At-a-Glance
Latest book: Nightmare Academy 2: Monster Madness
Lives in: Calabasas
Used to be: A coroner's assistant
Favorite restaurant: Versailles
Website: www.deanlorey.com
Dean Lorey is a movie and TV show writer turned author of children's novels. In his own words: I pretty much always wrote since I was about eight years old. I loved writing short stories--usually about things coming out of swamps to drag people to their doom (I never claimed to be a normal eight year old.)
I guess I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was around thirteen or so. We were planning a surprise party for my mom and, to cover it up, I told her a detailed, off-the-cuff lie, which was apparently so convincing that my aunt, who was listening, said “geez, that was scary how well you did that – you should be a writer!” And I thought, “Hmmm, writing and lying are both about making stuff up, so maybe I can do this!” Not very noble, huh?
I always wanted to write a novel, but I was so busy writing other things that I just never did. Then, the last show I was working on ("Arrested Development") got cancelled and I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands. So I sat down and wrote what became Nightmare Academy purely for my own pleasure. It was a wonderful experience. No notes from executives, no worries about the budget, no actors asking to leave early because they had to catch a plane – just a fun story with no compromises, exactly the way I wanted to tell it.
When I finished the manuscript, I gave it to my movie agent (because I didn’t know any book agents). He read it and said “It’s great! Let’s sell it to the movies!” Which really threw me because I wrote it to get away from working on movies. So, he sent it out to some people and it got a surprising amount of interest. Tim Burton brought it to Warner Brothers, Michael Bay brought it to Disney, Steve Sommers brought it to Universal, J.J. Abrams brought it to Paramount. This little thing that I wrote for my own pleasure was suddenly getting more attention than anything I had written up until that point. I ended up selling the movie rights to Universal and, not long after that, the wonderful folks at HarperCollins wanted to publish the series and we were rolling.
Not really the way I had imagined it happening but I’m certainly not complaining.
SoCal Book Scene Exclusive (Mini) Interview:
SCBS: What did you do before you “officially” became an author?
DL: I wrote movies and TV shows. The last show I worked on was "Arrested Development." (Dean also scripted "My Wife and Kids," and wrote the screenplays for movies like "Major Payne," "My Boyfriend's Back" and "Jason Goes to Hell" in which he played the role of the coroner's assistant.)
SCBS: How do you spend your weekends?
DL: I spend my weekends with my wife and kids. We like to hike in the canyons of the park near our house and my boys and I enjoy playing video games together -- World of Warcraft is a favorite!
SCBS: What’s your favorite restaurant in Southern California?
DL: My favorite restaurant in Southern California is Versailles. It's a cheap, cuban restaurant with amazing pork and chicken. I get the "combo."
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