Image courtesy of Erica Miner.
Erica Miner is a former violinist with the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She's now a full-time author, screenwriter, and lecturer in San Diego. She's written about a dozen screenplays, has three published novels, and has contracts lined up to ghostwrite two novels.
Miner has loved to write since she was a child. But her creative talents were satisfied by her position as a violinist with the New York Metropolitan Opera. That career, however, was cut short by an auto accident that left her in physical therapy for a year and a half and unable to continue playing on the demanding schedule of a professional musician.
Image courtesy: Twilight Times Books
www.twilighttimesbooks.com
With her lifelong dream shattered, Miner turned to writing to satisfy her creative outlet. Miner said, "Murder in the Pit started as a screenplay. A hundred plus neurotic musicians thrown together in the pit every day and night. I decided to write a sitcom pilot. I got feedback that said it was great writing, but not funny."
Miner realized that writing comedy might not be her style, so she turned to screenwriting. She studied with screenwriting gurus Linda Seger and Ken Rotcop. She turned out screenplays that have won awards in such competitions as WinFemme, Santa Fe and Writer’s Digest.
Her novel, FourEver Friends, is based on her high school journals. It's a coming-of-age story drawn from her experiences growing up in 1960s Detroit. Miner said, "It was a very interesting period, JFK had just been elected and everything looked rosy. I wanted to publish the book as a love letter to my best friends"
This award-winning screenwriter, author, and lecturer has lots on her plate. She said, "I've been hired to ghostwrite a novel for a venture capitalist. There's another one after that. Is MIP a series? Maybe. I would write the next in the series if I got a contract. I have written the first novels in the series for FourEver Friends."
Like all writers, Erica Miner has one project that she considers her best work: her screenplay adaptation of Goethe's novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther. "That book changed my life. I read the book and saw the story in front of my eyes as if it were a movie and wanted to write the screenplay. I'd love to see happen."
Related Article: A review of Murder in the Pit
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Comments
Inspirational and interesting, the variety of writing she does. Thank you!
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