January 2026: Connecting With Community
We're treating community-building and creative endeavors as the revolutionary activities they are. I love that. And I love all of you.
I'd say "Happy New Year," but it hasn't really been too happy, has it? In fact, I'd say that life has gotten infinitely more tense, anxiety-inducing, and unsteady. But.
BUT.
We're still here. We're actively resisting in the ways that we can. We're treating community-building and creative endeavors as the revolutionary activities they are. We're working even harder to take care of each other.
I love that. And I love all of you.
Seriously, if you're bothering to read this, I love you. Not in a romantic or sexual way – I only love a few of you that way – but as fellow travelers navigating this bananas world wielding hope and love to build something better for ourselves and each other.
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about how I want to exist in the world in this new year we've started, and what it means for me to be a creative person in these tumultuous times. A lot of that has solidified for me, and it'll be a lot of what you see and hear from me through Pomonok Entertainment moving forward.
I'm glad you're joining me on this journey. Pull up a chair, and I'll fill you in on the goings-on of the past month.
Love,
Teresa
On February 7th, I Become a Woman
Well, not really. But after about a year of study (Torah, Hebrew letters, trope...) I, along with eight other members of my cohort, are becoming b'nai mitzvah. You know, that thing that Jewish girls usually do at 12 and Jewish boys usually do at 13 where they learn to chant from the Torah in Hebrew and have to do it in front of their whole synagogue congregation and that makes them an adult in the Jewish community? Yeah, that thing. I'm doing that. As a 46-year-old who's technically an 8-year-old Jew.
Next week.
I've been going to weekly classes and more recently practicing my four verses of Torah that I'll have to read from the parashah 'Yitro' in Exodus. It's only four verses, and will take maybe two minutes to get through, tops. But I'm absolutely shitting a brick about it. Life's been bananas and my mental health has been a bit up-and-down over the past few months. In January, that all caught up with me as I realized that I'm not as firm on my Hebrew decoding as I'd like to be. I've got a week left to practice. I'm sure it will be fine, but that won't stop me from catastrophizing right up until the very last second when I'm on the bima with a yod in my hand.
At least I won't be alone. Like I said, there are eight other adults doing this with me. Some are born-Jews who, for whatever reason, never had a b'nai mitzvah. Some are Jews by Choice, like me. All of us decided that our commitment to the Jewish community warranted a public exhibition of our growth and study for some reason. During the Shabbat Torah service on the 7th, we'll all be on the bima and take turns chanting through the reading. Our teacher, Rabbi Deborah Silver, will be on hand to give us cues if we get stuck, as will about a thousand other rabbis. Everyone's rooting for us, and we'll be among family, friends, and community members. It'll be fine.
It's not too late to get off this ride, is it? IS IT?!
It'll be fine.
Because Conversations with Kids are Much More Interesting Than Those with Adults
January also found me in training for not one, but two new part-time gigs that will see me through the spring.
First, I'm going back to working with Sylvan Learning Center! Whereas last time, I was working through a Sylvan in Brentwood (which is a bit of a schlep from where I live), now I'll be working through Sylvan in Glendale! Yay, shorter commute! I'm working as a contract tutor, meaning that I'll be going to an elementary school in the San Fernando Valley three days a week from 12:30-4pm and working through either a reading/writing or math curriculum with the same groups of 4-5 kids between now and mid-May.
Secondly, for the next 6 weeks my Tuesday afternoons will be occupied by my work with another after-school program called The Hero's Quest. Every week, I'll be going to a school in Glendale and DMing a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for a group of elementary school kids. The Hero's Quest, run by a married couple (one of whom is a children's clinical psychologist) who are themselves parents, uses D&D to teach kids social skills and emotional literacy through specially-written campaigns and simplified D&D rules that are age-appropriate for the kids we're working with. I'm really excited about this: 1) because it'll be so much fun to run a campaign for kids, and 2) as a very new DM, it'll be nice to be able to practice running a campaign without the "pressure" of experienced DMs at my table.
Having worked with kids in various capacities in the past, I know that these jobs have the capacity to be extremely challenging, but I'm absolutely looking forward to them anyway. Every job is difficult in one way or another – that's why work is called work – but when you find fulfillment and joy in what you do, it makes the work go down a lot easier. And I love working with kids and helping them grow into better, more intellectually curious, and more fortified versions of themselves.
