Offthebookshelf.com
Christina Hamlett
Former actress/theater director Christina Hamlett is the author of 26 books, 144 plays, 5 optioned feature films, and hundreds of articles and interviews that appear in trade publications throughout the world. In addition to her work as an instructor, ghostwriter, contest judge, and professional script consultant, she is also the screenwriting editor for "Writers Journal" as well as a monthly contributor of scintillating lesson plans to "School Video News", an online resource for K-12 video arts educators. For additional information, visit her website at www.authorhamlett.com.
All Books By This Author:
- Everything But The Groom
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The good news is that the only thing standing between wedding planner Kate Jefferson and overnight popularity throughout San Francisco is just one more ceremony. The bad news is that the upcoming nuptials are between her former boyfriend Brian and his spoiled and demanding fiancée, Olivia.
- Genres: Chick Lit, Contemporary Fiction, Humor, Romance
- A Bel Air Lawyer in King Henry's Court
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Once upon a time, there was a king who had six wives. Not all at once, of course. Nor did he even fathom on this particular evening in 1527 that his reign would become famous for the number of queens that would share his bed. At the moment, he’s only focused on trying to offload his current spouse in order to hastily tie the knot with a woman he believes will bear him the first of many sons.
What he never counted on during his supper that evening was the arrival of a fast-talking divorce lawyer from the 23rd century with an agenda of his own.
- Genres: Scripts
- COULD IT BE A MOVIE: How To Get Ideas Out Of Your Head And Up On The Screen
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Is there a movie inside of you that’s been yearning to get out but you don’t know where to begin? Before you stock your shelves with books on how to write a film, this is the roadmap you need to determine if cinema is the best destination for your creative ideas. This detailed text teaches you how to identify whether your plot packs the punch to be a hit movie, how to acquire and adapt pre-existing material, how to find today’s hot markets for the kinds of films you want to write, and much more!
- Genres: Business, Entertainment, Entrepreneurial, General, Motivation, Scripts, Educational
- HARBOR OF THE HEART
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When Morgan, a writer for a Seattle children’s show, advertises for a boarder to help share the rent on her Whidbey Island lighthouse, she has no idea that it will bring with it a part of the past she yearns to forget. Her new tenant is Barry Wells, an entertainment lawyer from New York. Wealthy, articulate, respectful, devastatingly handsome and, from the ring on his left hand, married. While Wells will certainly solve her current financial woes, a new crisis was created the moment their eyes met.
Suddenly, her peaceful life is turned upside down by questions that have no answers--the family he seems to devoted to and yet leaves for the entire summer...his pride and joy--a darling little daughter whose face reminds Morgan of the painful emptiness in her own life. And why should Barry Wells come all the way to Widbey if he's searching for new talent in Seattle? One look at him and it's obvious that he has never stayed anywhere but the very best hotels. He belongs on the cover of GQ, she thinks, not in an Eddie Bauer catalogue. The tension mounts when Morgan discovers by accident that he has a connection to Vinnie Prosio, her ex-husband--an aspiring musician at the time they divorced but now a rock superstar with all the excesses that go with it.- Genres: Chick Lit, Contemporary Fiction, Humor, Romance
- Eire Apparent
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Just when Victoria Cameron's job as a legal assistant is getting dull, her boss assigns her to work for the firm's most prestigious client, Hunter O'Hare. As a condition of her temporary employment arrangement, Victoria is required to live in the wealthy industrialist's home, a magnificent old castle he has transported, stone by stone, from Ireland to the Virginia countryside. When Hunter confides that someone in his household is sending him death threats, Victoria agrees to help him uncover the would-be killer. But as her cool professionalism gives way to something much warmer, she realizes that Hunter is hiding some dangerous secrets of his own.
- Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Suspense
- The Sisters of Thistle
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The first thing that young Michael McKay needed to do once his Virginia tobacco plantation began to flourish was to bring his beloved sister Fiona over from Scotland. The last thing he needed was to not only find out that she had become a nun during his long absence but that she intended to bring the elderly sisters of Thistleburn Abbey across the ocean to join her. There's more than holy smoke, however, that will soon be blowing across Michael's property; romance is in the air in the form of Fiona's dearest friend, Daphne, a beautiful but rebellious Englishwoman who has her own reasons for seeking refuge in turn-of-the-century America.
- Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance, Scripts
- HOW TO WRITE A TV SERIES (A "Buy the Book/Get the Coach" edition)
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Whether it's a wacky sitcom, a police drama, a soap opera, or a reality show, every TV program starts out as an idea in someone's head. Turning that rough concept into a series that viewers will want to watch every week, however, requires catching the interest of someone in the position of casting, directing and producing it. No simple task indeed, especially when you also have to factor in its ability to attract advertisers and sustain the interest and curiosity of the target demographic.
How do you know whether your idea lends itself to the limitations of the small screen? For one thing, it has to be a unique story that will resonate with an audience. Secondly, it has to be a story that you have the rights to negotiate; in other words, your own original material and not someone else’s. Third – and perhaps the most important element in the equation – is that you have to be truly passionate about what you’re trying to pitch for development instead of just thinking about how much money you could make that will allow you to quit your day-job.
Unlike the majority of how-to books on the craft of writing, this one offers a separate, supplemental coaching component in which readers who choose to complete the assignments in each module can receive one-on-one feedback from a film industry professional. For readers who want to skip the homework option, the full-color text provides a bounty of lecture material, recommended reads and screenwriting-related websites and resources.
- Genres: Business, Entertainment, Entrepreneurial, Scripts, Educational
- HOW TO WRITE A PLAY (A "Buy the Book/Get the Coach" edition)
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Since the time of the Ancient Greeks, the live theater experience has satisfied an audience's need for entertainment that is immediate, intimate and accessible to all ages and levels of society. Whether performed in an outdoor courtyard, on a vintage stage, in a school auditorium, or above the din of an urban coffeehouse, a play is an ever-evolving and timeless art form that derives its energy from both sides of the footlights. Unlike a novel or a film which is financed and produced only once, a theater script undergoes a new transformation with each change of cast and each change of venue. Even the passage of time itself impacts how a theatrical story will resonate with successive generations, giving new definition and perspective to old ideas or providing a yardstick of how far we've come from social mores that were once held as truth.
In this book, you'll learn what makes a play successful...and how to write one yourself! Unlike other how-to texts, however, this one offers an interactive component for receiving one-on-one feedback on the various writing assignments included in each module. The “Buy the Book/Get the Coach” concept gives you the option of being an active student or just enjoying the text as a reader. Either way, you’re guaranteed to not only have a great time but also to look at theatrical productions in an entirely different way from this moment forward.
The content you’re about to dive into was originally developed for the online playwriting courses I offer to writers of all ages. Whereas traditional classrooms or Internet chat rooms require you to tune in every week at the same place and time and in the company of other students, my own approach has always been a learning platform where you’re truly in a class by yourself! All of the lecture materials you need to understand the principles and dynamics of storytelling through the medium of live theater are contained in these pages along with creative exercises for applying what you learn.
- Genres: Business, Entertainment, Scripts, Educational
- UNLEASHED
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Since the 16th century, the Russians have had a secret weapon, an elite military brigade which strikes terror in the hearts of its enemies each time the moon is full. As the modern war in the Middle East continues to draw world criticism, American intelligence officer Lucy MacDonald and her aide, Captain David Armstrong, are sent to Moscow to engage Soviet assistance in wresting nuclear weapons from Islamic fundamentalists.
Lucy's forbidden attraction to Dmitri Volkov, charismatic leader of the Tsar's brigade, challenges her modern sensibilities against a backdrop of double-dealing terrorists, chauvinistic superiors, and a media that's literally out for blood. Compounding the unexplained presence of supernatural forces interfering with Allied maneuvers at the Pakistan borders is the legend that the brigade answers only to the man they recognize as their Tsar.
Lucy's endeavors to uncover the truth regarding the 1918 survival - and subsequent birth - of an unacknowledged Romanov heir put her in jeopardy at the hands of the brooding officer with whom she feels an inexplicable bond.
- Genres: Historical Fiction, Horror, Romance, Scripts, Suspense, Military/War
- PUBLISH OR PERISH
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As if juggling two married lovers weren't enough on her plate, a college professor's reputation is jeopardized by a blackmailer who is virtually untouchable.
- Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Crime Fiction, Scripts, Suspense
