Sophia Castillo- The Shylock's Daughter

The Shylock's Daughter

All photos in today's blog by our amazing set photographer Martin Bradford Hovsepian.

I have been working on the third in the Crescent City Mystery Series, Chocolate City Justice, for quite some time now.  My problem was that the original plot, which takes place during hurricane Katrina, actually started in the middle of a story. It took me a while to realize that, and when I did and re-tooled the plot and backed the whole thing up to the actual beginning of the story, I realized it needed to be two books, or maybe a part one and a part two.

Anthony Gangi, Rene Michel, Alex Eldimiati, Julio Castillo

I was hesitant to bring this up to my publisher, not sure how receptive she would be to it, but she was pretty stoked by the idea, which was a huge relief.  Now that I've got that firm in my mind, I think it will be easy to finish the novel.

My husband and I also just shot our first film, The Shylock's Daughter, a short for Timecode Nola, a New Orleans film competition where 15 entries are chosen to appear in a longer, cohesive piece. The final film is screened in April at the French Quarter Fest. 

We shot one day already and have one day left, and I think it went exceptionally well.  I wrote and directed, although I have to say my husband Julio Castillo, our stunt coordinator and one of the leads Alex Eldimiati, and our Director of Photography, Rene Michel, really helped with that, especially with the fight scenes and shootout-- yes, we have all of that.  My 15-year-old daughter starred in it against her will, but she was fantastic all the same.  She and my 13-year-old were so unimpressed with the whole thing--I think most girls their ages would be thrilled to have been in a bar in a seedy part of town shooting a movie.  Not my kids. Go figure.

Anyway, keeping our fingers crossed that it turns out amazing. And it should, because the entire cast and crew were absolutely perfect. I could not have picked a better group of talent to work with. Also keeping our fingers crossed we make the cut, because contests are subjective and you never know what's going to happen.  To be perfectly honest, I'm good either way, because it was worth it regardless.

John Teal

My  3 Thugs- Huey, Ricardo Vargas, Eduardo Castillo