A Conversation with Becoming a Warrior Author, Catherine Hand

In 2018, Catherine Hand was one of two producers for Walt Disney’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved children’s classic A Wrinkle in Time. Catherine’s career in the entertainment business was launched working for the legendary writer/producer Norman Lear. She was the Associate Producer on Lear’s Emmy Nominated ABC TV special, I Love Liberty, and helped to create the national nonprofit, People for the American Way. Later, she served as a development executive at Zoetrope, Francis Coppola’s company where she worked on several projects, including Godfather III. Catherine has also worked for years in the public service sector. After having produced several large-scale events for national organizations, garnering a Gracie Award for best public affairs programming in 2009, Catherine was recruited by the Obama Administration where she was part of the core leadership team involved in communicating policy and political decisions impacting the federal workforce.

Catherine shares some beautiful life lessons in this episode. "Faith is for when things are going wrong," she shares. Her lifelong dream did not come to fruition until after she turned 60. But she did not give up. "We can't changes things...but we can stop fearing them," she counsels. "Thoughts are temporary," she says of her 3:00 am musings. "They are not permanent," and we can talk back to them. One of her takeaways from writing her book, Becoming a Warrior, is that "Have something worth fighting for...that is greater than yourself." And others can benefit from what you have learned. Catherine encourages us to become warriors in the universe to illuminate others.

She continues to develop new projects and enjoys coaching others to become warriors in their own lives. Her memoir, Becoming a Warrior is scheduled to be published by Bold Story Press on October 25, 2022.  It will be available everywhere.

"I read Madeleine L'Engle's award winning novel, A Wrinkle in Time, when I was ten years old and dreamt of one day making it into a movie. It would take five decades for my childhood dream to come true. My journey would include working alongside the television luminary Norman Lear in the creation of the nonprofit People For the American Way, and a 25 year-long conversation with author Madeleine L’Engle about her book. My memoir, Becoming a Warrior: My Journey to Bring A Wrinkle in Time to the Screen due to be released in October 2022 illustrates one woman’s persistence—through a demanding career in the entertainment industry, the sudden and unexpected death of my beloved husband, raising three young children on my own—and eventual success. In 2018, over fifty years after I first read A Wrinkle in Time, Walt Disney Studios released a major motion picture based on this beloved novel directed by Ava DuVernay, written by Jennifer Lee and starred Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Chris Pine, Gugu Mbatha Raw and Storm Reid." -- Catherine Hand

“Catherine’s journey of over 50 years to have A Wrinkle In Time brought to the Silver Screen is simply extraordinary.  And the book’s impact upon her life is both compelling and inspirational.”

-- Alan Horn, Former Chairman of Walt Disney Studios - Motion Pictures

“No one I’ve known ever loved a book more than Catherine Hand loved A Wrinkle in Time. Her perseverance and journey to make the film is nothing short of inspiring.”

-- Norman Lear, award winning writer/producer

To learn more, see catherinehand.com

https://www.instagram.com/catherinehand5555/

twitter: @madebyhand

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