NAS Presents Cynthia Whitcomb on Sunday, October 19th at 2:30 p.m.

The Play’s The Thing: A Lecture by Cynthia Whitcomb at the Wilsonville Public Library

Cost: $5.00, $3.00 for seniors and students

Cynthia Whitcomb, screenwriter, television writer, teacher and President of Willamette Writers, decided, at 55, to start a new career as a playwright. Which is to say, to follow her heart and go after her original childhood dream of a life writing for the theatre. She will share her own approach, her success (a play at Portland Center Stage’s JAW new play festival in 2007, and a full mainstage production of Holidazed co-authored with Marc Acito, November 18 – December 28, 2008.) and her inspiration. She will share playwriting craft and marketing strategy as well as the magic of the theatre. There is a reason this art form has lasted tens of thousands of years. Oh yes, and comedy. It’s never too late for laughs.

Cynthia Whitcomb has sold over fifty scripts to movie studios and television networks. More than 25 have been produced as Television movies and miniseries. She has been nominated for the Writers Guild, Cable Ace and Emmy Awards. She is the author of The Writers Guide to Writing Your Screenplay and The Writers Guide to Selling Your Screenplay. She has taught screenwriting for many years, including 7 at UCLA Film School. She has been President of Willamette Writers since 1995. More at http://cynthiawhitcomb.com/.

Screenwriter Cynthia Whitcomb Speaks in Wilsonville Sunday, February 24th From 2-4 PM For The Northwest Author Series

Aspiring and armchair screenwriters welcome!

Because the Oscars are on at five p.m. on Sunday, February 24th, we’ve moved our series time at the Wilsonville Public Library up an hour so listeners can get home in time to watch their favorite celebrities walk the red carpet. And who wouldn’t feel inspired to tune in after spending time with Lake Oswego’s very own award-winning screenwriter Cynthia Whitcomb?

A veteran screenwriting teacher, Whitcomb will speak on “Getting the Movie in Your Mind onto the Page.” So if you have a good idea for a movie you’ve been musing on for a while, Cynthia Whitcomb will teach you to take that idea and develop it into a real screenplay. She will give an over-view of how to research, structure, scene card, format and write scenes and dialogue for your screenplay.

So, if you’ve harbored a fantasy—as many of us have—about stepping up on stage to receive your own gold statuette, this talk will inspire you to get started.

Cynthia Whitcomb has sold over 70 screenplays, 29 of which have been produced on prime time national television. She has been nominated for the Emmy, Cable Ace, Writers Guild of America and Edgar Allan Poe Awards. She has written for stars such as Ellen Burstyn, Kevin Spacey, Anjelica Huston, Jason Robards, Brendan Fraser and Martin Sheen. Among her favorite screenplays she’s written are Buffalo Girls, I Know My First Name is Steven and Mark Twain and Me. She has lived in and worked from Oregon since 1993. She is President of Willamette Writers and on the Oregon film board.

Cost is five dollars at the door. Whitcomb’s two screenwriting books, The Writers Guide to Writing Your Screenplay and The Writers Guide to Selling Your Screenplay will be available for purchase and signing by the author afterwards.

The folks at Writer’s Digest Books have been kind enough to provide door prizes for the event, which attracts writers and readers across the genres. Everyone who attends will be entered to win two out of three of the following:

FREE – Subscription to Writer’s Digest Magazine for one year
FREE – Subscription to Writersmarket.com for one year
$25 – Value to purchase Writer’s Digest Books!

The next Northwest Author Series feature award-winning playwright Shelly Lipkin on March 16 at the Wilsonville Library from 3-5 p.m. Cost is five dollars at the door.

New Year, New Authors!

What is the Northwest Author Series?
Are you curious about how writers get their words in print? Each month an author publishing in a different genre comes to Wilsonville to educate and inspire the community with tales of how they write and the journey to publication. The series is hosted by Wilsonville author, Christina Katz and sponsored by the Wilsonville Arts & Culture Council and the Wilsonville Public Library.

Upcoming Authors:

Sunday, January 27: Novelist Heather Sharfeddin of Sherwood speaks on writing the contemporary West

Sunday, February 24: Screenwriter Cynthia Whitcomb of Lake Oswego speaks about the craft of screenwriting

Sunday, March 16: Panel of Portland-area playwrights (TBA) on how they workshop their words

Sunday, May 18: Susan Fletcher, award-winning novelist speaks about going beyond imagination all the way to Iran to research Alphabet of Dreams.

Come, listen to inspiring authors, and win door prizes!
The folks at Writer’s Digest Books have been kind enough to provide door prizes. Everyone who comes will be entered to win two out of three of the following:

FREE – Subscription to Writer’s Digest Magazine for one year
FREE – Subscription to Writersmarket.com for one year
$25 – Value to purchase Writer’s Digest Books!

Your admission ticket to the Northwest Author Series is five dollars and automatically enters you in the drawing. The event takes place in the Oak Room at the Wilsonville Public Library from 3-5 p.m.

For more information contact Christina Katz at christinakatz@earthlink.net.