. “The whole time, my sweet daughter said, ‘Mommy, you’re a writer. Unable to get any job, even outside writing, she would get cash for used clothing and took her jewelry to pawn shops.
She thought she would have to let go of her dreams. “Nothing was happening,” shares McMartin who had always earned a living as a writer.
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Not only couldn’t she get her movie made, she couldn’t get a writing job. “But I had to put food on the table so I kept writing.” Then her writing career hit a serious slump. “I had put all my focus on other writing projects but never stopped thinking about or hoping or believing in it,” says the single divorced mom and sole supporter of her daughter. When the option ran out after five years, the script sat on a shelf for three more. You just assume it’s going to happen and it didn’t." You’re told Sam Jackson is going to do your movie. “Either we’d have a director and lose Sam or we’d have Sam and we’d lose a director or we couldn’t get the financing,” says McMartin. They tried to get it made but there was always something preventing it. For five years the film, then called Cook was optioned by Jackson and his people. Despite it being a first draft, they immediately sent it to Samuel L. She sent the first draft to her agents who fell in love with the screenplay.
“It was the fastest I ever wrote a script and I didn’t outline it,” says McMartin. “But I’m going to have them meet in this story.” She began writing and the story poured out of her. “My daughter is never going to meet the real Mr. They also became the first lines in the film. Those two sentences gave her the inspiration she needed. “Henry Joseph Church could have been anything he wanted to be. “He made me feel special and that I mattered when I felt very awkward and not special.”īut how could she begin to write the story about such an influential man in her life? There were so many stories to tell.Īnd then, more than twelve years ago, while she was taking a walk, lines of dialogue popped into her head. He let me know that I could depend on him, that I wasn’t alone and was worth loving,” she shares. “I mourned the fact that she would never know this man. Church passed away before McMartin’s daughter was born.