The first blurb: Model minority turned creative entrepreneur
For my first post, I decided to give an introduction about myself. Hopefully, you’ll want to subscribe.
The first batch of stories is dedicated to any creative person who has ever held self-doubt feelings about their creative abilities, is obsessed with perfection, and has started projects and cannot finish them.
Those pointers will be interspersed with random writings about politics, sports, social justice, and other sundry topics.
I’m one of the thousands of writers who migrated into online writing groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. My colleagues continue to hold me accountable while sitting in front of my computer where I write books and edit movies.
Why did I decide to step off the cliff and trust that I could become a starving artist?
I qualified for unemployment twice and was told by my friends to take a risk and try something I’ve always wanted to do but didn’t because I was always stuck in a “job.”
My second breadline in 2008 led me to some video production classes at the local public access TV station. That training eventually grew into me being Director and Producer at Boulder Community Media.
I haven’t looked back on my evolutionary path. I still make movies but found that writing is much less capital-intensive, there’s not much equipment involved.
I type up my first couple drafts on an Olympia desktop typewriter or a Smith-Corona portable. Then I scribe them into Scrivener. Next, my draft is imported into Microsoft Word.
Being a self-employed starving artist isn’t without its challenges. Every morning I wake up unemployed and constantly developing the next project. The latest is the second installment of the Jack Kerouac digital scroll project. The episode is about his trek through six rural Nebraska towns.
Small town spirit is a big interest of mine.
I’ve been involved with community journalism since 1968 when I wrote for my junior high school paper, The Tumbleweed, through high school and college and then writing professionally for the Wyoming State Journal in Lander, Wyoming.
After moving to Colorado, there wasn’t much community journalism opportunity, so I resurrected my writing prowess as a screenwriter. My first short screenplay, Stardust, won an award in the 2005 Denver Screenwriting Center contest.
Views from Behind the Lens is my personal website. I write random thoughts about random topics — sports politics, personal experiences, movie stuff. Some of that I’ll share here. Much of this was organized into a memoir entitled Beyond Heart Mountain, which is scheduled to be published by Winter Goose Publishing.
Aging Gratefully: The Power of Community includes five movies about my recovery from my death bed at Silver Sage Village is on the private screening circuit. The most recent is about life in cohousing during COVID-19.
In the summer of 2013, I co-produced a SAG indie narrative movie Mahjong and the West, which premiered at the semi-important Woodstock Film Festival in October 2014 and is now available on Netflix.
Three feature-length documentaries aired on PBS Your Neighbor’s Child (Wyoming PBS and Rocky Mountain PBS), New Deal Artist Public Art Legacy (Wyoming PBS), Dutch Hop! (Nebraska Educational Television).
I wish I could say I was becoming a mega-media mogul, but I’m too much of a do-gooder and prefer to “spread around the wealth.”
BCM is a non-profit production group dedicated to democratizing electronic media on large and small screens, printed pages, and stages by providing sustainable and community-based content.
I mostly work with community-based media producers, organizations, and socially responsible businesses to develop their content via — the written word, electronic and new media, the visual and performing arts in a culturally competent manner — I’m what’s commonly called a niche TV and movie producer.
Along with all this is plying my forte’ — fund development through grant writing, sponsorship nurturing, and event planning.
My second breadline in 2008 led me to some video production classes at the local public access TV station. That training eventually grew into me being Director and Producer at Boulder Community Media.
I haven’t looked back on my evolutionary path.
Self-employment isn’t without its challenges. Every morning I wake up unemployed and constantly developing the next project. The latest is the second installment of the Jack Kerouac digital scroll project. The episode is about his trek through six rural Nebraska towns.
Small town spirit is a big interest of mine.
I’ve been involved with community journalism since 1968 when I wrote for my junior high school paper, The Tumbleweed, through high school and college and then writing professionally for the Wyoming State Journal published in Lander, Wyoming.
After moving to Colorado, there wasn’t much community journalism opportunity, so I resurrected my writing prowess as a screenwriter. My first short screenplay, Stardust, won an award in the 2005 Denver Screenwriting Center contest.
Views from Behind the Lens is my personal website. I post random thoughts about random topics — sports politics, personal experiences, movie stuff. Some of that will be Medium fodder. Much of this was organized into a memoir entitled Beyond Heart Mountain, which is scheduled to be published by Winter Goose Publishing.
Aging Gratefully: The Power of Community includes five movies about my recovery from my death bed at Silver Sage Village is on the private screening circuit. The most recent is about life in cohousing during COVID-19.
In the summer of 2013, I co-produced a SAG indie narrative movie Mahjong and the West, which premiered at the semi-important Woodstock Film Festival in October 2014 and is now available on Netflix.
Three feature-length documentaries aired on PBS, Your Neighbor’s Child (Wyoming PBS and Rocky Mountain PBS), New Deal Artist Public Art Legacy (Wyoming PBS), Dutch Hop! (Nebraska Educational Television).
I wish I could say I was becoming a mega-media mogul, but I’m too much of a do-gooder and prefer to “spread around the wealth.”
BCM is a non-profit production group dedicated to democratizing electronic media on large and small screens, printed pages, and stages by providing sustainable and community-based content.
I mostly work with community-based media producers, organizations, and socially responsible businesses to develop their content via — the written word, electronic and new media, the visual and performing arts in a culturally competent manner — I’m what’s commonly called a niche TV and movie producer.
Along with all this is plying my forte’ — fund development through grant writing, sponsorship nurturing, and event planning. If you have a media project of any sort, I can help you get it funded.
The first batch of articles will be musings about how I landed my first publishing contract and some tips that have been useful to me over the years.
