Biography
Like so many writers in Hollywood, I've sold scripts and had lot of things "optioned" by movie companies that don't show up on the IMDb.com. For example, my three young adult "You Solve It" mystery novels were optioned for a TV series on the late Nashville Network. Selling two screenplays within a couple of months of each other, with money in the bank to make both, and then the movies not getting made, caused me to turn to writing books, which I still prefer. I'm still a working screenwriter. I repeatedly get paid to rewrite scripts; often, no one knows. That's Hollywood. I've had a lot more stories and books published than scripts made but some of my credits are on the Internet Movie Database. They call it "Tinseltown" because it looks pretty, but lately I've enjoyed doing books more than Hollywood.
I'm obligated on this bio page to tell you of my youth, so let me be brief... there were 13 people in my graduating high school class, 753 people in the town where I lived, and you couldn't sneeze without someone offering you a handkerchief.
And that's all right, it keeps you in line...and I've written about it and will one of these days rewrite my novel about those times. Despite some pretty extreme hardships due to my father's mental troubles, growing up in Texas was idyllic in many ways, and certainly brain food for an aspiring young writer. I know this - from there, I was inspired to see the rest of the world, and because of my dad's oddness, I set off on a lifelong path to learn the truth about mental illness, philosophy and religion and how to make things better for everyone. It's been an amazing journey. I've been homeless five times as an adult (twice due to being a member of a cult), and all I can say is, God pulled me through because he has a plan for me. The older I get, the more I'm committed to helping others, because some times I feel like legions of angels helped me make it through it all and continue today.
I've loved seeing America. On a visit to the Washington D.C. in 2002, we took in a number of sites including the Jefferson Memorial. My kids thought I looked "just like" our nation's third President, which is interesting because at one point I planned to do a one-man show about him. Of course, I'd need to lose some weight.
I have a large library of Jefferson books, have visited Monticello, and think his thoughts are ever more applicable today. What do you think? Would you watch such a show? Let me know. I spend a lot of time commenting on politics these days, particularly on Facebook, where I've managed to accumulate over 4,000 like-minded friends. (My daughter Holly won't friend me; she's private, but I don't blame her at all for that.) Maybe I'll see you there. Meanwhile, I'm doing a good deal of political writing. I wrote a number of columns for Andrew Breitbart's BigHollywood until I decided to move on. I'm currently developing a book that explains human behavior as I've observed it, and how it correlates with light - the very light that comes from the sun. It ties into quantum physics and things I talked about in lectures at Pepperdine University (you can see one on the Events page).
My daughter Holly outside the Eisenhower Building in Washington, D.C. Our then 10 year-old proudly noticed it was opened on her birthday. She doesn't miss a thing.
Later on that vacation, as we entered a 34th story New York apartment overlooking Central Park South, she exclaimed: "This is perfect for me!" She's now a high school graduate bound for St. Mary's University in San Antonio fall 2010. She's fluent in French and I'm very proud to call her my daughter. Both my kids picked up guitar without any help from me and are very accomplished musicians in only a year or two. Holly also plays piano and is now writing songs. She amazed me one day by playing "Blackbird" on my guitar - she said she just figured it out! Having seen Paul McCartney play it from only a few feet away, I can tell you she would have made him smile. Holly Olivia Press, future psychologist, writer, musician, lawyer, President? Everything is possible!
With future Oscar winner Haley Press and Pete Jones, winner of the first "Project Greenlight" contest on HBO with the film "Stolen Summer" in 2002.
Our family liked the movie because it was about something meaningful. Remember movies like that? I'd love to make one. Haley is now taller than I am, in college, an accomplished surfer, and a sharpshooter so good that SWAT team members approach him on the firing range, among other things. He is a line officer and firearms instructor at a major range in Los Angeles. He's also an aspiring comedian and actor, a very funny guy who made his onscreen debut with me in a small bit for a showbiz crowd of over 1,200 people in June of 2010. And then there's the music. When I hear my son play Led Zeppelin songs like Jimmy Page and slide guitar like one of the Allman brothers, I'm thankful to God for giving me such talented kids. I've never been able to fully decide between fiction, film, journalism, television and Websites. I've won awards you've probably never heard of, had plays produced you never attended (although the L.A. Times did, and liked them). I've written for television shows you probably never saw, and had optioned and sold scripts you've never seen on the screen. I even wrote about pink river dolphins for Reader's Digest. I'm a nobody to most and a highly successful somebody to many (particularly aspiring writers). The electronic version of my "How to Write What You Want & Sell What You Write" was a non-fiction finalist in the first Epic Awards for ebooks in the United States. But you never heard of those awards, right? The three editions of my "Writer's Guide to Hollywood Producers, Directors and Screenwriters' Agents" became Hollywood how-to bibles for aspiring screenwriters all over the world. I know, because they email me every day and tell me. My "Complete Idiot’s Guide to Screenwriting" was reviewed as best of its kind by the Writers Guild of Canada and translated into Russian and published by Triumph Publishing of Moscow. You don't read Russian? Me neither, but they actually paid for the rights... My "Your Screenwriting Career” course was available in over 1,500 schools. I taught the course for eight years before giving it up. But hey, let's talk about what I have going right now. I have a FREE writing discussion group on Yahoo! called "Skip's Hollywood Hangout." Oh, NOW I have your attention? I started the group to give me breathing space I needed to return to writing my own projects. (Lots of emails asking questions, you know?) I'm back to working on my own scripts, books and novels as well as teaching and consulting and trying some producing. Still, I know it's my destiny to hear from every single person on Earth who is writing a screenplay. (Just kidding!) I live in beautiful almost downtown Burbank, California with my teenagers. (I'm single, in case you're wondering.) I try to write something brilliant every single day, because I'm too dumb to quit and no one will hire me at a real job, anyway. I'm not complaining... |
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