Val Cole

Prologue Novel Reading of Light of Hope, by S.T. Collins

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Performed by Val Cole

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Get to know the writer:

What is your novel about?

Synopsis: Light of Hope by S. T. Collins introduces the lead character, Vikki Nelson, a 30-something divorcée who has just been hired as a case manager. The central theme of this fictional novel is domestic violence, but it also includes relationship issues, romance, office politics, and takes place at a social service agency: the Light of Hope, in Pittsburgh, PA. Although Vikki’s main focus in life has always been to help others, she can’t help it when she falls for her boss. Their relationship is passionate and forbidden, but it fills a void in Vikki’s heart. Her boss, Robert Cuccio, is so unlike Vikki’s abusive ex-husband. With all of the recent publicity about domestic violence in today’s society, S. T. Collins hopes that this book is not only entertaining, but will help empower those victims of domestic violence to change their lives for the benefit of their families.

What genres would you say this novel is in?

I would describe Light of Hope as a combination of a contemporary fiction in which the primary theme is a romantic suspense with a domestic violence theme.

How would you describe this story in two words?

Passionate Crusader

What movie have you seen the most in your life?

Titanic by James Cameron with Leonardo DeCaprio and Kate Winslet

What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)

A Day in the Life by the Beatles

Do you have an all-time favorite novel?

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

What motivated you to write this story?

a psychic reading that foretold its publishing and the belief that I had led a tempestuous life

If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

Cary Grant

Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

As a former educator for over twenty years, I love to help others achieve success in their lives, especially when faced with great obstacles to overcome. I am planning to go back to school and become a psychologist who operates my own social services agency so that I may encourage the downtrodden to become empowered to change their lives for the better.

What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?

In bringing awareness to the underlying theme of my book: domestic violence, my desire is to demonstrate that anyone can be susceptible to physical or emotional abuse. I believed that a performance of my story would enlighten people to the societal scourge of domestic violence, which is often hidden from the public, in a way that would not only entertain the audience, but strike a chord within people to either advocate for violence victims, or as a victim become empowered to end the cycle of abuse through education and therapy. In addition, I want to remove the stygma of victimization as somehow being the fault of the abused who is relegated to a life sentence of misery.

Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

My advice is to be determined to write about what is important to you, and be willing to work diligently to impress your story into the minds and hearts of those who you want to influence.

*****

Director/Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Editor: John Johnson

Camera Operator: Kierston Drier

Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne

Winning Short Story – A Far Distant Wind by L S Kleinschmidt

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Performed by Val Cole

 Get to know the writer:

What is your short story about?

A Far Distant Wind tells the story of an everyday person living her life who becomes trapped in an international crisis and learns the importance of living everyday.

What genres would you say this short story is in?

Dramatic Memoir –

How would you describe this story in two words?

Tragic realities

What movie have you seen the most in your life?

I have a LONG list, but definitely one is Schindler’s List. Another is Forest Gump, and of course any movie with Sidney Poitier, Fred Astaire or directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?

It’s not actually a song – I love Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. A favorite song is Moon River.

Do you have an all-time favorite novel?

Again, there are many, and my favorite changes regularly, probably too regularly, but Grapes of Wrath is one of the best.

What motivated you to write this story?

A news story and my deep passion for telling stories, understanding history, and New York City

If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

Again, I have a long list, but Pope John Paul and Jacqueline Kennedy would be definite choices. Their courage during terrible times and their dedication to history, country, and human freedom impressed me greatly. As a writer and lover of movies and screenwriting, I would have loved to meet Robert Osborne on TCM.

Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Improving literacy skills ( writing + reading as without both, a free society is lost); human rights and advocacy also can help everyday persons live happier meaningful lives.

What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?

A recent connection I made on LinkedIn told me about the festival. I’ve been writing in multiple genres for years, and I particularly love the power and emotion of oral dramatic performance. So, I submitted the story.

Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

Ideas are everywhere around you, but it is the constant gathering and personal consideration of them that makes you a writer. Being in the right place at the right time is luck, but when that stroke of luck appears, you need the talent and the experience to discover the story only you can tell. Then you have to know how to tell it right. I believe good writing is all about scene, and you learn scene and how scene delivers character, theme, and story by watching tons of movies. I do that all the time.

