Leslie Glass's Blog, page 429

Author Makes Recovery Movie

A year and a half ago, I started a website called Ilovequitters.com to open the discussion about addiction and recovery to a mainstream audience. I had no idea how big the story is. Addiction is the number 1 health issue in America, and is an epidemic world wide as well. Our work to tell the recovery story quickly got bigger than our site's ability to tell it. Ilovequitters shut down this week for a major overhaul. It will return as recoverme.com in the fall. Oh, yes. And the crime writer is writing a new book and making movies.

And there is a reason that my daughter Lindsey, co-producer and co-writer  with me on The Secret World of Recovery and blogger on Ilovequitters, and I are entering the recovery world to make our films. We know firsthand how hard it is to carry the burden of secrecy while dealing with a disease no one wants to talk about. I had done it before with the cancer of both my parents in a time when there was no support for cancer victims. With recovery twenty years later, it was harder, and even lonelier. I was the parent of a recovering addict, and didn't know what to do to be a better parent to her and take care of myself.

These days people are proud to be cancer survivors. It should be the same for recovering addicts, but it is not. Support for cancer and other diseases has become a national obsession, but support for recovery is largely an underground secret many people are afraid to explore. The wreckage of addiction costs the nation $45o billion dollars a year, but little of that money goes to treatment, prevention, research and help for families. When it comes to recovery every family is on its own.

Most people don't know how to identify addiction in their loved ones, or that recovery is even possible. Lindsey and I are now using the power of film to bring hope and dignity to millions of people who are stigmatized by the disease and need to see that they are courageous heroes, too.

Last summer we made The Secret World of Recovery, a feature documentary about recovery in America. It also tells our own journey of  recovery. The first screening was a community outreach event at the Sarasota Film Festival on April 10th. The festival organizers were astounded, and no one was more surprised than we were, when a sold out audience of 1650 people of all ages jammed the Center of Performing Arts to see the film, and to give it a standing ovation.

In the coming months the Secret World of Recovery will be shown at international film festivals, community and corporate events, and for addiction professionals. Lindsey and I are writing a book and  working on our feature comedy, Rehab Is For Quitters. This summer we are filming a new documentary about teens from 13-19. Stay tuned for news.

Meet The Founders

Leslie and Lindsey Glass enter the recovery world with a three-generation background in social activism, philanthropy and story-telling. Leslie’s mother was a Civil Rights Activist and lobbied for Head Start and Labor Laws for Children in the l960’s. Her father was the producer of Lassie and other beloved early TV series. Leslie created the TV series Fury when she was ten and has been a philanthropist and grant maker for 20 years.

Leslie Glass is a NY Times bestselling author of 15 novels, a journalist, playwright and filmmaker with a strong background in social issues. She was the President of Plays for Living and has written plays for teens at risk on suicide, prejudice, inner city violence, and alcoholism. Leslie served on the Middle States Commission on Higher Education for six years, was a trustee of the New York City Police Foundation for many years. She is the producer and director of The Secret World of Recovery.

Lindsey Glass is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and has an MA from NYU. She has been a screenwriter for 6 years and is in recovery from an addiction to pills. Lindsey is the creator and co-writer of Rehab is for Quitters, a feature comedy about rehab in pre-production. She is the co producer, writer and protagonist of The Secret World of Recovery, a mother and daughter’s journey from addiction to recovery. Lindsey is a frequent speaker on recovery.

Collaboration Works to Bring Communities Together

Collaboration Works To Bring Communities Together

ROR’s first Celebration and Awareness Day April 10, 2011 Van Wezel Performing Arts Center, Sarasota, FL. Record-breaking audience of 1650.

ROR was established as a 501c3 tax exempt charitable organization in March 2011. On April 10th and 13th 2011 ROR presented its first two events. A community Recovery Awareness Day and interactive forum with panels of experts in the addiction and recovery fields paired with a screening of “The Secret World Of Recovery,” a feature length documentary about recovery in America. The full day, free event was planned as a model for engaging a community around the issues of addiction prevention and recovery. It was presented as a community outreach of the Sarasota Film Festival. 1650 people flocked to the performing arts center, the largest venue in the city, breaking all records both for a film festival event and an organization event that did not include celebrities, alcohol, or a sports event. ROR’s event on April 13th was an elegant celebration dinner for 150, honoring 10 community leaders from many fields.

Engaging the media, community leaders, law enforcement, the medical community, government and social service agencies and a broad spectrum of community groups of all ages is the model for ROR’s inspiring a grass roots movement to address addiction and recovery. Collaboration Works.

April Woo

I got so many queries last week about April Woo that I feel guilty. Thank you for loving April. I realize I wrote the first one in 1992, and she was with me for 15 years on a daily (and nightly) basis. I lived and breathed NYPD and April Woo. I dreamed April Woo. I ate Chinese food, and hung out in Chinatowns whoever I could find them. When I went to signings, people checked out my eyes wondering if I am half Chinese. And of course I am, but not by blood. You won't see my Chinese heritage in my face. But face and Chinese culture has always played an important part in my life. The drive for change and movement is Chinese, too. We always move forward, while honoring the past.

I Love Quitters

Having worked for magazines and publishers all my life, I never thought I would start a magazine format in cyberspace. Ilovequitters.com is quite a journey in a brand new world.

In the old days, it would cost millions of dollars for a Conde Nast, Hearst, or Time, Inc. to develop a new product. Very expensive, top of the line consultants would sit around conference tables strategizing for years about how the new magazine would look and what it would say and who would advertise in it. And then they'd spend mucho more dinero on surveys and questionnaires to find out what readers really want and who would buy it. Oh, the cost of advertising for the launch when it got finalized. Oh, the parties. Oh, the anticipation and self congratulation.

Internet, Print and Film

This week is big. Usually it's just work, work, work. Writers are shut-ins, you know. I'm not kidding.

But now it's only a few weeks countdown to the launch of Sleeper. It's so exciting to have a new book out. We will begin to post events here. And photographs of people, not just me.

Speaking of people, don't miss the new articles appearing on www.Ilovequitters.com every week, and sign up to write your own. Starting February 5th, Veronica, who lost 220 lbs eleven years ago, and has kept the weight off, will be contributing weekly on all issues food, body, and soul. Veronica's insights will make you laugh, cry, and be a better person. Veronica launches soon.

Sleeper Is Here

Happy New Year To You.

What's new with Leslie? Absolutely everything.

First of all, thank you for your patience. I know many of you have been wondering what's up with me. Silence for way too long. Well, I didn't drop off the end of the earth. I've been working on local non profits, writing a column for Sarasota magazine, two feature film scripts with Lindsey Glass, my new novel Sleeper, and the writing project everyone can join, Ilovequitters.com.