We recently had the chance to connect with George Sirois and have shared our conversation below.
George, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
Two recent moments this month have felt incredibly validating.
The first was my appearance at Archon, a science-fiction / fantasy / horror convention in Collinsville, IL. I’ve been a regular there since 2015, and on a friend’s recommendation, I applied to be a “Pro Guest,” which meant that I would be selected to either participate in or lead a series of panels. I was not only accepted, but I also got to give a PowerPoint presentation about a piece of film history that was received very well. And different members of the panels I moderated made a point to shake my hand and tell me I did a great job.
The second thing just happened earlier this week. On a hunch, I submitted a short screenplay I wrote to a handful of film festivals. One of them was the Los Angeles Short Film Awards, and I was greeted with an email stating that my script was named the winner in the category “Best Short Screenplay.” This isn’t just the best in a specific genre, this was named the best short screenplay overall. This was a story that I really wanted to make sure I got right, and I was dealing with a lot of self-doubt regarding whether I was even the right person to write this. Maybe I’m not thinking big enough, maybe I’m not a good enough writer to pull off this concept. So seeing this email and seeing my name beside the title of my screenplay meant the world to me.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is George Sirois, and I’m originally from New York City, but my family and I have been calling St Louis, MO my home for nearly fifteen years now.
I consider myself a storyteller in various formats. I’m an author of two different science-fiction trilogies, both of which are currently being prepared for a relaunch with my new publisher. I’m also a lover of voiceover, mainly in animation and radio. I knew I wanted to get into those fields somehow, and in 2015, I took my first steps that led me to eventually be a podcaster of more than 300 episodes and a total of three different shows and a narrator of over twenty audiobooks. Also, this year I was fortunate enough to win two awards at the Austin Revolution Film Festival and the Los Angeles Short Film Awards for two different short screenplays I wrote.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My English 12 teacher, Mrs. Whitten. When I was a senior in high school, she gave us an assignment for each week of the class. We were to keep a journal and turn it in every Friday, and then she would read our entries and provide feedback. I wrote in an early passage my doubts about these characters that I had created over the past several years (including Excelsior, the main character in my current YA / SF trilogy), and I openly wondered what I was going to do with them. Would I stop writing and drawing them? Would I maybe pivot to something else? Would I start over with them from scratch? I didn’t know.
The comment that greeted me that Monday was, “Tell me more about these.” So I took that as an open invitation and flooded the next several pages with character bios, team names, the backstory, summaries of the main stories, all of it. And the response was amazing. She kept wanting to read more. She was not only interested in what I was writing, but she was justifying all the time I had spent picking at them, knowing there was something there but not yet knowing what.
This kind of support lasted throughout the year, and it culminated at the moment when we got our final grades. In my school, if you got an 85 or higher on your final grade, you were exempt from taking the final exam, and when I saw my grade, my heart sank. 83. She looked at it and said, “Well, I don’t WANT to give you the final exam, so let’s say you got some… Excelsior Extra Credit” and added two points to the final. I couldn’t wait to get home so I could tell my mother how those – as she called them – “stupid characters” got me out of my final exam. It was the first time someone would tell me, “you have something here.” And I believed her. To Mom’s credit, that was the last time she referred to those characters like that and she decided to support me being a writer from then on.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
Being forgotten. I’ve always had the feeling of “out of sight, out of mind,” and so I try to do as much as possible. In addition to being a husband & father, I’m an author, I’m an audiobook narrator, I’m a podcaster, and I’m getting into voice acting. It’s all happening at once so I’m constantly feeling behind on everything I’m doing. But as long as I’m doing all of these things, I’m staying relevant. At least that’s what my mind keeps telling me.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Whose ideas do you rely on most that aren’t your own?
Funny enough, Edward D Wood, Jr. Yes, he has the reputation of being the Worst Director in Hollywood History, and he has given us such non-classics as Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster, and Plan 9 from Outer Space. But the man worked fast and he never looked back while he was working on his scripts, and even though the results were not good films, they were still entertaining and interesting all the way through. On the other hand, I’m constantly looking back and trying to tinker with what I have without actually completing too many things. So I keep having to remind myself of the phrase, “Perfection is the enemy of Done.”
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What will you regret not doing?
I regret not asking my guidance counselor to NOT put me in Algebra II and Chemistry for my senior year when I didn’t need them to graduate, and instead put me in classes that I knew I would enjoy. I regret not using my first couple of years of college to either get an internship at a casting agency or at least an entry level job. Something other than the route I took during my junior year when I went for a basic office job that didn’t focus on what I loved and what I was studying in college. But at the end of the day, I have to remind myself that the various twists and turns in my life were what made me what I am today. And after all of my failures and faults, if I can still have a loving & supporting wife and a daughter who amazes me every day and wants to be a writer herself, then those regrets pale in comparison.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.hesgotit.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgesirois
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/excelsiorbooks
