More About the Author
With more than forty years experience in the publishing world, and over fifteen years in entertainment, I absolutely love being a "story merchant"--writer, producer, teacher, and literary manager, responsible for launching dozens of books and films. My life's passion is finding great storytellers and turning them into bestselling authors and screenwriters--and making films which send their stories around the world.
I've produced 26 films, including "Joe Somebody" (Tim Allen; Fox), "Life or Something Like It" (Angelina Jolie; Fox), "The Amityville Horror" (NBC), "Shadow of Obsession" (NBC), "The Madam's Family" (CBS). "Meg" (New Line), "Demon Keeper" (Fox 2000), "Henry's List of Wrongs" (New Line), and Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not (starring Jim Carrey; Paramount) are approaching production. Full film bio at www.imdb.com.
My 14 books include books for writers at every stage of their career. Based on my teaching, managing, and writing experience, I've successfully built bestselling careers for novelists, nonfiction writers, and screenwriters from the ground up. Clients include bestsellers Steve Alten, Royce Buckingham, Jamise Dames, Noire, Shirley Palmer, Tracy Price-Thompson, Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not!, Cheryl Saban, and Governor Jesse Ventura. Now, as chairman and CEO of Atchity Entertainment International, Inc., my Story Merchant companies, www.aeionline.com and www.thewriterslifeline.com, provide a one-stop full-service development and management machine for commercial and literary writers who wish to launch their storytelling in all media---from publishing and film and television production, to Web presence and merchandising & licensing.
I was born in Eunice, Louisiana; and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, where I attended Rockhurst High School (and was editor in chief of The Prep News). After undergraduate work at Georgetown (A.B., English/Classics), and getting my Ph.D. in comparative literature from Yale, I served as professor and chairman of comparative literature and creative writing at Occidental College (Faculty Achievement Award; published articles, reviews, short stories, and poems in major journals and magazines throughout the world).
Editor of CQ: Contemporary Quarterly: Poetry and Art
Co-founder and -editor (with Marsha Kinder of Dreamworks: An Interdisciplinary Journal Devoted to the Relationship between Dreams and the Arts (authors published and/or advisory board included Joyce Carol Oates, Ursula Leguin, Ernest Cardenal, Federico Fellini, Ingmar Bergman, Paul Bowles, John Fowles, Hubert Selby, John Rechy, Stephen King, Georges Simenon, Carlos Fuentes, Eugene Ionesco).
Served as Fulbright Professor of American Studies at the University of Bologna
Distinguished Instructor, UCLA Writers Program
Regular columnist-reviewer for The Los Angeles Times Book Review (involved in establishing the Los Angeles Times Book Awards)
Vice-president of P.E.N. Los Angeles
I'ves made numerous radio and television appearances, and given inspirational keynote talks at writers conferences, speaking on the world of professional storytelling, the storyteller's market, the storyteller's process, creativity, dreams, and various academic and entertainment and publishing related subjects.
I wrote and served as on-camera talent for Synapse Technology's "Columbus: The Voyage of Discovery," and consulted for the Discovery Channel's series, "The Power of Dreams."
