Paraphrasing…somebody, you can take the man out of writing, but you can’t take writing out of the man (or, woman). Through 22 years of active military service (Marine Corps and Army), the need to write and (as I was to learn) perform on stage and on a movie set only festered and grew within me. Somewhere in that nether region of the brain that is impossible to completely control, formed words, sentences, paragraphs, scenes, characters and plots…all running hither and yon in futile effort to find a home on paper, stage or celluloid. Occasionally, either by happenstance or the necessity of whatever my current day-job required, a few of them would slip out and find their home. But for the most part, they simply multiplied in their cells, dangerously overloading the system.
After my separation from the Marine Corps, I decided I wanted to become ed-ju-ma-cated. So, I returned to college, where I became a disc-jockey and dabbled in television/film. BUT, I was soon lured by the roar of the grease paint and smell of the crowd, finding myself in several productions on the wicked, wicked stage, where I learned the stage wasn’t as wicked as it is portrayed. Like the Marine Corps, the Army and any other profession, it’s made up of people with a talent, who are just trying to put out the best product they can. Now I was burdened with two curses; writing and acting. Could be a lethal combination. Lesson: If you have a talent you didn’t know you had and people tell you that you have it…LISTEN TO THEM. End of lesson. Over time, theater morphed into film and I was lost in the abyss forever and ever.