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The Stephen King Thing and You

Stephen King is my favorite author. I believe I've read everything he's published, though every so often something pops up that I didn't know about and delights me. I've also had the pleasure of adapting two of his works into short films and meeting him in person to share these works. You can click the video below to see when my wife and I met him at Simon & Schuster in NYC in 2003 after winning Simon & Schuster's American Gunslinger contest. The award-winning short film, Roland meets Brown, is further down the page.

 

 

 

 

 

Please read the blogs for my full history with Stephen King. 

I've long felt there's more to King's work than what gets the headlines - particularly the blood, guts and monsters. While they are no doubt real in his realm and a significant part of what he does, so is hope, faith, love and the scariest monsters of all: humans. I invite you to explore these with me in classes using the three King-based films below. Each of these films is offered as its own 16-week online course. We meet online once a week to look at the selected film through the lens of Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey. Your will discover what lies beneath the surface for you with this film - in other words, why is it your favorite?  Why do you keep coming back to it? What do you have to reflect back to the film that keeps reflecting back to you?

Participants will write one page per week and share with fellow classmates in a password-protected Google Drive. The most important writing you'll do will be the feedback you offer your classmates. As King says, there are two ways to become a better writer: read and write. We'll do both here. And whatever you create can change your life.

Cinema Therapy Writing Courses
Open to everyone. Get busy writing or get busy dying.

Stand by Me

The Shawshank Redemption

The Green Mile

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If you're a fan of the Dark Tower series, this little-known film is a must-see. It was the Grand Prize winner in Simon and Schuster's American Gunslinger contest in 2003. The contest was in honor of the fifth book, Wolves of Calla, marking King's triumphant post-accident return to Roland's world. Participants in this contest were given the option of several excerpts from the first four books in the series. Only one person was allowed to appear on screen, as per the contest rules. Long days and pleasant nights...

Daily Dose of Dopamine_559
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Daily Dose of Dopamine_559

We're talking with Max, the mental health warrior and Dollar Baby writer of the film, Last Rung on the Ladder (2023). For those who don't know, Dollar Babies are films made from Stephen King short stories with his permission. This program started back in the late 1970's and ended in December 2023. After relatively few being made between the program's start and the early 2000's, the program exploded in popularity. According to Oscar Garrido, who runs the website Stephen King Short Movies (https://www.stephenkingshortmovies.com/movies/dollar-baby/), there are several hundred known made by filmmakers around the world. Robert met Max at the first-ever KingCon in late October 2024 in Las Vegas, NV. This is a multi-part interview. Who is this show for? Short answer: everyone. Is there something we're not talking about that we should? Let us know and be the guest that shines the light on what we're missing! Robert and Susan are the creators of the Daily Dose form an interesting duo. Robert is a longtime care partner for his father with Parkinson's disease (PD). Susan is a woman who was diagnosed with PD in 2015. They've both made award-winning films about their experiences with PD and are now co-founders of the non-profit, YAX! - www.yesandexercise.com. The mission of YAX! is to provide a safe, fun and kind place for people with and affected by Parkinson’s disease to connect, empower and enhance their lives through improvisation. That's right: improvisation. We play - mostly online so we can get as many people as we can from as many places as we can. We do not charge. We do accept donations from those who wish to pay it forward. Robert earned his PhD from the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He is researching the effect of improvisation on PD and the results of his clinical trials can be found at his website, www.yesandexercise.org. Join us for fun, laughter and your daily dose of dope(-amine).
Your Daily Dose of Dopamine_565
07:49

Your Daily Dose of Dopamine_565

We're talking with Billy Hanson, Director & Writer of Survivor Type, an official Stephen King Dollar Baby. For those who don't know, Dollar Babies are films made from Stephen King short stories with his permission. This program started back in the late 1970's and ended in December 2023. After relatively few being made between the program's start and the early 2000's, the program exploded in popularity. According to Oscar Garrido, who runs the website Stephen King Short Movies (https://www.stephenkingshortmovies.com/movies/dollar-baby/), there are several hundred known made by filmmakers around the world. Robert met Billy at the first-ever KingCon in late October 2024 in Las Vegas, NV. This is a multi-part interview. Who is this show for? Short answer: everyone. Is there something we're not talking about that we should? Let us know and be the guest that shines the light on what we're missing! Robert and Susan are the creators of the Daily Dose form an interesting duo. Robert is a longtime care partner for his father with Parkinson's disease (PD). Susan is a woman who was diagnosed with PD in 2015. They've both made award-winning films about their experiences with PD and are now co-founders of the non-profit, YAX! - www.yesandexercise.com. The mission of YAX! is to provide a safe, fun and kind place for people with and affected by Parkinson’s disease to connect, empower and enhance their lives through improvisation. That's right: improvisation. We play - mostly online so we can get as many people as we can from as many places as we can. We do not charge. We do accept donations from those who wish to pay it forward. Robert earned his PhD from the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He is researching the effect of improvisation on PD and the results of his clinical trials can be found at his website, www.yesandexercise.org. Join us for fun, laughter and your daily dose of dope(-amine).
Your Daily Dose of Dopamine_565
06:10

