Michael J. Bowler is an award-winning author of nine novels–A Boy and His Dragon; A Matter of Time (Silver Medal from Reader’s Favorite); The Knight Cycle, comprised of five books: Children of the Knight (Gold Award Winner in the 2013 Wishing Shelf Book Awards; Honorable Mention from Reader Views and the Southern California Book Festival), Running Through A Dark Place (Bronze Award Winner in 2014 Wishing Shelf Book Awards), There Is No Fear, And The Children Shall Lead, and Once Upon A Time In America; Spinner (Seal of Approval – Literary Classics; Winner – Young Adult – Hollywood Book Festival; Bronze Medal from Readers’ Favorite; Runner-Up – Young Adult – Southern California Book Festival; Honorable Mention fro m Royal Dragonfly Book Awards, San Francisco Book Festival, Halloween Book Festival; Recommended Read from US Review of Books), and Warrior Kids: A Tale of New Camelot.
His horror screenplay, “Healer,” was a Semi-Finalist, and his urban fantasy script, “Like A Hero,” was a Finalist in the Shriekfest Film Festival and Screenplay Competition.
He grew up in San Rafael, California, and majored in English and Theatre at Santa Clara University. He went on to earn a master’s in film production from Loyola Marymount University, a teaching credential in English from LMU, and another master’s in Special Education from Cal State University Dominguez Hills.
He partnered with two friends as producer, writer, and/or director on several ultra-low-budget horror films, including “Fatal Images,” “Club Dead,” and “Things II,” the reviews of which are much more fun than the actual movies.
He taught high school in Hawthorne, California for twenty-five years, both in general education and to students with learning disabilities, in subjects ranging from English and Strength Training to Algebra, Biology, and Yearbook.
He has also been a volunteer Big Brother to eight different boys with the Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters program and a thirty-year volunteer within the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles.
He has been honored as Probation Volunteer of the Year, YMCA Volunteer of the Year, California Big Brother of the Year, and 2000 National Big Brother of the Year. The “National” honor allowed him and three of his Little Brothers to visit the White House and meet President Clinton in the Oval Office.
He is currently working on a novel based on his screenplay, “Like A Hero.”
His goal as a YA author is for teens to experience empowerment and hope; to see themselves in his diverse characters; to read about kids who face real-life challenges; and to see how kids like them can remain decent people in an indecent world.
In this episode, we learn about:
Show Notes
- We learn how Michael’s disability led him to write books and how screenplays came to be the dominating field for his efforts
- How his love of working with kids got him interested in writing books for teens
- Insider details about his experience with kids with learning disabilities
- Info about his book Spinner and how it came to be
- Inspiration about his process of writing and how he turned screenplays into books
- Discussion about how writing a story unfolds in our head like a movie
- Information about how cross genre fiction can make marketing difficult sometimes
- What Michael thinks his strength is as a creative
- Where Michael sees himself in the next five years, career-wise and personally
AND SO MUCH MORE including his best advice for aspiring authors!
AUDIO LINK
You can find him online at:
Website: http://www.michaeljbowler.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/wmichaeljbowlerauthor
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/BradleyWallaceM
Blog: http://www.sirlancesays.wordpress.com
tumblr: http://michaeljbowler.tumblr.com/
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/michaelbowler/pins/
Instagram: StuntShark
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