Joe Gazzam, now a screenwriter and soon-to-be novelist, used to work at Sears.
“I just remember having this epiphany where I just didn’t know really what I wanted to do with my life,” Gazzam said. “I ended up at Sears, and there was this one day where my district manager came in there, and he was screaming at me for not arranging the underwear rack properly. I was thinking, ‘What am I doing?’”
Gazzam wrote his first script in the department store, hiding behind a briefcase.
Now the Fort Lauderdale native and UF alumnus is releasing his first book, titled “Uncaged,” on Oct. 22. The story follows the tale of Jason, who is placed in Blackenbush Penitentiary, which is eventually overrun by prisoners.
Gazzam, who graduated from UF in 1991 with a degree in accounting, has lived in Los Angeles working as a screenplay writer for more than 10 years.
His work includes “21 Jump Street,” “Step Up Revolution” and Disney’s “Hawaiian Adventure.”
“The one thing Hollywood says is ‘If you don’t want a bunch of notes, you should write a novel.’ So, they hang it over your head thinking you’re never going to do it, but I was like ‘All right, I can write a novel.’”
Gazzam said the allure of writing without the fear of having the product heavily edited was one of the main reasons he decided to write “Uncaged.”
The 45-year-old is having “Uncaged” published through ZOVA Books and plans on going on a book tour after the novel is released.
By going through ZOVA, he gets a 50 percent cut of the profits, instead of 6 percent with a larger company like the Penguin Group, Gazzam said.
Gazzam may be helped by his alma mater, as the UF Bookstore favors having UF authors on the shelves and encourages book signings, said Lynne Vaughan, the director of the bookstore.
“We would love to have as many (UF graduates’ books) as we can get,” Vaughan said. “We want those books in here. And when we know they’ve written one, we try to get it in.”
A version of this story ran on page 4 on 9/30/2013 under the headline "Gator screenwriter to release novel"
