We’re almost at the end of 2006, and to beat the rush on year-end wrap-ups, I wanted to get a head start.

This has been the most exciting year of my life with so much happening and so many wonderful people. A list of my thank-you’s to those who have made this year possible will be what makes up Part Two of this year-end review — that’s how many people I owe thanks. But for now let’s look at what happened:

It was exactly one year ago that we started this blog — and this mission — and many of the hopes for the year have come true.

I did indeed sell a script this year, a little horror comedy that will be coming out in 2007! I made it a goal to get my script sold and in the hands of producers I want to work with — and I did! More will be announced on this project in early 2007 but I am pleased that the method I preach, I use myself — and it works!

In the course of 2006, just as promised, we did indeed travel the globe bringing the precepts that make it easier to sell our scripts available to as many people as we could. We were invited to Chicago, New York, London and Cornwall, Phoenix, Tucson, and Maine — not to mention many universities including Chapman College, UCLA and Vanderbilt. And not only invited once, but invited back where each time we had even bigger crowds!

We started 6 new Save the Cat! writing groups worldwide — which will soon be linked — and introduced the method to over 1,000 writers in all formats: coaching, lectures, and workshops.

And we also had a surprise: our Save the Cat! software, developed by Bob McFarlane. As of this writing, it is the #3 best-selling new product at Writers Store (http://www.writersstore.com/product.php?products_id=3235) and is now also on sale in New York, Vancouver, and London.

But the biggest successes of the year were the personal ones. I have been so lucky this year, everything was an amazingly kismet kind of experience, and many times I have realized what a graced life I’ve been given:

I have glanced up and looked out the window on the train from London to Penzance at some of the most gorgeous countryside and thought: Wow! How lucky am I?

I have taken a break from teaching in Chicago and walked along the Des Plaines River and felt so blessed.

I have strolled the streets of Manhattan on a perfect summer day and been reminded of how far I have come since I lived in NYC years ago. As a poor, struggling writer, I lost a really bad novel I was sure was great on the subway — thank God! How many of my dreams have come true since those days!

It’s been one of those years.

But the biggest surprise of 2006 has been the kindness that has greeted me from the people I’ve met, and with that I will leave you for now; it is a big list, for the folks I owe thanks to is long. Stay tuned for Part Two, and also a bunch of things we didn’t do so well this year, but we’ll do better in 2007!!