Lee Ward/The Independent
Ashland — A Kentucky native and writer of romance novels has taken her career a step further.
Stephanie Bond’s humorous mystery series titled “Body Movers” has been opted by Sony Pictures Television for series development.
A pilot script is being adapted; the next step will be pitching the script to networks.
Laura Ziskin, who has worked with “Spiderman” and “As Good As It Gets,” has committed to producing the series.
Bond grew up in Olive Hill and attended Morehead State University on a presidential scholarship.
After graduation, she worked for Ashland Inc., in Lexington as a systems engineer for seven years before transferring to its Atlanta division.
While working for Ashland, Bond received her MBA from Eastern Kentucky University. It was an instructor at EKU who told her she had “a flair for writing,” a passing comment that inspired her to pursue a writing career in her spare time and changed the trajectory of her life.
“I believe every step in my life has led me to being a writer,” Bond said. “Being a voracious reader in my youth growing up on a farm instilled in me a rhythm of storytelling, and my business background and computer skills helped me to break into the publishing industry, and now the film industry.
“I feel as if I’m doing what I was meant to do. I feel very lucky,” she said.
In 1997, Bond walked away from her corporate career as a systems engineer to become a full-time writer. Today Bond is the author of more than 50 mystery and romance novels published by four New York publishers.
The “Body Movers” series features Atlanta protagonist Carlotta Wren and brother Wesley, who enjoyed a privileged existence before their parents went on the lam for white-collar crimes. Carlotta works at Neiman Marcus by day and helps Wesley move bodies from crime scenes by night. Their quirky body-moving profession lands them in the middle of murder mysteries, which they use their combined talents to solve.
“Like most writers, I’ve dreamed about this kind of opportunity my entire career,” Bond said. “I couldn’t be more thrilled at the prospect of Carlotta and Wesley and the entire Body Movers gang being brought to life and into the living rooms of viewers everywhere!”
The “Body Movers” series, published by Mira Books, consists of six books; numbers seven and eight in the series are under development.
LEE WARD can be reached at lward@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2661.