 

 

Director/Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne

Editor: John Johnson

TV CONTESTSUBMIT your Short Screenplay or TV SPEC Script
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FULL FEEDBACK on all entries. Get your script performed		 SCREENPLAY CONTESTFIRST SCENE (first 10pgs) SCREENPLAY CONTEST
Submit the first stages of your film and get full feedback!

Novel Transcript: The Assignment by Georgi Ivanov Nenchev

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Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the writer:

What is your novel about?

This is about how a simple man, a doctor, not heroic at all, brutally forced by all around him, turns into a real avenger and bringer of justice.

What genres would you say this novel is in?

Action-Nemesis.

How would you describe this story in two words?

Strength and Honor.

What movie have you seen the most in your life?

Kozure Okami – Lone wolf and the Cub. And Hawaii 5-0.

What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)

“Links 2-3-4” of Rammstein.

Do you have an all-time favorite novel?

“Dune” of Frank Herbert.

What motivated you to write this story?

My work in Emergency, meetings with Death and some series of History channel.

If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

Maybe I would like to have a dinner with Buddha and Jesus.

Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Martial arts and my work as anesthetist.

What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?

I would like as many people as possible to read this book and to see it filmed by
good director.

Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

Write! Don`t stop trying anything!

 

Director/Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne

Editor: John Johnson

TV CONTESTSUBMIT your Short Screenplay or TV SPEC Script
Voted #1 TV Contest in North America.		 SCREENPLAY CONTESTSUBMIT your Short Screenplay or FEATURE Script
FULL FEEDBACK on all entries. Get your script performed		 SCREENPLAY CONTESTFIRST SCENE (first 10pgs) SCREENPLAY CONTEST
Submit the first stages of your film and get full feedback!

Novel Reading of Briar Earth (Chapter 59 – Balcony Diplomacy) by Paul Tapp

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Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the writer:

What is your novel about?

Reluctance, tradition and coincidence. They bring together as princess and escort, an opiniative ‘silly girl’ and a ‘handsome captain’, who fails his diplomatic mission to keep her silent on contentious matters at her fox-hunting debut. A puppy hound and a missing fox-cub confound the biggest fox-meet of the year and bring an end to the cruel tradition.

What genres would you say this novel is in?

Historic fantasy/Historic romance.

How would you describe this story in two words?

World’s collide.

What movie have you seen the most in your life?

Casablanca

What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)

Summer Wine

Do you have an all-time favorite novel?

The Woman In White (Wilkie Collins)

What motivated you to write this story?

As a kid I watched my grandpa and his dogs race rabbits to their
burrows. He’d dig them out, apologise as they squealed in fear, wring their necks. It was his living. So too for many over the centuries, is the tradition of fox-hunting. It was a cathartic journey to understand the fear of the fox … and the concomitant respect between the hunted and the hunter when a beagle puppy discovers a fox-cub hiding in a manor stable.

If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

Angelina Jolie. Just sit and sip coffee all night would be great.

Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

International polemics in a complex, selfish world that will destroy everything we love.Family documentaries.Investigative journalism.

What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?

Nice to hear someone read something I have written. To see if they ‘get’ the nuance in a chapter without the perspective of the full novel.

Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

Don’t pitch to an audience. Write to appease something within.
Re-write until all paragraphs say ‘yes’. Writing is a private journey to somewhere. Collect fellow travellers along the way.

Director/Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne

Editor: John Johnson

TV CONTESTSUBMIT your Short Screenplay or TV SPEC Script
Voted #1 TV Contest in North America.		 SCREENPLAY CONTESTSUBMIT your Short Screenplay or FEATURE Script
FULL FEEDBACK on all entries. Get your script performed		 SCREENPLAY CONTESTFIRST SCENE (first 10pgs) SCREENPLAY CONTEST
Submit the first stages of your film and get full feedback!

Fortunate Son – Chapter 1 Novel Reading by Daniel T Pawlowski

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Performed by Val Cole.

Get to know the writer:

What is your novel about?

Fortunate Son is the story of a future president lost in time. It is 1969. The Vietnam war is raging and a young G.W Bush decides the best place to be is in the National Guard.

