Who is John M. Weiskopf?

John M. Weiskopf is an author and teacher. His first novel The Ascendancy was recently published by iUniverse through Author Solutions, where it received excellent reviews and sold out at several southern California, Maryland, Texas, Virginia and Washington D.C. Barnes & Noble retailers. It is also sold at select Borders. It being sold on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble.com, and Borders.com.

The Ascendancy is the first novel in the Jacob’s Bean Trilogy. It is based upon a celebrated screenplay that John Weiskopf wrote called Jacob’s Bean. The second novel in the trilogy is called The Waynack’s Word to be finished by the Fall of 2009.

John Weiskopf has appeared for book signings at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the West Hollywood Book Fair, and several Barnes and Nobles and other independent retail bookstores. He has been a guest speaker and panelist of the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society (G.L.A.W.S.). 

He taught literature and writing for ten years in private schools and colleges. He has a B.A. in literature and an M.F.A. from UCLA Graduate Film Program. He has written eight screenplays for motion pictures, of which three were optioned. He produced four documentary films that aired on television, three on national television and one regionally. He produced a film on Elder Abuse, associate produced one on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and the Navy Seals, and a local cable  documentary on Young Suzuki Violinists. Two of his documentaries aired on national PBS, one for which he appeared as a guest filmmaker on the Oprah Winfrey Show. He was hired by the U.S. Embassy to teach two screenwriting and producing seminars in South America.

He is a former skydiver and member of the USPA, United States Parachute Association. He worked as a professional photographer. His photos have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, The Washington Redskin Review, the MTA Metro News & Metro Quarterly, and the Orange County Register.

For his writing and photography, he traveled extensively through Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Galapagos Islands. He has filmed at Machu Picchu, Galapagos Islands, at Lake Titicaca, in the Andes and climbed the glaciers of Salkantay and Ausangate Mountains.

He coached and managed his son’s Little League baseball teams for seven years, where for one year, he was vice-president of the Little League. He currently coaches the girls’ and boys’ varsity tennis teams for a Westside private high school. His daughter works for ELLE Magazine and lives in Manhattan. His son plays on a varsity high school lacrosse team. His wife Judy teaches science at a Westside School in Los Angeles. They live in West Los Angeles.