Royal Pain
EVERY SO OFTEN, I get a phone call or email from someone wanting to make a movie or television show based on a book I’ve writt en. When this first happened, 25 years ago, I almost quit my day job in expectation of untold riches and began looking for a home in Beverly Hills. The TV people strung me along for a month, then asked if I could write a book with more sex and violence. I declined, gratuitous sex and violence being inconsistent with my day job as a Quaker pastor. So the TV people went on to do a wholesome family show about serial killers.
The experience wasn’t a total loss, because I
