New Mystery Thriller Novel – "On The Grind" - Booksigning

Stephen J. Cannel Book Signing Vero Beach

A book signing in Vero Beach reveals more than Stephen J. Cannel's latest novel, On the Grind.  An intimate look at Cannel’s effort to pursue his passion for writing tells of many obstacles.

Cannel, best known for the long-standing detective series, “Rockford Files” also wrote and produced “Hunter”, “The A-team” and “21 Jump Street.”  Now he’s into novel writing and hints of his work “Wise Guy” making a comeback.

Author, screenwriter, studio executive, he was nowhere near an overnight success.  He sold his studio, and has produced fourteen mystery novels to this date.

I arrived forty-five minutes early for the book signing.  A brief article in Treasure Coast Scripps announced that he was going to be there.  The small grouping of fold out chairs filled up quickly, and Stephen arrived on time.  With casual sheik, he was dressed in form fitting, tasteful jeans and designer sweater.

His shaded glasses made me feel o.k. to take some snapshots.

I’ve always been interested in his work since he is dyslexic like me.  I was hoping he would advocate for dyslexia.  He did.

Using the same model IBM Selectric, he compensates for his inability to spell.  Writing phonetically, he turns his scripts in for computer input.

When asked about spellchecker, he laughed.  He replied with a chuckle how his words would be unrecognizable to the spellchecker function.

His talk started out with his first dyslexic barrier of flunking first grade.  He would go on to tell the whole story of his struggle within the educational system.

The audience got a kick out of his lighthearted quip about flunking sixth grade.  He said it wasn’t so bad since he was the only one amongst all of his friends with a driver’s license.  He had also been held back in fourth grade.

Currently, he describes his decision to go to novel writing for the last quarter of his life.

After total immersion in the entrepreneurial and creative aspects of his Hollywood enterprises, he now embraces novel writing. As per the book signing, he focuses on his newest release, On the Grind.

The feeling I got about this man is that he takes life as a series of ongoing challenges.  He ventures on to new endeavors guided by his passion for writing, not money.

Without money as a concern, he’s happy about his life.  He turned his back on his father’s wealth, creating the Stephen J. Cannel Studios.  During this phase, he pinnacled with a gross income of $180,000,000.

A be-in-the-moment presence created the feeling that he was aware of every nuance in the room.

He engaged the audience by talking with instead of at us.  Responding to occasional spontaneous feedback he made the event feel more like a group conversation.

Threading his tales with more of the schooling experience, he talked of high school football as a boon to self-confidence.  With graduation just around the corner he came to a possible turn around point.

After a school career amassing a plethora of average to failing grades, he got a B minus on an essay he wrote.  The subject matter was Martin Luther King.

Cannel gives much regard for the glint of recognition he finally got from his high school English teacher.  Yet the impression I got was one of bitter sweetness.  I couldn’t help from feeling that he should have gotten a much better grade, but his reputation had preceded him.

Previous input that would have stifled the spirit of an ordinary person had exposed him to a lot of negativity.

Nobody called him stupid, but rather described him in terms of not applying himself.  He was not recognized for his efforts because nobody knew about dyslexia in those days.

He could have taken of a dejected attitude, but seemed thankful for the small successes along the way.

Later on, he submitted his Martin Luther King story to a literary magazine and his piece got accepted.

He played football in college, when enrolled at the University of Oregon.  Cannel admitted he wasn’t such a good running back.

His grades weren’t enough to keep him on the university roles.  He was “disaccepted” from Oregon University.  He laughs now, but before this, he had never heard of the term “disaccepted.”

Early on, Stephen had revealed in a heart-felt acknowledgement, how much he loved his father.  As he went on to describe an incident about his father’s advocacy, he could hardly stifle his laughter as he spoke.  Read on.

After Stephen’s rejection from college, the father had attended a cocktail party where he met a Dean from Oregon University. Stephen came home to be surprised by the sight of his father entertaining the dean in their living room.

Coaxing the dean with one cocktail after another, the father made a step forward to getting Stephen back into college.  Although the visitor had no influence in the matter, the father got his foot in the door, and began hammering away at the powers that be.

