Interview with Former "Dallas" Mini-Series Scriptwriter and Author, Camille Marchetta

Born in Brooklyn, Camille Marchetta received her BA in English Literature from the College of New Rochelle, in New Rochelle, New York, and later studied fiction with noted writer Anatole Broyard at The New School. Shortly afterward, on a visit to England, she fell in love with the country, decided to stay, and was fortunate enough to find work with Richard Hatton Limited, a theatrical and literary agency, in a few years becoming a literary director of the company.

The agency was small but powerful, its client list including well-known writers, directors, and actors such as Sean Connery, Malcolm McDowell, and Leo McKern. Among the writers with whom Ms. Marchetta worked were Robert Shaw, author of many award-winning novels and plays (though he is best known in the United States for his acting performances in To Russia With Love and Jaws); the playwright Richard Harris, whose Stepping Out appeared on Broadway; and Anthony Shaffer, who wrote Sleuth, a hit in the West End, on Broadway, and as a feature film.

Returning to the States, Ms. Marchetta went to Hollywood, found herself an agent, and eventually got an assignment on the Dallas mini-series. Asked to join the staff, she remained until the series soared to the top of the ratings. With that, her career in television was established. She wrote television movies, pilots for new series, produced Nurse, which won Michael Learned an Emmy, and Dynasty in the season it finally crept past Dallas in the ratings and reached number one.

In 1985, Ms. Marchetta took a sabbatical from television, returned to London, and, fulfilling a lifetime ambition, wrote her first novel, Lovers and Friends, which was published in the United States in 1989 and subsequently in England, Finland, Sweden, and Germany. Following its publication, Ms. Marchetta co-executive-produced Falcon Crest, co-authored two best-selling novels with Ivana Trump, and worked as a story consultant on the television series, Central Park West. St. Martin's Press published her second novel, The Wives of Frankie Ferraro, in 1998. The River By Moonlight is her most recent book.

You can visit her website at www.camillemarchetta.com.

Hi Camille, and thank you for this interview. Since you are one of my clients, I´m a bit biased in saying what a gifted writer and author you are, but when you queried us for a virtual book tour, I was flabbergasted at how much you have accomplished as a writer and an accomplished author.

Thank you, Dorothy. That´s so nice of you. In return, let me tell you how delighted I am to have this chance to learn about the virtual world, and to visit with you and the other hosts on this tour.

I´d like to start out by asking you about your background. You were born in Brooklyn, NY. What was that like growing up in Brooklyn? Did you have a large family? Where did you go to school and what did you excel in? Did you have writing on the brain even as a child?

Did I have a large family? Oh my … For the first sixteen years of my life I lived with my parents and sisters on the top floor of a three-family brownstone, and for the first six of them, aunts and uncles and cousins lived on the other two floors. Quite a few of us would have breakfast and lunch together. All of us would gather in the middle floor for dinner, joined some nights of the week by other relatives. That was my father´s family. Down the block lived my mother´s parents and a few of her siblings. My father and his brothers were friends with my mother´s brothers so everyone was always in and out of everyone else´s apartment. And holidays? I could go on, but I´ll stop there. It was great.

As for elementary school, I went to Our Lady of Lourdes, about a ten minute walk from home, and then to Bishop McDonnell High School, which was right next door to the Brooklyn Museum – but that´s another story. I got my B.A. at the College of New Rochelle in Westchester County. English was always my best subject. I was a voracious reader. And I began my first novel when I was eight. I never finished it, though I did work on my high school newspaper and write for the college magazine.

I have to say your bio reads like a movie. After leaving Brooklyn, you headed to England and found work at the prestigious theatrical and literary agency, Richard Hatton Limited and became a literary director there. What were your duties? Did you enjoy it there?

I loved both living in London and working at the agency. It was a small one. At its largest, it had only five agents and a handful of staff, which meant that we all worked together very closely. My job evolved over the years from secretary to director, and so I tackled different things at different times, but I was always primarily focused on the writers and the directors, and they did everything, from working in television and the theatre to writing novels. What I liked best about the job was listening to my clients´ ideas, encouraging them when they were down, sharing their happiness when they succeeded, getting them jobs, selling their work. What I didn´t like was asking for money. That was hard. But I did it.

The clientele of this agency included well-known writers, directors, and actors such as Sean Connery, Malcolm McDowell, and Leo McKern, not to mention Robert Shaw whom you worked with. What kind of work did you do with Mr. Shaw?

Mostly I handled all the foreign sales for his novels and plays, which meant that I got to travel through Europe to meet with publishers and producers on the continent. I was in Oslo for the opening there of his play, "The Man in a Glass Booth," and in New York when it opened on Broadway. He was a wonderful writer, as well as a great actor, and an interesting and fun companion over lunch and a glass of wine.