Later, some would wonder as to his where-a-bouts during this period. This book answers the question . He was lost in time. A little “R and “R” , a party at Yale, a shortcut through the Physics lab and George gets sent back in time to 1787.

What is a future president to do? Seek help from the only expert in electricity at the time, Benjamin Franklin. The journey to visit Franklin is fraught with danger for anyone let alone the future president from the future. With Ben Franklins help George

attempts to return to his own time before he becomes AWOL from the National Guard, without derailing the writing of the U.S. Constitution and hopefully without getting George killed.

Full Synopsis: Synopsis: “Fortunate Son”

It was 1969. The summer of love had shot its wad and the Vietnam War was in full swing. It was not a good time to be in the military but George W Bush had put himself in a pretty good position to avoid any of that messy war stuff. With a little help from a powerful friend in politics, his Dad, he wangled a position in the National Guard.

Though the guard was treating him nicely, he still needed a little “R and R”, which is precisely why he headed to the campus of Yale University to party with his frat brothers from Delta Kappa Epsilon. As a brother and former fraternity president, he knew they would welcome him with open arms and more importantly open containers.

The party was a blast. Too bad he tried to take a shortcut through the Physics lab. That darned science complicates everything. An experiment in electromagnetism, a case of room zooms and a few hours later he finds himself lost in the year 1787. What is a future president to do? Seek help from the only expert in electricity at the time, Benjamin Franklin.

The journey to meet Franklin is fraught with danger. George has to rely on cunning and good luck, mostly good luck, to survive his encounters with highwaymen, local militia and a lesbian pirate. Fortunately for George he gets help from some folks he meets along the way and the physics students responsible for kicking off his little adventure. Discovering that their experiment had misplaced someone in time has the students concerned. When they find out whom the lost soul is they get serious and start pulling all-nighters to save George from time and visa versa. After many cheeseburgers, several cases of Yoo-Hoo and some choice pot, they manage to accidentally recruit help from 1787 when an unassuming farmer from the past is brought to the Yale campus of 1969.

George’s luck holds out and he manages to make it to Philadelphia to meet up with Ben Franklin. But it takes more than luck to convince Franklin that his story is not the fantastic imaginings of a mad man. It takes all of George’s charm plus the magic twinkle in his eye to convince Franklin that his predicament is real and his help is required. It doesn’t hurt that the constitutional convention of 1787 is just around the corner and the more Franklin leans about George, the more he is convinced that getting George the hell out of town would be a good idea.

Franklin agrees to help George get back to 1969 America. Unfortunately, George has created enemies along the way and they become intent on ending George’s time anywhere. The chase back to 1969 is on with George’s future and that of the country in the balance. When all seems lost and George’s timeline appears to be at an end, the Physics students manage to stay straight enough to solve their technical problems and bring George back to 1969.

Safely back from the past he escapes military justice and a charge of AWOL through cunning and, um, who am I kidding he concocts a story that he was working a political campaign for one of his dads buddies and surprisingly the Guard buys it.
The experience leaves George Bush a changed man. His black and white view of the world has changed into a nice shade of grey, his heart has grown softer and he ponders what he will be when he grows up.

What genres would you say this novel is in?

Fiction/Satire/Fantasy

How would you describe this story in two words?

Temporal Escapade.

What movie have you seen the most in your life?

Tough to answer accurately…….Blazing Saddles ?

How long have you been working on this story?

Eleven years.

Do you have an all-time favorite novel?

Candide by Voltair.

What motivated you to write this story?

The need to laugh at the political landscape

If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

Ben Franklin.

Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Tilting at social windmills.

What influenced you to enter your novel to get performed?

The need to bring laughter to a wider audience.

Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

Believe in your journey, look at detours as educational, keep your eye on your destination.

*****

Director/Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Casting: Sean Ballantyne

Editor: John Johnson

Novel Transcript of Mei Meng: The Lost Panda by Andrew Fisk

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Performed by Val Cole

 
What is your novel about?

This novel is about an adventurous young Panda named Mei Meng. She travels with her parents deep into the mountains of China to escape the destruction of her habitat by human beings. When she is swept away by a raging river, she meets all sorts of fantastic animals on the journey home. Some of them want to help her. Some do not. Surprisingly, her best allies are the human children she meets along the way.

