Creative Partners Books announced this week that author Randy Jernigan will write and publish a memoir about his twenty two years as a freelance tabloid journalist for such weeklies as Globe and Star, but the busy writer says the book won't be about spilling a lot of celebrity secrets, but coming to terms with his own past and, in some cases, making amends and changing career paths.
Scoop. An intimate memoir of sorts, was taken from Randy's personal diaries and interviews of his more than twenty years in the celebrity magazine industry.
"It's important for a writer, as well as other creative people that make a living with their craft, to shake things up a bitand sometimes that means breaking out of the mold we've cast for ourselves. I feel that I've gone as far as I can go as a 'celebrity reporter,' and I need to expand and move into other genres of writing. So when my agent came to me with the idea of moving toward screenplay writing I jumped at it. I've written two screenplays for a cable network and have always wanted to develop my talents in that genre, so I was thrilled when this film company came along and bought up Willing to Love!"
According to a recently published report from writer Terry Griffin and BriefingWire, the story, published in a national woman's magazine in 2007, Willing to Love, "explores the fictional character of Nicholas Carr, who ran away from home at 18 years old after confessing to his parents that he was gay, and the emotional burden placed on the young man who returns home after 10 years to face his youthful mistakes, and to make amends with his dying father," said the article.
"There's a lot of me in this story and that's the way a lot of writers do it-you borrow from what you know when writing fiction. Not that I'm confessing anything here but I think that my close friends will recognize a lot of me in the character of Nick. At least I hope they do. That means I've done my job well."
Screenplay aside, that doesn't mean that Randy will never write celebrity material again. In fact his new book series, Stars That Make A Difference, will become available soon from his publishing house and each book in the series will include four biographical sketches of celebrities he admires.
"This work is a lot different than what I would have written for a magazine. Each sketch is a serious look and the star, their career, a small bit about their personal life, and a lot about how they've given back to their respective communities. It's a very positive piece and I'm very proud of this book series," said Randy.
So when several gossip pages began slamming his book project and calling his credibility into question, that's when Randy knew that it was time to take some action. After consulting with his legal team Randy decided to file legal complaints against two of the online tabloids.
"That was a terribly hard time for me," said the author. "These gossip pages were attributing words to me that I never said, and sensationalizing what I did say to the point that what I said was unrecognizable. Making it look as though I was saying mean spirited things about my own book or about the star I was writing about. When I started this project it was with the best of intentions so all this negative attention about my book project was stressing me out. I read some really horrible things that was said about me by a celebrity fan that was so off base-it all just made me feel horrible," Randy explained.
It was recently reported in an online news page that Randy had suffered a stress related stroke (TA) during this time.
It was a face-time message from a very insightful friend whom Randy had been interviewing for his book series that helped put his mind at ease and put the whole situation into proper perspective.
"I had decided to just dump all my hard work into the garbage when my friend called me. 'Just chill out and believe in yourself and your own personal integrity, don't let these idiots get to you,' my friend said to me."
Randy's rough patch is over now and he'll be moving forward with the screenplay and releasing "Scoop the Summer" of 2015.
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