All That I Say Is True

Patricia korinis

Book Cover

GENRE

DRAMA FAMILY ROMANCE MEMOIR BIOGRAPHICAL ADVENTURE

    Core Theme

    RESILIENCE

    TIME PERIOD

    20th Century (multiple decades)

    COMPARABLE TITLES

    ANGELA’S ASHES, A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN

    CHARACTER LIST

    • PATRICIA KORINIS: DETERMINED, OUTGOING, ROUGH AROUND THE EDGES

    • BURT: KIND, SUCCESSFUL, BEGINNING STAGES OF ALZHEIMER’S, PATTI’S THIRD HUSBAND

    • LARRY: OLDER, STRONG, PATTI’S FIRST HUSBAND MARY: GRUFF, UNLOVING, PATTI’S MOTHER

    • KATHERINE: SWEET, PLAYFUL, PATTI’S SISTER

    • GUS: UNKIND, UNSYMPATHETIC, PATTI’S SECOND HUSBAND

    Logline

    Rags to riches story.

    Target Audiences

    Age: 35-54

    Target Gender: Universal

    Setting

    New York

    Based on a True Story

    Yes

    Publishing Details

    Status: Yes: self-published

    Year Published: 2010

    Starting Description

    Sorry about child that wasn’t wanted, neglected abuse and taken out of school to work who went on to be successful.

    Ending Description

    Through all of the obstacles in her way she succeeded. She is now encountering a new one her husband has Alzheimer’s.

    Group Specific

    Information not completed

    Hard Copy Available

    No

    ISBN

    Information not completed

    Mature Audience Themes

    Language/Profanity

    Plot - Other Elements

    Happy Ending

    Plot - Premise

    Rags to Riches

    Main Character Details

    Name: Patricia Korinis

    Age: 83

    Gender: Female

    Role: Mentor

    Key Traits: Underdog, Uneducated, Aspiring, Crazy, Funny, Patriotic, Leader, Outspoken, Blunt, Complex, Decisive, Insecure

    Additional Character Details

    Name: Patricia’s has two children, she was married three times.

    Age:

    Gender: Female

    Role: Emotional

    Key Traits: Educated

    Additional Character Details

    The author has not yet written this

    Additional Character Details

    The author has not yet written this

    Genre

    DRAMA

    Brief

    Patricia and her siblings supported each other during their rough upbringing in the Bronx during WWII. Patricia's working class family caused her to become dependent on marrying men in order to escape the shackles of her parent's abusive behavior. The men were not always kind to Patricia, but in her third marriage, she and her daughters found happiness. Through both her and her third husband's hard work, Patricia's family enjoyed financial stability and found joy in her grandchildren.

    Overall Rating

    GOOD

    Point of View

    FIRST PERSON

    Narrative Elements

    Authors Writing Style: GOOD

    Characterization: GOOD

    Commerciality: FAIR

    Franchise Potential: FAIR

    Pace: FAIR

    Premise: FAIR

    Structure: FAIR

    Theme: GOOD

    Accuracy of Book Profile

    The profile contains a synopsis that is pretty accurate to the memoir. The character details do tend to focus on antagonists rather than other key figures in Patricia's life. For example, her children were more focused on in the story than her sister Katherine. Katherine does not have as much of a characterization as her daughters in the story, but the daughters are not represented in the character description. The brief provided also states the Patricia grew up in the 1950s and 1960s but a majority of her younger years were actually in the 1940s as she was born in 1936. She was already grown in the 1960s and a mother and therefore not growing up between the decades mentioned. It would be more reflective to say the 1940s as when she grew up in the brief.

    Draw of Story

    Patricia's hardships described in what people used to endure for survival shows a great inner strength but also is quite understanding of the hardships without malice. This forgiving hindsight of the bigger picture of poverty and the cycles of abuse is really profound, while also shocking in the details provided.

    Possible Drawbacks

    Each of the sections were an interesting slice of history, however what the main conflict is as well as Patricia's inner conflict is not apparent. Her financial transformation is not tied to a inner transformation and therefore there is less emotional attachment to her success. By clarifying what the inner conflict is throughout the story, the full potentnial of the emotional investment could be reached. And while the family is probably more aware of the roles of all the members, having such a rich life of generations of people is a bit hard to follow as such a large cast of characters as an outsider to the family.

    Use of Special Effects

    THE STORY RELIES A LITTLE BIT ON SPECIAL EFFECTS

    Primary Hook of Story

    The hook is Patricia's resilience in all seasons of her life. First she is born into abusive poverty during WWII and then she endures marriages that are also controlling before she is able to enjoy the fruits of her labor with her third husband. Just as she is reaching her golden years and enjoying her grandchildren, her husband starts showing signs of Alzheimer's. Patricia rarely complains but is able to show the motivation behind all of the bad things that happened to her and how she overcame them.

    Fanbase Potential

    As a personal memoir of a non-famous figure this is likely to have a smaller audience as while the protagonist's contributions to her family are great, it would take more development in the themes to make the personal story more relatable to a larger audience.

