Waikiki author nets Hollywood film deal for novel, 'Lottery'

Jan. 5—Waikiki author Patricia Wood recently signed a film deal for her novel "Lottery, " a story about a mentally challenged young man who wins $12 million in the Washington state lottery.

Waikiki author Patricia Wood recently signed a film deal for her novel "Lottery, " a story about a mentally challenged young man who wins $12 million in the Washington state lottery.

Published in 2007, the book has been optioned to 3311 Productions with David Permut producing. Permut, a multiple Academy Award-and Emmy-nominated producer, is known for hits including "Hacksaw Ridge, " an award-winning film directed by Mel Gibson, which told the true story of religious pacifist Desmond Doss.

Wood, 69, wrote the book while living aboard her Celestial 48 cruising boat, the Orion, with her husband, Gordon Wood. The pair now live in a Waikiki condominium.

"The biggest thing with me wasn't that I was going to write a best-selling novel. I wanted to write the story that I wanted to read, " Wood said.

The novel builds on themes from Wood's own life. Her father, Ray Dahl, won the Washington state lottery in 1993 and used some of his winnings to pay for Wood and other family members to pursue their educational dreams.

Wood's book draws from her father's experiences coping with the challenges of his lottery win. It also leans on her experiences with disabled individuals. Wood said her ex-brother-in-law had Down syndrome and was nonverbal and autistic. Additionally, one of her cousins had cerebral palsy and there were people in her family with severe vision problems.

"I saw people navigating life with challenges, " she said.

Wood said she also learned about disabilities as a teacher in the Hawaii public school system, where she taught science and English as a second language classes, and worked with disabled students that were mainstreamed into regular classes.

"I wanted to create a character so real that my readers' whole idea of what it means to be cognitively challenged—they would look at people differently. If they went to Safeway and saw someone with Down syndrome bagging groceries, they would look at their name tag and they would say, 'Hello Jerry' or 'Have a good day, ' or 'Thank you for bagging' instead of what we tend to do, which is avert our eyes."

Wood's love of writing dates back to a childhood in which she used cardboard to publish her own books. Lacking the finances needed to pay for college, Wood joined the Army, where she served as a medical technologist in Fort Belvoir in Virginia during the Vietnam War years. She later used the GI Bill to study science at Northern Illinois University, where she earned a master's degree.

In 1990 she moved to Hawaii with her husband. Fifteen years later, while also taking doctoral classes at the University of Hawaii's College of Education and the Center on Disability Studies, Wood started writing full time. "I wrote from 5 :30 in the morning until I had to go to my classes—sometimes I wrote 10 hours a day, " she said.

She said she honed her writing skills first at the Maui Writers Festival and then the Kauai Writers Conference. "I listened to some of the classes where they said write what you know or write from your own experiences, " Wood said. "The first year, I just sucked it all in. The second year, I had already had the manuscript and because of what I had learned in 2005 I was able to get an agent for 'Lottery.'"

David Katz, director of the Kauai Writers Conference, said the annual event, which started in 2014, now attracts about 350 writers, making it the largest writers conference in Hawaii.

Katz said about a quarter of the conference's attendees come from Hawaii, and the rest come from across the world to take master classes from top writers, some of whom have won a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. Katz said this year Billy Collins, a former U.S. poet laureate, is slated to teach a master class titled, "Guiding a Poem to an Ending."

Katz said participant levels vary from beginners to veteran authors who have published many successful books.

"Really our highest goal is to help people get published, " he said. "In order to get published, there are two things : one is taking an organized approach, understanding how the publishing industry works and getting an agent. The other, and really the more important, is improving your craft as a writer. There are dozens of success stories that come out of the conference."

Wood said her first publishing offer for "Lottery " was a middle six-figure deal, which was "probably the same chance as my Dad winning the lottery."

Her book "Cupidity, " about a Nigerian scam, was published in 2015, and she is currently working to get a third novel published about twin brothers who are hoarders. Also, Wood contributed a short story to an anthology titled "Sunset Inn : Tales from the North Shore, " which was published in 2012.

So far, "Lottery " has been her greatest financial and literary success. It was short-listed in 2008 for the Orange Prize, which is awarded annually in the United Kingdom to a female author. The book was later optioned by a producer in London who wanted to turn it into a play, but the deal fell through due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She said the current film deal came about because screen writer Alexis Jolly took an interest. Jolly wrote the screenplay for "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, " which was sold to Treehouse Pictures and became a 2019 movie about the life of children's television host Fred Rogers.

Wood said Jolly has already started working on the screenplay for "Lottery, " which will differ somewhat from the novel.

"The film rights—yeah it means money and more money if they make the film. But that's not the motivation, " Wood said. "Just the idea of seeing something that I wrote on the screen—it will be a thrill. It will reach a lot of people."

The novel already has been translated into 29 different languages, and Wood said one of the most satisfying aspects is how well it has resonated with teachers as well as disabled individuals and their families. She has experienced heartfelt moments when parents of disabled children have reached out because they "saw the novel as a happy ending that they could visualize for their own children." Wood said one woman with a disabled son brought 20 copies and gave them to her family so that they would be able to understand him better.

She also recalled an encounter with a disabled young woman during a book-signing in Everett, Wash. She thought the novel's protagonist, Perry L. Crandall, was real and "wanted to meet him because she thought they could be boyfriend and girlfriend, " Wood said.

For Wood, that conversation helped confirm that writing "Lottery " from the first-person perspective of someone with a cognitive disability had been effective. She said she wanted readers, who might have been used to marginalizing someone with disabilities, to really see the book's main character. "I wanted them to see somebody and root for them and want them to be their friend, " Wood said.