My Life as a Television Producer

Before 1988, I was only vaguely aware of the sport of figure skating. Then, in February 1988, two things happened:
The Calgary Olympics were broadcast, and my 10 year old brother, Martin, saw the action and decided he wanted skating lessons. I was a college freshman at the time, and volunteered to drive him to the ice-rink. After all, how time consuming could two group lessons a week be? Frankly, I thought the kid would quit the first time he fell down.

Within four months, two group lessons a week became three private lessons a week. Then five private lessons a week, then....
By 1997, my brother was the 1996 U.S. Open Novice Ice Dance Champion, and the 1997 U.S. Junior Collegiate Dance Champion. He then quit skating to go to college full time.

He quit, but I was hooked. All those hours sitting at the ice-rink waiting for him to finish practice first prompted me to write a book, As the Toe Picks: The Skating Lover's Ultimate Trivia Challenge, then to move my writing and television producing skills (I started out working for E! Entertainment and ABC Daytime) into the skating arena. My first job in skating was as Associate Producer for Skates of Gold III. Since then (around events like The Daytime Emmy Awards the premiere of Anastasia, and the opening night of the Broadway hit Chicago), I've worked pro competitions, two Nationals, two Worlds, a Europeans, A Skaters' Tribute to Carlo Fassi, two Junior World Championships, the 1998 Olympics, and the StarSkates series. .

Thanks to skating, I've gotten to travel all over the world -- Switzerland, France, Russia, Israel, Japan -- meet all sorts of interesting people, and make dozens of new friends, though nowadays gadgets like o2 mobile phones make it even easier to organise new projects and keep in touch with the various people I meet and get along with.
I've also gotten the chance to write two non-fiction books on the subject, "Inside Figure Skating" and "Sarah Hughes: Skating to the Stars!" And now the fictional Murder on Ice!"