We're writers of all forms and genres here. What's everyone working on at the moment (and what's the weather like outside your window? Inspiring?) /djw

Hi all, I've been writing poetry/prose/screenplays my whole life but they were always just for my eyes only (or to a select few friends). Once I finished university and got my BA, I had a minor freak-out about what I was gonna do for the rest of my life. So I finally got enough courage to do what I always wanted to do (as opposed to what I was "supposed" to do). I'm an actor and aspiring screenwriter/filmmaker. I've taken a few classes in screenwriting and sketch comedy writing, and right now I'm working on a script or two, with hopes of producing them in the near future. Besides acting/writing, I'm into photography (especially taking photos of my dog), social media, and web design.

I'm originally from Malaysia, came to Canada to study in 2003 and graduated last May with an Honours Degree in English, minor in Creative Writing. I've been writing novels for a while and still screwing up the courage to send some short stories along to various magazines. My most recent project was co-writing an essay on fashion in steampunk and its intersection with racial issues. I mostly blog (jhameia.blogspot.com or fantasyecho.livejournal.com) and plot world domination. My fiction leans towards fantasy and scifi. In the real world, I have been the NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison for Halifax for the last 5 years. I work as a marketing intern writing press releases for Medusa Medical Technologies, a paramedic software solution company.

Hello. I was an actress, long ago (1974-82), and then went into journalism, factchecking, editing and writing for Saturday Night Magazine in Toronto and the city magazine Toronto Life. I'm pretty hard on my writing, but I'm really proud of 2 long features for SN, one on a violin prodigy and another on the late James St. James, who had AIDS, and who in the mid-80s was the longest-known survivor (at seven years). During my acting years as well as my tenure at magazines, I wrote some plays that were workshopped, and one was produced at the small Rice stage at the Citadel in Edmonton. But I have never been happy with these plays, so I don't publicize them. I found through my magazine writing that I am better at creating compelling narrative through prose. In the late 90s, I finally combined my impulse to act and my impulse to tell a story readers can't put down by writing biographies about performers. In 1997 I published a biography of Mary Pickford called Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood (Macfarlane, Walter & Ross / University Press of Kentucky). I am now a freelancer, and am writing a bioraphy of silent clown and director Buster Keaton. I have to balance my writing with two pain conditions -- daily migraine (that's been going on for 25 years) and chronic fatigue syndrome (for 8). This cuts into time, quite drastically. It also affects my lucidity, and my ability to make enough money to fund biography in the first place. (Research costs are steep.) But I manage. I've learned to write whenever I feel well and "clear" enough to do it ... wherever I am, and at whatever hour. (Out comes the pencil or the macbook, and to hell with what other people think!) While I write about Keaton, I am wondering in the back of my mind how to write a screenplay about Mary Pickford. My Pickforrd biography has been optioned (if memory serves) four times, but no one has created a workable screenplay, either as a 2-hour film or a limited tv series. I'm beginning to think that Pickford is best suited to a fictional screenplay, rather than a biopic. For instance, the British actor/composer Ivor Novello, a star in the same period as MP, turns up in Robert Altman's movie Gosford Park. The context is pure fiction, but the viewer does get a real feeling for who Novello was and how he fit into the world. Writing my own Pickford screenplay is an unrealized dream. Dianejwright: I adore L.A.; it's like an archaeological dig for silent film historians. I embarrass my friends with my rapture over palm trees and the scent of the Pacific, and have walked the Santa Monica boardwalk many times. I lived in New York City as a child and acted there in the 70s; I adore it as well, and the sight of the Upper West Side's Ansonia Building makes me burst into tears. I spent many years under Saskatchewan's "living skies," so the prairie is another touchstone. These days I live in Toronto's St. Lawrence Market -- the historic buildings in the area are very soothing and beautiful to me. Personal circumstances make it impossible for me to have cats right now, but I've always had them in the past. I'm a serious cat-fan, with a special weakness for big Maine Coons.

So, I'll start us off. My tiny development company, Milk Boss Industries, is always on the hunt for material to add to the slate (who isn't, right?) So I spend some of my workday reading screenplay submissions and looking for a fit. Then there's the story editing/script doctoring part of the day where I work with other writers and their stories (not always screenplays) to help them get all they want from their work. That's so much fun, I can't even tell you. Lets see. I work on my own projects for a couple of hours and maintain my site, THE STORY SPOT (usually I'm inspired by whatever's happening on the script doc front for the day and share that) and chat with readers on Twitter and Facebook. There isn't much time left to promote my novel, Birthday Girl but that's the choice I made. There's only so much time in a day. And, out of sheer adoration of a great read, I've partnered with Kathryn Pope to start Seedpod Publishing as a way to nurture new literary fiction and flash fiction and get it into readers' hands...digitally. We haven't officially opened the virtual doors yet but we're building our list and getting close! It's all good fun and I wish the same for all of us. Outside of all that (whew!), I live in Santa Monica, CA and Victoria, BC with the brilliant Jeff Renfroe and our two highly amusing cats. I read, gobble up 60's and 70's film (the 40's were pretty good too) as well as silly blockbusters, listen to Ella and Bille when I write and cook, and generally just love every day that I get to write. Sappy, I know, but true. /djw Here are my links: http://the-story-spot.com http://twitter.com/thestoryspot http://birthdaygirlnovel.com What about you? Toot your own horns, ladies! Lets hear it! /djw