Milton, Paradise

Lost.

And the goal was to tell the story basically from beginning to end and I didn't actually know when I started mapping this out what the beginning was and It was only in my process of reading the source materials That I realized I would need to start all the way back at the moment of the invasion even though that's almost a year before the first battle of Fallujah just because It's sort of like a nuclear reactor destabilization.

You can trace all the dominoes back to the very first button press.

And so it goes from there until essentially there's nothing left.

The town is leveled.

And I minored in Iraq war history, specifically in college.

And

Did all of those pieces of you move forward at the same time? Or did you, did you pick rehab and focus on your body or pick, you know, going out with your friends and talking about the future? Or did you get into writing right away or did they all happen at the same time? What was the first step?

In the hospital, I was pretty obsessively trying to finish my work and go on as if life was normal.

I, uh, Had a number of projects pending just because I was in the middle of the work year.

So I was, you know, on event.

unable to speak, mouthing messages to my assistant over FaceTime.

And then as soon as I could talk again, you know, my dad and my mom would take shifts.

I had a script I had to turn in and I was dictating the last 15, 20 pages of some stupid werewolf movie that I had to finish.

Are you putting all of those beautiful stories into all of those outlets now? Or as like, do you have a favorite, a favorite child at the moment?