About
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I teach 8th grade Literacy (English Language Arts) and write in my spare time. My wife and I have four boys, all teens. The middle two were adopted locally from infancy and the oldest and youngest were adopted from Ethiopia.
My screenplay Snoop won the Script Pipeline Screenwriting Contest, which led to a one-year contract with Hollywood-based Literary Manager Colin O’Reilly (who later produced Will Ferrell’s Blades of Glory). In 2010, twenty students joined me when I formed a collaborative novel writing club called the Synthesis Project. Together we wrote a YA science fiction novel, Beasts of Eden. The next year, a new group of nine students and I wrote a YA fantasy novel, The Heart of Atlantis. For the 2013-2014 school year, I taught a novel writing course based on the Synthesis Project. Though the course was successful, it was canceled the following year due to scheduling changes. I further developed my collaborative novel writing approach for the 2015-2016 school year, using the process to produce three novels, one with each of my Literacy classes. This I continue to do each school year because I have found collaborative novel writing to be a wonderful way to develop rapport, provide a memorable learning experience, and teach the elements of powerful writing as well as grammar, punctuation and other conventions. The class collaborative novels, written by students and edited by me, are: Running from Georgia, Just a Dream, Death by Wealth, The Flash Drive, Neverending, and The After Party. A few of my favorite things: writing, reading, trail running, movies, music, tennis, hiking, Words With Friends (though not "having words with friends"), adventurous eating (bibimbap!), traveling and enjoying time with family and friends. |
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