The Rough Riders: A Novel based on Real Life Events (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781511954334)

Ramon Joseph Rivas (aka Ray Rivas) was born to a Spanish American family in Newark, New Jersey. His talent for drawing and painting started in kindergarten and carried him until he won a scholarship to an Arts High School. After the US Navy, Ray went to university winning a Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry, then a Master's in Ed. Psychology, then another for Animal Physiology from the Universidad de Madrid. Upon returning from Europe he took a job writing game show questions for the show Jeopardy. Merv Griffin put him in charge of running a small film company in New York City, which led to his first directorial contract in Hollywood, where he learned the craft of directing motion pictures. From directing TV commercials, to educational films, videos, infomercials, and finally his first feature film, this was in Spanish and filmed in Spain - the script taken from a short story that Ray wrote when he was living in Madrid. When asked how he could switch from Physiology to Filmmaking, he replied, "Simple they both deal with the human condition, both are very analytical, and both keep our hearts beating at a fairly rapid pace." As a raconteur, Ray was advised that he should begin to write novels and as John Grissom does with Law, and Michael Crichton did with science, he choose to write novels about what he knew best - The Motion Picture Industry. Most all of his books are based on real events and fictionalized for reasons that become obvious. Mr. Rivas has filmed in every major film center in the Western world, from London to Paris, Hollywood to Hawaii, and Rio to Rome, Madrid to Mexico where he currently lives with his wife Elsa.