PSU Magazine Winter 1995

PHOTO B\ <;TE\'E DYKES Today, Soesbe works out of his LA home writing novels and screenplays. enj oys writing books more than creen– plays because "it isn't that committee kind of thing. The deve lopment process in Hollywood is excruciating. You erve about five different maste rs, and everyone gets his two cent in ." But there i a big money difference be tween print writing and scree n– writing. An afternoon spent rewriting a short cene in a bad mov ie brought Soesbe as much money as the entire advance on his second book. Because the financial life of a writer is so uncertain, there's a strong incenti ve to keep bashing away at the gates of Hollywood rather than the ba tion f literature. Yet no matter how successful one ge ts in the film industry, Soesbe says, 20 PSU Magaz ine "It's ve ry hard to fee l e tablished . I don 't know if anyon ever does. The old cliche about it being a jungle i true. It takes a certain personality. I often wonder if I have that pe rsonality." Soesbe's fri end in Portl and worry about him for the same reason. "Doug is very much a gentleman ," says Featheringill. "His eyes are open , but it's not in him to be ruthless to save hi life eve n. He' retain d that integrity, and that' omething he' ll never surrender. He doesn't get into the dog-eat-dog game." Soesbe has managed to do pretty we ll in spite of be ing a nice guy. He's fa r from finishing la t. Hi career o fa r ha been the oppos ite of the o ld dream of overnight success. In tead it has been a seri es of small incremental steps toward a goa l that neve r qui te stops receding. It may be that entertainment career , like evo lutionary change , can move by the process of punctuated equili brium- long period of seeming ta i altern ating with sharp changes. oe be' apprenticeship may be about to end . "I feel that another door has been opened," he says of The Wrong W/ oman. He has more scripts in the hopper and his age nt i lining up appointment for him to pitch them to producer . Momentum seems to be building. "I fee l like I'm poi ed here," he say , "but if it doe n 't keep up and I'm in this con ta nt angst about the nex t job, I'II have to make some sort of dec i ion." Most likely if the day ever comes when Soesbe dec ides to stop chas ing his destiny, he'll go back to teaching. But fo r now he's making it in Hollywood. 0 (Valerie Brown, a Portland freelance writer , is a frequent contribuwr w P U Magaz ine.)