Friday, 29 March 2013

Sam Irvin Award Winning Film And Television Producer

 


 
 
I am hugely honoured and privileged to have Hollywood film director, televison producer , screen writer, author and lecturer, Sam Irvin as my guest today.
Thank you so much Sam for taking the time to answer my questions and for sharing a part of your self, not just with me but with all who read this post.


It is a my pleasure, Fiona. Thank you so much for your interest and support.




Movies & televison

After I read your biography on Wikipedia. I felt it was almost your destiny to become a director in Hollywood. You have certainly travelled an amazing journey.
Are you still living the dream? Is there more you feel you want to conquer?

I'm always dreaming up a thousand projects I want to conquer, so yes, absolutely, I am living the dream. Of course, the trick is to get at least a one of those dreams to become reality. My next project is directing the first season of six episodes of FROM HERE ON OUT, a sitcom for the premium gay cable network, here! TV. In the same way that 30 ROCK spoofed what goes on behind the scenes at NBC making a show like SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, our series FROM HERE ON OUT is a behind the scenes spoof about making a low-budget gay spy series at here! TV. The scripts are hilarious and we go into production this summer (of 2013).




Author.

I recently read your book Kay Thompson Funny Face To Eloise. I have to say it totally blew me away. I felt in some ways that unless you were in Hollywood/showbusiness most folk wouldn't really know who Kay Thompson was. I actually felt as a woman I had been denied what I perceived Kay Thompson to be, which is an icon for women almost to the point of feminism. She was so ahead of her time. Do you think that because of the era that she lived in that she was actually Hollywood's best kept secret?

Kay was the best kept secret in movies, TV, nightclubs, records, fashion, and children's books. Her influence had no boundaries -- yet very few people were aware of her astounding accomplishments. Part of the reason for that is because, as a women a man's world in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, she was rarely given the credit she deserved. But, she also frequently performed tasks that were deliberately kept quiet. Major stars like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Noël Coward, Marlene Dietrich, Lucille Ball, Ethel Merman, Bette Davis, Lena Horne, Andy Williams, and Liza Minnelli don't like to advertise that they need a vocal coach or someone to guide their every move. Kay was very often on the sidelines, pulling the invisible strings.




I believe from what I read in your book, Kay Thompson was quite a hit here in the UK, which included a Royal fan base. Would you like to elaborate on that?