You returned to the States and went to Hollywood. Why didn´t you stay in England since you loved it so?

My decision to go to Los Angeles was a financial one. The economy in England at that point was pretty depressed. All of my clients, except for the VERY successful ones like Robert Shaw, no matter how much they worked, always seemed to be struggling to make ends meet. My friends in Los Angeles, even if they had only a modest success, didn´t have that problem. They lived not luxuriously, but well enough. It seemed like a sensible choice at the time.

You eventually got an assignment on the Dallas mini-series and was one of the writers for the famous Who Shot JR? episodes, am I right? I remember those episodes very well; I was on the edge of my seat during each one! How did it make you feel when the ratings went through the roof?

When Dallas initially went on the air, the network (CBS) kept moving its night and time slot, so that we all began to despair that the show would ever build an audience. But slowly, week after week, month after month, the ratings kept going up. And when we settled into our Friday night slot, they went through the roof. It was so exciting. And when J.R. was shot! I´ve never seen anything like it. You know, bookies were taking odds in London about "who done it." I was getting phone calls from friends there begging to know so they could earn a few bob. (I never told. None of us ever did.) And when I was in London that summer, it was mind-blowing. When I´d offer a credit card or write a check in shops to pay for something, the sales people would recognize my name. I couldn´t believe it. Imagine something like that happening here! A WRITER being recognized. Never!

After that, you returned to London. Why did you leave Hollywood when you were having such success?

I didn´t really leave Hollywood. I just went away for a year to write my first novel. I wanted my full concentration to be on that, on fulfilling what really was a lifelong dream. I needed to be far from the phone calls about possible jobs. I needed to put television and show business out of my head. Anyway, I missed London. I wanted to "go home" for a while.

After your first novel, Lovers and Friends, was published in 1989, you went on to write another book with the infamous Ivana Trump. Whose idea was that? Where and how did you meet up with her?

"Infamous" really doesn´t describe her. She´s a great lady. Ambitious, of course, but intelligent, warm, funny, full of energy and enthusiasm, and incredibly hard-working. She handled all the bad publicity about her divorce with enormous graciousness, I always thought. And it seemed to me she was in the papers so much because the photographers really liked her. Anyway, Simon&Shuster had offered her a bundle of money to write two novels, and she was looking for someone to work with her. Somewhere along the way, her agent found my agent, my name came up, and because by then I had what seemed like the ideal credits for the project (Dallas and Dynasty, as well as one well-reviewed novel) a meeting was arranged. That must have been in December of 1990. I remember I was on my way home for Christmas. We met in her office (which was in the Plaza Hotel at the time), hit it off immediately, and worked together for the next couple of years. I won´t speak for Ivana, but I certainly enjoyed it. Though I worked my tail off, I had a lot of interesting experiences and a great deal of fun.

During that time, you continued writing for television while penning a subsequent book, The Wives of Frankie Ferraro in 1998 and your most recent, The River By Moonlight. Do you still write for television?

I went back and forth between novels and television for a number of years, but I´ve stopped that now. Never say never, but for the foreseeable future, my focus is entirely on my books.

The River, By Moonlight is published by a VirtualBookworm, a publisher who uses POD technology to produce your books. Why did you choose that route?

For two main reasons – time and control. My first two books sold within a matter of weeks. But when The River, By Moonlight was turned down by my previous publisher (which didn´t surprise me at all – it was set in 1917; it was unmistakably literary, and couldn´t be marketed as anything else) my agent didn´t want to submit it elsewhere without changes. Because she wasn´t at all specific about the changes she wanted, I really didn´t know what to do next. In the past, I would probably have just put the draft in a drawer and forgotten about it, but I liked the book. I believed in it. And with my credits, I thought I could quickly find an agent who would see in it what I did. Was I wrong! Everyone I submitted it to, instead of the three months or so I expected, took sometimes as long as a year, or more, to get back to me. When they came, the rejections were quite flattering, but they were rejections nonetheless. In a nutshell, they thought they couldn´t sell the book. What was I to do? Put it in that drawer? No. Enough people had read it by then for me to be sure it deserved better than that. Waste more time trying to find first an agent, and then a publisher? I couldn´t bear the thought. Which brings me to my second reason. I wasn´t happy with the way my last book, The Wives of Frankie Ferraro, was published. I didn´t think it was well edited. I didn´t like the way my opinions and feelings were ignored. And I hated the cover. This time, I decided, I wanted total control. And that´s what I got with VirtualBookworm. That, and a book I´m very proud of.

I thank you for coming, Camille, and good luck on the rest of your virtual book tour!

Thank you, Dorothy. I enjoyed it.