Hello again, my fellow Goodreaders! As promised last time, I am going to give you a BRIEF overview of how I went from writing/directing television and films to writing novels. First of all, I should say that I haven't stopped writing/directing TV and film. In the last two years I've made three trips to South Africa to direct a TV show down there. I am simply adding novels to my repertoire. And second of all, I will spread this story over at least a couple of blogs, as it is quite long.

So where to begin? What should I say, I was born at a very young age? Naw, been used already. I will tell you I was born in Lubbock, Texas, up on the Texas panhandle, commonly called God's country, although for the life of me I have no idea why. There are few trees, few lakes, and no mountains. It's so flat if your dog runs away you can still see him for three days. Sorry, another old joke. But it is true. Surprisingly, several famous people have come from Lubbock: Buddy Holly, Mac Davis, and many others, but I'm not one of them.

I left Lubbock after high school to go to the University of Texas in Austin, and never really returned. I still love Austin, and UT had an excellent film department. I became (in the words of my father) a "commie, pinko, pervert, bed-wetter", commonly known as a hippie. But no, I was not a commie, nor a pinko, and I'd stopped wetting my bed years before, but I did have long hair and really bought into the idea that peace and love could change the world. I still wish it could.

I wrote and directed several films while in college, and even received several grants from NET, National Educational Television (PBS) to make films. One of these films was a documentary on the International Motocross Race in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and it got me my first professional job once I graduated. I was hired by a TV commercial company to edit commercials. This led to me directing national commercials, which led to me directing documentaries. There were a lot of steps in-between, but I won't bore you with those. Suffice to say I spent a number of years traveling around the world directing TV documentaries.

My wife has said she wants me to write a book about those experiences some day, and perhaps I will. She wants me to title it, "Dysentery: From India to Africa", and I kind of like that title. Anyway, after some frightening experiences overseas, I decided to focus on what I had always wanted to do--write and direct live-action TV shows and films. The way I broke into directing drama was by writing screenplays. This led to me spending several years writing and directing everything from sixty and ninety minute dramatic films for churches, to series television and made-for-cable films.

All of these small films led to my first directing assignment on a feature film. It was a family movie called DAKOTA. The script was terrible (I didn't write it!), but it starred an old friend of mine, Lou Diamond Phillips, and was distributed by Miramax. Lou and I did another feature together after that, HARLEY, distributed by Lionsgate, and remain great friends to this day.

After that I was asked to direct a children's TV series called WISHBONE. Anyone remember it? It's still playing in a few markets here in the US and overseas. It starred a Jack Russel Terrier with a great imagination and a love for literature.

And that is where I will pick up next time--working on WISHBONE. Got some great stories about those days. Until then I'll be...

Moving on!