This might be old news for some of you, but my book Double Take has officially entered development for a feature film with Groundswell Productions (Milk, The Informant) and Katie Jacobs (exec producer, and co-creator of House) – who will direct. The book was optioned almost two years ago, but after finally getting funding, it looks like it’s currently out to writers!

Now, this is still really early in development, so after reading some of the below links – you will officially know as much as I do about where this is going…

Deadline Hollywood article

Rama’s  Screen

Movies and News

I will most definitely post here as I learn more, which hopefully will be trickling down soon…

Doctor's Orders

So for those who were tuning in last weekend, some of you may have noticed my absence.While I was in Aspen, and registered for X Games, I spent most of the weekend on an I.V. rather than snow. After battling with a bout of flu/food-poisoning (after a while the symptoms were pretty similar) for a couple days, I realized it was a far smarter move to take care of my health and head to a hospital than try and race. The above photo is actually from my discharge papers as Aspen Hospital. Orders that specific are tough to ignore…

While I was bummed not to compete, it was great seeing some new blood winning some medals. However – I do have a little bit of ski footage to show you. ESPN filmed a feature on some of the new things that I was working on. Unfortunately, I can’t find a way to embed the video. So if you’re feeling motivated – click anywhere in this sentence and scroll about halfway down. Can’t miss my bearded mug.

I’m currently sitting inside the Athlete Lounge tent where the atmosphere is akin to a circus tent if it was filled by beautiful people in brightly colored clothing. Actually – that is a circus – the only difference maybe being the amount of Gore-Tex contained in each outfit.

So after breaking my back last year (T-10 Compression fracture that left me off snow for the majority of the season), I was really hesitating if I should give this another shot. And while I doubt the move is fully approved by my parents, I’ve decided to give the Mono X another go. One major advantage I have this year is that I’m automatically qualified for the semi-finals as a result of my bronze medal last year. So while I’m still pretty nervous, at least I know I can avoid most of the nasty abuse leading up to the event.

ESPN came up to Montana to film a feature on me last week, so it should be airing sometime prior to my competition, which will on Sunday, January 30th, on ESPN. The semi-final will take place from 3pm to 3.15 pm and the finals will be from 3.45pm-4pm.

Oh! And here’s an article ESPN put out last month about the event. Fleshes out the competition and event a bit better.

Kevin Connolly: Back for More Medals

I’ll be tweeting during the week, so if you have any questions or well-wishes, hit me up at KevinConnolly on twitter.

Howdy! Wanted to drop a quick notice for any Helena folks reading, that I’ll be speaking downtown and signing books tonight. The event is sponsored by the Lewis and Clark Library as part of a series helping to promote diversity in honor of the upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. day.

Here’s the official announcement from the L&C site -

East Helena native, author, photographer, and X Games medalist Kevin Connolly will be speaking at St Paul’s UMC (512 Logan) on Wednesday, January 12 at 7 PM in conjunction with celebrations of Martin Luther King Jr Day—MLK 2011. Kevin was recently featured in Outside magazine’s Survivors’ Guide issue. Kevin’s memoir, Double Take, recounts growing up in Montana without legs, competing in the X Games, and traveling the world on his skateboard.

Books will be available for purchase and book signing to follow.

I’d love to see the place packed as it’s been a long time since I’ve done anything in Helena. Hope to see you there!

Most of the images were captured at ISO 320. “If I was shooting in an open area and there wasn’t too much contrast in light, I would usually trust the program mode. If I was shooting between buildings, at night, or in any situation with contrasty light—I’d go manual, though I’d never go wider than f/8, if I could avoid it,” Kevin explains.

If the above paragraph makes sense, you might dig the full article – which can be found right here.

As promised, here are the questions I wanted to ask of your class, but ran out of time. If you would like to answer these, great. But as I stated in class, the last thing I want to do shovel homework on you during finals week. I’ll leave it up to your teachers to decide if this should be mandatory or not. It was great meeting everyone, though, and hopefully I’ll we’ll see each other again sometime!

1.) How would your country respond socially to someone with a physical disability? Is there stigma associated?

2.) Is there a common assumption, or story, that is commonly associated with physical disability in your country? (i.e. “was it a shark attack?” “do you still wear your dog tags from Iraq?”) If so, what is it?

3.) Are adaptive sports and technology (i.e. monoskiing, wheelchair rugby, etc) well known in your country?

4.) How do you think “the Dirtbags” in chapter 6 helped to shape Kevin’s view of disability? Can you think of anyone similar in your life?

5.) Finally, since it’s sometimes easier to post questions in writing, is there anything that you wish you could have asked me in class?

For those who missed the article when it came out in print in this November’s issue of Outside, the article has just been posted online.

The full article can be found right here.

Here’s a small excerpt:

Daybreak cracks like a runny egg against Montana’s Spanish Peaks as the Cyborg steers his rig toward the slopes.

The Cyborg is thrilled. When his truck rounds a bend obscuring Big Sky’s Lone Peak, he leans toward the windshield. He wants to ski, sure, but by now you’ve spent enough time with the Cyborg to know there’s something else in that eagerness. He is looking forward to crushing you on the mountain today. This isn’t strictly because he has something to prove, though perhaps he does just a bit, the way any guy born without legs could reasonably be expected to have something to prove. What’s more true is that the Cyborg is all guy, and—let’s face it—the favorite pastime of twenty-something guys is gutting the confidence of the other members of the pack. Today the rest of the pack is you.

