In 2007, celebrity photographer/hairstylist Mitch Stone was working with critically acclaimed Academy Award winning actress Kim Basinger (who also happens to be Stone’s longtime girlfriend) on set of the film “While She Was Out” during the dead of winter in most frigid conditions. To make it even more grueling, the filming was done from sundown to sun up. So, in true Stone style, he made light of the “miserable” circumstances and promised Basinger he would some day flip the script and write a romantic comedy for her based in the beauty – and warmth – of Hawaii.
During that fateful time, Stone started writing what would one day become The Goal. A beautiful novel filled with inspiring moments of love and life-changing experiences.
TO: The Goal intertwines the complexities of life’s hardships with the transformative essence of profound love. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey and any pivotal moments that changed your life?
MS: I would say one of my first was probably running away from home and living between the Zuma beach parking lot and my friends couch at 15 years old. Being on my own at that early age taught me a lot – and mostly the hard way, as with all wayward kids. We must adapt and learn quickly, hone our intuition and ability to read people and situations quickly.
I have always said that being adopted helped hone my intuitive abilities as well which is why so many of us are artists. Art is intuitive. Another moment that changed my life was my home burning down with all my belongings. While I am pretty good about not being attached to things, losing it all in one swoop, in hindsight was devastating. One of my positive pivotal moments was meeting my biological birth parents. The simple fact of not imagining who they were any longer, truly helped break some of the chains that bound me.
TO: What message or insight do you hope readers take away from your book?
MS: For years, I always start out writing by asking God and the universe to come through me to give something beautiful and positive to give back to the world. Most of all, I wanted people to be reminded of love. Yes, it can be scary to allow that vulnerability, but in the end, it’s all we have. We have it inside us, and we can always find it to be free.
TO: Do you believe there are universal truths about love and life that transcend cultural or societal differences?
MS: 100%. Culture and society fuck everything up. Love at its core can never be. It is pure, it is truth. It is not learned. In fact, it is it when it is unlearned and go through trauma that we get so far away from it. Finding our way back to it as we knew it as a child is the key. Show me a newborn child that is not 100% love. Zero hate…you won’t find one.
TO: You are a successful photographer and hairdresser, what inspired you to become an author?
MS: I have always been a writer at heart. I have had boxes of poems chicken scratch. Depressed, angry catharsis spewed on pages with ink. It has always helped me purge. I also wrote three scripts for HBO when I was 25 years old.
TO: Can you tell us what a weekend looks like in the house of Mitch Stone?
MS: Do you want the fantasy or the reality? My girlfriend, who actually helped inspire this book, is an amazing writer herself and an accomplished actress as well. So often we wake up and start the creative process. Weekends are a blessing to us because it gives us the quiet time to just be and
create. We often head to the beach for a surf or a swim and try to allow the freedom the weekend brings seep in. Everyone, including us, is so on the “go” all the time. It is essential in order to reboot and create. Then of course we have sex all over the house 10 times and fly to Paris to go
dancing.
