-BACK OF THE BOOK BLURB
STORY
Welcome to Rutgers University, 1970. Like others, this New Jersey college campus is a microcosm of the turbulent times transforming America forever. This book centers on students who must confront their personal, academic, and social challenges as the world takes its first steps toward the 21st century. Through the eyes of these college students, we see the political and social upheaval that defined this decade: the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement, and the Sexual Revolution. It was an era of peace, love, and war, and all three came together in universities like Rutgers.
THE NOVEL
Danny Watkins, a keen observer, finds himself at the heart of the student protest on the Rutgers campus in 1970. As a Dorm advisor for college freshmen and aspiring journalist for the Rutgers Targum, the College Newspaper, he faces a major hurdle in the form of his mercurial editor, Jim Morris. Constantly undermined by Morris, who assigns tasks that don’t match his potential, Danny’s journey is one of resilience and determination.
After a news story goes disastrously wrong, Danny is fired from the paper and might be forced to leave school. If he dropped out, he would be drafted to serve in the unpopular Vietnam War. Danny must risk everything to recruit a controversial speaker to the college campus.
The narrative unfolds through the lives of a diverse ensemble. There’s a young woman, an early feminist, navigating the complexities of her beliefs. A young African American student, on a quest for his identity, and a woman discovering her sexual orientation. Their stories, each unique and compelling, intersect with the birth of movements like Feminism and Gay Liberation, which found their roots in these very campuses.
Lew Ritter Bio : Contact chilton140@yahoo.com (201) 638-8302
Lew Ritter is a retired teacher from Bergen County. He had had many careers, including working in the Air Courier industry before FedEx took over, graduating from DeVry College as a Unix Network Operations person, and finally, as a Social Studies and Library Media Specialist Teacher. He has been married to Bonnie Mitchel for twenty-three years.
His interest in writing began in college with a series of correspondence with the legendary producer of MASH, Larry Gelbart. He wrote an impassioned letter to CBS protesting the potential cancellation of M*A*S*H in its freshmen year. Gelbart was so impressed with the letter that they corresponded for several months. He sent him actual scripts and even allowed Lew to pitch story ideas for the series. In 1975, Lew joined Mystery Writers of America and tried his hands at writing mystery short stories for the Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine.
In the early 1980s, he became enthusiastic about becoming a Copywriter for advertising agencies in NYC. This led him to take classes at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. He took classes with Copywriters and Art Directors from legendary agencies such as Ally & Gargano, Doyle Dane, and Birnbach.
His decision to screenwriting began in 1985 when he attended a Screenwriting class led by Ron Peterson. He wrote several entry-level screenplays but reached his level in 2011 as a Finalist in the Wild Sound Film Festivals Classic Spec script contest for a Magnum P. I script. It received a Table Read by actors at the same Film Festival in 2015.
His scripts have been placed in such contests as the People’s Pilot, Miami, and Santa Barbara Film Festival. He worked with Ron Peterson and fellows from Crossroads Entertainment in L.An on several projects, including Disclosure, a Sci-Fi script. Turbulence has undergone major changes since its creation in 2013. Since then, it has developed into a potential Netflix streaming series with five-year worth of story ideas. He currently works with Joe Rosario, an acting coach, writer and stage director on versions of Turbulence and Mr. Zak, a series about a wounded Veteran who works in an inner-city school. In 2018, Lew decided to turn the tv script into a Novel.
Lew worked and published articles in Strategy &Tactics magazine and a regular contributor for Larry Brody’s TVWriter.com. This is his first novel, and he plans to write more novels in this Turbulence 1970’s world.
Other Scripts:
Mr. Zak- TV project about wounded veteran who works as Vice Principal in Inner-City
Above the Law- A political Thriller set in Washington D.C – Second Rounder at Austin Film Festival in 2015
Two Book Adaptations of novels by Robert Tecklenburg:
Chasing Pancho Villa
Mission to Indochina
God’s Angry Man- Film about John Brown- the Abolitionist who sparked the American Civil War.
HISTORY OF TURBULENCE
Turbulence originated as a television script written in 2013 by Lew Ritter. In 2019, It developed into a television series concept compete with Pilot Script and Series Bible with Five Seasons of character arcs and episode ideas. It would deal with the political and social movements of the time.
Each Season would represent one year in the lives of the students in the series from 1970-1974. It had potential to continue till the end of the 1970’s and deal with the issues of Inflation, Gas Crisis, Jimmy Carter, Disco and the rise of Ronald Reagan.