Life began simply enough for me on New Year's Day in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I grew up spending most of my free time in the Rockies with my mountain climbing Dad, my "I'll go anywhere that doesn't require a rope" Mom, and my brother. We were a pod of stand up comics. Those years gave me a love for the environment, and laughter that has never left me.
Next step; stand up comedy or education. Peer pressure won out and I went to the University of Calgary where I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Cellular and Microbial Biology. No, it has nothing to do with your feet.
Armed with my piece of paper, I attempted to make some money with this
wealth of knowledge in my head. After a brief stint at the Federal
Gov't Research station in Lethbridge, and an even briefer stint as Mosquito Control Officer (I know) with the City of Calgary, I flew the coup, literally.
Traveling through the British Isles, Europe, and finally nesting on the Canary Islands, I found I loved studying people in different environments, doing different things. Maybe I was a writer.
I returned to Canada and began working in Advertising, first with an ad agency, then a jingle company in Vancouver, and finally with a Maclean Hunter FM radio station. That was the most fun, putting on concerts, creating promotions with lots of free stuff (a great skill to learn for filmmakers.
I moved on to do marketing for friends who built nightclubs. After selling, and promoting the largest nightclub in Western Canada, I realized I was done making other people’s dreams come true; time to work on my own, so I wrote. I received an Alberta grant to travel to the Yukon to finish researching “Gold Dust”, my screenplay about my ancestors and their journey in and around the Klondike Gold Rush.
One minute I was camping with a few thousand Grizzlies, next I was in California with a different kind of wild life. My children's trilogy "A Faerie Rade" had created buzz. Producers in Los Angeles phoned and said, "Come...COME!!" I went. I planned to stay for a month and ended up staying for ten years. My first few months in Development Hell inspired me to start a new project to take my mind off the surreal meetings I was having in the industry. The project was Schizophrenia vs. Mysticism. It led me to the homeless on Venice Beach.
A camp of runaways took me in and I stayed for a week. They taught me to laugh again, they taught me to bury myself in the sand to avoid arrest. They taught me what humanity was. It changed my life.
I left the beach with the homeless Vietnam Vet who took care of the camp, John Scott. We migrated to a saner town, Encinitas, where we married and delivered our son by ourselves in a small beach hut near Leucadia Beach. I had stepped away from Los Angeles, but I kept writing.
John developed a brain tumor and began disappearing for long stretches of time. The next few years were the most frightening of my life. My toddler was kidnapped, we were attacked by a cult, became homeless, and eventually, became fearless. I worked in the greenhouses making topiaries and regained my sanity.
Then a friend asked me to clean her father’s house. That’s when I met Toza Radakovich, named one of California's living treasures. He hired me to write his memoirs. http://www.radakovich.org. He was a famous artist, and he was dying. Within a few months his family asked me to move in with him so he wouldn’t be alone, so my son, cat and I moved in.
Toza had survived concentration camps during World War II and asked me a simple question: "Why don't you make your own movie? What's the worst that could happen?" I realized I had survived scarier things, so I produced my first independent film, "Inside the Wall", John’s story on the street. I am writing a book version as well.
With Toza's memoir complete, and no sign of John, my son and I moved to an artist colony in San Diego's Old Town where I edited a music video/promotion piece for my film. Eventually John was declared "missing presumed dead" and I realized it was time to take our son back to Canada.
The Banff Centre for the Arts offered to be co-producers on my film and finish post production for me. I remember sitting at the Banff Centre, watching the sun rise over the mountains, marveling over the fact that four years earlier I had been homeless with a toddler. The world is a funny place. Ya just gotta laugh.
I have settled in Okotoks, an amazing town near Calgary where people are polite, say hello, and watch out for your kid. Life is full of horse back riding, yoga, meditation, writing, and lots of laughter. The years of upheaval in California have proven to be the most valuable experiences a writer could ever hope for.
The journey continues, and I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.
Namast
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