The Stories That Choose You
I come from a line of voracious readers. My mother had a lifelong habit of reading 8-10 books each week. As she was housebound during her cancer treatment, we actually had difficulty finding books she hadn't read from the local library. Her father, my grandfather, likewise, consumed books at a ferocious pace. His favorites were historical fiction and also, Louis L'Amour westerns. He read all 101 books published by the prolific L'Amour. As a five year old, I would visit my grandfather and recall the great memories of him reading to me. Dressed in a pink tutu straight from ballet lessons, I would sit with him as he read the unexpected tales (not exactly the "girly girl" material I was accustomed to in my childhood) of cowboy gunfights, trailblazing pioneers and Texas Rangers. He also introduced me to the infamous director, John Ford's films. From those books and films, I developed a love affair with the American West. It led me to relocate from my home state of Michigan, as a lawyer, to the western state of Arizona which, at the time, still seemed like the wild west to me in comparison. The passion remained when I then moved to California as a lawyer embarking on my film career. As if orchestrated above, two amazing western genre films-much outside of the other type of films I had made- chose me. Those films which I thought were simply honoring my grandfather were distributed to over 50 countries world wide and over ten years later, still being streamed, sold on DVD and Blu Ray, and are producing "mailbox money".
Never deny the unsuspecting influences in your life when it comes to writing, film making, content creation or business innovation. Tap into those insights and the intuitive feelings embedded in your life's history.
That 5 year old girl in the pink tutu ended up in her future directing two westerns on horseback.
To be continued...how my other genres of film and book projects "chose" me. Have a great day and START WRITING. There are stories inside of you that need to be shared.