Well, the best way to answer that question is to excerpt a passage from my book about the time that Kay Thompson and her nightclub act (featuring three male backup singer-dancers) first took the UK by storm in 1950...
After a gig in Paris was cut short by poor attendance, Thompson and her trio moved on to London to reopen the Café de Paris (off London’s Piccadilly Circus) on August 28, 1950.
“Besides being the first cabaret artiste at the Café de Paris after the war,” wrote historian Charles Graves, “Kay Thompson was the first to be labeled as receiving a salary of one thousand pounds a week [$2,800].”
The money was low, but so was the workload—just six midnight shows per week, Sundays off. In addition to the usual parade of stars, members of the royal family showed up, including Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.
“The reception in London was very big,” recalled George Martin (one of Kay's backup singer-dancers). “Big, big, big! They loved Kay. And business was terrific. Complete opposite of Paris.”
The powerful American newspaper columnist Walter Winchell called her “The Toast of Piccadilly,” noting that “Kay Thompson’s London notices were practically love-letters.” The duration of the run expanded from three weeks to six.
Cecil Beaton, one of the world’s most celebrated designers and photographers, was assigned by British Vogue to capture Thompson’s elusive mystique for a spread in its November issue. “One of the misfortunes about being a card manipulator is that nobody can ever write about you,” Beaton recalled. “I feel much the same way about Kay Thompson, whose magic is similarly incommunicable . . . The facts about her are that she sings and prances in cabaret between Los Angeles and Istanbul; that she is skeletal, hatchet-faced, blonde and American; that she wears tight, tapering slacks, and moves like a mountain goat . . . The proper language in which to review her is not English at all but Esperanto. Or possibly Morse code.”
While in London, Kay rented a place near Noël Coward’s 17 Gerald Road apartment and took an immediate liking to his local entourage, led by his thirty-two-year-old lover, Graham Payn, and his confidant-biographer, Cole Lesley.
“She had a flat round the corner at Chesham Place,” noted Cole Lesley, “came at weekends to White Cliffs [Coward’s seaside home at the White Cliffs of Dover] and as good as lived with us at Gerald Road where she flew to the piano to improvise and compose and ate nothing except very thin slices of bread burnt black, piled thick with Tiptree jam.”
Kay fell in love with London and returned often to perform at the Cafe de Paris. She also wrote songs for two hit UK shows: The Lyric Revue (1951) and The Globe Revue (1952-1954), both featuring Graham Payn.
When Kay's Eloise books were published in England, she was brought over for a very nigh-profile publicity tour in 1958. Here is an excerpt about that...
Lagging one year behind their respective American release dates, Kay Thompson's Eloise books were being published in the United Kingdom by Max Reinhardt, Ltd. (no relation to the Austrian director). The first book had become a huge bestseller on British soil, and, according to historian Judith Adamson, it had gotten an “enthusiastic” endorsement from Queen Elizabeth, who “had read the book to her children”—nine-year-old Prince Charles and seven-year-old Princess Anne.
Anticipation was building to a fever pitch for Eloise in Paris, due to be launched in the UK on October 6, 1958. So, when Reinhardt invited Thompson to come to England for an all-expense-paid publicity tour, she readily accepted—especially since the trip would conveniently double as research for Eloise in London.
Media coverage of Kay’s advent rivaled a papal visitation. With the blessing of Buckingham Palace, the Foreign Secretary of Great Britain, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, was dispatched to London Airport for a ceremonial greeting amid a phalanx of paparazzi and gawkers. One of Selwyn-Lloyd’s bodyguards was assigned to protect Thompson from the waiting mob.
Amid an explosion of flashbulbs, Kay joked, “I love this hick town!”
Then she was whisked via Rolls-Royce motorcade to the Savoy, where, dressed to kill in black Dior, she held court at a press conference in the illustrious Lancaster Ballroom—site of the 1953 Coronation Ball for Queen Elizabeth.
Tirelessly, Thompson toured stores in and around London for book signings and readings. Merchants created elaborate displays with Eloise dolls, bottles of French champagne, extra-long loaves of French bread, and live petting exhibits for Eloise's pet, Skipperdee the Turtle.
Kay also did a slew of radio and television shows. The most prestigious was on October 8, 1958, when she appeared on the live debut broadcast of Riverside One (BBC-TV), a top-drawer variety show produced by British showman Francis Essex and regularly hosted by actress Margaret Lockwood (star of Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes). Sharing the guest roster with actor Trevor Howard and several others, Kay performed her nightclub staple “I Love a Violin” and her Top 40 hit “Eloise.”
“Kay was the most expensive guest we had on the entire series, by a wide margin,” Francis Essex related in 2008. “I still have the cost reports right here, which show that I paid Trevor Howard £262 [U.S. $733] for his appearance; Margaret Lockwood, the regular host, was paid £210 [U.S. $588] per show; and all the other guests that first week were paid around £190 [U.S. $532]—except for one person: Kay Thompson. She cost me £750 [U.S. $2,100] off my budget! Kay was in a class by herself.”
Having succumbed to Thompson’s chicanery, Brits were simply head over heels for Eloise, with the venerable London Times jointly placing Eloise and Eloise in Paris among its “Top 10 Literary Pleasures of 1958.” The newspaper’s year-end round-up declared, “For sophisticated amusement they cannot be easily bettered.”
At the end of her British tour, Kay wrote in TV Times (the British equivalent of TV Guide), “I am going to swoosh back to America with strict instructions from my publishers to write Eloise in London, which will be great fun.” According to her preliminary notes, Eloise was destined to cross paths with Nanny’s brother, “a bobby in Piccadilly Circus.”
Unfortunately, her American publisher convinced her to postpone writing Eloise in London so she could do Eloise in Moscow instead. When the Moscow book didn't sell as well as the first three Eloise books, Kay got discouraged and put all Eloise projects on hold. But her love of London never subsided and she often returned there for visits.




The Kay Thompson biography and the Eloise children's books, which Kay Thompson wrote and Hilary Knight illustrated, I think, are the most marketable products I have seen in the book world for a long time. This is purely from the point of view of an avid reader and a mother to a little girl who is an Eloise in the making herself. I could see these books being very popular here in the UK. Have you ever been to the UK and promoted the whole Kay Thompson /Eloise package? Would that be something you would consider in the future?

I adore London but I haven't been there is many years. If I could get someone to foot the bill for the expenses, I would love to promote my Kay Thompson book there. Any ideas? For a UK label called Sepia Records (owned and operated by the wonderful Richard Tay), I produced and annotated a 3-CD set called THINK PINK! A KAY THOMPSON PARTY featuring 75 tracks of Kay Thompson's music and comedy recordings. So, between the book and the CD set, there would be plenty to promote!



I feel you caught a remarkable piece of history and many women reading the book, would become fascinated by Kay Thompson's remarkable life. From a writer's point of view, your passion in writing the book along with the extraordinary story, captivates the reader. What made you write Kay Thompson's biography? And did you expect to uncover some of the amazing information about this women's life that you did?

My mother and my two older sisters introduced the Eloise books to me when I was very young, so Kay Thompson had a seminal influence over my childhood. Just like Eloise, I wanted to live in The Plaza in New York, have the run of the hotel, and order room service. When I got older, I saw the movie FUNNY FACE and was blown away by this cyclone of a woman who was the fashion magazine editor and opened the movie with her anthem "Think Pink!" When I discovered that this was Kay Thompson, the very same lady who had written the Eloise books, I was hooked. I had to know more about her -- but there wasn't much out there. No books had been written about her. But, every time I found out something new about this remarkable woman, it was always some jaw-dropping accomplishment that, incredibly, was not common knowledge. After she died in 1998, I decided it was high time somebody wrote a book about this unsung heroine -- and I was the one with the passion to do it. So I started the project as a hobby. Had I known then that it would take 10 years of research and over 200 interviews with her friends and colleagues, I would have been too intimidated to get started. My naivete served me well. The project just grew and grew from there until it took on a life of its own, like a runaway train that I couldn't stop until it was done. Obsession is another word for it -- and I am guilty as charged.



