When new friends, Children’s Author, Melody and Handyman Vlogger, Josh ditch their
Type-A Agents’ itinerary-driven holiday to help save Melody’s Mom’s cookie shop, their Agents, who are competing for a big promotion, have got to catch up to them. These four wind-up on two wildly different yet converging Christmas road-trip adventures into love.

Comps: It's the "dating the wrong guy when the right guy comes along" romantic dilemma of THE LIFE LIST and SOMETHING FROM TIFFANY'S (2023) meets PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES.

In pre-production for Winter 2025

SYNOPSIS:

Rachel Burger, Staff Writer for ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING: “MERRILY ALL THE WAY is excellent - It has the spirit of Christmas all wrapped up in an adorable rom-com. Very strong and very magical.”

Story: Successful Children’s Author, Melody and her new friend, Handyman Vlogger Josh, feel completely out of their element at the elitist, itinerary-driven, Christmas holiday their Type-A Agents have brought them to. They’re also unaware that their Agents are competing against each other to win a coveted promotion by being the first to sign Melody or Josh to an exclusive contract.

When Melody receives a call to help save her Mom’s cookie shop, 200 miles away, back home on Whistler Mountain. Melody and Josh ditch their Agents, dash to the train station, and, thanks to a little Christmas Magic, receive the last two tickets on the Christmas Train home.

Their Agents chase after them. While Melody & Josh experience the most romantic train journey, their Agents must survive being mugged, crammed onto a bus, buried in snow, and stranded in a laundromat.

As Melody arrives home with Josh she discovers her Mom has stopped believing in Christmas Magic. While they work to save the cookie shop and restore her Mom's belief, they realize they once met as teens on Whistler Mountain, on the peak of “Daredevil’s Run”, where Melody rescued Josh from bullies by jumping onto his toboggan and riding down the mountain into an epic wipe-out. Romantic destiny has struggled to reunite them ever since.

Meanwhile, their Type-A Agents’ hijinks-tangled road-trip has taught them to be less controlling and more spontaneous, and has led them to take a chance on love with each other. When both new couples come face-to-face on Whistler Mountain, they’re ready to be real friends and they share a cozy family Christmas morning.

Why Now/Why Me: I especially love writing Elevated Christmas RomComs which are on the edgier side of traditional. (Films similar to: MY SECRET SANTA, CHAMPAGNE PROBLEMS, THE HOLIDAY, LOVE ACTUALLY and WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING), which have done very well internationally. Christmas RomComs are their own unique Genre, intentionally created to be hot-chocolate for the soul. The characters' stories are sincere, light-hearted, hope-restoring escapist entertainment in its purest form. There's even a built-in ticking-clock counting down to Happily-Ever-After.

I've been lucky to study with Blake Snyder, Jen Grisanti, Jessica Bendinger, and now the wonderful Holiday RomCom Writer, Carley Smale.

I’m on the verge of earning my first “Produced Writer” credit with MERRILY ALL THE WAY, an elevated Holiday Rom-Com which is in pre-production with Kristen Lucas and Jim Langlois of Collab Content Entertainment for a Winter 2025 shoot.

Check-out my Stage 32, MERRILY ALL THE WAY, Writer Success Blog (you’ll laugh, I promise): https://www.stage32.com/blog/m...

Growing-up just outside of Philadelphia, I needed my wild imagination to create fun & mayhem. It got me into a lot of trouble though, like that time, when I was 10 and I stole my parents' car to take my little sister for ice-cream. (we made it as far as the neighbor’s front yard); or when I launched myself down a steep, busy street in the plywood go-cart I'd built with no brakes; or, after setting out on my own at 17, my two summers as an amateur stock car driver.

I became the Lead Graphic Designer for several wonderful feature films including two Academy Award Winners. I fell in love with storytelling, started screenwriting, won Top Ten and Cinestory and lunch with Christopher McQuarrie. Won 2nd Place and Top Five Best Screenplay at ScreamfestLA, and became an Amazon Studios Best Screenplay Competition Semi-Finalist. Was short-listed in both the NBC and ABC TV Writers Showcases. And so much more...