USAToday reports Starbucks' newest pick: Crazy for the Storm.
May 15, 2009
USAToday: A son's memoir about his adventure-seeking father is the latest Starbucks book pick.
In Crazy for the Storm, author Norman Ollestad tells of surviving a plane crash as a child, but also reflects on his father's passion for surfing and skiing and competitive sports. Published by Ecco, a HarperCollins imprint, the book comes out June 2, in time for Father's Day, and will be featured at thousands of Starbucks stores.
The coffee chain announced the selection Thursday.
» Read about it in Publisher's Weekly
» Read about it in USA Today
Warner Bros. Acquires Crazy for the Storm
May 4, 2009
Variety: Warner Bros. has acquired "Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival," a book by Norman Ollestad that Ecco will publish in June.
Ollestad's memoir recounts how his father infused his love for extreme sports in him as a boy, pressing him to become a competitive surfer and skier, experience that allowed him to survive when a plane crash stranded him on an icy mountaintop at age 11.
The film will be produced by Storyopolis co-founder Fonda Snyder, literary manager Rob Weisbach and Gerber Pictures' Bill Gerber. Weisbach sold world rights to the Harper Collins imprint Ecco. Ollestad will be executive producer.
Ollestad, who is now 41 and the father of a 9-year old son, tells the story of his love/hate relationship with his charismatic father, who thrust him into extreme sports pursuits at age 3, and pressed him to excel in the world of surfing and competitive skiing that immersed them in the Southern California surf culture of the 1970s. Ollestad became his father's greatest creation, a fearless surfer and ski champion, and that fearlessness prompted him to not give up even after he saw his idol killed in the crash that left him alone in a blizzard in the San Gabriel Mountains.
"Nothing prepared me for how deeply Norm's story would affect me," Snyder said. "His gripping story forces you to question, given the protective culture of parenting today, how a father shapes a boy's definition of what it means to be a man."
CAA brokered the film deal.
Elaine's Picks
May - June, 2009
How does an 11 year old boy cope when the crash of the small plane carrying him, his father, his gather's girlfriend, and the pilot turns a ski vacation into a nightmare?
Crash Course
July, 2009
Los Angeles Magazine: Norman Ollestad's memoir, Crazy for the Storm, reconstructs the Mount Baldy plane accident that nearly killed him as a child
NORMAN OLLESTAD studied creative writing at UCLA and attended UCLA Film School. He grew up on Topanga Beach in Malibu and now lives in Venice, California. He is the father of an eight-year-old son.
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