-You are a successful screenwriter. What and who inspires you to write your projects?

Inspiration is an interesting concept. Does it come from life experiences, world events, media events, relationships, books you’ve read, music or even dreams? It is all, yet none. I’m inspired by all of the above yet my own mind’s imagination is prevalent. An example is one of my most popular scripts, FIRE FLIES.
I had seen the film GLADIATOR then downloaded the sound track by Hans Zimmer and it set my soul on fire. Every note and measure of the music created visions in my head leading to creating the story of a
young boy coping with the divorce of his parents by creating a world of dragons where he is King and the events in his life parallel between current and Mystical Times. This inspiration has led to three sequel
scripts, FIRE FLIES: THE DRAGON’S TOMB, FIRE FLIES: THE GOLDEN DRAGON and FIRE FLIES: THE RETURN OF THE RED DRAGON. These all came from the same inspiring Hans Zimmer soundtrack. My THE TASTE OF RAIN came from sitting one rainy day up in the local mountains listening to Michael Bublé, Tony Bennett and many other fabulous singers. The music combined with the rain and smells started
me thinking about an established singer of their level that has a mental breakdown, casting him into the depths of being a failing lounge singer and his return to mental stability and stardom.
Inspirations can come from anything, any place or the combination. It’s your mind that runs with it to make the story pop out and become the script that is compelling. See a flower in a pot on the windowsill
of a red brick dilapidated building on the corner and you may wonder who put the pot there and why or who else lived in that building. And yes, it can be of any genre. The building could be haunted. The
building could be a portal like in Stephen King’s THE DARK TOWER. It could be the apartment building in I REMEMBER MAMA in San Fransisco or in a parallel universe and time. The mind can be inspired by virtually anything.
I wasn’t inspired by any single person but I was supported by people who supported what I was doing with my writing. They can be critical but not condescending. As Liza Minnelli said, “I don’t hang
around people I don’t like.” That is important. I may have missed some opportunities in that but it has kept me sane and focused on my writing.

-Do you think Artificial Intelligence is a threat to screenwriters or a useful support?

AI . . . what a concept. While it can be fun in animation and creative art, I find it extremely lazy in writing. Why bother? The whole point of writing, in my view, is to utilize your brain and express your ideas and stories on paper, not someone else’s stories or stories created by a mixture of other people’s ideas from a hard drive. That’s not writing. That’s waiting for the printer to stop printing words you aren’t even aware of until you read it. It’s lazy.

-When did your writing journey begin?

I started writing very late in my life. I was 50. I guess the time wasn’t right until then. I started with a novel, TIN BOX, and discovered many things. I finally was able to put my story thoughts down on paper. To begin with, I didn’t even know if I could write dialogue for a screenplay. I volunteered in Malibu, CA at a small theatre for a premiere play, FELLOW TRAVELER, written by John Herman Shaner. It was a small
theatre with a large affect on my life as a writer. I met two of the most important people in my life, the stage manager, Elizabeth, and the playwright John Herman Shaner. Elizabeth is still a close friend and
John Herman became my trusted mentor in writing. It was working with him that clarified my work and vindicated my writing skills. He was also my second pair of eyes which is important. He treated me as an
equal in intelligence and never ridiculed my work or told me what I needed to write.
It was definitely the right time for me to start my writing.

-What new script are you working on?

I am working on several things at once, which is commonplace with me as my mind will shift and seems to never shut off. I am working on my autobiography as well as screenplays like STUDIOLISCIOUS, a romp
through the mind of a studio worker who has a tendency to step across a time line into the sets of 1940’s & 1950’s movie musicals to cope with his life today and PARALLEL ENTRY: THE FIRST UNIVERSE, a sci-fi story that takes a pair of detectives who fall through a tear in space/time into a parallel universe who eventually discovers there are many more universes and each very different. PARALLEL ENTRY is targeted with many sequels, each one a different universe experience. That said, I could easily start something else as the inspiration hits me or a vivid dream that sweeps me to another story.

-Do you think WILD FILMMAKER is doing a good job supporting independent cinema, and what do you think we can improve?

Wild Filmmaker has been a strong influence on me entering film festivals because the entry fees are manageable and you support your community. You have created that community and many of us support each other through social media. Your interviews and Variety ad postings of laurels of many who entered, adds to The Indie Community getting noticed, getting their names out there and propagating new works from new and existing writers.