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Chat With Author J. Thomas Callahan

Wednesday July 12th, 2006 10 PM Eastern US time:

http://www.ebookmall.com/
ebook/170620-ebook.htm

J. Thomas Callahan is a probation officer in Arizona and a former police officer and corporate security manager. With a career spanning more than twenty-five years in the criminal justice field, he has extensive training and experience in dealing with almost every type of crime and offender. He has a Bachelor’s of Science in Criminal Justice from Georgia State University and a Master’s of Public Administration from Arizona State University.

He is the author of three novels; psychosexual crime dramas Vengeance by Proxy and Reflection of Justice of the Clint Wells Detective Series penned under the nom de plume of J. Thomas Callahan, and one science fiction novel, A Different World: 1961, penned under Jerome T. Callahan, Jr.

Writing from the inside out

"You read these scripts, and know that the writer was writing from the outside in, not the inside out. It's writing as a vocation, not a passion. Unless the character premise or theme is powerful enough to shine through the formula, which is rarely the case, these types of scripts bore me."

This is an excerpt from an article by Nina Jacobson, co-president of the Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group. Formerly an executive vice president of Production for Walt Disney Pictures/Hollywood Pictures, and before that she was a senior film executive at DreamWorks SKG. Obviously, someone who knows what she's talking about.

This article is aimed at screenwriters, but is also valid for book authors. Believe me, you want to read the rest of it.

PS: This article was referred to me by last week's guest, Stephen Spignesi. You want to check out HIS work too. See him on the Previous Guests page.