Seattle International Film Festival

July 1930: Amelia Earhart lands her Lockheed Vega airplane in a small southern town in order to avoid severe weather. She stays at the elegant Hotel Carroll.

The stock market crash of 1929 has left many people in dire financial straits. Two destitute rascals come up with a scheme to cure their financial woes: they’ll hold Miss Earhart for ransom.

Meanwhile at the Hotel Carroll, one of the housekeepers is a huge Amelia Earhart fan. While Miss Earhart is in the ballroom attending a party in her honor, the housekeeper goes to Earhart’s room to try on her flight jacket. When she steps into the hallway to view her reflection in a full length mirror, she’s nabbed by the two kidnappers. They grabbed the wrong girl!

My screenplay, “Amelia Was Here!” is a semi-finalist at the Seattle International Film Festival. I’m thrilled to be attending again. Last year, my screenplay, “Catherine’s Cross” was an awarded script!

“AMELIA WAS HERE!”

Thrilled! My screenplay “Amelia Was Here,” is a finalist at La Femme International Film Festival in Beverly Hills, October 18-22. I’ll be attending and on the look-out for a producer or director for my screenplays! I’m excited about networking with filmmakers! The comedy screenplay is based on Amelia Earhart’s unexpected visit to my hometown of Gaffney, SC in 1930.  That much is true, but the rest is fiction!

Seattle International Film Festival

Catherine’s Cross was chosen as an awarded screenplay at the upcoming Seattle International Film Festival to be held May 18 through June 11, 2017. I am thrilled with this opportunity and I will be attending the festival! Please check out this press release in Variety:  http://variety.com/2017/film/festivals/seattle-film-festival-announces-catalyst-screenplay-prizes-1202422157/

La Femme International Film Festival

My screenplay adaptation of Catherine’s Cross was a finalist at La Femme International Film Festival in Beverly Hills, CA, October 20-23, 2016. I mailed out over 130 invitations to movie producers, directors, and stars! I hope that film industry professionals will be interested in the screenplay.

I didn’t win the competition, but I had a wonderful time in Los Angeles. I even shook Wolfgang Puck’s hand. People in Los Angeles are so nice, and I enjoyed the learning experience!

McIntosh Book Shoppe

Many thanks to Beaufort, S.C’s Wilson McIntosh and his staff, Ellen and Lolita for helping me with three wonderful book signings in the past few weeks. All totaled, we sold over 80 copies of The Cast Net and Catherine’s Cross. I was thrilled to have readers ask me when my next book is coming out! (Of Sun and Rain is finished and is the second book in The Cast Net trilogy.)

I’m excited to be invited back to this wonderful book store! Thank you, Wilson!

 

Up Close and Personal with a Few Favorite Authors

I was recently invited by two wonderful authors, Deb Mangault and Jackie Madden Haugh to post a blog in a virtual tour featuring authors. We all like to get “up close and personal” with our favorite authors, learning more about them and why they do what they do. This blog is a part of a virtual blog tour that is giving us the opportunity to do just that with people we know, and introducing us to people we would like to know.

Deb Mangolt 

deb photo

I met Deb at the South Carolina Book Festival two years ago. Deb and I are both fortunate to have the Where Writer’s Win team of Shari Stauch and Kendra Haskins design our author websites. We were on a panel at the festival that featured some of the authors who work with the Where Writer’s Win team. We had a great time!

Deb co-authored a girlfriend oriented platform book called Drink Wine and Giggle. I have an author signed copy!

drink wine cover

As an Event Planner and Certified Professional Coach, Deb brings her positive attitude and bubbly personality to turn family reunions, corporate events and women’s retreats into memorable and intoxicating experiences that demonstrate the power of true compassion.

Deb’s former career in corporate finance has taken her across North America from Ohio to Tennessee to Toronto and finally to Charleston, South Carolina where she resides with her husband. A devoted hospice volunteer, member of the Charleston Center for Women, and an avid golfer and runner, Deb completed the Kiawah Island Marathon in less than five hours. Check out this link:http://drinkwineandgiggle.com/personal-favorite-authors/#more-6520

Jackie Madden Haugh 

I met Jackie this past spring at the PubSmart Conference in Charleston, SC. The conference designed to educate writers about publishing options was set up by guess who? Yes, the Where Writer’s Win team. Shari Stauch, Kendra Haskins and the rest of the team have deepened my knowledge of author marketing and the publishing industry.

Over a breakfast of shrimp and grits,(simply marvelous!) Jackie and I talked about our writing and the publishing business with my publisher, Terri Leidich, of Boutique of Quality Books. Jackie is now a Boutique of Quality Books author with her soon to be released memoir, My Life in a Tutu!