Go check it out!

Just saw this go up the other day and thought I should share. While I was down in Colorado speaking to students at Colorado Mountain College, I was interviewed by a local journalist, David Frey. Super nice guy, and savvy enough with his questions to get me to eek out more than I should’ve about the next project.

Low and behold – it made it’s way to The Huffington Post! I’ve quoted a little bit for the interview below, but for the full article click right here.

Can you talk a little about this next project?

I’m basically going around the world and trying to find other people who have made really interesting adaptations outside of the kind of Western medical infrastructure a lot of us deal with. Especially from the experience I have had traveling abroad, you really get the sense that this is more prevalent in developing countries than it is in Western ones.

The need is also greater, because there’s less funding, there’s less governmental infrastructure, there’s less access to medical infrastructure. So that is going to be the next project. In many ways it’s the inverse of the Rolling Exhibition: focusing on people who get stared at, maybe because of their interesting adaptations. We have locations like India, Congo, Haiti, Russia, Brazil.

But this is not just an exhibit. This is a book project.

I’m pitching a book, but it’s also going to be delivered through a photo series. So you have portraits of the people who created these interesting adaptations interspersed between each chapter that would otherwise be a massive travelogue. I’m trying to keep the photo project moving simultaneously as well as write about it as well as chronicle other people’s inventions. It’s a bit daunting.

So how did your new cheetah legs come about?

Trying to profile people in developing countries, I realized I had to have something that could take me off the sidewalk, right? The skateboard, despite all its practicality, is limited to the ground rolling beneath it. I found that I needed something that is going to allow me to ambulate without having to deal with pavement.

If people stare at you on a skateboard, they must really stare at you on cheetah legs.

Yeah, if I’m in Saudi Arabia or Haiti, I think I’ll get a few stares on this next project.

Can someone summarize what the book “Double Take” by Kevin Connolly is about?

I have to admit that I was a little sad realizing that someone didn’t want to be bothered with reading my book. This is the first time I’ve seen disinterest or laziness in response to my work, and while it’s more than a little narcissistic to feel any sort of reaction to such a simple request, I found myself staring at the question for a good five minutes. He wanted to summarize me, basically – which felt almost like a bad version of literary speed-dating.

Right below his question was an answer that gave me heart, though:

Some guy who hated doing his homework so he paid people to do so

Now, while I wasn’t totally certain who the comment was directed at, it made me realize that this was quite likely a student having to read my book for homework. With Double Take being a common reader for incoming Freshman at Montana State University, University of Wisconsin, and Colorado Mountain College, I could see that maybe there was some student sweating bullets about an exam he or she had to take regarding Double Take. So – feeling that I was the best qualified to summarize myself, I gave it a shot. The first half of the post is reasonably accurate, but toward the end of my of summary, I began feeling a bit bored. Not just of the summary itself, but also of what I had accomplished within my own memoir! So, I decided to add a little spice.

The final third of the book takes place back in my home of Montana during a long hiking trip. During my hike, I reflect on my adventures over the past summer while keeping an eye out for hungry wildlife. The final tragic chapter takes place on Sailor Lake, where I am attacked by a mountain lion. Surviving the initial encounter, I nevertheless died a tragic death of attrition on the long hike back to my vehicle in search of medical aid. A sad way to end the book, but nevertheless, I’m currently working on a second one. Kinda tough to create a new narrative if you’ve already been killed by a mountain lion, but nevertheless, I am prepared to try!

Maybe it was my middle-of-the-night delirium that led me to rework the entire ending, but I think this makes the book feel much more epic. I also truly hope that somewhere in America, there is a student convinced or confused about my state of mortality.

Here’s the link to the Yahoo! Answers page if you have any better endings to suggest. Can Someone Summarize Double Take?

Because I’m going to be seeing all of you very soon! I’m currently in Glenwood Springs hanging out at my hotel, and getting ready for the event in Rifle tonight! Between the classroom visits; skateboard sessions around campus; and speaking engagements; it looks like it’s going to be a pretty busy week!

An article in the Glenwood Springs Post Independent has already come out, and it’s actually a pretty funny read…

If author and adventurer Kevin Michael Connolly were an ordinary 25-year-old, he would describe himself with ordinary words such as adaptable, curious and stubborn.

But Montana-born and -reared Connolly is an extra-ordinary young man, so he pauses thoughtfully, with a chuckle, to describe himself as “lowbrow, callused, hairy, manic, masochistic and relatively eloquent despite my best efforts.”

Here’s the link to the full article if you’d like to read a bit more.

Here are some extra details about my visit to Colorado Mountain College:

More information on the Colorado Mountain College Common Reader program and the author’s talks Nov. 1-5 can be found on the Web at www.coloradomtn.edu/communities_friends/common_reader.

Or call the college at 800-621-8559.

A photo and writing contest with the Double Take theme, invites entries that explore the idea of seeing the world from a different perspective. Find out more.

Kevin Michael Connolly will give author’s talks at the following locations:

Nov. 1: Colorado Mountain College in Rifle, 7 p.m.

Nov. 2: Colorado Mountain College in Aspen, 10 a.m.

Nov. 2: Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs-Spring Valley, gymnasium, 7 p.m.

Nov. 3: Colorado Mountain College in Breckenridge, 7 p.m.

Nov. 4: Bud Werner Memorial Library Hall in Steamboat Springs, 7 p.m.

Nov. 5: Vail Christian High School in Edwards, 7 p.m.