SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER -- “The Broken Places” is the latest work from a successful author who has also written biographies on notable directors like Steven Spielberg and Frank Capra, investigated the killings of John F. Kennedy Jr. and policeman J.D. Tippit and cowritten the screenplay for the cult classic “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School.”
“I modeled the Riff Randell character in that punk rock musical on Kathy Wolf,” McBride said.
Professor Steven Kovacs, who works with McBride at SFSU, said they first met in 1978 during production of that film, for which Kovacs was head of production.
“He is an absolute dynamo, an incredible researcher and he writes all the time,” Kovacs said. “In some ways, he is an unusual university professor because he insists on proper writing form and style.”
McBride considers himself a professional journalist since age 12, when he sold his first article to a national Catholic publication. In high school, McBride wrote a book about baseball slang.