What genres would you say this novel is in?

It is definitely a fantasy. It is a children’s book, aimed at the middle-grade audience. It is one hundred twenty two pages without any illustrations. It defies classification as most children’s books are not that long.

How would you describe this story in two words?

Child explorer. If this story was on Disney Family Channel it would be something like “Panda Meets World.” Mei Meng leaves her little corner of the mountain where she lives, and becomes a world explorer. At the end of the book she even has a telescope so she can keep track of her human friends.

What movie have you seen the most in your life?

It is a tie between “Forrest Gump” and “American Graffiti.” The Forrest Gump character exemplifies the triumph of the simple man, the pure at heart.

American Graffiti has a great story line and a cast of a dozen or more actors who went on to have outstanding careers.

An example of why I like this movie: when Harrison Ford (aka Bob Falfa) drives into town in his jalopy to challenge Paul Le Mat to a race, his license plate is THX 1138. Why is that important? This is the title of the first George Lucas feature film, a science fiction classic. I probably saw “American Graffiti” ten times before I picked up on this.

How long have you been working on this story?

It took me a few months to write. I did a lot of research on interesting Mandarin names for the characters. For example, Mei Meng’s good friend is a funny snow leopard named Chun Bao, which means Silly Leopard. A scary Siberian tiger is named Di Zheng, which means earthquake. He is so huge that every step he takes shakes the earth.

Do you have an all-time favorite novel?

I’ll nominate two books. One is “The Magic Barrel” by Bernard Malamud (although it is a collection of short stories that won the National Book Award in the nineteen fifties) and “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway.

What motivated you to write this story?

I felt like writing something lyrical, fantasy-world that would go deep into mythology and have a totally sympathetic main character. It was also meant as a “welcome to the world” present for my daughter. This is not “Kung Fu Panda” by any means. It moves at a slower pace and is more emotional and mystical than slapstick. It also emphasizes the importance of the family, both panda and human.

If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

Leonardo Da Vinci. I would ask him, “How did you accomplish all the things you did in so many different areas?” Unlike Da Vinci, I write my ideas down in spiral notebooks, instead of an ornate leather bound Codex (which Bill Gates paid millions of dollars for). Maybe that’s the secret.

Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Being outdoors. Hiking in the hills, kayaking, white water rafting, paddle boarding. I am a fan of American college football and find the games more exciting than the usual NFL product.

What influenced you to enter your novel to get performed?

I wanted to hear different voices speak the lines of dialogue and the narration. I also hope to attract some interest for the book. At the very least I would like to find an illustrator. I would like to have the illustrations done in the style of traditional Chinese paintings. All the different animals and natural environments would allow an artist to create many interesting canvasses. If I were to engage in a little “exponential thinking” I would like to:

Have the book translated and published in China.
Have the book made into a movie for the Chinese market.

Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

Inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime. Sometimes your subconscious pulls together elements from events in your own life and combines them with elements from literature and mythology. There is a flash of lightning in your head and suddenly you know what your project is about. This has been my experience.

*****

Director/Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne

Editor: John Johnson

SIMULATION (Ch. ILIAD) – Novel Transcript by Ami Blackwelder

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IMPerformed by Val Cole

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Get to know the writer:

What is your novel about?

It is about a future where a quantum computer controls the cities. One girl, Masha, decides to resist the computer’s control.

What genres would you say this novel is in?

YA SyFy Dystopian

How would you describe this story in two words?

Thought-Provoking

What movie have you seen the most in your life?

Gosh, Pride and Prejudice

How long have you been working on this story?

For a few months

Do you have an all-time favorite novel?

I love a few. Divergent, Hunger Games, Star Wars

What motivated you to write this story?

Our future

If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

Einstein

Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Science, Nature, Animals, Reading, Teaching, Traveling

What influenced you to enter your novel to get performed?

I would love a professional reading of the first pages to get readers interested

Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

Do what you love.

*****

Director/Producer: Matthew Toffolo http://www.matthewtoffolo.com

Casting Director: Sean Ballantyne

Editor: John Johnson