The retired Army captain wrote three novels over two decades, drew interest from publishers in New York and London, and now has a film option in the works for his book about the Cuban Revolution.
A retired Army captain from Huntsville has written three novels since he retired, caught the attention of publishers in New York and London, and now has a film producer in Los Angeles close to an option deal on his third book, a novel about the Cuban Revolution. Jack Durish shared the story on Good Morning Huntsville Episode 839.
Durish retired a little over 20 years ago and says he has never been busier. "I retired a little over 20 years ago. Can you imagine that? Twenty years. And I have never been busier in my life," he said. Rather than slowing down, he started writing books, and he kept at it until he had three finished manuscripts.
Three Novels Rewritten Four Times Each
Durish researched and wrote three novels, then rewrote every one of them four times as he worked to develop what he calls a storyteller's voice. "I wrote, researched and wrote three novels. Rewrote every one of them four times, really developing a storyteller's voice," he said.
Last month he started running ads to sell the books he had self-published. The ads did not move copies, but they drew the attention of two publishers, one a major publisher in New York and one in London, both interested in publishing his books. Durish now has an agent and an editor, and he told Rob he had just sent a large payment to the editor.
The Huntsville audience already knows Durish from his years of work with VFW Post 5871, where he has stayed active as a former commander. On the show he walked through the post's raffle fundraiser, the rules that keep the post compliant with charitable gaming law in Texas, and the way raffle money flows back into the community. The writing story is a separate chapter of his life, one that has been building quietly over two decades of retirement.
A Cuban Revolution Book Draws Film Interest
Then came the call every novelist dreams about. Last week Durish received two inquiries from the film world, one from a production house in England and another from a major film producer in Los Angeles. Both were interested in the same manuscript, his third novel, a book about the Cuban Revolution. "Then last week I got two inquiries, one from a group in England, a film production house, and another from a major film producer in Los Angeles," he said. "And we are getting about that close to an options deal with the one in Los Angeles."
An option deal would give a producer the right to develop the book into a film or series within an agreed window, a standard first step before any cameras roll. Durish described the past weeks as hectic, with the publisher interest and the film inquiries stacking up almost at once.
The timeline is striking. About two weeks before the show taped, the publisher conversations started. Durish hired an agent, who works on a percentage, and an editor, to whom he had just sent a large payment. Then, just last week, the two film inquiries arrived. For a writer who spent years revising manuscripts in quiet, the acceleration came all at once, and it came after he finally started telling the world the books existed.
Durish traces the whole second act to a simple decision in retirement. He did not plan to become an author with publishers and producers calling. He planned to write, and then he kept writing, revising each novel four full times until the storyteller's voice he was chasing showed up on the page. The ads were a test of whether anyone would buy the books. Nobody did. But the right people noticed, and what followed was better than a few sales.
He also talked about another project that has been keeping him busy. About two years ago he began studying artificial intelligence, a natural extension of his years teaching programming. "A computer will never ever do what you want it to do. It will do precisely what you tell it to do," he said (00:08:00), comparing programming to working with a dead language like Latin, where terms mean exactly one thing, and contrasting it with AI, which works in the living vernacular of American English.
The conversation drifted the way good morning radio does, through British television, the slang of the younger generation, and the difference between a vibe and an aura, which Durish traced back to the hippie era and even further to Michelangelo's horned Moses. But it kept returning to the same theme. A man who retired more than twenty years ago has filled those years with more projects than most people fit into a career.
Rob told Durish that having him on the show always reminds him of his late father in a positive way, and thanked him for coming back after a long absence. Durish, who was a licensed captain before he joined the Army and ended up as a captain there too, laughed that he is the original Captain Jack by a lot of years.
About Jack Durish
Jack Durish is a retired U.S. Army captain and longtime member of VFW Post 5871 in Huntsville. He has self-published three novels after more than two decades of retirement writing. Watch Good Morning Huntsville Episode 839 to hear him tell the story of his books, his work with local veterans, and the film interest in his Cuban Revolution novel.