DAN JOLLEY
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 PictureDan Jolley
​Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
Georgia
 
Your script or media entry stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your project ?
In 2011, shortly after I had moved back to Ringgold after being gone for twenty years, a tornado ripped through the town. I was lucky. Our house didn’t suffer any damage. But the storm tragically killed six people, as well as radically altering the look and feel of the town, and in the aftermath I started wondering what kinds of things the townsfolk would find scattered across the county, plucked out of theirs and their neighbors’ homes and businesses. Thinking about the secrets that could reveal led me to write my novel, The Storm, which was published in 2018. The novel provided direct inspiration for the pilot script.
 
How long did it take you to write your script...and what was your development process?
I actually wrote the first draft of the script back in 2019, but when the management I had at the time took it out, no one bit. I had plans to rework it and resubmit—but then COVID hit, the whole world went into a tailspin for a while, and The Storm got put on the shelf. Fast forward to summer of 2023. I was appearing as a guest at an author-fest at the Cobb County Library in Atlanta, and a woman I didn’t know approached my table and asked me what my novels were about. As soon as I told her the concept of The Storm, she said, “I’m an actress, and I want to make this happen! How can I get the rights?” Well, that was Alexandra, and that chance meeting sparked an awesome collaboration, which eventually led to the draft we submitted to Palm Springs. We first had to figure out how best to work together, so the whole process took maybe a year.
 
What is your ultimate ambition as a writer or filmmaker?
I think seeing something on-screen that came directly out of my head—not a heavily compromised vision, or some version I barely recognize, but something that appears to audiences exactly how I intended it to—would be unparalleled. Honestly, though, as long as I’m writing, I’m happy. I’ve never been picky about the medium, which is why I’ve worked in so many different fields over the years. Comic books, prose, video games, I’m elbow-deep in all of it.
 
Which film directors or screenwriters inspire you? Why?
I’ve loved the work of Alex Proyas for a long time, particularly The Crow and Dark City. And what Gore Verbinski did on The Ring was kind of astonishing—that’s my favorite horror movie, and one of my favorite movies full stop. To get a bit more contemporary, Ryan Coogler is way up there. The way he can take fantastical material and make it down-to-earth and relatable is amazing to see.
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What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show?
Well, I already mentioned The Ring and The Crow. My tastes are kind of eclectic, which makes sense, given how many different genres and styles I’ve written in over the years. Some of my other favorite movies are Sling Blade, Red Belt, The Fellowship of the Ring, Aliens, and Dodgeball. On TV I love Gravity Falls and The Owl House, along with The Wire and ER. But I think my all-time favorite of all of these is The Expanse. That show is just sublime.
 
What advice do you have for others hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have?
I don’t think there’s any kind of magic bullet for it. There are so many variables, it’s impossible to check every box. You really just have to write something you believe in. I don’t know who first said it, it’s something I’ve heard all my life, but I believe it to be true: Write the story you want to read. That might sound trite, but it’s what got Alexandra and me here.
 
What else are you working on that the world needs to know about?
I’ve got a kids’ graphic novel at Andrews McMeel that just came out, the first in a series, called Mack Moon and the P.E.T.S. (That stands for Planetary Enforcement, Tactics, and Stealth.) It’s about a kid who finds out his dog, cat, and fish are all undercover alien cops, and he has to help them defend Earth from an evil power-hungry space ferret.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum—as in, not in any way kid-friendly—I’m working on Book 4 of a series of Fantasy/Mystery novels called The Demon-Sleuth Scrolls. They’re about a non-human woman named Nysska Stonegate who’s forced to become a member of the all-human Imperial Criminal Investigation Ministry, solving magic-related crimes in an original fantasy setting. The first three are called The Runemaster Homicide, The Black-Horned Grave, and The Runebearer Curse, all available from Falstaff Books.
 
Where can the world find you? (Website, IMDB, etc.)
You can hit me up via my website, www.danjolley.com, on which you can find out more about me than you probably wanted to know. I’m also on Bluesky, @danjolley.bsky.social, and I do have an IMDb page, as Dan Jolley (I), which focuses on my video game work.