The Eloise books are just simply divine and totally enchanting. Is there any chance in the near future that Kay Thompson Funny Face To Eloise alongside the Eloise books which are currently all available on Amazon, will ever be available in paperback here in the UK? Say in department stores around about Christmas? I'm living in hope!

From your lips to Godzilla. That would be very nice. Contact your local bookstores in the UK and urge them to do just that!




After reading the book I actually felt I wanted more and the first thing I looked for was a movie about this woman's life. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find anything. Will there ever be one?

A movie about Kay Thompson is one of my dreams that I hope will someday come true. Conventional wisdom among the powers-that-be in Hollywood is that Kay Thompson is not well-known enough, but I think if a bankable movie star decided she was born to play Kay Thompson, they'd listen.



Which actress would you choose to play the role of Kay Thompson?
 
After just seeing actress Helen Mirren's performance in Hitchcock, don't you think she would make a fantastic Kay Thompson? I know she's British but she's very versatile!

Helen Mirren would be exquisite! She's brilliant in everything she does. So, next time you see her, slip a copy of the book under her arm.



A favourite paragraph of mine in the book is your quote from celebrated Science Fiction author Ray Bradbury whom Kay helped launch his career.
"I was in love with the suspense program" Bradbury recalled. "I was publishing stories in Weird Tales and various other pulp magazines, which gave me the courage to make up a package of short stories and mail them to Bill Spier." In April 1946, Bradbury got a call to come for a meeting at the Spiers home in Bel Air. "When I rang the doorbell," Bradbury explained, "the person who answered the door was an explosion named Kay Thompson. She welcomed me like an old friend because she had read my short stories, too, and she thought they were terrific. I was in love instantly. She dragged me in to the living room, sat me down, and brought me a glass of wine, so we were off to a great start".
Before Bill arrived, Kay and Ray had time for a little chitchat. "I knew that she was occasionally doing choreography for Judy Garland (in Ziegfeld Follies, which had just opened that month). We discussed that just a little bit but she mainly wanted to know about me, which was very nice. She made me feel like I'd been established for a lifetime. That was part of her character. She was always outsized-the grand gesture, the overstatement-but sincere. It was not fake. Her enthusiasm was so wonderful and it certainly didn't hurt because when Bill finally joined us, he ended up buying one story at that first meeting." The acquisition was Kay's favourite, "And so Died Riabouchinska," a chilling murder mystery about a vaudeville ventriloquist and his dummy, and it proved to be the lucky break that launched Bradbury's prolific career in movies, television, and books.



Yes, leave it to a brilliant writer like Ray Bradbury to come up with the perfect word to describe Kay Thompson: an explosion!

Lecturing

After achieving for yourself such a wonderful career, what advice would you give to any aspiring writers, artists?
The advice I always give is to never give up. If you are truly passionate about your art, nothing can stand in your way. A young aspiring actor once said to me, "I want to come to Hollywood and try my luck at being an actor. I'll give it two years and if it doesn't work out, then I'll go back home and get a regular job." My advice to him was, "Don't bother. If you are not passionate enough to commit to a lifetime, then you're in the wrong business. Save yourself the trouble and get that regular job now." Tough love, but it's the truth.


Thank you so much for your time Sam.
Thank you very much, Fiona! Please invite your readers to explore my Kay Thompson Website featuring hundreds of pages of exclusive, free material that I couldn't fit into the book! www.KayThompsonWebsite.com
Cheers! Sam
Sam Irvin, through his tireless devotion, was able to document an incredible piece of history, the life of iconic Kay Thompson.
I came to the conclusion after reading the book that Kay Thompson played a key role in making film and the arts an integral part of our lives in todays society. She mentored and coached the biggest names in show business, Garland, Monroe, Sinatra and many, many more and in return those stars paved the way to make Hollywood what it is today.
It is to writers like Sam Irvin that we owe a debt of gratitude, we need to say thanks. Without  his years of research and his meticulous documentation we would have otherwise never have known just what an incredible influence Kay Thompson was in an industry that many of us take for granted. Sam Irvin is an inspiration to all writers. and I believe he deserves the highest accolade. We must never forget the wonderful people who were here before us because without their contributions we would never have evolved into what we have acheived in the Arts here in the twenty first century and long may it continue.

Thank you so much for dropping by. I hope you have enjoyed this post it is definitely one I will truly always treasure. 



