And under a separate title of Does Anybody Really Want to Know This? I started out writing commercials for radio stations in the Midwest. Then came educational films that led to my participation in a PH. D. film-making grant at the Univeristy of Missouri-Columbia. The Department of Arizona Tourism invited me to write and produce a film on their state when the grant ended, which put me two inches closer to Hollywood (on the map). But I never thought about Hollywood. After all, Hollywood was filled with bright, pretty, creative genuises who knew everything and everybody. I was rather lackluster, not too pretty, and I knew nobody. Except other people like me. Then I went to Hollywood and found out they didn't know a bit more than I knew and they weren't all that pretty. For the most part.
CBS hired me to work in their script department. Basic training for those who aspire to be screenwriters. Which I didn't. I just wanted to keep working and, preferably at something I could sort of do. Like write. I was at CBS for only three months when MGM made me an offer I couldn't refuse. That's how I became production coordinator on a couple of network shows, assistant to the Vice President of MGM-TV, one of two people in MGM development, and sold my first original screenplay to the first production company I sent it to: Dick Clark Cinema Productions. Amazing.
While at MGM, I married a Location Manager who eventually left me for his mother. That really ticked me off. It also inspired me to murder his rearend, which I did in my first novel: "Murder in the Movies". It was published by the first publisher I sent it to: Port Town Publishing. I was also giving screenwriting workshops around the country with one of my MGM bosses, Donald Gold. Donald was producing "Diagnosis Murder" at the time of our cross-country workshop adventures. Once in a while, we were joined by Marie Gillen (exec. producer "Fried Green Tomatoes", officer in Morgan Freeman's company Revelations Entertainment), Paul Rabwin (Emmy award-winning producer "The X Files"), Jack Allen, network development executive; Mark Schulman, really big in DreamWorks; and Paul Mason, Senior Vice President of Production, Viacom (also my ex-boss when I was production coordinator on "CHiPs").
After being hired to write "Malice in the First Degree", a screenplay based on the true story of a Caribbean attorney framed for murder, I moved to the Midwest to concentrate on writing novels. For nine years I was guest screenwriting workshop facilitator on the Univ. of Missouri-Kansas City campus. Now I sit in a very old house in the historic part of Topeka, Kansas writing more novels, though my heart lies in criss-crossing the country, telling others about all I've learned of God, and Life, since my son, Dean, began sharing with me things I never imagined, from The Other Side. "Dear Dean...Love, Mom" isn't actually about me and it isn't really about Dean; it's about the fact there is so much more to life than we realize, so much more to cherish than our hearts can ever hold - and the clear message that there is, indeed, Life-After-Life.
If there is a point to all of this, it isn't too orginal: Follow your heart and don't get too involved in earthly goals. It's better to enjoy the journey.
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