Mike Buchanan
Michael Buchanan and Diane Lang latest co-authored novel, The Fat Boy Chronicles, was released in 2010. The book won the National Parenting Publication’s Gold Award, and Mom’s Choice Award of Excellence and is used by schools around the nation in their anti-bullying and childhood obesity efforts. The authors won the NY Champions of Character Award for Literature in 2013. The writing team were the writers for the feature documentary Spiral Bound, a film about the importance of the arts in our communities and nation. This film will premiere in Charlotte, NC, in September of 2014.
Buchanan and Lang also wrote the screenplay for the feature film The Fat Boy Chronicles. During its festival tour, the movie won multiple awards for its impacting, yet hopeful depiction of an obese and bullied 9th grader’s world. Upon the film’s release in early 2012, it quickly rose to #6 family rental in Redbox and has now been seen by several million people on Netflix.
The co-authors are guest speakers at schools nationwide as well as state and national conferences where they discuss the connection between bullying, childhood obesity and school climate. Buchanan was a featured speaker at the 2011 International Anti-Bullying Convention in New Orleans. Both nationally-recognized retired teachers, the pair conduct screenwriting workshops in schools as well as speaking at various writing conferences.
The sequel to The Fat Boy Chronicles is underway while their new Tween book, Treasure of the Four Lions, is completed. In development are their feature length screenplays Bait and Tackle and Treasure of the Four Lions. Other produced films are the shorts Last Bullet and Boxes, both of which won multiple awards on the festival circuit.
Up next from Lang and Buchanan is Stealing First, a memoir about Teddy Kremer, a Downs Syndrome man who won the hearts of Cincinnati Reds players during his night as honorary batboy.
Buchanan lives in Alpharetta, Georgia, while Lang resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.