Listed below is Sam Irvin's biography from wikapedia
 

 


Sam Irvin was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1964, when he was eight years old, Irvin went on a family trip to California where he was able to tour various movie studios. At Warner Brothers, he watched an elaborate sequence being filmed for Blake Edwards's The Great Race starringTony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Natalie Wood. In a giant water tank on a sound stage, Irvin watched with wide eyes as a nighttime storm scene unfolded, featuring antique cars floating across the Bering Strait on icebergs.[citation needed] From that moment on, he decided he wanted to direct movies.[citation needed] Commandeering his father's Super 8mm home movie camera, Irvin directed numerous horror movie shorts, including one starring his younger brother, Tim, as Dracula wearing a black beach towel for a cape, plastic fangs, and lots of ketchup.[citation needed]
Like the young boy in Cinema Paradiso, Irvin spent much of his youth in movie theaters. His grandfather, Warren Irvin, was the district manager for Wilby-Kincey Theaters, a chain of cinemas throughout the Southeast. And his father, Sam Irvin Sr., co-owned Irvin-Fuller Theaters, a competing chain with cinemas in North and South Carolina. During his youth, Irvin worked in these theaters in every capacity, from popping popcorn to tearing tickets to organizing horror movie kiddie matinees (with an emphasis on Vincent Price, Roger Corman, and Hammer Films). Later, during his college years, he worked for Irvin-Fuller Theaters as its Advertising and Publicity Manager, spearheading a record-breaking year-long run of Silver Streak starringGene Wilder and Richard Pryor at the Gamecock Cinema in Columbia, South Carolina.
As a teenager, he edited and published four annual issues of Bizarre (1972–75), a fanzine on fantasy, horror and science fiction films, for which he twice traveled to England to conduct in-person interviews with the likes of Vincent Price, Christopher Lee (on the set of the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun), Peter Cushing, Diana Rigg, Ingrid Pitt, Jane Seymour, Joan Collins, Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis, and Sir James Carreras and his son, Michael Carreras (of Hammer Film Productions), among many others. (See retrospective 13-page spread on the history of Bizarre in Richard Klemensen's Little Shoppe of Horrors, issue number 27, October 2011.)
In 1978, Irvin graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Arts. While attending the university, he was the film critic for The Gamecock, the campus newspaper, and won a student film award for his thesis short film. He was also chairman of the University of South Carolina Film Committee that ran a year-round cinema program at the campus theater.
During his summer break in 1977, Irvin interned on the Chicago location shooting for Brian De Palma’s The Fury starring Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Amy Irving and Charles Durning. He worked on the feature as a production assistant and extra, and also wrote a journal on the making of the movie that was published in Cinefantastique magazine, Vol. 7, No. 2, 1978. Irvin also conducted an exclusive interview with Amy Irving in which, for the first time anywhere, she discussed her relationship with Steven Spielberg; it was published in Cinefantastique, Vol 6, No. 4 / Vol. 7, No. 1, a special double Star Wars issue, 1978.
After graduating from the University of South Carolina in May 1978, Irvin worked as the Associate Producer and Production Manager on Brian De Palma's Home Movies starring Kirk Douglas,Nancy Allen, and Keith Gordon. Then, Irvin worked as De Palma's assistant on Dressed to Kill starring Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen and Keith Gordon.
He also worked closely with De Palma on several projects in development, including Blow Out (which eventually De Palma directed, starring John Travolta and Nancy Allen), and Prince of the City(which was originally going to star Robert De Niro from a script by David Rabe, but was ultimately directed by Sidney Lumet starring Treat Williams).
Irvin gave up his position as De Palma's assistant to produce The First Time, a coming-of-age comedy for which De Palma served as a credited Creative Consultant. Released by New Line Cinema, the film starred Tim Choate, Wendie Jo Sperber, Wallace Shawn, Cathryn Damon and Jane Badler.
During the 1980s, Irvin served as Vice President of Marketing for three film distributors: United Artists Classics, Spectrafilm, and Vestron. During this period, Irvin won Hollywood Reporter Key Art Awards for designing the movie posters for Francois Truffaut’s Confidentially Yours and Paul Verhoeven’s The Fourth Man. He also helped spearhead the record-breaking year-long run of Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva in New York City.
Irvin's first directorial effort, which he also wrote and produced, was the 1985 dark comedy short Double Negative, which starred Bill Randolph, Justin Henry, Wayne Knight, and William Finley.[2]It premiered as an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival and subsequently played theatrically in New York and Los Angeles. Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that it was "an exceptionally promising first effort."[3]
Irvin went on to direct more than a dozen feature films, including:
Guilty as Charged starring Rod Steiger, Lauren Hutton, Heather Graham, and Isaac Hayes. (The film won the Gold Special Jury Award for Best Independent Feature at Houston Worldfest.)
