Meet Ronald Canfield

We recently connected with Ronald Canfield and have shared our conversation below.

Ronald, thank you so much for joining us and offering your lessons and wisdom for our readers. One of the things we most admire about you is your generosity and so we’d love if you could talk to us about where you think your generosity comes from.

Looking back, I’d say it originated from those who gave generously of themselves in support of myself, my siblings, and my mother when she was a single mom raising all of us kids. It started with my grandparents on my mother’s side, and extended to my aunts, uncles, and cousins. I found this continued through my school years with various teachers whose generosity was in the form of encouragement, or even more so my college calculus professor who saw that a number of students were struggling early in the course. In lieu of cracking the whip he said “damn the schedule, we are going to slow down and do what it takes to make you all successful. If we don’t meet the prescribed course outline for this quarter we will make it up next quarter.” Needless to say, those who were struggling found a moment where it all “clicked,” and everyone took a huge step forward in their understanding and subsequent performance. So for me, I try to embody those ideals and pass it on to others. We all fall down of course, success is often measured in the attempt.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I took early retirement from a career in the scientific field, which has allowed me to follow my passions in “retirement.” I had always been into fitness, so my first venture into Phase Two of my life was to become a certified personal trainer & fitness instructor. Although I was compensated for my personal training of clients, I taught fitness classes as a volunteer (I didn’t need the money). I also began volunteering at the local foodbank once a week.
Having done a ton of writing (technical in nature) during my career, being a lover of mysteries, and having a brother who’s a part-time screenwriter, I decided to try my hand at writing… in the form of a 71,000 word manuscript that became my debut novel, thanks to a small local press. I celebrated by holding a Book Signing For Charity at a local restaurant, where I pre-purchased copies from my publisher and 100% of the proceeds went to local charities.
I followed up with a second novel, then a third (technically a novella), then a fourth… all under my pen name Ronald Lamont. It was also during this time that I wrote a short story about the weekend of President Kennedy’s assassination as seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old whole little brother’s birthday is the next, and the family dynamics therein. Unlike the pen name for my novels, this was written under my full name Ronald Lamont Canfield. The story won an award for historic fiction.
With my brother being a screenwriter I decided to try my hand at turning some of my novels into screenplays, now under my full name. The three I have subsequently written all won awards at Los Angeles Film Festival screenwriting competitions. Even so, no producers had yet reached out to potentially purchase any of them, and this time I decided to write a short film script based on my short story. A number of producers wanted to make the film, but since I wanted to maintain complete creative control I decided to produce the film myself. Fortunately I was able to find the right people to help me build a great team since I was a novice at the process. The film, titled “A Fateful Weekend,” is currently in the Festival circuit and has received seven awards thus far.
I will be filming a new short film early March titled “The Stranger” where I get to introduce audiences to my mystery writing.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

For me, as a writer, the ability to tell a story is paramount. Even though my writing during my career was technical in nature, I found that I was adept at telling “the story behind the technical actions being proposed or taken.” A thirst for knowledge was the second quality that helped me in my endeavors. I have always loved research, whether technical in nature during my career, or going through enormous amounts of archive footage as I was writing and producing my film about JFK. The third quality is resilience… not getting bogged down or giving up when hitting a wall. For example, as a writer I don’t really get writer’s block. Sure, I’ll have a scene or an action or a character’s dialogue that I KNOW is not exactly what I want in the finished product, but in that instance I highlight the item and move on to the next scene, action, etc. Invariably (could be a few minutes, a few hours, perhaps even several days) it all clicks and go back a rewrite the scene. This is something I always pass on to other writers. Too many try to have the perfect story starting from the first sentence of their story, manuscript, screenplay, which almost always sets you up for failure. Thus, not only do I tell them about the method I use to get past a scene that I’m not totally happy with, but I also share that I often (almost always, in fact) write scenes or chapters out of sequence. For my novel “Smoke and Mirrors” I started with the opening scene (Chapter 1), but the next scene I wrote ended up being Chapter 9. I KNEW what the scene would be, and I knew it would not immediately follow Chapter 1, but it HAD to be written while all of the nuances and details were in my head.
Lastly, a lot of fledgling writers would tell me that they have tons of ideas but don’t know where to start. I tell them to jot (type) down ALL of their ideas. once they see it all in writing (in lieu of merely in their head), a picture starts to emerge and a story begins to develop.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Since filmmaking is a TEAM endeavor, I am always looking for those who wish to be part of the team… a true collaboration where egos are put aside and we share ideas, wisdom, and experiences. Integrity, character, and mutual respect are a must. Every person’s expertise within the team is what brings success to the project. In my retirement speech I put it this way: “I’ve been fortunate to have achieved a great number of successes along my journey here, none of which I can claim as my own, but instead are a testament to those I’ve had the good fortune of working alongside.”

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ron.canfield.79
• Other: My IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm15085015/?ref_=tt_ov_wr_1″A Fateful Weekend” IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28494270/?ref_=tt_rvi_i_4