I’m Lee Shackleford, and if anybody apart from my friends, family, and students knows who I am, it’s probably because of my work as a writer for stage, screen, and radio. But apart from that, who am I?
FIRST THINGS FIRST
The best part of being me is that I get to be the husband of the brilliant and beautiful Dr. Karen Shackleford. Our professional fields have more overlaps than you might expect:
- she studies the way people interact with fictional narratives and
- I create fictional narratives with which I hope people will interact.
It’s an endless source of fascination for us! One tangible result was the study and publication — now widely-cited — called Setting the Stage for Social Change.
Since the topics I’m most drawn to as a writer are related to justice, social equity, and improved education, we feel sure we’ll never run out of opportunities to explore the potential of using dramatic narratives to make the world a better place.
Which is, you have probably surmised, why I’ve had variations of the sword/pen thing in my logos over the years.
Do you know the whole quote? It’s from the play Richelieu, by the sometimes-maligned Edward Bulwer-Lytton. In Act II the Cardinal gets to say:
True —This!
Beneath the rule of men entirely great
The pen is mightier than the sword —
One of the things I love about that quote is that its meaning is debatable, in or out of context. (I really should read the entire play someday…)
TEACHING AND LEARNING
I have the honor and pleasure of teaching for my alma mater, the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Theatre Department, even though I live 400 miles away. (Ya gotta love the internet.) I teach Playwriting, Screenwriting, and Introduction to Cinema. Sometimes I also write and/or direct things for them.
I was promoted to Professor in 2023. This was the culmination of a lifetime of being called “Professor.” It was usually not a compliment, but now — perhaps — it finally is.
One of my favorite aspects of my life at UAB began in 2003, when I began producing a Festival of Ten-Minute Plays featuring new works by student playwrights. We produced a new Festival annually for sixteen years, usually playing to standing-room-only houses. A thrilling high-wire act every time, putting these untested shows out before a live audience!
THROUGH SPACE AND TIME
I’m also a huge sci-fi geek, with a special love for the original STAR TREK series. I was five years old when the series premiered — my mother and I watched that first episode together and we were both fans from that night onward. Some say it hasn’t aged well in many ways but my loyalty to it is fierce and undying.
I did also have a little something to do with STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION as a young writer, but that’s a long story…
Think and say what you will about Gene Roddenberry — and he was a problematic individual — but one thing he said over the years is the proverbial “hill I’ll die on”:
“Star Trek was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms.”
Amen to that.
My favorite science fiction authors are the ones usually cited as “essential” — H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Arthur C. Clarke, Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury — and the insanely brilliant Isaac Asimov. (If you didn’t believe he was brilliant, all you had to do was ask him — he’d tell you.)
One of my most cherished possessions is a piece of “fan mail” written to me by Dr. Asimov after he read Holmes & Watson.
One upshot of my decades of devoted DOCTOR WHO fandom is that I get to be a co-host on a couple of fan-driven podcasts: Louis Trapani’s near-legendary Doctor Who: Podshock and now, Discussing Who with amazing co-hosts Kyle Jones and Clarence Brown! I’m forever grateful to all of them for the opportunity to spout opinions about geeky media.
One of my special sci-fi interests — okay, it’s a fixation — is H.G. Wells’ WAR OF THE WORLDS, in all its incarnations. That includes the notorious radio broadcast of 1938, which I have enjoyed recreating onstage numerous times (even winning an acting award for it once), Jeff Wayne’s musical version, and some of the better film and TV adaptations.
Why I chose this, of all science fiction stories, to “imprint upon” is beyond my ability to explain. But there it is.
Here are two models inspired by that novella, little things I meticulously constructed in the computer and then made solid with my 3D printer. And if that doesn’t indicate an obsession, I’m not sure what would.
THE GREAT DETECTIVE
I’ve been a devoted Sherlockian since I was a teenager, drawn ever deeper into the fandom (cult?) by some truly brilliant and wonderful friends. I’ve written stories and plays about him, played him onstage, and drawn lots of cartoons, all reflecting my lifelong love of that extraordinary character.
I have a whole page on this site about my life with Holmes, so let me just say a few words about the cartoons here…
The cartoons introduced me to a wider circle of Sherlockians; my silly series of one-panel gags called “From the Doctor’s Diary,” had a long run in The Baker Street Journal, the official publication of the Baker Street Irregulars. For this and other reasons, in January 2023 that august body saw fit to honor me with inclusion in its selective membership. It was one of the proudest moments of my life.
But getting back to cartooning — when I was a lad I drew cartoons all the time (ask any of my high school teachers) and my main goal in life was to write and draw a story-oriented daily newspaper comic strip. As time went by I realized that the aspect of comics that I liked best was not the drawing but the writing — and Jim Shooter, when he was editor of Marvel Comics, told me that’s where I should be focusing my efforts. So in a way I’ve attained my dream after all.
THEATRE OF THE MIND
I am also an ardent student and fan of the drama and comedy from radio’s Golden Age (roughly 1930-1950)– my special favorite show being Fibber McGee and Molly. I am probably happiest when I’m listening to Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, The Shadow, X Minus One, Dragnet … and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (the Bob Bailey five-part stories, please!) … the list goes on and on.
And I love more recent radio programs, too, but mostly those from the UK (since Britain never lost its affection for radio the way America did) — particularly I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again, the original Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and that most sublime half-hour of insanity: The Goon Show.
All of this urged me toward creating radio dramas of my own, such as the syndicated drama serial Bodylove and, my personal favorite of my own creations, the sci-fi serial Relativity.
BACKGROUND CHECK
Let’s see, what have I missed?
I was born and raised in north central Alabama and have as much affection for Alabama as I feel the state deserves. You read that however you want.
I was brought up in the Church of Christ — even ordained as a minister in that denomination, believe it or not — but now identify myself as a Unitarian Universalist. If you don’t know what that is, I encourage you to look into it!.
As much as I love the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, my favorite author of all time is P.G. Wodehouse. (I’d say “don’t tell my Sherlockian friends” — but many of them feel the same way! The Doyle/Wodehouse crossover is considerable, perhaps because Wodehouse was himself a Sherlock Holmes devotee.)
And I think that’s already more about me than any reasonable person could possibly want to know…
