Novels, Screenplays, and the Writers Who Do Both ‹ CrimeReads

I escaped Kansas for California, where my older brother lived. He'd left a few years earlier to pursue a career in acting. At first, I had no interest in his obsession, the television and film business. My original plan had been to get accepted to UC Berkeley, where I would be able to wear long skirts and sandals, hover around musicians playing bongo drums in the quad, read and write poetry, and generally be arty and enlightened.

Berkeley did not want me. As it turned out, UCLA did. I relinquished my dream of becoming a northern California hippie. Instead, I moved into a dorm adjacent to the addictive splendor of Beverly Hills. Hollywood was a short cab ride away. It didn't take me long, as an idealistic and somewhat ambitious newcomer, to pivot from poetry and patchouli to screenwriting and martinis.