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NOVEMBER 3RD, 2017 — ❝ MY BOOK'S A MARVEL ORIGINAL TV SERIES. ❞
Eloise had been feeling nervous and queasy all day.
There was no calming her nerves, not when she was possibly optioning off the rights to her newest book--Sorrowful Beauty--into a Netflix/Marvel original TV show. It was crazy, being at this state again.
Because she'd been here before, when she'd optioned off her Stars Awaken spin-off, Planets Collide, earlier in the year. Tom squeezed her hand again, and she looked over at him, giving him a small smile as they sat, waiting for Eloise's editor, Milo, to meet them.
Milo was taller than Eloise, yet shorter than Tom, and bright pink hair. She'd been Eloise's editor since she'd signed her, back when Eloise was only fourteen. And had remained by her side since, becoming a close friend, and hanging out with Eloise when she could get time off from her other job--being a manager at a water-park.
"Oh man, did I really think I'd never be here again," Eloise whispered to Tom, who chuckled, and whispered back, "Why is that, darling?"
"Because I didn't think any more of my books would be picked up by anyone besides my publishers," She quietly explained, "And I'm already thinking of signing another book contract. With who, I'm not sure yet. But I was thinking of telling Milo to put out that I'm interested in more."
Ever since finishing the final book needed for her Simon and Schuster contract, she all of a sudden went into this funk, coming up with more and more ideas. More, more, more, her writing senses seemed to say. More, more, more. She itched to write more than ever before.
Tom opened his mouth to say something else, when Milo busted through the doors, her pink hair pulled up in a high bun, the pink vibrant against her dark skin. "Sorry I'm late!" She explained, running over to them, panting. Some curls came out of her bun, but she paid them no notice. "There was a birthday party, and you know kids, the grossest stuff comes out them."
Eloise laughed, and replied, "It's okay, Milo. I can only imagine the mess." She'd heard many of Milo's horror stories.
"Anyways. Are we ready? Do you have the book? The pens? And the contracts?" Milo asked as Eloise started gathering her things. Chuckling, Eloise replied, "Yep. And I have the stuff you asked me to bring--the storyboard, the ideas for a casting list, and the mood-board."
"Oh thank god. You know how scatterbrained I am," Milo pushed her loose strands of hair out of her face, and Eloise turned to Tom as they walked down the hallway towards the offices, and said, "Tom, here, does not know."
Sticking her face between the two, Milo asked, "Oh, yeah, how is this going? It seems good. You fox, not telling me about your new relationship!"
Tom laughed, and Eloise said, "Sly as a fox and just as clever." She laughed when Milo came up next to her, shoving her shoulder slightly, and she said, "We started dating this last August. We've been together for three months today."
The three of them stopped in front of a glass door, the pine green glass keeping them from seeing inside. "Well, this is it," Milo said, then looked back at Eloise. "Deep breaths, babe. You'll do amazing."
Taking a deep breath, Eloise squared her shoulders, brought her chin up, and opened the door.
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It occurred to Tom, just then as he followed Eloise and Milo into the office room, that he'd never seen Eloise in 'business mode.'
She'd seen him in 'business mode,' in 'interview mode,' but he'd yet to see what she'd be like in the meeting. And he was sure she would be all about it, just like her father. He gave a small wave to Kevin Feige, who was sitting with another man, and a woman that Tom had never met before.
Eloise set all of her things on the table, and then went over and shook hands with everyone. "Hello, Kevin, Jason, Martha," She said, "thank you for meeting me about this book and adaptation. This is my agent, Milo Tranio. My boyfriend, Tom, joined us as well. I hope you don't mind."
"Not at all, it's nice seeing Tom again," Kevin replied, smiling. "So! We wanted to get started right away on some ideas for the title. Reworking it, just a little bit, if you didn't mind."
"Just making it sound more Marvel-esque, is all," Martha added in. "I had brainstormed up a few ideas."
Sliding the notebook over to Eloise, she and Milo slouched over it, studying the names that had been scribbled down: Iris: The Last Queen, The Adventures of Loki & Iris, Iris: The Loki Chronicles.
Eloise shifted in her seat, and looked over at Milo, and then spoke up. "How about Sorrowful Beauty: The Iris and Loki Chronicles?"
She looked up, looking at the three of them. They all looked over at each other, and then started nodding. "We could work with that, yeah," Jason said.
Relief flooded through her. Pushing the notebook back, Eloise said, "Okay, I also wanted to ask about the cast. Iris's character is to be played by a woman of color, and not some white girl. I want representation for young girls to look up to."
"We can do that," Kevin said as Martha started flipping through pages, scribbling out names. "Uh, do you have any suggestions to some actresses we can try and reach out to, see who might be interested in this role?"
"Golshifteh Farahani or Priyanka Chopra. Those were the two actresses I had in mind," Eloise replied, and Milo nodded approvingly.
"We'll reach out for them," Kevin replied, "until then, I was going to hold some auditions. We'll make sure the actress we choose is a woman of color."
"Thank you," Eloise replied, and then Jason said, "Okay. Now that some of the TV stuff is out of the way, why don't we think about some screenwriters?"
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Two hours later, Eloise officially optioned Sorrowful Tragedy off to Marvel Studios and Disney for a TV series that would be available on their Disney Plus network that was coming out in the next couple of years.
Eloise was grinning as she held Tom's hand, the two of them leaving to go eat some dinner. "So . . . " Tom started as they walked towards the restaurant. "My girlfriend. Writer. Published author. Granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway. What shall we eat, sweet love of mine?"
She laughed, and replied, "Hmmm. How does some Mexican food sound, my love?"
i'm so sorry it took me so damn long to update this story. i'm getting back into the groove of writing, and i'm hoping that by mid-January, i can have some sort of schedule for updating my books.
but until then, i'll try and update this as much as i can! thank you all so much for waiting.