Fat Rose and Squeaky a Showtime Original Movie starring Louise Fletcher, Cicely Tyson and Julie Brown.
Elvira's Haunted Hills starring Cassandra Peterson as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, and Richard O'Brien. (The film won the Audience Award at the 2002 Provincetown International Film Festival.)
From his own original screenplay, Irvin directed the Showtime Original Movie Kiss of a Stranger starring Mariel Hemingway, Dyan Cannon, Corbin Bernsen and David Carradine.
Irvin directed the cult sci-fi westerns Oblivion and its sequel Oblivion 2: Backlash, starring Julie Newmar, George Takei, Isaac Hayes, Meg Foster and Maxwell Caulfield. (Oblivion won the Gold Award for Best Fantasy / Science Fiction Feature at Houston Worldfest.)
He also directed the Disney Channel time-travel pirate fantasy Magic Island starring Zachery Ty Bryan and French Stewart.
For television, Irvin directed several episodes of Comedy Central's Strip Mall starring Julie Brown, Cindy Williams and Stella Stevens.
Irvin directed three full seasons of Dante's Cove starring Tracy Scoggins, Charlie David, Jenny Shimizu, Thea Gill, Stephen Amell, Booboo Stewart, and Reichen Lehmkuhl. (Irvin also co-wrote the series' international hit theme song, "Dying to Be with You").
Also for television, Irvin directed the opening of The 100th Anniversary of the World Series (October 18, 2003), for the Fox Network (a "through the ages" montage featuring the music of and starring Sheila E).
Irvin directed several segments for the Fox Network's 2004 Super Bowl XXXVIII including several comedy sketches starring Eugene Levy as a nutty gadget inventor trying to improve the entertainment value of football. Other vignettes included Will Smith, Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. Irvin also directed the surrealistic opening battle between ninja warriors and football players.
And, for the Fox Network opening of the 2007 Allstate Sugar Bowl, Irvin directed "Dueling Musicians," shot on the streets of New Orleans (broadcast January 3, 2007).
After directing several American-financed films in Romania, Irvin was invited by Romanian-based Mediapro Studios to direct Garcea si oltenii, a spin-off of Romania's most popular television show, starring a Monty Python-like sketch comedy group known as Vacante Mare. It became the highest grossing motion picture in Romanian history up to that time, beating the previous record-holder, James Cameron's Titanic.
Also in Romania, Irvin directed I Will Return A Man, a rock opera performed by the Romanian rock group Vama Veche, broadcast live on television from the National Theater in Bucharest. It was an anti-war musical in the same genre as Pink Floyd's The Wall.
His credits as a producer include:
Associate producing Brian De Palma's Home Movies starring Kirk Douglas, Nancy Allen and Keith Gordon. (Irvin also served as Production Manager.)
Co-executive producing Bill Condon's Academy Award-winning film Gods and Monsters starring Sir Ian McKellen, Brendan Fraser and Lynn Redgrave. (Irvin also co-directed the "Making of" documentary for the DVD, entitled The World of Gods and Monsters: A Journey with James Whale.)
Co-executive producing Bob Clark's I'll Remember April starring Haley Joel Osment, Pat Morita, Mark Harmon, Pam Dawber and Paul Dooley. (Irvin also was the second-unit director.)
Irvin's first book, Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise, was published by Simon & Schuster (November 2010) and was honored by Kirkus Reviews and The Theatre Library Association Awards as one of the "Best Biographies of 2010." Acclaimed by columnist Liz Smith as "a smashing work" and by entertainer Michael Feinstein as "one of the best showbiz bios I've ever read," this comprehensive biography covers the life and career of the legendary singer-actress-composer-arranger-author-fashionista Kay Thompson. She was the mentor/best friend of Judy Garland, the vocal guru to Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne, the mentor and longtime lover of Andy Williams, and the godmother/Svengali to Liza Minnelli (who recreated Thompson's nightclub act in the 2009 Tony Award-winning event Liza's at the Palace).
In connection with his research on the life of Thompson, Irvin served as a historical consultant on the Tony Award-winning Broadway event Liza's at the Palace; he produced and annotated the 2009 3-CD box set compilation Think Pink! A Kay Thompson Party (Sepia Records); and he appeared in and consulted on Paramount Home Entertainment's documentary Kay Thompson: Think Pink! (an extra included in Paramount's Centennial Collection DVD edition of Stanley Donen's Funny Face starring Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and Kay Thompson).
As a journalist, Irvin has recently written articles for Little Shoppe of Horrors magazine, including an interview he conducted with Richard O'Brien of Rocky Horror Show fame.
Movie project in development: Irvin has recently collaborated with Cassandra Peterson on the original screenplay Elvira Vs. the Vampire Vixens, a horror spoof for which he is attached as director and co-producer (with Peterson, who will also star once again as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark).
Between projects, Irvin is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts where he teaches graduate courses on directing.
He resides in Los Angeles with Gary Bowers, his partner since 1982.

