Meet Linda
After being successfully raised in Chicago by awesome, loving parents, I moved to California and found a career as a Hollywood writer. Could have been the genes: my grandfather, Harry Segall, won an Oscar in 1941 for the screenplay of his movie Here Comes Mr. Jordan, based on his 1938 Broadway play Heaven Can Wait. I had an episode of Laverne and Shirley on the air, and wrote comedy material for some Norman Lear shows, including the ersatz talk show, Fernwood 2Night. But most of the writing I did in Hollywood was thousands of synopses and critiques of books and screenplays for the major studios: I was a reader, aka story analyst. During my 25-year story analyst career, I worked on the development of Tootsie, Ghostbusters and The Natural. Most of the rest are not worth mentioning. I also dipped heavily into the Hollywood lifestyle, experiences that provided rich material for my upcoming memoir, still in progress (I’m a serial rewriter).
In 1981 I found Buddhism and started chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Buddhism ignited my spiritual nature, and I had this inspiration that I could bring enlightenment to Hollywood, then a cesspool of depravity. My belief was that depravity and enlightenment can exist in the same moment. Buddhism led me to Juzu, the chanting prayer beads featured on this website. Juzu merges my obsessive creative drive, spirituality, mission and fun. More fun than reading scripts (with a few exceptions, like Tootsie). When I make custom chanting beads, I put positive energy into them; I chant with them. See if they work. 😊 My bead work is a one-person operation and always will be. I’ll never be on Shark Tank. I do it for love.
I have been practicing Nichiren Buddhism for 40+ years and making beaded jewelry for 25 years, specializing in Buddhist chanting beads, also known as JUZU.