JD Isaacs has come full circle with his artistic endeavors. Starting his creative career in theater, he spent several years as a professional actor and set designer in Georgia, Alabama and California working with repertory troupes. He was a founding member of the esteemed Twickenham Repertory Company in Huntsville, Alabama, still thriving after 20 years. During his years as an actor/designer, he began to develop his artistic skills in fine art and graphic design; enough so to earn a living during the 'lean' times. In 1983, he was "brave enough" to give Hollywood a try. But he soon found that what it takes to make it there, was not something he was willing to give up; namely, self esteem. He did however do one film and a guest spot on a sitcom before he went back to Atlanta to where "people are a little more down to earth." That is where he continued to develop his painting skills gaining him an extensive following on the gallery circuit there. His paintings are widely collected by individual collectors and corporations alike and his murals widely admired as well. But one gray afternoon in his yard, Isaacs started a whole new career.

"I was teaching myself to paint in oils, having been primarily a watercolorist for years. My subject matter was not important, so I plucked a modest orange marigold from my garden and used it as a model. Not terribly exciting, so I began to add raindrops to the background for fun and pretty soon I had painted a fantasy figure riding one of the raindrops. I pondered where this little guy may have come from, and a story evolved about him which blossomed into a bigger story until there was full-fledged musical swimming around in my head. So I wrote it down and shyly allowed several supportive writer friends to take a look. Their response was so favorable, that I continued to work on it until it was no longer just a vision in my head, but a story that I really wanted to share with everyone. I called it RAINRIDER."

During this process, JD moved to Bellingham in Washington State to accept a mural commission in Anacortes. Soon after, he was given a local NPR grant to produce RAINRIDER for radio. You may recall his musical children's adventure RAINRIDER as produced by himself and KZAZ's former music director Ted Askew, airing on Christmas Day and again on New Years Day. "It's as if this story had a life of its own. Everytime I turned around, someone was standing there saying, 'you know I could help you move this along.' If I had not moved here from Atlanta, I wonder if it would have happened this way. Bellingham to me, was a small town full of big possibilities."

Since that broadcast, JD was commissioned to write another children's musical; this time about the serious topic of pollution in our natural waterways. "Seemingly not a fun subject," he admits, "but its amazing what can come out of a simple idea. The characters of Annie Oakleaf (the heroine), and Bubble O'Bill (a toxic bubble), came very quickly and from there the story just took off!" Cassettes and CD's of this story, MOONBEAM STREAM; The Legend of Annie Oakleaf and Bubble O'Bill are now being sold in bookstores.

Two other full scale musicals have been written, EYE OF THE STORM PIRATES, and SILVERY BLUE (the second and third in the RAINRIDER trilogy) and many short stories. The end of 1995 in fact, KZAZ ran a 10 part series of JD's stories also called RAINRIDER; Magical Tales of the Wind in the Trees, of the Clouds and the Seas! The first five segments were RAINRIDER in serialized format for those who missed it when it aired before. After that, 5 short stories aired.

"So, as it turns out, I am able to use all of my abilities as an artist," (he illustrates the stories himself) "as a writer" (he writes the stories and the lyrics to the songs) "and as an actor", ( he performs all the characters and narrates them as well). He has acquired an agent to promote his stories to the Hollywood animated film studios and has already met with some serious interest there. "It's amazing going back to Hollywood as a writer instead of as an actor. You are treated with a lot more respect when you have something they want!" It remains to be seen however, when and if the films will be made. "It's a long process and very involved. I'm just glad someone else is doing it for me. This way I can concentrate on writing the stories and performing them on the new radio show. I truly love to do that! Its like being a kid all over again."