Look and Listen

Biography

James Smiley Wightman is a native of Buffalo where he attended Amherst Central High School, he was graduated from Kent State University with a major in Journalism. He was a member of the Playwrights workshop in Buffalo and completed a year’s studies in screenwriting at the New School in Manhattan. His screenplay on the painter Jackson Pollock was short listed in the Academy Awards Nicholl’s screenplay competition (top 15 from among 4,000 submissions). The same screenplay was a finalist in the Worldfest screenplay competition. A production house optioned it, but the project died with Ed Harris' Pollock. Major magazines are considering several short stories. He is a former U. S. Marine and counts Triathlons and Judo among past activities. He splits time at residences in the New York City area and St. Petersburg, Florida, with his wife, artist Babs Reingold. He is now at work on the sequel to The Holy Kiss.

Inspiration

What I Really Know. At age 67, I left a lucrative payday in advertising to write a thriller novel. I had written a screenplay in this genre a year earlier in evening classes at the New School in Manhattan. The screenplay’s trial balloon was comparable to Dorothy Parker’s dry remark, “My dears, I’m getting such encouraging rejections,” which on my part included a favorable nod from Marty Scorsese. Rejections they were, however, and certainly a novel had a better opportunity in New York. A thriller requires an enormous amount of time, particularly for research and interviews. Days became months and months became years. Some days were heartened by what I recognized as good writing; other days discouraging as banalities littered the page. I went through twenty drafts before obtaining an agent. He enthusiastically staged an auction among five major publishers. “Encouraging” rejections again, this time with suggestions. More drafts. More rejections. That year passed in a blink, and saw the dejected agent depart. After five years of writing, I was 72 and had a novel that people liked, but that no one would publish. At this point, my bank account had shrunk, even though supplemented with freelance jobs. I then did the smart thing. I depleted my finances even more by using iUniverse to self-publish. A new process began ---- readers, comments, rewriting, proofing, galleys, and more rewriting and reproofing. My three sons, always supportive, stayed on the sidelines as their inheritance dwindled. The day finally arrived when the novel became available from Barnes & Nobles and Amazon among others. Now, the promotional expenses begin. A website is produced. Complimentary copies, for which I pay, are delivered for reviewers and bookstores. Ads are scheduled on the web. Displayers and co-op ads are prepared for bookstores and in-home readings. Ka$ching. I sat with my wife, artist Babs Reingold, and discussed the road ahead. Her decision: “Go for it!” I may end up broke at 80 and my kids as well as myself sorry I ever wrote a word. Yet, I have a life lesson learned as an 18-year-old Marine in boot camp. Never give up. Never. John Grisham, who had untold rejections before being published, didn’t. My health is good and I’m looking forward to the stimulating task of getting one book from among the 150,000 published each year into the hands of readers who enjoy a good thriller. And I’m 120 pages into the sequel!