About R. Lee Brown

I’ve been writing since about age 2 when I dictated stories to my mother and drew the art for them. About mid-way through college I realized my artwork hadn’t improved much; I decided to stick to the content portion of the program and let visual professionals work their magic.

Maybe I should switch my title to "Media Perfectionist."

The Boring Stuff
My Geek Roots
Creative Writing & the
Interwebs

Contact: (386) 547-0654
Creative@RLeeBrown.com

Scene I: The Boring Stuff

Click to visit my Linked In Page

I worked my way through my college years ringing registers and slicing open boxes at a now-defunct Drug Store Chain (I’m relatively certain my time there didn’t cause their extinction). The direct interaction with consumers confirmed the goal that I wanted a career that didn’t include direct interaction with consumers.

So I took my degree in Broadcasting Production and Programming and my minor in Creative Writing and decided to venture forth telling stories and hoping someone might actually pay me to do so.

While I continued to dabble in artwork (see left), I much prefer to work with truly talented artists while learning just enough Photoshop to be dangerous.

Scene II: My Geek Roots

There have been a few media genres that have helped shape my passion for storytelling: movies and comics. (Imagine my delight when movies from comics started being the big thing at the box office!)

All the way through high school I wrote and drew my own (often bad, sometimes good) super-hero comics. No, I'm not posting any of them here, but maybe one day I'll get a real artist to draw them and I'll update the copy.

While I never pursued a comics career myself (due to my own artistic limitations and getting caught in more corporate employment) I always dreamed about it.

I got my chance in AC Comics FemForce series. Have a read. Expect humor and giant women.

Ace Nomination for Screen Test Aside from me spending free time working on my own screenplays, I got to express my love for movies during a stint at TCI cable (although, as still seems to be the case, the name of the company would change many times while I was there). While I was the Production Coordinator at the Clearwater-based TCI location, I created and produce Screen Test, a movie review and news program. This was back in the 1980's, when the only movie/Hollywood news came from genre magazines or Entertainment Tonight. Yes, Virginia, even before the Internet. Scary!

We were one of the only places at the time to show movie trailers or any of the other material studios send out in their Media Kits. We actually "syndicated" the show by sending copies to cable systems in major markets such as New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and others. I earned a national Cable Ace Nomination for the program, which wasn't as easy or promoted as it is these days. We got enough exposure that Screen Test actually became the progenitor of the E! cable channel. Shady dealings ensued, so that's why you never saw me or my co-host behind a desk on E! Ask me sometime about my own Hollywood Horror Story.

Scene III: Creative Writing and the Interwebs

Screen Test may have been created before the Internet, but once "online" became a place to go, I found new places to express myself. Following my geek roots, I created the world's first Star Wars Electronic Magazine, Echo Station, that became a popular place for fans to read interviews with actual professional Star Wars writers and artists. We conducted one of the first, exclusive interviews with poster artist Drew Struzen (if you know who he is, he's a big deal. If you don't know the name, look up posters for Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Back to the Future, to mention a few).

We were also home to some pretty spectacular amateur writers and artists. Not to drop names (except I totally am), one of our art contributors was Pablo Hidalgo, who is now one of THE people in charge of the Star Wars storyline at Lucasfilm.

I created another Star Wars fansite after that: NewsDroid, Headline News for Star Wars Fans. That foray into geekness earned a 1999 listing in Entertainment Weekly as one of the Top 4 Star Wars sites on the Internet. That culminated my 15 minutes of Star Wars fandom.

During this time I had become dangerously proficient in Photoshop (dangerous to myself, mostly. I'm a decent graphic technician, but as I stated at the onset, I'm not an artist, however much I wish I was). I have created websites for my own projects and characters, like the one at the right (often humorous - I hope that's not a surprise at this point.)

I've always tried to expand my horizons and incorporate the things I love into my work. That's how I was able to bring video and multimedia websites to the print-centric marketing firm DME - and expand all of that into an actual on-campus interactive tour. Complete with 5 touch-screen video stations and synchronized lights and effects, the tour was the first wave of successful video projects that prompted DME to build its own 2500 sq. ft. in-house video soundstage to handle the work.

I've been in charge of many marketing, video, and creative departments (frequently at the request of the other creative staff) so I've grown to enjoy helping others with their own creative visions. That's one of the reasons I expanded my freelance efforts. I've been editing books for both accomplished (and critically acclaimed!) online authors as well as ghostwriting/editing for up-and-comers and offering script consultation for those wanting to flex their own creative chops. Plus I've been producing other multimedia projects.

Honestly, when I’m doing what I love—telling creative stories—the time flies and everyone benefits.

I also continued to indulge my secret desire to write audio and video scripts, comics, and even computer game stories. I’ll share some of those with you. Just a peek, though. Now, about that screenplay I was writing…