[edit]Filmography

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    Tuesday, 19 March 2013

    My Interview with Journalist, Writer and Broadcaster Christopher S Dixon







    Today I will be interviewing Journalist, Writer, Editor and Broadcaster Christopher Scott Dixon


    Chris, first let me thank you for agreeing to be my guest, it’s both an honour and a privilege to have you here.

    Hi Fiona, thanks very much for the kind invitation, it’s good to be here!


    Would you like to tell the readers exactly who Christopher Scott Dixon is?

    That’s a very tough opening question! It’s rather like some actors, who when they suddenly have to explain themselves become rather coy and look around helplessly and then say can I not ‘be’ someone instead! Okay, I’ll stop waffling and say I’m very much like my Twitter profile. In this case the ingredients really do match the label on the bottle! I was born in a small town just outside Morpeth in Northumberland and lived and worked for many years in the fine city of Newcastle.

    I was only a moderate student throughout my school years, although perhaps unsurprisingly my favourite subjects were English and History, but I did develop an early interest in writing and words and my sister and I would always look forward to being read bedtime stories by my mother. I remember logging the titles of the tales I heard in a little note book and my early attempts at scribbling down random sentences which I somehow weaved together into more coherent passages! That absolute, love for language is still deep and continuous that’s why I do despair of the frequent overuse of the same words, for example anything of import and especially in sport seems to be ‘massive’, why not significant, crucial, vital, or the need to employ the old Anglo/Saxon four letter oath even on Twitter, yes we all get upset and stressed out, but English is glorious, there is such a wealth of adjectives and adverbs to describe feelings, so why not apply them! The f word certainly doesn’t shock me. I’ve been ‘around the block’ as they say. In my view it just reeks of a lack of imagination and class and there’s no need to display it on a social platform. In the context of a play/novel/film etc, I’ve no issue there.

    My various careers in the media/education and retail and a wide range of cross-cultural experiences, do I feel reflect my Gemini character and my diversity of interests! I’ve also worked as an HR manager for a branch of Safeway and spent years in market research, sales, retail and customer service positions in a number of call centres. I’ve been a youth advisor and also briefly a professional actor.

    I’ve always been a restless soul, keen to learn new things and take on fresh challenges, be that here in the UK or in other countries! I made the move to Taiwan in 2001, then later to live and work in Greece and the Czech Republic, before most of the past eight years in Bangkok.

    I thrive on interaction with others in a variety of forms and a social network like Twitter has been hugely enjoyable for me! I only wish I’d discovered it earlier!

    Such a life has of course brought me many fascinating contacts and a range of enjoyable and interesting situations in teaching and my writing and I am grateful to have friends around the world. However, the downside to this nomadic existence has been the total lack of security, which is something most, if not all of us strive for in some shape or form! This was to a large extent the reason for the return from Bangkok with my wife only a few months ago. We really need to settle down and find some peace and quiet after a hectic, expensive and stressful few years of travelling.

    Work has always been so important to me, I am proud of what I have achieved in various fields. A strong work ethic has been at the core of my life for many years, added to a need to be busy and my professionalism in whatever I have done. I’ve always been energetic, creative and proactive, I like to think my passion, personality and honesty are also enduring qualities. On the flipside I’ve been guilty of some horrendous life decisions and downright stupidity over the years professionally and personally and the impulsive and indecisive part of my nature has proved costly on too many occasions to recall without me wincing, but regrets as we all know are futile. It’s dangerous for me to be bored and I shudder to think of the wasted time! I hope that novel of a response, answers the question Fiona! Please feel free to edit!


    Regarding editing and copy editing can you explain to the readers the difference between both and how important editing is in the world of publishing, especially in the new digital era with a rise in writers/authors turning into entrepreneurs and independently publishing their own work.

    Another good question! I’ve always enjoyed the editing arm of writing as much as the creative side! In terms of the difference between both, as far as my interpretation is concerned, copy editing, is more often about an editor looking for ways to improve and enhance the style, format and accuracy of a particular text, but not necessarily, amending the actual substance of what has been written. Proofreading something else I like to do, is usually the final step in the process.

    Editing by definition embraces a much broader area and can include various media forms like cinema/radio/music etc. Editors can wield great power and a frequent lament amongst the creators, is what they perceive to be unwarranted savagery and ignorance on the part of editors, at cutting and destroying their precious work, be it a movie or their writing! A case in point, Orson Welles never forgave his studio for ‘interfering’ too much with his brilliant film ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’

    It’s a sensitive topic and I can think of one occasion, I actually said I wanted my name taken off a feature as I felt what remained after the ‘doctoring’ was too far removed from the way I would have written the piece! I emphasise it’s never about ego, but rather due credit and recognition.

    You make a very valid point about the rise of self-publishing and e-books, I have to say that’s opened up many more opportunities for writers and that has to be a good thing! Critics will turn up their collective noses and moan about the lowering of standards, but I would argue the reading public aren’t fools they’ll purchase what they find interesting/stimulating/entertaining in whatever format they prefer. As to the importance of editing, I still feel it’s a crucial part of the whole writing process. It’s about professional pride in what you are doing. I’ve seen many good stories and features ruined by too many typos and not enough care and attention given to the editing process! The content might be interesting, but people are not going to fight their way through a jungle of error strewn words to get there! That’s not being fussy, it’s basic communication. I understand people are trying to keep to tight budgets, but if you must cut corners, find that somewhere else, not in a lack of proper editing or proofing!

    I’ve taught a number of presentation skills courses and again it’s not only what you say, but how you say it, unless you deliver your message correctly, then the audience will be lost! If you’ve taken the time to research and write your story, then surely you owe it to yourself, as well as your potential readership, to produce the best work you can!
    As a journalist, what advice would you give to an author who wants to create attention to their work from the main stream media- newspapers, radio and television? How does this compare to self- publishing, where authors are using the likes of Twitter, Google+ and Facebook to promote themselves?

    In terms of the mainstream media, generating that attention and interest is not easy for a relatively unknown or possibly first time author. If you’ve managed to secure a publishing deal and have the help of a literary or publishing agent, then that can assist quite significantly in promoting the writer and their work. You can approach local newspapers/radio/television stations and talk to the editors or programme heads etc and offer to send some sample chapters of your book. There’s often white space in a paper, or air time to fill and they might just want a quick interview with a local writer or have one of their presenters read excerpts from your book, or better still if you can go along and read yourself!