Other January Highlights
- I spent most of January dog-walking and babysitting: the former for a sweet dog named Sophie while her owner was on a trip to India (I was so jealous!), and the latter for the Dillon Dyad, my friend’s now 5-year-old twins. Caring for kids and animals. When I’m not writing, that’s my bag.
- Lots of medical stuff lately, which I won’t get into too much now, but I will share (for the perimenopausal among you) that I’ve started taking progesterone and wearing estrogen patches that will hopefully level my shit out, so to speak. A lot of what’s going on has to do with a pre-existing fibroid and endometriosis situation that I’m now getting some imaging/tests on so my doctor and I can talk about how I want to handle them. More to come on that. The second puberty of middle-age is no joke.
- Shout-out to the CA Department of Rehabilitation, which I didn’t even know existed until this past month. My wife was referred to them for help in seeking work, and I took her to an information/intake session. They have so many resources for disabled folks in California! If you’re disabled and want serious help finding employment, go to one of their information sessions and see what you qualify for!
- Social endeavors this month included: finishing off Star Trek: Prodigy with my friend, Adam (what a great little nugget of a show!); dinner with my in-laws; a work date with my friend Sam at a cute place I’d never been to near me called The Moon Cafe; and an awesome Zoom call with fellow Disability Belongs program alumni.
- Lastly, thanks to a long-awaited settlement from a car accident my wife was in two years ago, I was able to pay off a nice chunk of debt, which felt really good. Looking to get my finances in even better order in the coming year. I’m starting a financial literacy class with Dow Janes, because even though capitalism is a scourge, it shouldn’t only be the wealthy who know how the system works and how to use it in one’s best interests. There are life goals I’m working toward this year that require a little more stability in this department. More to come on that.
Though, if anyone just wants to allow me to be a showrunner on something so I don’t have to work five jobs to add up to one salary, that’d be great.
POMONOK PICTURES
Happy Birthday Harold! is now in post-production, and editor Carolina Matamoros has just handed in her first editor's cut of the short film! The above photo is a still from that featuring Hanna Tucker in the role of 'Anne.'
In addition to working with Carolina on the edit, I'm currently considering music options for scoring the film. While I have feelers out to some composers I'd like to work with, and I'm also considering the use of royalty-free music, I'd love to hear any suggestions from our community!
If you, or someone you know, is a composer who'd be willing to score a 10-15 minute low-budget short film and would have fun writing music that evokes the U.S. in the 1940s, email Pomonok Pictures at teampomonok@gmail.com with "HBDH COMPOSER" in the subject line.
POMONOK GAMES
Work on our upcoming visual novel, ROBOT GIRL: Teenage Dream, has taken a backseat while Happy Birthday Harold! is in post, but that doesn't mean work has stopped. Character artist Aisling Kesinger, who's already delivered a majority of the main characters in the game, is continuing to work on some of the supporting characters needed. Meanwhile, I'm continuing to write the story that's been mapped out.
We've also already received some wonderful work from artist Jenn St-Onge, whom we hired to illustrate our location backgrounds for the game. Above you'll see the player character Ana's bedroom, which has an unbelievable amount of detail, and perfectly captures the vibe I asked for when talking to Jenn about the story and the character.
The goal remains to release ROBOT GIRL in 2026. We hope to have a more firm release date for that soon.
In the meantime, I will be repping Pomonok Games at my very first GDC Festival of Gaming in San Francisco in March thanks to the Sunbloom Media Arts Center, through which I participated in the Full Bloom Mentorship Program. I'll share more information about my schedule at the show as it gets closer, but if you're going to be there and want to meet up with me, shoot me a message at teampomonok@gmail.com!
POMONOK PODCASTS
The latest offering from Pomonok Podcasts is here! Scriptnotes NOTES premiered on January 7th, 2026, and is currently 4 episodes in. We're so grateful for those of you who've already listened--especially those of you not in the United States! Scriptnotes NOTES has listeners in Germany, Denmark, Egypt, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Canada, and Israel. Thank you so much listening to this little screenwriting podcast that could!
Whether you've never listened to Scriptnotes NOTES, or you want to listen to each available half-hour episode again, or you need to catch up, you can always listen to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. OR, you can click on the Pomonok Podcasts tab at the top of this very webpage.
