About Warren Chaney:
Warren Herbert Chaney, Ph.D. is an American author, filmmaker, artist, behavioral scientist, executive and a pioneer in early television. In a career spanning four decades, Chaney wrote twenty-six books, seventeen screenplays, nine theatrical dramas, and 250 professional and nonprofessional magazine and journal articles. He wrote nine songs used in feature films and eight for theatrical productions. From 1978 to 1994, he wrote entries for Collier's Encyclopedia. Chaney produced ten motion pictures, wrote fourteen and directed nine. He is best known for his films "America: A Call to Greatness", starring Charlton Heston, Mickey Rooney, and Peter Graves; "Behind the Mask", starring Roy Alan Wilson and Deborah Winters; "Aloha Summer", starring Chris Makepeace, Don Michael Paul and Tia Carrere, and the pioneering 60s network television series, "Magic Mansion". As a writer, he is best known for his "Space Patrol Chronicles" trilogy.
Chaney has provided art and illustration for many publications including 5 novels. His artwork and sculpture is on display in England and in the United States. His art-sculpture, "Sherlock Holmes", resides with the Sherlock Holmes Society of London but has been on traveling display as part of the "Sherlock Holmes Art Exhibit", in the United States.
During a lengthy business and academic career, Chaney established the first University Health Services Administration program for the state of Texas, served on multiple boards of directors and advisory boards of public companies and is considered a leader in the field of self-directed neuroplastic development of cognitive functions.
Chaney's film and television work won awards at the New York Film Festival, Houston World Fest and an Emmy for the production opening of his Y2K – World in Crisis miniseries. He won best-director, producer, and screenplay awards at the CineCon, Critics' Choice, and American Cinema Awards. Chaney retired from film and television in 1975 and served as CEO (Chief Executive Officer) for the Mind Technologies Institute until the company sold in December 2012. He now writes full time.
What inspires you to write?
I am a screenwriter and film-director and my co-author, Sho Kosugi, was a well-known actor and martial artists. This made our working together on a novel a very natural extension of we were doing in film. Sho was a native of Japan and I had lived there for almost 3 years, so it was easier to incorporate both our cultures into what we were writing. We both wanted to create a fictional work that would show a side of the Japanese culture that might surprise many non-Japanese readers. I love action-adventure and a good love story, so the Yin-Yang Code became an excellent writing vehicle for both of us.
Tell us about your writing process.
I always go to bed at night, thinking about what I will write the following day. In my mind, I develop “film images” of what I hope to see on paper. The following morning after a ritual of twin mugs of strong coffee, I begin the chapter. As with screenwriting, it’s important to me to first get my thoughts and story down on paper. Later, I will return and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite.
What advice would you give other writers?
The most important thing for a writer to do is write. When a book, screenplay, or article is sent off for publication consideration, don’t stop writing. Continue to write even if you get a rejection slip. If you believe your writing to be good, consider what the rejection comments may be, see if they have value to you, and then forget them and continue on.
Secondly, the most important facet of writing is rewriting what you have written. Never fall in love with the words that you write so much that you are unable to cut. A motion picture is made better by editing and post production. The same is true for writing. The writer is the first editor and the work should pass their muster before being passed on to knowledgeable others. Always heed what your publisher’s editor has to say. They may not be writers, per se, but they have experience in what sells and what doesn’t. When they make suggestions, listen.
Thirdly, never let “ego” take over your writing. A writer must have a strong ego to withstand rejections, a norm of the business, but never so much so that you lose reality in what you are writing. Never try to argue an editor off a point as a mode of self-defense. Listen to their input and thank them for it. Afterwards you can decide whether it is of value to you or not.
Finally, be nice. Mistakes happen and you will make your share. So, will your editors, publisher, printer and best associates. As an aspiring writer, your career is just beginning and you are starting the climb upward. It will have peaks and valleys, ups and downs and the people you are nice to on the way up will still be there. Those you are nasty to are also there on the way down. Over a lifetime of writing, you will be shocked at those who can help you or hurt you and often both come from areas of life where you least expect it.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
There was a considerable amount of research that was required for the novek, Yin-Yang Code: Drums of Tenkai-Bo. Much of it was specific to certain cultures, not all Japanese. For example, there is a martial arts culture, a UCLA culture, an L.A. culture all in addition to the Japanese culture and its counterparts. I spent a great deal of time researching on line as well as by phone and email to some who populated those cultures. Some of the “settings” that are in the book required time to assimilate and affix in my mind. Fortunately, my co-author, Sho Kosugi, and my co-illustrator, Shinobu Ohno, are Japanese and both were always willing to help me.
Aside from the location and cultural settings, there was a need to “get the martial arts” correct for the time, place, and area. Fortunately, Sho Kosugi, expert that he is, knew all there was to know about martial arts. If he didn’t know it, he knew someone who did and if they didn’t know it, it hadn’t been discovered yet and wasn’t to be know.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
I write to tell a story because I have always loved stories and story tellers. I’ve written novels, screenplays, and short stories which were stories. In my other work, whether it was a textbook, technical article, or a serious study, I’ve always tried to find a storyline in the work and to draft what I was writing around that.
What do you use?: Co-writer, Professional Editor, Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?: foreign, fantasy, asian, fiction
What formats are your books in?: Print
Website(s)
Warren Chaney Home Page Link
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Goodreads
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All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