    Again, it may be worthwhile going to your local library and contacting writing and book clubs/societies etc, as they may well be keen to get a published writer along to give some tips and answer questions.

    The various social networks are assuming much importance now and as you know messages can be sent globally within seconds! There’s no doubting the power to communicate on a vast potpourri of topics across the world rapidly, but, what I’m not sure about, is just how many books or e-books you can actually sell via Twitter/Facebook, I’d be very curious if anyone has any stats on that! I go back to the old maxim, there is no such thing as bad publicity, any portal which raises awareness and interest in your book/story should be exploited in the best sense of that word!

    What is your own literary taste and if you were approached to edit someone's book is there a particular genre that interests you.

    As you might expect, I have eclectic tastes, some of the books I grew up with include The Hobbit/Great Expectations/Treasure Island/Wisden (The cricketer’s bible) Enid Blyton stories/ Count Belisarius, a Robert Graves novel and others. That’s still the case, I can move seamlessly from the brilliant F. Scott Fitzgerald into gothic fiction or fantasy epics/movie star biographies/cricket books/ military /ancient history or thrillers and Chandler noir.

    As with my writing I flourish with variety, a number of editors have said to me-“What do you specialise in?” I reply in all honesty, I don’t. I’m wary of labels and have listened to many colleagues who only write about food or lifestyle and nothing else. That might be ok for them and good luck, but I find that limiting. The more versatile I am, logical reasoning is I’m available for more potential work! Similarly, that applies to editing. I’d relish the chance to work with authors in different genres!


    Sport has played a huge part in your career what would you say has been the highlight so far.

    That’s true, certainly for the first part of my writing and broadcasting career. I spent from 1982 to 1984 working for BBC Radio in Newcastle as a sports reporter/presenter and a deputy sports editor. I also contributed, to many more BBC and commercial stations and local and provincial newspapers doing live reports and providing copy and stories on sport for the next ten years. However, I then moved into business and arts writing later, for a number of magazines. Riding in the press bus, ahead of the field for the Great North Run in 1984 was a highlight. I had done a series of radio features on a particular family over the preceding weeks and it culminated in me following them on the day of the race and doing several interviews! Another was one of my first radio interviews with three of the Harlem Globetrotters and also the week I spent in Phuket in Thailand, in 2007 covering the Johnnie Walker golf tournament for a magazine was very rewarding!
    You are also a qualified lecturer/teacher what advice would you give me, a woman in her forties who has recently been diagnosed with Dyslexia. What do you know about learning disabilities and are there any coping strategies you know of that you can share with both me and anyone else who may be faced with such challenges?

    I’ve taught classes with blind students and others who were hard of hearing and in my experience I always believed in treating them exactly the same as everyone else! It’s going back to the labelling again. I wanted them to feel part of the class and I would interact with those students as with the others. Other times with learners, who were developing at a slower pace, I did try to pair them up with a stronger student, which showed the more able student I trusted them with the responsibility to help their colleague and encourage with group work and assignments etc. This in turn, would act as an incentive to the lesser skilled student and they would ‘raise their game’! There are various methods you can employ as a teacher. I’ve always favoured as much class participation in whatever subject I’m teaching, get the students involved in discussing and researching and questioning as I move around the room! I’ve never been the chalk and talk type!

    Although we do have a family friend who has dyslexia, unfortunately I don’t have any direct experience of teaching dyslexic students, but what I would say in terms of coping strategies for that and other conditions is and it might seem an obvious point, is to let that issue be the launching pad for you to strive to conquer the obstacles which may be ahead, rather than allow them to limit and therefore defeat you! Just as some people when they lose a particular sense, can develop and become stronger in their other senses, so I would humbly suggest that dyslexia in your case acts as a means to galvanise you into living your life without dwelling on the negative aspects of your issue but building on and accentuating the positives you have, such as other more improved skills. Again you are well aware of the spelling and grammar checkers to help with writing, but hey, no one is perfect! As in most aspects of life it’s about fostering confidence and being self-motivated and dollops of good old fashioned hard work, I hope those help!

    How do you write?

    The actual process of writing is extremely subjective. I imagine we all have different methods and if it works for you then great. The disciplines vary in my opinion from magazine/newspaper writing to stories. When I was sports writing, I could be almost half way through my piece while the football game for example was still being played. Intro and teams done, opening moves from both sides noted and waiting for perhaps a dramatic incident to begin the report and top up with quotes from the manager or key individuals. For me in magazine writing that can involve transcribing an interview, then trying to find the title or hook for the reader. Also in many cases the opening paragraph which outlines what’s to come, once I have that, then hopefully the bulk of the feature follows chronologically.

