Author M. Shays
AUTHOR OF ALL FATHER
I got into reading as a very young child. When I was around three years old, I’d gather all the neighborhood cats & I’d read them my Golden books & Disney stories. Whether it was inside on the couch or outside in a lawn chair I loved to have the cats with me as I entertained them with my stories. I’ve always had a massive love for animals.
Some of my favorites are cats of all types, monkeys, sloths, pandas, dolphins, & penguins. I wanted to be a vet until I was twelve. When I went to preschool, I had the stories memorized & I would wow the class with my live retelling of them acting out the parts. Once I started grade school for years my main form of entertainment was reading.
To give you an idea of my childhood, until I was ten all we had was an old 9- or 10-inch screen B&W TV. Even once we got a color TV it was only 13 inches. For all of you reading this going wow how old is this dinosaur that he had a black and white TV? Trust me I’m not that old, we were just that poor!
No one else under the age of forty even knew that those existed! LOL.
Because we were extremely poor, for most of my childhood we didn’t have a car. Even when we did it would often be broken down without the money to repair it. The libraries were all miles from our house, but my mom would walk me to the library a few times a week. I was so well known by the librarians that they would have certain books picked out just to suggest to me when they saw me come in.
During the summer, on the way home we occasionally would get to stop at the downtown movie theatre on dollar movie day. Cinema is where my imagination really learned to take full flight.
FROM THE BEGINNING
I began writing short stories about Garfield and other cartoon characters by six. After we got a VCR from probably age 11-15, I watched movies nonstop. We’d check out movies at the library or go to different stores on days that they had three movies for a dollar. By the age of twelve, I realized I wanted to become a screenwriter.
By thirteen I’d completed my first full screenplay. Through the years since I’ve started easily over sixty screenplays and books. Many of these I still have hopes to someday complete and release.
Being poor you learn to never expect your dreams to come true, but when the whole world tells you you’re a loser & you’ll never become anything, you learn dreams are the only place you can live the life you hope to someday have.
I think my inspiration to be a writer comes from everywhere. Books, shows, movies, music, they’ve all inspired me to dream. Starting at a very young age I would imagine incredible things both while I was awake, and in my dreams while sleeping. Sometimes watching people or places will just lead my mind down a wild path, once my mind gets going there’s no knowing where it will stop.
As an adult just looking at a stranger at the store sometimes can lead my mind to an entire story about them that speeds through my head in seconds but plays out in my brain like a full two-hour movie. Many ideas come to me while driving or in the shower. I often think I’ve created and forgotten more hit songs singing in the shower than the greatest songwriters have written their entire careers. I have so many writers that have inspired me throughout the years some of my greatest inspirations are George Lucas, James Cameron, Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, Edward Burns, James Dashner, Veronica Roth, Suzanne Collins, Albert & Allen Hughes, & the man that has been the spark of more dreams than anyone the legendary icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
GOALS
My future goal is to find homes for my stories in the hearts & minds of people. I began writing because I wanted to provide people the entertainment & inspiration to dream that writing has provided me. I’ve always wanted to make the world a better place & improve people’s lives. I decided around twelve that I thought writing was my path to that. I hope to someday complete my dream of being a filmmaker and bring my stories to life the way I’ve always imagined them in my mind, they belong played out on hundred-foot screens for the world to enjoy!
Nearly twenty years ago, mankind was saved from multiple near existential crises by a young unorthodox government scientist. He became known as the All Father. He served as a global policy director as the head of G.L.A.S.O. (Global Law and Science Organization). He has a cult like following but has also created many enemies hungry to take away his power.
Despite his influence, he’s always viewed a group of students as the real future saviors of the world. They’ve been raised in a secret sanctuary known as The Ark. There they’ve been educated and groomed for the day they’ll complete his final vision.