During my break from writing romance and women’s fiction novels years ago I struck out on my own to try my luck in Hollywood. I spent several years writing and marketing screenplays without leaving the comfort of the Denver area.
In total I had written 21 screenplays. Some with my best friend Margie, some with Bob and some with the help and support of the producers of the project. I miss Margie and well, Bob and I are doing great. To date one script has been produced and four were contracted for talent such as Shirley Maclaine and Drew Barrymore by producers. One minor one made it to cable television.
And my screenplays have won numerous awards at several film festivals including the Houston International Film Festival and the Charleston Film Festival.
I picked three of the projects, all strong women roles. Just thought I’d share them.
Corner Of The Sky
During World War II women weren’t allowed to enlist in the military, but they were allowed to fly American built aircraft from the factories to the front lines. This is the story of a first brave women who risked their lives to do what they loved…to fly.
Fictionalized story based on the real life of Jackie Cochran and her creation of a pre-WASP group of female volunteers who went where no woman had before…into the war zone.
Before the United States joined World War II, Jackie Cochran was part of “Wings for Britain”, an organization that ferried American built aircraft to Britain, becoming the first woman to fly a bomber, (a Lockheed Hudson) across the Atlantic. In Britain, she volunteered her services to the Royal Air Force. She won five Harman Trophy as the outstanding woman pilot in the world. Sometimes called the “Speed Queen,” at the time of her death, no pilot, man or woman, held more speed, distance or altitude records in aviation history, than Jackie Cochran.
In September 1940, with the war raging throughout Europe, Jackie Cochran wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt to introduce the proposal of starting a women’s flying division in the Army Air Forces. She felt that qualified women pilots could do all of the domestic, noncombat aviation jobs necessary in order to release more male pilots for combat. This is the story of the women she recruited for this dangerous mission and how they managed, against all odds, to succeed.
Life’s What Happens
What one moment changed your life forever? How would four men’s lives have been different had they not been forced by the draft lottery into making drastic, life altering decisions?
The peace and tranquility of college life in 1969 was shattered for millions of young American men on a cold winter night when the United States Government held the first draft lottery since the Civil War. The bounce of a ping pong ball determined their fate. Some lucked out with high numbers, some teetered in limbo and some were immediately doomed for the rice patties of Nam. That single moment set off a series of reactions by male college students and the women who loved them. Some went into denial, some panicked, some failed, some succeeded. But all of their lives were changed forever by the decisions they made because of something over which they had no control…the date they had been born.
Twenty-five years later, they come together again, facing the demons of the past and dealing with decisions that had been forced upon them.
Life’s What Happens is set against the tumultuous backdrop of the anti-war movement at Kent State and follows the lives of four fraternity brothers and their girlfriends. Inspired by the events of the time and the complexities of their second coming of age, the conflicts, fears and love of these friends is explored and unresolved feelings are confronted as they all must accept the past and get on with the future.
Matchless
During the late 1800’s many men made their fortunes in silver mining in the western United States, but no one prospered more than Horace Tabor. A hard working, self-educated man, he amassed, at an unparalleled rate and through a series of improbable investments and good luck, a multi-million dollar empire. Horace’s political power and his economic influence was so vast that he brought the United States to the brink of bankruptcy in order to save his fortune…a situation that was averted only by a last-minute act of Congress. However, his ability to accumulate wealth and wield power is only background to the real story. The most compelling part of his life was his renowned love affair with a feisty and spectacular younger woman, Elizabeth Doe, known affectionately by the local miners as Baby Doe.
Their Washington DC wedding was more lavish than any held before or since, complete with solid silver wedding invitations and attended by heads of state and powerful politicians including the President. Horace and Baby lived in the most palatial residence in Colorado and spent money that, measured by today’s standard, would be well in excess of a million dollars a week. They built and owned the social and cultural center of Denver, the Tabor Opera House, and they received and visited the crowned heads of Europe.
But with all this power, money and influence, Horace and Baby were virtually isolated from society by their colorful pasts. Their scandalous divorces and flamboyant lifestyle only fueled public resentment. (Baby’s husband had beat, then deserted her, yet she carried the shame of her divorce to her grave. Horace, wildly in love with Baby, divorced his first wife in a series of desperate political and legal moves that shadowed him until the end.)
What had begun as an opportunistic love affair turned into a deep, lasting passion. Even with the loss of all their money and power, Horace and Baby’s faith in one another never faltered. His dying words encouraged Baby hold on to their one last possession, their most prolific silver mine, the Matchless. Baby never questioned Horace’s judgment and, while still a young, very beautiful and desirable woman, she moved to a shack near the mine. Although once incredibly valuable (it produced more than $11 million dollars in silver), the mine was over-worked and never produced again. But Baby spent the last 35 years of her life mourning Horace’s death and trying to prove him right. She died, in abject poverty, frozen to the floor of the shack, clutching her scrapbooks filled with memories of the one love of her life.
This is the true story about the power, wealth and love of two people and their struggle for acceptance in an unforgiving world. It is the story of perseverance in the face of rejection and an unyielding faith in one another. It is a story known to millions around the world, but remains, until now, the greatest love story that’s never been told.
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