‘Bloodline’ has it all

Press, 27 March 1979, Page 15

‘Bloodline’ has it all

Wellington reporter

Beautiful women, macho men money, big business, sex, international travel, and murder — are all thrown into the melting pot to make a best-seller for an American author, Sidney Sheldon, paying a brief visit to New Zealand. His latest best-seller, “Bloodline,” is now on sale here and a film of the same name will be released in New Zealand next February. Mr Sheldon has alwavs wanted to write and has written professionally since he was 12 years old. But no-one else in his family has been a writer:

his parents had a limited education, and he never met a writer during his childhood. Most novelists write their best-sellers and then, if they are lucky, they make their way to Hollywood as script writers. With Mr Sheldon it was the other way round. Born in 1917, he dropped out of university during the Depression and ended up as one of Hollywood’s most successful writers, directors, and producers. He then turned to writing full-time and has written books such as “The Naked Face,” “The Other Side of Midnite,” and “A Stranger in the Mirror.”

He is now on a multi-mil-lion dollar -contract to write five books for Warner Books. Mr Sheldon says he is an obsessive writer. Once when told to leave his house because of an approaching fire, he left behind original scripts which had won Oscars and Emmys, but took notepads and pens to continue writing. He starts a book with a basic idea or character, and takes it from there. Every book is rewritten at least twice, and much of his time is spent gathering authentic detail. But although the background is real, he insists that his books are pure fiction.