CEDAR FALLS - A University of Northern Iowa professor is about to become the third UNI faculty member to have a novel made into a motion picture.

Jeff Copeland, head of UNI's English department, said a movie production of his book, "Inman's War," is slated to begin as soon as the Hollywood writers' strike is resolved. While he cannot name the studio or other information about the movie until then, he has been retained as a writer and story consultant for the picture.

"Technically, I'm on strike," he said. He even has a picket sign in his front yard and office.

The movie project is the latest turn in a heady roller-coaster ride for Copeland, a self-described Southern boy from the Ozarks whose fortune has become intertwined with story of Inman Perkins, an Iowa-raised African-American soldier who served during World War II. Perkins is the hero of Copeland's narrative nonfiction work.

"It's been the most incredible journey of my life," Copeland said in his office at Baker Hall, surrounded by various works of juvenile and youth fiction literature, his area of academic specialty. "I still have to pinch myself every day. I honestly thought it would sell two copies if my dad would promise to buy the other one. Now, five national award nominations and a movie deal later, I just sit here and I think, 'Wow.' I'm so blessed. I'm so lucky."

Copeland would join former UNI faculty members Nancy Price ("Sleeping With the Enemy," 1991) and Robert James Waller ("The Bridges of Madison County," 1993, and "Puerto Vallarta Squeeze," 2004) in having books converted to film.

Copeland's had 23 language arts textbooks published, designed for students from kindergarten through college. "I do the books kids have to do their homework from for English class," he said. "I have been in schools where I have seen my books, and I open them up to where my picture is, and kids have drawn horns on my head and scars on my cheeks. I am the most hated man! So to write something like this that people actually enjoy reading is such a different thing for me."

The movie deal came from a purely serendipitous circumstance, when a movie executive, listening to an Iowa City radio station, heard Copeland being interviewed about the book over National Public Radio. "The movie company that bought the movie rights, they were here in the Midwest filming a movie. They were doing some location shooting. One of the representatives tied in with that movie company heard the broadcast on a car radio. The person pulled into a Barnes & Noble, bought the book and read it, and that's how it happened. The person just thought, 'This a movie. We've got to do this.'

"The minute the strike is over it goes into full-blown production mode, and I'm happy about that," he said. "For a movie of this type, they're envisioning a year, year and a half" production schedule" after the strike ends. "They did talk in general terms already with me about people they'd like to do the different roles," he said. "I can't mention them, but the people they want are fabulous."

Copeland was inspired to write he novel after buying a suitcase at a flea market in Belleville, Ill. near St. Louis, containing letters Inman Perkins wrote his sweetheart and eventual wife, Olivia.

There's been many World War II movies, usually "about the combat and the war," but the personal nonfiction aspect of this story is significant, Copeland said. It also chronicles incidents of overt and tacit racial discrimination, as Inman Perkins, born in Des Moines and a graduate of the University of Iowa, was blocked from attaining officer status, among other incidents. It was a degree of discrimination Perkins had not encountered growing up in Iowa.

Perkins served in Italy during the war with the U.S. Army Air Corps in the 449th Signal Construction Battalion, an African-American or "colored" unit. The U.S. military was racially segregated until President Truman ended that practice by executive order in 1947.

"What he (Perkins) did to develop the esprit de corps in the 449th is really the story," Copeland said.

Copeland has been on national and international book tours. He was a speaker at a Black History Month observance in St. Louis, along with poet Maya Angelou and comedian/activist Dick Gregory, whom Olivia Perkins taught at Sumner High School in St. Louis, along with music legends Tina Turner and Chuck Berry. Gregory wrote the introduction for Copeland's book.

The book also is featured in the "Authors in the Schools" program, and Copeland has made presentations on the book to students at various schools.

Copeland's travels also took him to a U.S. military cemetery in Nettuno, Italy, where 11,000 U.S. troops are laid to rest - including members of the 449th.

"Many of the men I wrote about did not come home," Copeland said. "As I got closer and closer to where those soldiers were buried, I was overcome with emotion. It was incredible." A strong wind came up for about 30 seconds and subsided. He said it was as though the soldiers were reaching out to him, and "the journey had come full circle."

He is working on a sequel, "Olivia's Story."

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or Pat.Kinney@wcfcourier.com