Publisher Savas Beatie, LLC Name Theodore Savas | Role Author | |
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Education North Iowa Area Community College Books New American Revolutio, Brady's Civil War Journal, A Guide to the Battles of the Am | ||
Theodore P. Savas is an attorney, former adjunct college instructor, award-winning author, publishing consultant and agent, and majority partner and managing director of Savas Beatie LLC, a Nevada limited liability company. He specializes in military history in general, and the American Civil War, American Revolutionary War, and Germany WWII U-boats in particular.
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Background
Savas was born and raised on the Northern Plains in Iowa. He graduated from North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) in 1979, A.A. degree, and from the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in 1981, B.A. History. He received his teaching credentials. After working on his Master's in American History, he entered The University of Iowa College of Law in 1983 and graduated in 1986 (with Distinction).
Career
Savas practiced law in Silicon Valley for twelve years before turning his focus full-time to his true love of publishing and writing. In 1990, he and David A. Woodbury had co-founded the Civil War publishing house of Savas Woodbury Publishers, which became Savas Publishing in 1995. Woodbury and Savas founded the well-received quarterly journal Civil War Regiments and Savas later added Journal of the Indian Wars. In 2001, Savas Publishing was sold into a merger deal with Combined Publishing of Conshohocken, PA, and Perseus Books Group of Boston and NY.
From 1992 until 2009, as an adjunct lecturer Savas taught legal, historical, political, and business-related college classes in the Bay Area and Sacramento region. He also speaks around the country concerning the Civil War and publishing/writing subjects. Savas and the late New York-based attorney Russell H. Beatie founded the military publishing house Savas Beatie LLC in 2004, with Savas serving as its managing director in El Dorado Hills, CA. The company's original tag line was "Independent, scholarly, and a bit old fashioned," although the company has also used "The publisher you trust."
In addition to founding (with David Woodbury) The South Bay Civil War Roundtable in 1989, Savas with friend Paul Sacra of Richmond, Virginia, accurately pinpointed and mapped the Civil War battlefield of Payne's Farm (part of the late Fall 1863 Mine Run Campaign), in Orange County, Virginia. Savas turned the maps and information over to a Fredericksburg-based preservation organization. This, in turn, prompted increased interest in both the battle and the battlefield, and eventually led to the land being preserved and interpreted. Savas was part of NY Times bestselling author Clive Cussler's expedition in 1994-1995 that found the Confederate submarine CSS Hunley off Charleston, South Carolina.
Savas and Mark Newell of North Augusta, South Carolina, developed the concept and screenplay "Faces," which they co-wrote with a Hollywood producer. Savas and Newell also received permission from author Barbee Carleton to turn her cult-favorite young adult novel Mystery of the Witches' Bridge into a screenplay, which they recently completed. Both screenplays are being read in Hollywood and elsewhere.
In addition to writing numerous articles on a variety of historical topics and penning a regular column for a local newspaper, Savas has written, edited, or co-authored a dozen books (published in seven languages), and has ghostwritten nearly two-dozen more. He is currently working on his first novel, a historical adventure thriller concerning the Iliad.
Savas is a principal and managing partner in Positivity Pictures LLC, a new movie production company with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Kieth W. Merrill and award-winning author and former CEO of public and private companies, Gary W. Moore to develop screenplays and acquire intellectual property.