    As for story writing, I bow to published authors here as to what they might suggest, but in terms of the stories I am in theory, working on now, I tend to write in bursts. I keep notepads and pens in every room of our apartment and that includes the bathroom! This is in case I am smitten with inspiration as to dialogue or a plot development, then I can hastily put the words on paper. I wish I could say I’m going to write x amount of words on any given day, but life and other issues get in the way and that is not a viable plan for me. I do leave gaps away from my characters and I find on my return to them, it’s a getting to know you session, I go back and read over, then begin the writing again.

    I do generally like quiet when I write, I don’t mind some unobtrusive background music or the television volume low, but I personally need to focus with as few distractions, as possible. I like the deadlines which magazine editors give, this does concentrate the mind much more and I do really need to devote that attention to my stories, rather than the current haphazard way I work!

    What are your writing ambitions?

    I came very close to having a ‘ghosted’ biography of an international cricketer published more than 20 years ago! I actually sent a synopsis and several sample chapters to a publisher. However, the cricketer wasn’t deemed ‘controversial’ enough for them to go ahead and publish! On another occasion I had a sword and sorcery novel ‘accepted’ by a publisher, only for them to change their mind suddenly! I am dabbling with three different stories at the moment, fantasy/noir and erotic fiction, but I don’t really know where I am going with the narratives and character development! I would dearly love to get at least something published by whatever means open to me-conventional publishing, or e-book. My sister Karen @TheTapestryFarm I can recommend you following her on Twitter and not just because of a family interest, has co-written two military history books, I was so proud she did that and it remains a powerful incentive for me to follow her on to the bookshelves or kindle pages!

    Many thanks Chris, drop by again soon.

    You can follow Chris on Twitter @Crickchris







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    Monday, 11 March 2013

    It's All In The Genes




    The McAndrew family garden party at Prudhoe. Mam,dad, me in dads arms picking my nose

    Is it in the genes. Writing that is. Artistic talent. I think it must be where my family are concerned my cousins are also writers.  Self published debut author Gerard Gray, with his dark psychological thriller/horror Dead Broken and his sister Katarina Frogpond, Huffington Post,  Blogger, MP Taunter/Children's Writer.

    My dad spent nearly a life time mastering the craft of making children's rocking horses. In his retirement he rented a workshop in the picturesque Northumberland village of Corbridge,  where he made and sold his beautiful horses to people from all over the world. until  finally retiring at the grand age of eighty. Thankfully he is still with us, although now eighty four and very frail.

    My mother could dress make, cook, knit, garden and write beautifully. I had so many pretty dresses and woolen coats she made for me as a child.  She would spend hours at her sowing machine making clothes.  In the photograph above is my sister Helen.  My mother made her wedding and brides maid dresses.They were a winter wonderland fashion extravaganza. The bridesmaid dresses made in berry red and holly green velvet, with white fur edging to the hems, sleeves and hoods and white fur muffs to keep our hands warm.
    We were all,  that is my sister's and myself, me being the youngest of four girls,  always, classically dressed. Typical little girls in our black patent shoes, white socks and frilly frocks that tied from the waist into big bows at the back. My mother loved fashion.
    I remember she told me once she could darn socks from the age of seven. But then she lived through the second world war and I suppose learning to cook, growing your own food and darning socks was a necessity for a working class family living with rationing.  Times were hard for my parents generation but the skills they learned were invaluable and many passed those skills down to their own children. I'm glad my mother taught me how to garden, love books and basically have a go and tackle anything that comes my way, she gave her determination.
    Admittedly,  I can't knit or dress make but I do have a love for creating things. Projects such as furniture painting, and doing up old junk. My largest project to date aside from writing my book was stripping and staining my staircase.  If it's something you are considering doing yourself  I warn you,  it's not for anyone who like's to keep their finger nails nice or afraid of manual work. It took me a year to complete the job along with several packets of anti inflammatory drugs. I would never attempt it again  but the finished result was well worth it. Towards the end I did have a little help my elderly neighbour Joe who knocked at my front door one afternoon and kindly offered to  help me with the sanding. The two of us would sit on those stairs for hours sanding away, whilst he would tell me story's from his youth and his longstanding friendship with the family who had lived in the house before me.To tell a great story one first has to learn how to listen to great story's.

    It's the love of story telling that brings the connection between us all in my family. My aunt Teresa, my dads sister I'm told by Catherine loved to write also and my aunt Cicilia loved to tell story's too. My mother loved books and she could tell you everything about her ancestors and their life in Friars Goose ship yard on the banks of the river Tyne as well as tails about her Jewish grandfather Hoffany Octaviouse Bye.

      My uncles and other cousins love to paint and some are musically talented playing the guitar/piano, singing and song writing. As I look at the picture above of my dads aunt's the nuns it  brings a smile and the name Von trapp springs to mind. Happy memories from so long ago.

    If anyone would like a copy of Gerard's book  Dead Broken  it's on Amazon at the moment or you can follow Gerard on twitter @GerardGray101

    Or if it's a bit satirical that takes your fancy.  You can find Catherine/Katarina Frogpond at the Huffington Post or spoof.co.uk on twitter Katarina Frogpond2  @DeltaPanda

    And as for me, I'm never far away if you need me.  I'm author of  Fantasies From The Kitchen Sink. @twtfiona    So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye.

    Thanks for taking the time
    Fiona x

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