Following thirty five
years in education (English teacher, high school principal, assistant
superintendent), JEFF HOLLMAN began
writing full time, for the most part plays.
His first play, a full length one-act, REAL DANGER, ran for a one month
in run as an Equity Showcase in NYC.
BIRD WATCHING was runner up out of 38 entries in the Strawberry One-Act
Festival and was subsequently published in THE BEST PLAYS FROM THE STRAWBERRY
ONE-ACT FESTIVAL, Volume Seven.
OWA-TODO-PIAM was produced in the 2011Philadelphia Fringe Festival. His novel, UNSETTLE THE SCORE, has been
called “an ambitious thriller, successful in nearly every respect” by Kirkus
Reviews.
A sculptor, Jeff has
exhibited works in numerous galleries and shows on Long Island and in Summer
2014 will be mounting fifteen wind sculptures at Stone
Quarry Hill Art Park in Cazenovia, NY.
Welcome Jeff!
Your real name and pen name?
Jeffrey L. Hollman (No Pen Name)
Please share some of the best memories of your childhood
Growing up in Sea Cliff, NY, a small town
on the north shore of Long Island, a place full of trees and beaches.
I spent a good deal of time in the woods, at that time pretending to be
an American Indian but in reality learning about the natural world.
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| Zander and Jeff installing wind sculptures |
About your education
The teachers. I was lucky to go to schools in a system that
hired great people, many more than one.
It was this reason that led me into a career of education.
What languages you can speak and write?
English, French. I took Latin and learned some Hebrew, but I
don’t remember these well at all.
What is your biggest source of inspiration in life
My imagination
What hurts you most in this world
The level of unfair advantages for some
groups of people
What is the biggest challenge you have faced? How did you
overcome it?
Becoming the principal of a high school
where every one of my predecessors left within two years, on average. I was the third principal that my senior
class had when I arrived. At first,
everyone expected me to “step through”, in other words use the position as a
way to rise higher in some school system.
They did not believe me when I said I wanted to stay in that post, which
I did for six years. I loved being a
high school principal.
If you had to live a day of your life as one of the
living or dead personality, who would it be and why?
Christopher Marlowe
What is your favorite genre and why?
Play writing. Having been an English teacher, I always
wanted to write and did to some extent while working as a teacher and school
administrator. The “strength” wasn’t
always there, so I decided to begin seriously after retirement. For the past ten years, I have been working
several hours a day five to six days a week.
At first, I wrote prose but did not like “playing god”, you know taking
readers inside a character’s head. Of
course, this is done and done well, but I just felt uncomfortable with it. I turned to play writing which relies on word
and action, not journeys into the head, unless you write soliloquies. It took years of playwriting to finally feel
comfortable playing god in prose.
When did you start writing? What is the purpose of your
writing?
All my life, but seriously since 2004.
Which of your work has been published so far?
UNSETTLE THE SCORE, a crime thriller and
BIRD WATCHING, a play in a collection of one-act plays.
Would you like to share a synopsis of your work?
UNSETTLE
THE SCORE tracks what happens to Maureen Jasper after her Man of the Year
husband hits and kills a beautiful naked girl running drunk on their street at
night. An educator herself, the incident
marks the start of Maureen’s own re-education, a new set of lessons where she
will learn that her husband is a criminal, that the police and FBI are not only
useless but dangerous, and that to save her own daughter, she has to take
criminal action herself against the dead girl’s father, a little old man she
has seen walking dogs around the neighborhood.
Problem is, he’s a major crime lord, and he recruits a brilliant serial
killer, a North Korean agent, and a corrupt cop to bring about a string of
final violent acts to settle scores against his enemies—Maureen included--prior
to his retirement from a life in crime.
That
retirement is forestalled, however, because he never reckoned that a quiet
second grade teacher could be as violent, as determined, and as harsh in action
as himself. After her daughter is made a
sex slave, Maureen takes action to “unsettle the score” and revenge herself on the man who has wreaked
such damage on her family.
What are your forthcoming writings?
I will continue writing plays, but the
reaction to UNSETTLE THE SCORE has been a positive experience, and I may write either a sequel or an
entirely new novel.
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| ICONIC SECTION |
What four top most things you take care of while writing
a book?
1-2-3-4—Being as truthful as I can be. I have tried to force characters into plot
lines, and it ends up ringing false.
How much real life goes into a fiction writing?
A ton.
I do a lot of research on things that figure in my plays and books.
Is high level of imagination important to have for an
Author?
Yes.
Your dream destination on Earth?
I’m there
Your origin of birth (USA) and other countries you have
visited/ stayed.UK, France,
Italy, Belgium, Mexico, Canada.
Your favorite time of the day?
Dawn
Your zodiac/ sunsign?
You mean ARIES?
Your favorite color and why?
All, separately and together
What is the last book you finished reading?
THE HUMBLING by Philip Roth
What is the current book you are reading?
THE END OF THE AFFAIR by Graham Greene
Your favorite book and why?
Probably all of the Sherlock Holmes stories
because the stories are so engaging and the characters are all so real. Most of Shakespears, especially HENRY IV,
PART ONE, MACBETH, MIDSUMMER’S ETC.
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| NIGHT DREAMS |
Your favorite movie and why?
KING KONG (the original) a great story
about the evils of westernized civilization that destroys a truly tragic
character. (Plus, I watched it about fifty
times as a kid with my sister) 2001: A
SPACE ODYSSEY
Your favorite celebrity and why?
None I can zero in on
Your favorite food?
Some quickies: Sun or Moon, Laughter or
Smile, Morning or Evening, Both Coffee and Tea,
Mountain or Sea, Long
Drive or Short Drive, Silence or
Conversation, Water or Fire, Air or Earth, Mars or Jupiter, Tulip or Rose,
Red or Blue, Left or Right, Glance or Stare
What three words come to your mind for each –
Technology: hope,
speed, next
Life: frog, pond, inevitable
God: nonexistent, fable, the
underpinning
Humanity: great,
huge, responsible
Terrorism: cowards,
over-used, frightening
Racism: genetic,
stupid, waning
Childhood Abuse: cowardly,
stupid, criminal
Love: inexplicable,
constant, forms
Parenting: evolving,
crucial, essential
Old age: who-me? qui-moi? observe
The last line of your autobiography would be
And in a hundred years, no one will
remember.…
Links:
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