A few words about me
Reading and writing are my profession and my passion. The border between profession and passion has blurred over the years, if it had existed at all. When I had been writing my first screenplay for an amateur movie, the 16 year old me did not feel like it was working. And today, every time I sit brooding over a script burning the midnight oil, it does not feel like working either, really.
Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) had been the best known myth researcher and teacher of the USA. He had lectured and written about this subject all his adult life. So when director and drama teacher Alexander Mitta, recommended I read The Hero with a thousand faces, it would become my first contact with the so-called monomyth, the core structure hidden behind every story that has survived the ages and remains embedded in our collective consciousness. In our hearts, we long to hear about heroes overcoming obstacles, diving into adventures that are nothing but the journeys into the depths of our own souls. I loved the book, even though it was difficult to read, and I have continued reading Campbell’s lectures and essays as well as venturing into research of my own. And the mythological roots of our favourite stories have been a focus of my work ever since.
What my work means to me…
»What are these pictures?«
»These are the forgotten dreams from the world of man«, Yor explained. »A dream cannot become nothing once it has been dreamed. But if the human who had dreamt it did not retain its memory — where did it go? Here, with us in Phantastia, in the depth of our soil. That is where the forgotten dreams are in fine thin layers, one on top of the other. The deeper you go, the more compressed they are. All of Phantasia is built on a foundation of forgotten dreams.«
Michael Ende – »The Neverending Story«
»As a writer one should be able to translate emotions into words. But language is imperfect, and therefore I cannot express what exactly the interaction of the written word and the evocation of fantasy means to me.
Epic journeys into Faerie have been written by many authors of the age: Homer, Lewis, Tolkien, Gaiman, Martin. But it was Michael Ende who transcended them all when he paralleled the journey of his young hero Bastian into Fantasia with a journey into the human concept and reality of fantasy in general. When I closed the book two days after Christmas, having read it cover to cover in a fever, the eleven year old that I was had become someone else.«
Some of my clients
What others have said about my work…
„… Again thank you for your creative input. Jon (Avnet) says to say thanks for fixing it.“
„… Thank you very much for thinking of me for your excellent »Goldstein Variation«. I enjoyed reading it hugely, and wish you the very best for the film. Yours, Kenneth Branagh“
„…I just wanted to let you both know that I had a talk with our director who is very enthusiastic about the changes…“
„The short film, the screenplay of which you had written on our request, has been screened in 31(!) international film festivals (incl. Shanghai, Palm Springs and Hof) winning four awards.“
„After each review of my work I feel encouraged to continue straight away. […] You are not the only one giving feedback, but yours is the one I can relate to best, and whatever small steps the script makes may be traced to your insight.“
About audio drama series Mark Brandis: „You probably hear this a lot, but I enjoy repeating it: what you have created, is a milestone in a world of shifting interests and short attention spans valuing time more than quality.“