As the author of 13 books, including four on spirituality, I’ve spoken in 33 countries on spirituality and theology. I enjoy doing radio interviews on the topics of spirituality, theology and faith. I would especially love to speak about my book, Spiritual Steps on the Road to Success: Gaining the Goal without Losing Your Soul – a winner of an Illumination Award gold medal. I determined, at the beginning of my script consulting career, in 1981, to try to apply spiritual principles to my work even when I wasn’t sure what they were. I wanted my work to have integrity, and to be Spirit-filled, and over the years, I began to understand what some of those principles were. Most of the principles discussed in my book Spiritual Steps on the Road to Success: Gaining the Goal without Losing Your Soul, I’ve learned from my own experience. In this book, I talk about the intersection of our spiritual lives and our professional lives in ways that will help readers examine spiritual issues from whatever spiritual viewpoint or whatever your denomination. I hope this book helps people explore some ideas and insights that can support their spiritual journeys. I believe that God loves us, desires to nurture our abilities, and calls us to make a difference in our world. I believe no matter where a person is in their spiritual life, and which spiritual practice they’re a part of, they will resonate with the issues discussed. I hope all readers will find this book opens up new possibilities for faith and practice, as we all continue to deepen our relationship with the Spirit that transforms our work. Although the book is written from a God-centered perspective, I also understand that people use many names for God. At times, I will be speaking about The Spirit, or The Presence. You might address God as Lord, Holy Father, or Holy One, or as Holy Mother (yes, there are a few Bible verses that point to the Feminine attributes of God) (FOOTNOTE: Isaiah 66:13, Matthew 23:37) or as The Creator, Compassionate One, Guide, Comforter, Providence or that Power greater than ourselves. As a Quaker, I tend to see myself as a bridge between people from different spiritual disciplines. Quakers, as a whole, tend to believe that ours is not the only spiritual path, but a spiritual path that some of us find suits our specific needs and yearnings and seekings. As a result, we tend to be encouraging of however others choose to nurture the Spirit within. We call this Spirit by many names: the Seed, the Light Within, the Christ Within, the Indwelling God or Spirit. We believe this Spirit is constantly present, it’s personal, and it can guide us, no matter the circumstance. Some of the topics I like to discuss are, the ‘7 Deadly Sins’ as I encountered them in Hollywood, also why I had to develop a ‘Sense of Smell’ to protect myself from unscrupulous people.
As one of the foremost script consultants in the world and the most prolific author in the area of screenwriting, I’ve appeared as a guest on over 50 radio and television shows including “All Things Considered,” “The Bill O’Reilly Show,” “CNN Power Lunch,” and as a commentator on “CNN” for the Academy Awards, “Good Morning LA,” “Good Morning New York,” “Channel 13 Los Angeles,” “The Evidence,” plus a number of other shows in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Denver, London, etc. I’ve been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Herald Examiner, The Sacramento Bee, The Christian Science Monitor and The Gazette among many others. I’ve also been featured as a screenwriting subject matter expert on numerous radio shows, webcasts and podcasts.
I felt called to drama since the age of 19, and through many years, the exact calling began to be worked out. My work life has focused on drama – first as a college professor in theater, and since 1979, in the film industry. I created my job in 1981 as a script consultant and script troubleshooter, based on my doctoral dissertation that developed a method for understanding why a script (for film, television, and theater) worked, or didn’t work. The creation of the job took a huge leap of faith for me, since this job didn’t exist and no one was used to paying for feed-back on their scripts except in the few screenwriting classes that existed in the early 1980’s. I have worked on over 2,000 scripts and over 100 produced films and television shows. My clients have included writers, directors, producers, executives and companies, in film, television, and theater. They ranged from beginners to Academy Award winners such as Peter Jackson and William Kelley. I’m the author of 13 books, including a must-have on every screenwriter’s bookshelf, Making a Good Script Great, which was endorsed by Ron Howard as a book that has informed him since Apollo 13. Four of my most recent books deal with spiritual topics based on issues I’ve faced in my life, especially as I became successful and well known.