Amazed at his father’s persistence, Cannel found himself back on the roles at Oregon U.  With a sense of relief that he seemed to carry with him all these years, Cannel describes the one big break that he needed.

One day he got called for a meeting with one of his professors.  Probably expecting problems due to conspicuous spelling errors, he got a big surprise instead.

You have a gift from God – Never quit writing.

Catapulted by this moment that seems almost cosmic, Cannel took the professor’s advice to heart.  But it must have been a heart wrenching decision when Stephen declined an offer from his father.  More than ever committed to writing he declined the legacy of a hugely successful Los Angeles enterprise.

While still working for his father, Stephen’s schedule was arduous.  Added to the regimen of a full time job, he spent five hours each weekday writing, and seven hours a day on weekends.  Yet one screenplay after another came back with an ugly rejection notice.

One particularly cutting incident came in the form of a note on top of his returned manuscript – “This is nothing,” it said.

Now in business with his wife, Marcia, he gives credit where it’s due.  His eighth-grade sweetheart, he married her when he was twenty-five.  During his now 44-year marriage, four children came along.  Yet Marcia was able to fulfill a support position in multifold ways.

With a note of humility, Cannel describes Marcia’s role as proofreader.  Birthing and raising four children, she was a bastion of strength.  It goes without saying that she was the all around support person in family as well as business matters.

Somewhere during the time of pursuing a break in the writing business, the like-father-like-son imagery comes to mind.  Stephen found a little opportunity through a connection with his uncle’s golf buddy, Roger Isenbach.  Though round about, his contact with this man led to a new pathway.

Persistence led Stephen to call Isenbach’s office about a manuscript.  Only being able to talk to a nice secretary, Cannel was disappointed.

He found out that his screenplay was on the bottom of a stack of fifty others.  He then charmed the secretary into moving his manuscript to the top.

Not too long afterwards, he got the appointment to meet with Isenbach personally.  Most of the interview surrounded the discussion of Uncle Dick Baker’s golf swing.

When they got down to brass tacks, the advice he got was to forget his career pursuits.  Isenbach told Cannel that he was only one of thousands and would never make it.

One little glimmer of hope came from the interview – he got the name of an agent.

She was an ordinary person, had no big names to her credit.  But she loved Stephen’s work.

Her hook was making great cookies.  She was beloved by all around the lots of Paramount Studios.  Why?  Because she always distributed dozens of her cookies to the food tables.

One thing led to another, and eventually to Warner Brothers.

His first work for Warner Brothers was “Adam 12”. More credits to his name – “Beretta” with the help of Roy Higgins, “Ba ba Black Sheep,” and as mentioned earlier “Rockford Files.”  I felt a smile go through the audience at this point.

He was loving his life in contrast to the seventies when he was basically unrecognized.  Now accolades came his way on a daily basis.  He embraced the word “brilliant” as music to his ears.

In 1980, he ran his own studio, which grew to be the third largest amongst 2100 other enterprises.  He had other studios dotted around Europe, when another change came about.

He attributes this success to the good people who he hired.  They carried him, and went on to work for other big studios after Cannel left the business for greater writing pursuits.

That’s when he wrote his first book as a litmus test for novel writing.  With fourteen novels under his belt, he says he likes novel writing best.  He has more freedom to develop his characters within a novel.

On The Grind is his current promotion, and is coupled with other acting, and directing gigs upcoming.  This book is about how Los Angeles incorporated itself through annexing small town communities.

These already developed little burgs came complete with court systems and police departments.  Numerous power players from corrupt little town groups comprised early L.A.  From this scenario a mystery thriller evolves.

The interesting fact about the inception of his novels is brilliantly simple.  He looks at his surroundings and sees much through the eyes of a dyslexic.  I call it the subjective experience.  When he’s pursued the facts behind the events he’s perceived – he’s got his novel.

At the end of Stephen J. Cannel’s talk, I went around to the other side of the room hoping to purchase a copy of On the Grind, but they were all sold out.

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