Monthly Festival : Turn your book into a movie and get it seen by 1000s of people. Or garner FULL FEEDBACK from publishers on your novel and help your next draft. Or get a transcript video of your novel performed by professional actors.
Ripple is the twenty million year old story of how love inspired one dolphin
to an intellectual achievement that changed the universe.
What genres would you say this story is in?
Love story. Animal story. Mind body spirit fiction.
How would you describe this story in two words?
Attitude changer.
What movie have you seen the most in your life?
The Secret Garden – a fictional portrayal of the Law of Attraction. It’s a
children’s story but speaks to all ages.
What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)
“The Sounds of Silence.” (Simon and Garfunkel)
It is the musical representation of my insane dolphin character Maram, who
became a murderer. I have edited the lyrics slightly to better fit his
marine world.
Do you have an all-time favorite novel?
Life of Pi. It’s one of the best mind/body/spirit animal stories out there.
What motivated you to write this story?
My experience of sailing in the middle of the ocean on the same terms as the
native marine beings, with only a wing in the wind and a fin in the sea.
Seeing the stars that fill half their lives and spending the long night
watches trying to imagine myself inside the minds, vocations and culture of
a dolphin’s world. Then I heard that dolphins have ten times the human
capacity to process sound. The story flowed straight from that fact and one
other – that dolphins evolved twenty million years before humans came down
from the trees. In view of those two facts, Ripple’s universe-changing
achievement seemed logical.
If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?
Richard Bach – author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, or Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, who wrote a mind/body/spirit story with a marine environmental
message long before it was fashionable. That story was The Ancient Mariner.
I used to recite it to myself on long night watches at sea.
Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Kayaking in the ocean near my home in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand.
Marine conservation. Saving the critically endangered Maui Dolphins from
extinction. Preventing all animal cruelty. Stopping the exploitation and
captivity of cetaceans. Saving the cetaceans from those who want to kill and
exploit them for money. Saving the planet from climate change. Obviously
with interests like these I am vegan.
What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?
I can’t remember to tell the truth.
Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
You must just KNOW that the story you write is too important for the world
to miss.
Guarding Shakespeare is a noir mystery thriller set against the backdrop of the world renowned Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, which contains the world’s largest collection of First Folios and Shakespeareana. Long-time security guard Lt. Norman Blalock, who is being forced into retirement, has been tasked by a wealthy businessman and his lovely emissary to steal a priceless artifact hidden within the institution’s underground bank vault that will not be missed and become a wealthy man, with no one the wiser.
What genres would you say this novel is in?
Noir mystery thriller.
How would you describe this story in two words?
Heist job.
What movie have you seen the most in your life?
Casablanca.
How long have you been working on this story?
This published novella took me a year to write.
Do you have an all-time favorite novel?
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
What motivated you to write this story?
I was inspired to write Guarding Shakespeare by working at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
What artist would you love to have dinner with?
Jacob Lawrence.
Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Working on my artwork, film study, and playing Chess.
What influenced you to enter your novel to get performed?
I’ve done a lot of book readings and was curious to hear someone else read my work.
Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
Aspiring fiction authors should first pick the genre they are most interested in, read a lot of work in that genre, and write a lot. Enter contests in that genre and surf the Net for anthologies in that genre seeking submissions.
SUBMIT your Short Screenplay or TV SPEC Script
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FIRST SCENE (first 10pgs) SCREENPLAY CONTEST