| |
Selected Wendy Appearances
Conference
Oct 22-25, 2009
|
As a reader/judge, earned my Producer's Pass for the Austin Film Festival. There will be lots of networking, taking producers to dinner, seeing panels and films! (But it was my last year to read; the new coordinator blackballed me for blogging.) |
Retreat & Conference
Aug 28 -
Sep 4, 2009
|
Accepted in the Master's Class in Screenwriting at the Hawaii Writers Retreat in Honolulu. Also attending the Hawaii Writers Conference over the Labor Day weekend. |
Reading
Nov 21,
2008
|
SpaceSquid hosted a "thankful" SF/F Thanksgiving reading at the used bookstore Frugal Media. I was one of several Austin authors who read, and I did my story, "Devouring Day." |
Retreat & Conference
Aug 18-25, 2008 |
Accepted in the class on Screenwriting and the beginners class on the Mystery Novel at the Cape Cod Writers Conference 2008 on Nantucket Sound. Workshopped with Diane Lake, screenwriter of FRIDA, and with mystery writer Chris Knopf. |
Convention
August 15-17,
2008
|
ArmadilloCon30 Science Fiction Convention and Workshop in Austin, Texas, at the DoubleTree Hotel. I'll be on some panels about writing and filmmaking. Sadly, despite many years of working on the writers' workshop, I was royally snubbed by the person who took on running it this year. More about the event at www.armadillocon.org. |
Awards Banquet
April 24-26, 2008
|
The Nebula 2008 Awards Banquet is in Austin in 2008. I'll be there, hanging out at the Omni Hotel bar and loitering downtown to do networking. Nothing from me is nominated for an award -- this year! |
Conference & Film Festival
September 27-30,
2007
|
San Diego Film Festival + American Screenwriters Assn Conference in San Diego. I get to do the conference for free because I was a judge for the screenwriters' contest this year. More about the event at www.sdff.org. |
Convention
November 9-12,
2006
|
The World Fantasy Convention was in Austin, Texas. I was moderator of a panel (just one, but lucky to get that, what with all the truly famous people coming in) on creating memorable supporting characters. Other panelists with me included Dave Duncan, Melanie Rawn and John Moore. I also had lovely houseguests for the week -- Charles deLint and MaryAnn Harris. Read about it at www.fact.org/wfc2006. That's a photo of my panel above. |
Mythic Journeys Conference, Atlanta
June 9-11, 2006
|
Another incredible event where writers, poets, artists, dream tenders, Jungian psychologists, and more convene to honor of Joseph Cambell and the power of myth. The Mythic Journeys event was partly founded by people in Intersticial Arts, which includes Jane Yolen, Terri Windling, Delia Sherman, and Ellen Kushner. This year I arrived Wednesday night for the whole, extended, more private pre-conference. I was blessed by Don Fernando, a Mayan shaman! They'll have these every two or three years. More info and photos on my LiveJournal blog. |
Breaking News! (and some archives)
Read My LiveJournal for Current News.
It's so much easier to make updates there. But I will continue to post the big news here too. Please visit zainybrain.livejournal.com.
Won a writing award at Hawaii Writers Retreat 2009! Okay, it was 3rd place. And it was for the "worst opening lines" contest. But it was fun. Read my discursive and overlong entry.
My first listing on IMDB! The movie I script-doctored, DEEPER & DEEPER, just got listed on www.imdb.com, and I got my public, formal Associate Producer credit. A whole page on IMDB devoted to Wendy Wheeler.
My first podcast. "A Genre Take on Christmas," a poem I set to music and performed in December 2008 with the SlugTribe writers group, is online as a podcast at RevolutionSF.com.
Associate Producer Gig
I took a development job (meaning: getting the script story into shape and assisting with casting) in 2008 on an indie movie with Bright Shining City. The psycholological suspense screenplay, DEEPER & DEEPER, was written by local playwright and indie-award -winning actress, Cyndi Williams, from a story by Mariusz Kotowski. It starred Emmy-award-winning David Lago, and post-production fininshed October 2009. Now it'll get a regional premier and be submitted to film festivals to find distribution. Plus, I will be part of the "Behind the Scenes" documentary.
Pola Negri Biography Project
I took on an editing project in November 2007 for Mariusz Kotowski, producer and director of a documentary on mysterious but uber-famous and talented actress of silent movies, Pola Negri. His company Bright Shining City Productions produced the documentary, and he and co-writer created a bio on the fascinating woman -- who was born in Poland but lived the final years of her life right in Texas. Mariusz gave me editing credit on the title page, too!
San Diego Film Festival 2007 Networking
Because I was a reader/judge for the American Screenwriters Assn screenplay contest, I got to attend the conference and film festival. Networked with some of the classiest people in the screenwriting craft industry, and hoped to get some business going with some of them. And I did indeed get notes (great ones!) back on HEAVEN & NELL from Andy Cohen, producer with Grade A Entertainment.
HELLO OFFICER is Filmed by Big Plume Productions
The short script I dashed off in an hour earlier this year completed filming in the Clarksville area of Austin 2005 Oct 15-16. We ran about 3.5 hours of film for what will be a 10 minute short! Producer/director was Angela Lee of FilmAustin.us. It was quite an experience -- especially since I was the Script Supervisor. It went well, and looks pretty funny. Big props to the folks who acted and crewed, all for pizza, tshirts and deferred payment. Once it's edited we hope to get it accepted to some film festivals. More on the experience and some photos at my blog, here and here.
Best Little PitchFest in Texas - July 2005
My screenplay HEAVEN & NELL was one of the 10 finalists in the "First Fifteen Pages" contest at this event (didn't win, though). I got to pitch to 10 Hollywood producers and agents, and am sending scripts to six of them. Woo-hoo!
The Black Mother - Featured on RevolutionSF.com
I always liked this hard science fiction story -- it sold to the first market I sent it to (Analog), plus it won the Galaxy Fair Short Story Contest years go. It combines necro-zoology, the goddess Kali, and an animal preserve in Nepal. Fall 2003 it got a new life as a "classic reprint" on RevolutionSF.com. Neat picture too! Read it here.
About Me, Wendy Wheeler
I was born with a clown face -- a big wide grin, round blue eyes, naturally yellow & curly hair, a roly-poly body -- that seems to give me amazing Kid-Fu. I received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Texas, with most of a minor in Zoology. Ironically, my vocation and avocation is writing. By day I manage marketing communications projects and edit a collaborative intranet for one of the largest computer services companies in the world. By night I write my own fiction and screenplays, teach classes, design games, and more. Thanks to many years of networking with Austin creatives, I get invited to many gigs and events, like doing freelance story development for local movie production companies. And I've become more political over the years, and have marched for peace, done fund-raising and activist activities for the environment and human rights, etc.
What I have not done: illustrated cookbooks, painted tiles, or designed posters. That is a different Wendy Wheeler who must be in her mid 60's by now. I think she lives on the West Coast (California or Washington), and I don't have an email address for her. |
|
