Author Bio
I never dreamed of being a writer. In fact, by the time I graduated from high school in Washington State I’d probably read a grand total of three books for recreation. The same goes for seeing movies. I guess you could say I didn’t get out much. But, as odd as it sounds, as a middle school and high school student I loved reading the Bible. Seriously, I couldn’t wait to see what Jesus and the boys would do next. The same went for the Old Testament. I mean these guys and gals were humans with all sorts of flaws and yet they pulled of some pretty phenomenal things.
Anyway, I was all prepared to be a dentist or history teacher, but made a promise to God that I’d always say yes to Him. Always, no matter how strange it was. I thought that was a nice, noble little prayer. I had no idea where it would lead. Fast forward to my freshmen year at the University of Washington. I’m sitting in a movie theater watching the fourth movie of my life. I’d seen The Parent Trap, Pollyanna, and Pinocchio. Now I’m watching . . . The Godfather. I was stunned -- not only at the violence but at the way my peers were standing up and cheering when people were getting slaughtered. I walked out of that theater absolutely numb at the power of cinema. And I gave God an earful telling Him he had to get folks making movies to inspire audiences to do good. But every time I told Him what He had to do, it came back at me that I should be one of those guys. That was absurd. I didn’t even know how to watch a movie, let alone make one. That little argument went on for several months until I finally caved and found myself in Rome, Italy studying film directing. Wonderful… studying a subject I knew nothing about in a language I couldn’t speak.
That was just the beginning of this always-saying-yes adventure. I got married, moved to LA to become a rich and famous film director, discovered they all ready had plenty of those, and started directing plays for free. Out of the blue someone asked me if I could write a TV script. I asked them if it paid, they said yes, and I said, “Sure, no problem.” It was terrible, awful, but they bought it. Then some publisher asked me to write a book. I asked them if it paid, they said yes, and I wrote a book worse than the TV script. But gradually, mistake after mistake, I started to get the hang of things. That was 20 movies, 40 national and international awards, and 100 books ago.
One of my favorites is still the kid’s series I co-created and wrote called, McGee and Me. And, though I still dabble in Hollywood (writing a screenplay or so a year, with about 20 of my novels currently optioned as motion pictures) I have the most fun writing books. So much easier -- no begging producers for money, no fighting with studios, no trying to accommodate egos. Just unlimited imagination, with the only wall I hit being my own (sometimes sizeable) limitations.
What do I enjoy writing most? The romance, mystery, suspense, and action are all fun to do and I love hearing readers say they can’t put the books down. But for me the real thrill is to discover some ignored aspect of God. I’m not talking about preaching or sounding religious, but about teaming up with the reader to discover an element of the Infinite that we have never really seen or thought about before. To me, that’s the real joy.