Flight Risks

Douglas Schofield was raised and educated in British Columbia, where he earned degrees in History and Law. Over the past three decades, he has worked as a trial lawyer in Canada, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. During those years, he has prosecuted and defended hundreds of cases of murder, sexual assault and other serious crimes. He currently holds the position of Assistant Solicitor General in the Cayman Islands Government.

Doug and his wife Melody live on Grand Cayman, along with their amazing talking cat, Juno, who kindly permits them to share his home.

The first draft of Doug's first novel, Flight Risks, was finished in 2002. But, as every author knows, "all writing is re-writing". The manuscript went through several revisions and several years of sitting untouched in a drawer before it landed at Hirst Publishing in the U.K., where the fast-paced thriller's potential was immediately recognized. Enthusiastic reader feedback has demonstrated that the publisher's insight was fully justified.

Doug has also written several screenplays. His first attempt was based directly on the Flight Risks manuscript. Although the final result was good enough to persuade a Hollywood talent management firm to sign him up, he and his new manager both realised that he needed a bit of training in the arcane art of writing for film. So Doug enrolled in an intensive three-day screenwriting class in Los Angeles. He spent the entire three days sitting next to an engaging young actress named Drew Barrymore. As Doug readily admits, this encounter was more than a little distracting, but somehow he managed to pick up the essentials. He entered his next script, a time-travel murder mystery called Time Out Of Mind, in the Fade In Magazine/Writer's Network Screenwriting Competition. It took first prize in its category.

Today, Doug's talent manager has become one of his producers (he has three). Two of his original screenplays, along with a screen adaptation of another author's novel, are "in play" as Hollywood's denizens like to say. And one of those scripts has attracted a five-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer to direct. But Doug isn't holding his breath. Why? Because, in Hollywood, less than one percent of registered scripts ever make it to the screen.

Doug recently completed his second novel, Succession -- a thriller set in New Jersey and England during the traumatic days following Princess Diana's death in that Paris tunnel. Look for Succession to hit your e-book store later this year. And, yes... Succession was first written as a screenplay -- the same one the Oscar-nominated cinematographer mentioned earlier is so keen to direct.

Doug is currently at work on his third novel, Time Of Departure, based on his prize-winning screenplay, Time Out Of Mind.

COMING SOON:

DAY OF GRACE -- the sequel to Flight Risks

FALLING REIGN -- the sequel to Succession