NEW » 03.12.08» Going
global with your fiction? Check out this article I
wrote for the March 2008 issue of the Romance Writers Report, Romancing
the Globe - Country Profiles: Germany and Holland.
01.15.08» We
came, we saw, we held the press party. The first four episodes
of the ongoing German TV-series I co-write, Abgedreht
in Stuttgart, premiered on the silver screen last month
at the thirteenth annual Filmschau
Baden-Württemberg, a film festival here in Southern
Germany. We, the authors, conceived the first four episodes as
a 90-minute film for just such an occasion. Check out the artsy
and glamorous
folks who attended our world premiere. The actors look truly
glam, and I, the only person who forgot to wear black, look truly
nerdy (I'm in the fourth and seventh pictures down from the top).
01.15.08» Screenwriting
Techniques for Novelists. A new online class taught by me from
February 4 to February 15, 2008 (6 lessons posted over 2 weeks).
Note: I'll be teaching the class again in a few months. Email me to be put on the class announcement list.
01.15.08» The story meister is in. I'm now doing freelance story development, translations and editing of scripts and books. See my PublishersMarketPlace page for more details and keep your eyes peeled for my designated freelancer website in 2008.
10.18.07» Phew. My first novel is officially agented! My award-winning, young adult novel, The Last Virgin at St. Gilles Charm School, is now represented by Joe Veltre at Artists Literary Group. If you want it, he's got it.
10.18.07» You're warmly invited to Deanna's Cocktail Party, a MySpace site where you can network with professional story merchants. I hope you'll click on over and let me "friend" you.
5.03.07» Satirist and women's fiction author Josie Brown just interviewed me about the euro-chick writing life and excerpted my story "Dead Men Don't Eat Quiche" in her blog. Come on over and say, "Hi."
2.28.07» My teen time-travel novel The Last Virgin at St. Gilles Charm School just won first place in the Romancing the Novel contest, as selected by editor Chris Kesslar at Dorchester Publishers! Yes!
2.13.07» Check out this poster for the cable TV series I co-wrote "Abgedreht in Stuttgart," which translates roughly as "Wild and Crazy in Stuttgart." The show is a comedy drama with a mystery subplot. Aren't the actors cute? The shooting has already begun, and the premiere will be on April 27th, 2007. Strange but true: I wrote my part of the pilot in German, which was then edited by the head writer, Jørn Precht. A first for me! Here's the direct link to the author page, where you'll see my smiling face and lots of long German words. Read more (in German!) about the cast.
2.13.07» Four days = one draft. Early this month my co-author Jonny Renz and I finished
the first draft of our feature-length romantic comedy in just four days. We
worked from a detailed 30-page outline, which helped immensely. We're revising
the script now and will pitch it to European producers and American agents this
spring.
1.22.07» I've just attended the "Terms of Trade 2007" conference in Munich. There I met producers and purveyers of video on demand and paid TV and learned more about film and media rights. Hot tip du jour: Gaming, mobile phone entertainment and video on demand are growth areas for narrative content.
12.05.06» I've accepted part-time work with the Script Department at Interspherial Pictures Entertainment, where I review TV and Film scripts for European producers and make rewrite recommendations.
12.05.06» This is Chick-Lit, which contains my short story "Dead Men Don't Eat Quiche," is on a spring 2007 syllabus at Indiana University. "We will read the bestselling Chick Lit book Bridget Jones's Diary along with its literary predecessor Pride and Prejudice. Other texts include The Nanny Diaries; a volume of new scholarship on the genre; and two new short story collections, This is Chick-Lit and This is Not Chick Lit." Amen to that!
10.03.06» Publishers Weekly recently reviewed This is Chick-Lit. Read an excerpt from the review. Also, a cartoonist has created a fun comic strip about the This is Chick-Lit controversy.
9.05.06» BenBella publishers is doing a fantastic job promoting the This Is Chick-Lit anthology. Check out the gorgeous, new chick-litty site they created for it, called appropriately enough, thisischicklit.com.
8.01.06» Read the favorable review by Priya Jain of This is Chick-Lit, from the August/September issue of BUST magazine. It was a featured review comparing the anthology to its counterpart This is Not Chick Lit (Random House, August 2006). Male reviewers also like the book, as you'll see.
7.04.06» The first act of my screenplay “Lovers Roulette” was selected for a live professional reading at the Interspherial screenwriting school in Stuttgart.
