Where Writers Can Get Their Big Break
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Adventurer James Rollins paddled as fast as he could in his whitewater raft to make it to the premiere of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc. He wanted to see the movie before anyone else started talking about it.
“I had go straight from the river to the theater,” recalls Rollins about the 1981 film screening. “I watched it with wet pants and wet shoes. I got that immersive experience.”
Rollins, a New York Times bestselling author, scuba diver, hiker and cave explorer, was personally chosen to write the novelized version of the latest in the series, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In 2007, he got a call, like others he’s received, to write a book in conjunction with a movie that is in production.
“The editor who obtained the project (Indiana Jones) said they were looking for a name to put forward to write the book for Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, and she said my name was the only one being considered. Two weeks later, I got a letter that said George Lucas and Steven Spielberg gave the thumbs up,” remembers Rollins. “It was great.”
Rollins wrote the story based on the screenplay and the still photos. The book was in the stores by May 20, and the film debuted May 22. He previewed the film a few days before its official opening - this time in dry clothes - at a special screening for employees at Lucasfilm studios in San Francisco.
Rollins got his first novel published as a direct result of attending the Maui Writers Conference back in 1996, and he is one of at least 65 top-notch presenters who will share what he knows about getting published at the Maui Writers Retreat and Conference, which will be held on Oahu Aug. 22 through Sept. 1. The retreat, which runs Aug. 22-28, is where small groups of less than 10 will meet with Rollins, Academy Award winners or a studio executive from Hollywood.
“One of the perks of being with me at the retreat is you’ll have me prodding you constantly,” Rollins promises.
At the conference from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1, he will present"What I Wish I Knew When I Was Starting Out.” Rather than reinventing the wheel, he says, learn from someone who’s been there and already made all the mistakes. Participants will learn practical tips to avoiding pitfalls and ways to get your writing career into high gear. The conference highlights the fields of fiction, nonfiction and screenwriting, and features workshops on the business of writing, children’s and young adult books, journalism, magazine writing, food and cookbook writing and poetry.
Although Rollins has presented three or four times at the conference since he was first discovered there 12 years ago, and is currently on his 20th book, he says his career as a novelist still seems a little unreal.
“There are teachers there I was enamored with when I first went there whom I’m working alongside now, which still seems strange to me,” says Rollins. “It’s like a fairy tale.”
Maui Writers Conference On The Road is the new tagline for the renowned event that has been held in Maui since its inception 16 years ago.
Co-founders John and Shannon Tullius explain why they made the move:
“For a whole host of reasons, the main one being that our mission is to bring reading and publishing and literature to the people of Hawaii. And guess what? They all live on Oahu,” John says with a deep laugh. “So we have been over here on Maui tucked away very successfully, and I think we’ve done a great job getting people published. It’s been coming for years and years, this evolution. People have wanted us to come. The people in government, the businesses have wanted us to come to Oahu, and we finally got the gumption up and said, ‘This is something that’s necessary.’ There’s a million people on Oahu, and just a very small population on Maui, so in order to do the proper job, the shift over to Oahu was necessary. We have an incredible, incredible lineup of the top people in publishing and literature. We are very excited.”
Who should attend? Anyone who is thinking of writing a book or for magazines, or thinking about writing a screenplay.
“One of the most important things is the camaraderie of the people, the attendees,” says John. “For the first time in most people’s lives, they get to sit around with a bunch of other writers who are just as foolish as they are and chasing the same dream they are. And they don’t have to sit around and listen to people say, ‘Well, are you going to make money at this?’ There is a lot of incredible inspiration.”
The conference has helped launch the careers of many writers, including Ko Olina resident Patricia Wood, who wrote Lottery (2007), and Wendy Merill, author of Falling Into Manholes: The Memoir of a Bad/Good Girl (2008).
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For entrepreneurs, this year there is a special track of classes that guides them through using the written word to create e-books, special reports, newsletters, and to use the web to increase exposure and revenue. Partial scholarship applications were available to high school students and writers going through financial hard times.
The Tulliuses say they plan to continue to have the conference on Oahu for the foreseeable future - at least for the next three or four years.
“You can’t do this anywhere else in the world,” gushes John. “It’s a very successful program. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. That’s something we are very very proud of.”
Another addition to the Maui Writers Conference is an online learning center.
Rollins, a veterinarian with a degree from the University of Missouri, had a burning desire to write, so he splashed some gasoline on his desire and lit a match to it by hiring more veterinarians at his practice so he could have more time to write. He’d write during lunch or in any pocket of time he could find. He joined a writers’ group in Sacramento, and wrote short stories for three years.
On his first night at a meet-and-greet reception at the Maui Writers Retreat and Conference in 1996, he introduced himself to one of his idols, fantasy writer Terry Brooks, and thanked him for his great work. As it turns out, part-time Hawaii resident Brooks was a judge in a writing contest, and he liked Rollins’ submission. Brooks introduced him to his publisher, Del Rey, who signed up Rollins for a three-book deal for his fantasy series, and Witch Fire was on store shelves in 1998.
“In one week I went from being unpublished to all of sudden having two different publishers in two different genres,” Rollins recalls. “That was an exciting week.”
The agent for an action thriller he wrote, Subterranean, found a publisher, who released it in 1999.
One of the lessons Rollins, aka James Czajkowski, remembers clearly from that first Maui Writers Conference came from John Saul during a critique session on his fantasy book. He told Czajkowski the one thing wrong with his novel is that people can’t pronounce his name. So James Czajkowski became James Rollins for his thriller books, and became James Clemens for his fantasy series. Rollins is his dad’s first name, and Clemens is from Samuel Clemens who, of course, used the pen name Mark Twain.
By the time he wrote his fifth book, Amazonia, he sold his veterinarian practice in 2002 but stayed employed there part time.
His clients were asking him what he really wanted to do, because he had posters in his lobby to get your cat spayed and get a free book.
“My veterinarian degree was my paycheck, and writing was my hobby,” remembers Rollins. “I thought, what would it be like to turn that around?”
These days, he writes full time and has one fantasy novel that will be released this winter, and one thriller that comes out next summer. He volunteers for eight hours one Sunday a month to help the Sacramento Council of Cats with the feral cat population by providing spay and neutering services. “In case someone realizes I really can’t write, I’ll have a career I can fall back on,” says Rollins. “There’s still that weird sense of insecurity.”
But that doesn’t seem to be a problem, as he will release his first book for young adults next spring and has a thriller coming out next summer. And he is in negotiations for some adventure stories to be released in winter.
Rollins’tips for aspiring writers are: Write every day, read every night, be persistent and keep writing.
Rollins says the retreat is like seeing a good friend again. And he’s thrilled that one of his students from the retreat, Mark Greaney, has landed his first publishing deal.
The Maui Writers Retreat takes place on Oahu at the Outrigger on the Reef and Embassy Suites Aug. 22 to 28. The Maui Writers Conference is Aug. 29 to Sept. 1 at Ala Moana Hotel. The conference costs $695; kamaaina rate is $595 with a $100 discount for local attendees booking rooms at the Ala Moana Hotel for the conference.
Bobby Moresco, who won an Academy Award for Crash and Million Dollar Baby, premieres his next film The Kings of Appletown Aug. 30 at Sunset on the Beach in Waikiki.
The Maui Writers Conference Online subscriptions cost $19.95 for one month and $99 for six months. For a complete schedule of events, log onto: www.mauiwriters.com.
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