I first went to Los Angeles in the spring of 1996 to try and be a working actor. Finding a boarding house in Hollywood, I think now that living in that reconverted mini-mansion gave me my first inspiration to create something like "Candyland"; the cheap, three-story, rent-a-room-by-the-week place with the johns in the hall (much like the Yucca Arms, where Hunter resides) was full of aspiring actors, models, singers and comics. A communal kitchen in the basement guaranteed we all got to know one another sooner or later, and even when one of us couldn't afford his weekly rent and had to sleep in an antique Jag he'd bought for $200, out at the curb, we would still take food to him so no one ever went hungry. Looking back, I loved those days; a time before the corner of Hollywood and Highland had morphed into a mega-plex, and when you had to track down a fax machine to get your sides if there wasn't time to go to the agent's office, because back then there was simply no such thing as having them sent to your cell phone.
Those days with Heather, Said, Ping, Chuck, Olaf, Andy, David - they're all tinged with gold now, fond memories ... just like my first "acting job" a week after arriving in L. A.: three days' background work playing a jury member on the ABC series "The Practice". It was my first time on a set, and I was awestruck; knew this was the atmosphere I wanted to - needed to - surround myself with for the rest of my life, were I to be happy. Over those three days, I even worked up the nerve to speak with actors on-set whose work I had only admired up 'til then, including Linda Hunt (a wonderful woman), William Atherton (to this day one of the friendliest, most upbeat people I've ever met), and the man himself, Dylan McDermott (cordial, but I was interrupting his baseball game so it was to be expected). And while ultimately I realized that writing was my first love, the experiences I had then (and have had since), in Los Angeles, have all been fodder for the writing project you see here.
Flash-forward nineteen years later, and though life has intervened in unforeseen ways my heart still belongs to this insane crap-shoot of a business; still empathizes with the uphill battle of the struggling actor. I write "Candyland" on a seven-year-old Dell laptop that is nearly as broken-down as I am, and work a part-time job to try and pay up bills a few health issues left me behind on. But like those who troll the shark-infested waters of Los Angeles every day, I persevere; stay up many a night trying to make each episode of this TV-series-in-book-form (as well as the episodic scripts, which I work on pretty much simultaneously) the best I can, so that when it lands on cable it will be true to the story, as well as the characters so many of you have already grown to love.
But December is still some time away, and with another 28 episodes to go until the Christmas Day finale, my fear is that "Candyland" may be preempted by something as simple as the death of my Dell ... so after some calculating, have figured out a bare-bones goal for donations of another $3,500 that, if reached, will make sure those who've already shown their love of the series - their determination to help get it on Showtime - won't have been for nothing. That we'll all, together, make it to back to that parking garage roof featured in the teaser, on Christmas Day, for a finale that will have jaws dropping.
So while I know there are many more "worthy" projects you can help fund out there, via Kickstarter or Indiegogo or GoFundMe, if you choose to click on the "Donate" button on the left, to support "Candyland" - as well as this LGBT writer, toiling away 24/7 to bring to light this story of artists who strive every day for their voices to be heard - I guarantee not only a mention in the pilot credits ... but that far beyond "Candyland" I'll always be writing about and fighting for misfits like the ones in that boarding house of so long ago; those who keep pushing every day, despite the million-to-one odds, because this is all they ever wanted to do.
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