DOLORES
I've finished a first draft of a Dolores pilot! This is after having started an altogether different pilot that I got three-quarters of the way through before realizing it was actually Episode 8 or 9 of a first season. This current pilot makes much more sense as an intro to the series, and I'm currently sharing the pages with trusted readers for feedback so I can get edits under way. The notes I've gotten back so far have been constructive, while also being positive. I think I might legitimately have something special here.
Dolores is the project of my heart right now. In addition to working on the pilot script, I'm also working on a detailed show bible, because my goal is to pitch this as something only I can create and direct, so I need to make my unique vision for this adaptation as crystal clear as possible. Once I get the script and bible in shape, I'm planning on reaching out to an actor whose interest I'd love to gauge as well as an animator I'd love to collaborate with. Animated segments will be key to the series, and I know exactly who I'd like to talk to about pulling them off.
As I pursue new representation this year, this is the project that I'm leading with. It's timely, and it also centers white characters, which I've heard is sadly all the rage these days to the exclusion of other characters whose mere existence is deemed "political." However, it does this in a very purposeful way. A major theme in this literary adaptation is that there's a darkness lurking underneath "wholesome Americana." No better way to put the very concept of "whiteness" under the microscope.
Just don't tell anyone that's what I'm doing, okay? The folks bothered by "politics" and "wokeness" will likely just take this show at face value. Let them. The underlying message will come through to those ready to receive it. I just want the damn thing to get made the way I want to make it.
THE FARM
I'm thisclose to a first draft of my first feature film, The Farm! Not only is it my first feature script, it's also the first time I've tried to write horror. I've come a long way from being a big baby about watching horror movies. Now I'm making one! Hoping to debut the pages to human eyeballs at a session of my Deadline Junkies writing group on February 8th.
ONE GREAT SONG
'How It's Done' (from K-Pop Demon Hunters) - performed by Huntrix
I'm so late to the K-Pop Demon Hunters party, I have YET to see this damn movie. And yet, this song popped up in a Spotify playlist once, and I became immediately obsessed. It's truly a great thing when a film or show that relies on fictional music actually produces real-world good music, and it's a testament to the quality of the whole project. I'm definitely planning on making time to finally watch K-Pop Demon Hunters very soon. Until then, I'll be pretending to fight all manner of n'er-do-well to this song.
ONE GREAT GAME
Fallout 76 (Bethesda Game Studios) – Ever since I played Fallout 4 for the first time a couple of years ago, I've been obsessed with the world of Fallout. I'm currently at various points in Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout Shelter. But the game that actually keeps me coming back? Fallout 76. Which is weird, because I have exactly zero interest in playing video games with other people. I subscribed to Playstation Plus to be able to play Fallout 76 with two friends of mine, but generally I have zero interest in MMORPGs, and I likely wouldn't have tried it if I didn't know people who play. When I sit down to play a video game, for the most part, I wanna be alone. Yet, Fallout 76 provides a lot of possibilities for ongoing play by nature of being an MMORPG. There are "seasons" and events I can choose to take part in, or not (usually not). There are seemingly endless quests and endless places to go.
And you get. To build. Shelters.
My favorite thing about Fallout 4 was building out settlements. Fallout 76 takes all that workshoppery to a whole other level. I basically do quests and missions just to go out and collect materials to put in my stash so I can keep tricking out my shelter and making myself cool outfits. Plus, it adds/builds out elements of Fallout lore in interesting ways, like introducing us to the post-apocalyptic goings-on in different cities, like Atlantic City and Pittsburgh. It's also started incorporating elements of the Fallout TV show (you can do quests for The Ghoul, and you can unlock a Vault 33 jumpsuit, for example)! And the few random players I've come across have all been really chill. One guy even gave me a bunch of supplies he wasn't using just to be friendly!
When this game came out in 2018, I remember hearing from folks that it wasn't that good, or that people weren't happy with it for whatever reason. But I dig it. It's fun, and if you love the world of Fallout as much as I do, it's a way for you to visit that world forever. Hell, right now, this game feels like a training simulation. This'll likely remain a game I'm just constantly dipping back into, no matter what else I'm playing. And I'll be going into photo mode to take pictures of my player character any time she finds a new, fun outfit, like these...