Your Daily Dose of Dopamine_565

We're talking with Paul Inman, Director & Writer of That Feeling, an official Stephen King Dollar Baby. For those who don't know, Dollar Babies are films made from Stephen King short stories with his permission. This program started back in the late 1970's and ended in December 2023. After relatively few being made between the program's start and the early 2000's, the program exploded in popularity. According to Oscar Garrido, who runs the website Stephen King Short Movies (https://www.stephenkingshortmovies.com/movies/dollar-baby/), there are several hundred known made by filmmakers around the world. Robert met Paul at the first-ever KingCon in late October 2024 in Las Vegas, NV. This is a multi-part interview.  Who is this show for? Short answer: everyone. Is there something we're not talking about that we should? Let us know and be the guest that shines the light on what we're missing!  Robert and Susan are the creators of the Daily Dose form an interesting duo. Robert is a longtime care partner for his father with Parkinson's disease (PD). Susan is a woman who was diagnosed with PD in 2015. They've both made award-winning films about their experiences with PD and are now co-founders of the non-profit, YAX! - www.yesandexercise.com. The mission of YAX! is to provide a safe, fun and kind place for people with and affected by Parkinson’s disease to connect, empower and enhance their lives through improvisation. That's right: improvisation. We play - mostly online so we can get as many people as we can from as many places as we can. We do not charge. We do accept donations from those who wish to pay it forward.  Robert earned his PhD from the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He is researching the effect of improvisation on PD and the results of his clinical trials can be found at his website, www.yesandexercise.org.  Join us for fun, laughter and your daily dose of dope(-amine).
Your Daily Dose of Dopamine_569
05:34

Your Daily Dose of Dopamine_569

We're talking with Kris Webster, the emcee and committee member of the first ever KingCon event in Las Vegas in October 2024. He is also owner of Indy Editions. You can find out more about him and his fellow King Con committee members here: https://www.kingconinfo.com/team.html. This is a multi-part interview. Who is this show for? Short answer: everyone. As we like to say at YAX: You belong. Have fun. Is there something we're not talking about that we should? Let us know and be the guest that shines the light on what we're missing! Robert and Susan are the creators of the Daily Dose form an interesting duo. Robert is a longtime care partner for his father with Parkinson's disease (PD). Susan is a woman who was diagnosed with PD in 2015. They've both made award-winning films about their experiences with PD and are now co-founders of the non-profit, YAX! - www.yesandexercise.com. The mission of YAX! is to provide a safe, fun and kind place for people with and affected by Parkinson’s disease to connect, empower and enhance their lives through improvisation. That's right: improvisation. We play - mostly online so we can get as many people as we can from as many places as we can. We do not charge. We do accept donations from those who wish to pay it forward. Robert earned his PhD from the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences program at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He is researching the effect of improvisation on PD and the results of his clinical trials can be found at his website, www.yesandexercise.org. Join us for fun, laughter and your daily dose of dope(-amine).

KingCon 2024

The first ever KingCon was held in Las Vegas at the Linq Hotel in late October 2024. It featured rare books, incredible talent across the King stratosphere, Dollar Babies and feature films all derived from the works of King. For the latest information on KingCon 2026 and more, please join the KingCon Facebook page. 

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What's your favorite
Stephen King film?

Origin and Connection to Parkinson's disease

Yes, And...eXercise is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to improving quality of life within the Parkinson's community. My father, Dan, was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD) in 2001. We've been on the journey to figure out how to live our best since then. You can see more about our story, including a two month, 20,000 mile road trip to see al 30 Major League Baseball parks at the Boys of Summer website

 

While researching the effects of improvisation and storytelling on PD during my doctoral studies in the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences program at UNLV, the theme of people with PD feeling imprisoned by the disease emerged. This led me to try framing our storytelling program with the Shawshank Redemption - calling it the Parkinson's Prison and the Hero's Journey to Escape! We've run this 16-week program several times and some of the students' writing that has come from it can be seen here

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