I've written a few things that are actually movie ideas. I've never showed them to anyone. I would like to make a movie about the Oakland County Child-Killer but I doubt it could ever get off the ground because the families of the victims would probably get a court order to stop it. Part of reason would be because I don't agree with their conclusions concerning the identity of the killer--still never caught some 35 years later.

I wrote a sketch of a screenplay about the Benders--America's first known serial killers. I even envision Rachel McAdams as Katie Bender. She'd be perfect.

I wrote something a long time ago, I don't even know where the manuscript is, about a Japanese-American immigrant who wants to play sax in a jazz band against the wishes of his parents and ends up estranged from them. He journeys to Kansas City and tries to audtion for a spot in one of the better bands but the leader tells him he's not good enough. He befriends one of the horn men who starts teaching him the finer points of jazz playing. During the course of things, the band's arrangement notebook is stolen by another band so the leader, desperate to get it back, tells the Japanese guy, if he brings back the book, he'll give him a spot in the band. The other horn-player offers to accompany him so off they go across the American countryside chasing this other band. They end up in the Jim Crow south where the Japanese guy discovers just how much he doesn't fit into America. The racist southerners don't even know if they're supposed to serve him at the lunch counter or not. He gets the book back eventually, plays in the band, and impresses the other sax-players who start assimilating some of his riffs and runs. Then WW2 breaks out and the guy is interned. From there he goes to the 442nd where he loses an arm so that his music career is over when he returns to the States. When he hears the new players wailing, he can hear some of his old riffs but he has no one to tell, no one who listens or cares or believes him. After his death, someone uncovers a single photo of him playing with this band onstage but there are no known recordings so it is assumed he left no legacy behind. It's a commentary on how music is passed on more by the many unknowns who bore the torch than the few greats who often learned from them.

And as far as "American Gods" goes, Shadow should be played by Henry Rollins. That's who I kept seeing in my mind's eye as I read the story.