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Submission Synopsis
The Pumpkin Seeds
by Sean Warner
aka Soren Nielsen
Length:
98
Genre:
Urban Romance
Mystery
Author Soren Nielsen
writing as Sean Warner
Script in One Sentence:
A widow’s odd relationship with a boarder who is 20 years younger
becomes a family mystery and, many years later, inspires a
great-granddaughter to discover the truth.
Logline:
The strange relationship of a widow and a rough-edged boarder who is
20 years younger prompts her family’s suspicions; but, years later, their
story intrigues a great-granddaughter, a first-grade teacher in an
inner-city school. With her eager students, she resumes the
boarder’s tradition of giving away Halloween pumpkins and, upon finding
him alone in a nursing home, gives new purpose to a forgotten man’s life.
Synopsis:
It’s 1961 and Marge Sullivan needs a man around the house. Marge,
widowed at 59, is befriended by Stan, a rough-edged bachelor 20 years
younger who offers to be her handyman with one provision: He gets one
home-cooked meal weekly.
Stan notices Marge’s neglected garden. He professes a penchant for
gardening and Marge says “help yourself.” The garden flourishes,
especially the pumpkin patch, and so does friendship. In late summer, with
Stan’s apartment building falling victim to urban renewal, Marge invites
him to rent her upstairs. When Stan admits concern about her family’s
reaction to his presence, Marge brings him to her daughter Beatrice’s
Labor Day party.
So begins the public side of a relationship that endures for 20 years,
with Marge and Stan the odd couple in family lore, always subject of
speculation.
Stan delivers pumpkins every year before Halloween, to Bea’s daughters and
to neighbors, and becomes “Stan the Pumpkin Man.” One year, Bea’s
youngest, Susan, helps in the patch, learning how Stan expresses affection
through planting and sharing.
Bea’s objections increase after Marge suffers a heart attack in 1971. She
recovers but, because she doesn’t want to die alone, Marge asks Stan to
move his bed into her bedroom. Bea suspects the worst of Stan.
Shortly after Marge’s release from the hospital, Stan accompanies her to a
carnival where they indulge in a photo-booth session.
Bea’s distrust of Stan is a reflection of her marriage crumbling because
of her husband’s adultery and her alcoholism. Her dependence on vodka
increases after she finds her husband cheating again. She’s unable to help
her daughter with wedding plans but Marge fills in.
In 1981, Marge dies quietly in her sleep. Bea instructs Stan to move his
bed upstairs and to prepare for a move. She’s selling the house and the
family loses track of the evicted Stan.
In 2001, Susan’s daughter Ellie revives the mystery. The first-grade
teacher is inspired by Susan’s retelling of the story and, near Halloween,
she takes her class to a nursing home, where Bea is a resident, to
distribute pumpkin cards made by the eager students. By accident, Ellie
learns Stan is also a resident of the home. Ellie is the first in five
years to visit the wheelchair-bound Stan, and he’s touched by Ellie’s
confession that he’d inspired her. But, her questions about Marge upset
him. Ellie says she’ll return to visit him and she reveals that Bea is
also a resident. After Ellie leaves, Stan pulls out the photo-booth strip
and we learn from one frame of a passionate kiss that the odd relationship
was much deeper than merely friendship.
Stan wheels down to see Bea. He notices Bea’s resemblance to her mother
Marge but she’s unresponsive. However, out in the hall, Stan hears Bea:
“Stan, Stan the Pumpkin Man.”
With new hope and a new future, Stan wheels around and returns to Bea’s
room.
Author's Bio:
Soren
Nielsen, writing as Sean Warner, spent three decades in newspaper jobs –
from low-paid reporter to high-stress management – and early in his
four-state career discovered the therapeutic value of fiction writing.
After being mentored in the 1980s by
a professional, whose credits included scripts for a prime-time television
show, Warner enjoyed some attention from two agents and a Broadway
producer. An award-winning screenplay was pitched to the major TV
networks, but his big breakthrough was elusive and he accepted two more
journalism gigs before deciding that a full-time effort was needed to
write and to market his work. Since giving away all his neckties and
unstrapping his wristwatch in August 2001, Warner has completed a novel (Circle
of Wholes) and a feature-length screenplay (John Again). He has
also updated and revised an earlier novel (Yours, Forever), and he
is more than halfway finished with a new novel.
Earlier manuscripts scheduled to be
dusted off, reviewed, and revised include four screenplays (Dove Creek;
Yours, Forever; Fourth Quarter; and True Soldier) and two
novels (Hotel Texas and Fort Mackenzie).
Warner’s metamorphosis from suits to
shorts included some major down-sizing – from a three-bedroom house
to a 33-foot RV motor home, from two closets to 15 hangers, from shoe tree
to two pairs of Minnetonka loafers, from three walls of books to one
cupboard shelf, and from an over-crowded computer desk to carry-along
laptop. The RV’s navigator has been married to Warner for 39 years
and continues to provide him inspiration for adaptability, perseverance,
and love scenes.
Over cocktail chatter, Warner might
be goaded into admitting his fondness for a few of life's necessities.
Football. Beachcombing. Fiction writing. Grilled salmon filets. Sunsets at
Cape May Point. Tanqueray and tonics on the rocks, stirred. Hammocks.
Newspapers with two crossword puzzles. Jeopardy. Actresses named
Hepburn. Celine Dion or Shania Twain. Mark Twain or Elmer Kelton. New-age
gurus Dyer, Chopra and Wilde.
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