Monthly Festival : Turn your book into a movie and get it seen by 1000s of people. Or garner FULL FEEDBACK from publishers on your novel and help your next draft. Or get a transcript video of your novel performed by professional actors.
Title: Dreamdale’s Dark Hearts #1. “Arden Wonder and His Strange Change”
Genre: Horror/Comedy/Fantasy – 114 pages
Synopsis: When a frightening nightmare creature escaped its underworld prison, a brave boy, Arden Wonder, must slay the quirky dream monster, Count Comatose. Before the vampire villain has an opportunity to wake up and feed on the dreams and nightmares of young souls. This will allow Count Comatose to unleash a nightmarish apocalypse that will corrupt reality and every cursed Gifted Soul will eventually change into Nether Gifted Souls. And be Count Comatose’s slaves forever at his lair in the Nether Nod. If Arden and his faithful companions can cure all the sleepy souls of Dreamdale!
High Plains Drifter (That’s for real and I never thought about it until you asked that question. I like the spooky coincidence considering my last answer)
What is your favorite song?
(Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)
Thunder Road (Springsteen)
Do you have an all-time favorite novel?
August 1914 by Solzhenitsyn. It’s been a long time since I read it though.
What motivated you to write this story?
Niece and nephew wanted a ghost story with a hint of childish humor.
. If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?
Jesus. Of course, I have it every Sunday so no big deal.
Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Freedom
What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?
An email
Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
They Drove on Streets Paved with Kindness narrates how God operates in strange ways. He never pounds the table, showing who He really is. Instead, He seats the table with a cast of arguing brothers, their irreligious father and Roman Catholic mother, decrepit nuns, and a car ready for the junk heap, named Lucy. Oh yeah, there’s this white-haired man who’s not related to anyone who flits in and out. In the end, well, I’m not going to tell you the end. Simply, though, God blesses individuals whether they deserve it or not. Strange God.
What is your favorite song?
(Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)
Suzanne by Leonard Cohen
Do you have an all-time favorite novel?
Everything written by Ernest Hemingway. His prose was pure.
Farewell to Arms; The Sun Also Rises.
What motivated you to write this story?
Maybe, as a result of hearing or reading this story, it moves others to love others a little bit more, and show their love in positive ways.
If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?
Jesus Christ, of course – but since he was God and you are asking for a person— I would like to have dinner with Muhammad Ali, several evenings after he’d recover from the Thrilla in Manila with Joe Frazier.
Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Grandkids come first. Being a productive human being, second.
Notre Dame football, NY Jets, Mets, and Knicks, a masochistic third.
What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?
I would like to eventually write a screenplay and see it brought to film. This was a first step. To subject it to public criticism and critique which will only refine it and make it better. Maybe a producer will hear it and be interested.
Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
There’s only a puddle of sweat awaiting you as a writer.
Drink plenty of water so you don’t get dehydrated.
And, if you are old, like me, have a toilet nearby.
A German woman married to a Jewish American learns years later that her biological mother whom she is told to meet was forced to copulate with a blond man in the Lebensborn politics during the Nazi era, in order to insure the so-called purity of the aryan race.
What genres would you say this story is in?
mainstream – historical
How would you describe this story in two words?
the discovery of a painful past: the protagonist’s mother was part of a Nazi fertility selection.
What movie have you seen the most in your life?
‘King Solomon’s mines’ – shot not far from where I lived, in the hills of Rwanda-Urundi, at the source of the Nile.
What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)
There are so many: La Cumparsita was the first one, for my parents used to dance to it.
Do you have an all-time favorite novel?
‘In search of lost time’, by Marcel Proust (in it’s original French version)
What motivated you to write this story?
The real story that was recounted to me by a relative.
If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?
Jesus, for I would really want to know what he thought of the atrocious way his people – the Jews – were treated for over 2000 years, in the name of Christianity. I’m sure he would be devastated by the manner in which his followers have distorted his teachings.
Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?
Photography, art: classical and modern, reading, the cinema, all kinds of music
What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?
I had already submitted two novels made into films and was very pleased with their result.
Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?
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.
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.
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FIRST SCENE (first 10pgs) SCREENPLAY CONTEST