    Awards Potential

    This has potential in the awards category if the social issues presented are more pronounced such as women being dependent on marriage for a long time in history or how poverty is linked to cycles of abuse and how Patricia worked to break the cycles of abuse for her own children. If one of these themes is more pronounced, Patricia's resilience could shine through to gain notice for a nomination.

    Envisioned Budget

    MEDIUM BUDGET

    Similar Films/TV Series

    BROOKLYN, MOONSTRUCK, STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS

    What’s New About the Story

    The originality of the story stems from some of the insight on Patricia's decades of living in the Bronx as a working class family. She has recollections of dire survival during WWII and also being forced into marriages in order to escape the cultural pressures of her parents. Either of these scenarios coupled with her rewarding success at the end could show strong themes worth pursuing. Developing a main theme in order to showcased an inner conflict's transformation that is consistent throughout the narrative in order to identify a main conflict to make it more followable.

    Lead Characters

    Patricia is resilient beyond measure and very forgiving of those who inflicted past trauma upon her without sidestepping the abuse.

    Uniqueness of Story

    This is a very heartwarming story, but the themes need to be more developed and a main conflict identified throughout for the story to feel more cohesive outside of including the same characters.

    Possible Formats

    Film - Streaming, Film - Indie, Film - Studio

    Analyst Recommendation

    WORK IN PROGRESS

    Justification

    While the story has many positive points, it has room for improvement (see possible paths below). If you can't change the story at this point, my suggestion is using your notes as a guide to highlight the best aspects of it when taking the next steps, either putting a pitch page together, a treatment, or a presentation.

    Tips for Improvement

    By showing the transformation of an inner conflict more clearly and perhaps focusing on a smaller portion of the struggles, such as just childhood or just marriages, the emotional investment will be greater and clearer as to what success is in regards to a singular goal. Also making a theme more apparent for the audience to relate to would generate more marketability by making the concept more unique.

    Brief

    Growing up in the Bronx during the 50s and 60s, a woman who is no stranger to hardship, makes the most of her situation and grows up to be a success story.

    What We Liked

    - It has the potential to be an inspiring rags to riches story.
    - Film: If this were developed into a character study, it could conceivably be adapted into a feature.
    - TV: The story of Patti could be part of a documentary or docu-drama about people who overcome obstacles to become successful.
    - Key points: Based on a real person; Rags to riches;Strong female lead; Generational relevance; Positive message

    Synopsis

    Margaret Korinis was the third child born to her parents, Mary and Thomas. They were of Italian and Greek descent, respectively. Her older siblings were Thomas and Katherine. Her mother never wanted her in the first place and that was not a secret in the house where she grew up. Her name was changed to Patti at age three when it was discovered that she was named after one of her father’s girlfriends.

    Patti and her siblings always stuck together and survived poverty, their father’s gambling, and his philandering. Mary had to be creative to make ends meet. She even took in two girls off the street to help pay the rent. The girls ended up being prostitutes, so Patti learned about sex at an early age. Though they didn’t have much growing up, Patti, Katherine and Thomas made the best of it. Patti made sure to make friends all over town as well as with the kids from her neighborhood. She played on sports teams, and endured having to be in a special class in school after she was in an accident.

    Patti didn’t finish high school and with the help of her sister, Katherine, got into the workforce right away. Patti was never satisfied for long and went through job after job. Patti and Katherine were very close. She had a lot of fun in those days and they only stopped when Katherine got married.

    Larry, an older man, became interested in Patti. He had met her years before when he visited the prostitutes at her home. After she let him know that she wasn’t like those women, Patti and Larry had a long courtship. In an effort to get out of living with her difficult parents, Patti finally married Larry. Larry wanted Patti to work even after they had their two daughters, Donna and Patti. When Larry would come home from work at the fire station, Patti would work on direct marketing sales.

    The marriage started to become rocky and Patti met Gus, who would be her next husband. After the divorce, Larry ended up marrying another woman and had more kids. He became distant from Donna and Patti at that point. Patti soon learned that Gus was not a very nice man. He wasn’t good to her daughters and he made her feel stupid because of her lack of education. During those years, Patti got her GED and opened her own retail shop. Once Gus forced her to change the merchandise style in the existing shop, they lost customers.

    Patti continued to move up a career ladder, creating products, and games. While working in a marketing company, Patti became friendly with Burt, an executive. She confided in him about her troubles with Gus. Burt comforted her and when her marriage ended, Patti and Burt were married. It was a happy marriage. He helped her through losses in her family and they did well financially. They met influential people and were able to travel to exotic destinations. Patti is proud of her accomplishments after overcoming adversity.

    Patti and Burt remain married. However, Burt now suffers from the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. They plan to enjoy their life together for as long as possible.

    About The Author

    Successful businesswoman, Patricia Korinis Houseworth, is a first time author. Her memoir was written at the request of her two daughters.