 

jackie

A true native of California. Born in San Francisco, on December 31, 1952, to the son of Irish, Catholic immigrants, who fled the potato famine in the late 1800′s, and the daughter of silent movie actors, circa 1915 in Hollywood. Sandwiched between three boisterous brothers, life for Jackie in her youth was anything but calm and trying to have a voice amidst the rampant testosterone and alpha-male posturing was an impossible feat for her.

MichelleBookCover3-copy

With the gift of a small six-by-six diary on her tenth birthday, Jackie discovered the joy of journaling. Hiding in her room, pouring her heart and soul out on the blank pages not only gave her solace, but a friend who would listen to her thoughts, dreams and desires without any judgment.For the next forty-five years, she continued writing and in April, 2009, she self-published her first memoir, “My Life in a Tutu.” It started as a simple gift for her children, but instead morphed into something much larger. Word got out about this project in her small suburban town of Los Altos, California and to date she has sold several hundred copies there alone.

Jackie still resides in the loving home where she raised her four adult children. She continues to work in her career as a real estate agent, but devotes her spare time to her writing and her love of teaching dance to children. Currently, she is working on her next project in her series of memoirs, “Tipsy in a Tutu.” It is the hilarious story of friendship between three single woman in a world of married people.

As a part of the tour I am required to answer several questions.

1. What am I working on?

I’m writing the sequel to my first novel,The Cast Net. The book will follow the redemption of a seriously flawed character, Jeff Radcliffe. He learns a heart breaking lesson about love and relationships in this follow-up novel set in several locations across the globe. Cooper Heath and Mills Taylor Heath, the hero and heroine of The Cast Net will also return!

2.  How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I do a great deal of historical research about an area and the people who live there,(or have lived there,) before I write. I like to intertwine my story line with historical facts. Sometimes, I create fictitious accounts in my novels, but still based on actual people or places. For instance, the setting for The Cast Net is a small community, Alston Station, on the Edisto River near Charleston, SC. There really isn’t an Alston Station, but there should be! The town is named after Joseph Alston, a former governor of South Carolina, who was married to Theodosia Burr Alston. (She was the daughter of Aaron Burr. You may recall he shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel.) Theodosia disappeared on a voyage from Georgetown, SC, to New York. Theodosia’s fate is compared to that of a character in The Cast Net, Elise Heath.

3. Why do I write what I do?

I enjoy mystery / suspense stories with a twist. I’m a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock who was the master of suspense movies. As a child, I believe my interests were shaped by several exciting stories, Caroline and her Friends, The Box Car Children, and The Adventures of Jonny Quest. All three of these children’s classics deal with young people who are daring, take risks, and handle situations that are often dangerous. The heroes and heroines bravely take on responsibilities that most people would run from. I’m certain that The Adventures of Jonny Quest influenced me to become an airline pilot and travel many parts of the world.

4. How does my writing process work?

I had the idea for The Cast Net in my head for many years before I actually sat down and wrote the novel. When I finally had time to write the book, I researched the location I was writing about. For The Cast Net, which is set in the Charleston and Edisto areas of South Carolina, I read at least twenty-five history books to make sure I got the details correct. While I was doing the research for The Cast Net, I came up with the idea for Catherine’s Cross which I wrote in less than a year. Knowing the history of an area, gives me ideas for my stories and helps with character creation and development. I like to intertwine actual history with fiction I create.

As part of the blog tour and would like to discuss two authors that I think very highly of and enjoy their work. The first author, Julia Allcut, is a friend of mine and the leader of the writer’s group I participate in. We have a lot of fun and constructively critique each others’ work. Julia is the author of a Christian spy novel entitled, The Good Spy Wife.  Julia’s web address: http://www.christianspynovels.com/

THE GOOD SPY WIFE by Julia Allcut

The Good Spy Wife is a story of aging FBI agent, Gunter Martini, as told by his wife, Bootsie. The saga begins with her suspicions that the next-door neighbor, Alexander, is a Russian agent. The reader is drawn into the drama as the story explodes along with the cigarette boat when Gunter dares to venture out for a boat ride to Bomb Island on the 50,000 acres Lake Murray on the night of an impending hurricane. His drowning is dubious, as no body floats to the surface. The wife trusts in God and believes that he is alive. When he reappears later in the Soviet Union he invites his wife to join him as he works toward an assignment involving the elimination of the American president, as the Soviet country believes the President of the United States and his democratic ideals stand in the way of progress for the Soviet Union. He must die, as the current leadership in America is an affront for growth of the new Russia.

Set during the Cold War in the late 1980s, this novel follows Bootsie and Gunter as they struggle with separation during difficult times in their own marriage. Bootsie grows spiritually through the unexplained meeting of strangers who appear to her as angels, and through drawing on her own strengths when alone. Ultimately, after many twists and turns of the story, the couple realizes that God is the only help for the frailty of their lives, and each makes plans to rebuild his or her life around their new beliefs. However, will this turn out to be the happy conclusion? One can only discover this knowledge through reading the book.

