Here’s a bit more about our writers, a very talented group:
 Kenan Brack |
The son of a hardworking teacher, Kenan Brack found escape from the struggles of the south side of Chicago through the films of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and the Shaw Brothers Studios. A fiction writer, producer, director, and photographer, he now tells his own stories. “As a screenwriter I don’t pull any punches,” he says. “If the world is a violent and bloody place then that’s what I portray. Too many writers try to soften their stories to fit in; and I think that is doing a disservice to the audience. I simply tell the story as it should be told.” |  |
 Rick Cramer |
Born at the right time to live through the glory days of NASA, Rick Cramer has always been a science and science fiction fanatic. From an early age, the writings of authors such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Carl Sagan made a lasting impression. Films such as “2001, A Space Odyssey,” “Aliens” and “Blade Runner” inspired Cramer to embark on a writing career of his own. A US Air Force veteran, Cramer currently resides in Los Angeles. |  |
 Antony Davies |
Antony Davies was inspired to write in his early teens by the novels of Stephen King and films ranging from “Jaws” and “Star Wars” to the John Hughes back-catalogue, and – in his later teens – the likes of “Lethal Weapon” and “Die Hard.” “These are all films I still hark back to when I need inspiration,” he says, “although people like Duncan Jones, Christopher Nolan and Joss Whedon are modern filmmakers who have given me a lot of inspiration lately.” Antony’s first successes came with short fiction, placing in many competitions and publishing a number of stories online and in print. After a few years of promotions in a largely unfulfilling job, Antony went part time and completed a degree in creative writing, where he says he “Discovered that screenwriting was where my heart really lay.” Since then, Antony has gone on to many contest placings, including the Nichol’s second round, the top 5% of the UK’s most prestigious TV scriptwriting contest, and to the semifinals and finals of Amazon Studios with no fewer than four screenplays. He says, “I feel I am so close to seeing my work produced, and Aisle Seat Books may well give me the push I need.” Antony lives in Staffordshire in the United Kingdom with his wife and two children, and currently works for the BBC. |  |
 Ed Gray |
Ed Gray is a writer and editor of books, magazines, and screenplays. With his wife Rebecca he has been the founder of Gray’s Sporting Journal, GrayBooks Publishers, and Aisle Seat Books. He lives in Lyme, New Hampshire, just a few miles north of Dartmouth College which, as he says, “has twice claimed to have educated me.” |  |
 Lee A. Matthias |
Lee A. Matthias is a writer with one published novel, a nonfiction book on the way, and several screenplays written and in development. During and after college, he worked as a theater projectionist and manager, in public relations, and as a literary agent selling to publishers and producers. He currently works as a computer network administrator in government. He is married and the father of two daughters. “I’m a computer professional,” he says. “I don’t lie, I manage information.” |   |
 Gregg Ostrin |
A native of Los Angeles, Gregg Ostrin has written and sold screenplays, TV pilots and has even had a couple plays produced, most recently “Kowalski” which premiered in Los Angeles in the summer of 2011. He has also written on the television series “Wind on Water” starring Bo Derek, on “Xena, Warrior Princess,” as well as on the landmark internet series “Whirl Girl” and “Second City Naked News.” In addition, Gregg has written the copy for the trailers of some of the biggest movie campaigns in recent film history. He is thrilled to see his screenplay for “The Middle World” achieve new life in this exciting new incarnation. |  |
 Michael Penhallow |
London born, a dual U.S./U.K. citizen, Michael Penhallow speaks four languages and has travelled widely through many distant corners of the world. It was a trip to the Tri Border Area, the lawless region that traverses the Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil borders that inspired The Argentine Job, his latest screenplay. A Nicholl Fellowship finalist, Oshun55 Award and American Screenplay winner, Michael is married and splits his time between San Francisco and New York. |  |
 Juan Rodriguez-Briso |
Juan Rodriguez-Briso was born in 1974 in Valladolid (Spain). His education includes a Master Degree in Computer Science from the Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in Electronic Engineering from the Universität Stuttgart (Germany). He also graduated in Cinema at the School of Cinema and TV of the UNT Tucuman (Argentina). He began his cinema career in 2006 as a short film and documentaries director and his experience includes writing and co-producing several television series in Spain and Argentina and several years of working as a journalist in Spain. He works currently as Script Manager at Film and TV production company Omnicorp Estudio (Argentina) where he has already finished his first long feature film “30 Days Before” as writer and director. |  |
 Marty Weiss |
Marty Weiss became known for creating comedic and highly visual commercials, directing hundreds of national and international image campaigns for major Blue Chip brands and TV Networks before segueing into feature films and TV movies. He has filmed throughout North and South America, Eastern and Western Europe, and Southeast Asia, and has garnered numerous festival and industry accolades. His screenplay, “The Alchemist Agenda,” was the first project honored with a Best Screenplay award from Amazon Studios. Weiss earned his M.F.A. in film and television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Elisabeth, daughter Jasmine, and unnamed son who is due in January. |  |
 Lyle Weldon |
Lyle Weldon was inspired to spend a career telling stories on film while sitting in a movie theater watching Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” A chance meeting with Mr. Spielberg while Lyle was a film student at California State University, Northridge lead to this sage piece of advice from the filmmaker: “Learn how to write a movie before you film it. Until you can tell a story really well on paper, save your money. Film will wait.” Taking that to the extreme, Lyle has since written for multiple Emmy-winning primetime television series as well as both live action and animated children’s series. But it’s the silver screen which continues to inspire Lyle’s deepest dreams. While several of his screenplays have been optioned and he’s been hired to rewrite others, he still looks forward to seeing one of his own films in a movie theater. He’s excited to join the talented crew at Aisle Seat Books and welcomes the opportunity to share his stories with avid readers before film audiences have the chance. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife and their two equally-lovely daughters. |   |