 

Another friend in my writer’s group is Edith Hawkins. Like Jackie and me, she is a Boutique of Quality Books author. Not only is she a talented writer, but she is a wonderful gardener. We explored an orchid growers facility together, and I learned about these exotic plants. Edith’s orchids survive and flourish. Mine didn’t make it.

Edith has written a wonderful children’s book about the adventures of  Kate and JR. Here’s a bit about Edith and her story.

As a retired medical laboratory technologist, Edith Hawkins is pursuing her love of photography, gardening and writing children’s stories. Her first book entitled “Summer Adventures with Kate and JR” was released by BQB Publishing in May 2013. Edith has enjoyed sharing stories from the book with school age children at local elementary schools. She also enjoyed meeting people of all ages as she sold the book along with greeting cards made from her photo collection of flowers, butterflies, beach sunrises, Canadian geese on the lake, and anything nature has to offer during the summer farmers market. Edith is a member of the Chapin Writers Group, the Newberry Master Gardener Association, and Macedonia Lutheran Church where she teaches the four and five year old kindergarten class.

Summer Adventures with Kate & JR

            Do you like to play with friends in your backyard? Go on a vacation with your parents to the beach? Visit and spend time with your grandparents? Kate and JR do! Share in their adventures, as Kate the older sister and JR the younger brother find that learning new things from adults can be fun. That being patient is hard work. But, the end results are worth the wait.

           Summer Adventures with Kate & JR is a collection of stories to be shared by children, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. The stories relate the special bond that forms when a garden is planted, a handmade toy car takes shape, scrapes of material turn into a beautiful quilt, fish are caught, the beach is a great place for a vacation, and just a simple walk in the woods can be exciting.

 

 

 

 

PubSmart Dynamics

I entitled this article PubSmart Dynamics, because I view the PubSmart Conference I just attended in Charleston, South Carolina, a force that emerging authors should embrace. I gained insights into the world of publishing that I didn’t have before. Author, Hugh Howey, has proven that writers’ can use forms of publishing outside the traditional model and achieve great success. There were experts from all realms of the publishing and book marketing industry that spoke during the event. For you writers who couldn’t attend this time, here are a few of the most valuable points I took away from the conference.

Writers: Get to know your local Arts and Humanities Councils to see what grants, events and opportunities are available.

Discovery of writers’ work: 80% is word of mouth, 20% comes from social media, check out booksilove for recommending titles along with goodreads.

Branding: Your brand is a promise. What is the reader going to get from interacting with my book? Your brand is your most important marketing tool. What makes your work compelling? How do readers thing about my book?

Foundation: The voice you use on social media should be the voice you use when you write.

Launching a book: Don’t put too much pressure on yourself during the launch phase. You’re running a marathon, not a sprint. As my publicist, Lynda Bouchard points out: run your own race, don’t compare yourself to other writers.

Adjacent Readers: You want to turn readers into fans. For instance, if your book takes place in the Low Country of South Carolina, search the communities in that area for groups and organizations you can introduce your work to. They don’t have to be book clubs.

Many thanks to the PubSmart team for putting together such a wonderful conference. It’s always great to learn new ideas!

A Neat Experience From My Last Visit To Beaufort!

In my last post, I discussed the wonderful presentation of my novel, Catherine’ Cross, by Beaufort County Sheriff, P.J. Tanner. After the program was over, a lady met me in the hallway with a question. She had read Catherine’s Cross and while in Charleston had visited the Gibbes Museum to see the portrait of Miss Iris Elliot. She also enlisted the help of a museum guide to help her locate the painting. For those of you who have read the novel, the 18 carat gold cross with rubies is owned by Iris’s family at the outbreak of the American Civil War. Her father had purchased it on a grand tour of Europe in the late 1850s and it had belonged to Empress Catherine the Great.

I explained to the lady that Iris’s painting was fictional as well as the cross. I was sorry to disappointment her, but I felt delighted that my fiction seemed so real that she had gone in search of the portrait!

Many thanks to Beaufort County, SC, Sheriff P.J. Tanner!

I was recently honored to have my novel, Catherine’s Cross, chosen as the kick-off book for the Beaufort, SC, Library’s “Books Sandwiched In.” Sheriff Tanner, who assisted me with the authenticity of my hero, Detective Seth Mason, presented the novel to friends of the library. I was thrilled when he referred to Seth as his deputy. I can’ t thank him enough. He did an excellent job of discussing my novel.

Again, I’d like to thank Master Sergeant Robert Arbelo, Chief Deputy Mike Hatfield, and Sheriff Tanner for their assistance, courtesy, and professionalism in bringing accuracy into Catherine’s Cross!