| Interview with Christina Hamlett |
First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com! My
name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out
of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and
fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
I’ve known it for as long as I can remember! As an only child in a wealthy family, I entertained myself a lot
by writing plays for my Barbie dolls, stuffed animals and puppets. Since I also supplied all of their “voices”,
it turns out that I was getting pretty good training for acting, too.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
Interestingly, my writing and theater careers have always been joined at the hip. As a result of my very
first job as a newspaper film and play critic in 1971, I was sent to review a new melodrama that was
opening at a neighborhood theater. A few months later, I wrote to the director and producer and asked if I
could audition. (Mind you, I had never acted before, not even in high school.) Although they politely
turned me down, they did invite me to come and watch a rehearsal for their next production. As Fate
would have it, the heroine was painting her house that day and forgot there was a rehearsal. Since they
needed someone to stand in and read her lines, I was recruited on the spot. I must have done a good job
because they made me the show’s understudy, wrote me into a few dance numbers, and I ended up being
in theater for the next 16 years, half of which involved the development and management of my own
touring theater company, The Hamlett Players. In addition to writing magazine/newspaper articles and
short stories, I suddenly found myself writing all of the one-act plays that my actors were performing…and
subsequently sending them out to be published. Today the total number of sales of plays and musicals is
at 118. I also have 25 books, 4 optioned screenplays and columns that appear in publications throughout
the world. The secret to so many published works? Perseverance!!!
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming releases.
Screenwriting for Teens: The 100 Principles of Scriptwriting Every Budding Writer Must Know is a working
text that can be used in classrooms as well as by individual students who want to learn how to write for the
movies. Targeted to the interests and vocabularies of junior high and high school age students, each
chapter defines a concept, illustrates it with study examples of current and/or classic films, and challenges
the reader with three writing, analytical or discussion exercises which will reinforce his or her
understanding of the principles contained in that section. This cumulative approach to building the
learners’ knowledge of screenplay structure and dynamics will enable them by book’s end to develop and
write their first short films as well as apply the content to the development of longer works for classroom,
competition or career. In addition to the book’s obvious use in a film-oriented curriculum, the material has
application to coursework in English, Media, Theater, Journalism and Psychology.
Movie Girl is the launch book for a new fiction series targeted to teen and tween girls. In a nutshell, my
young heroine’s goal at this stage of her life is pretty much the same as any 15-year old girl of any
generation: specifically, to be one of the popular people and get the cutest boy in school to pay attention
to you. Although I often project a lot of my own personality onto my fictional heroines, the cathartic joy of
this particular series is that I can relive the past and have it come out the way I want it to!
Here’s the inside scoop:
For as long as she can remember, Cambridge high school sophomore Laurie Preston has practiced
writing Arthur’s last name after her own. Mrs. Laurie Weisberg. Of course by the time her storybook
wedding actually comes—and at 15 it seems as if that happy day will take forever to arrive—she might
even drop her nickname in favor of the more elegant-sounding “Lauren.” Neither her best pal Kathy’s
obnoxious brother Wayne can dissuade her from her blissful daydreaming nor Kathy herself who has
aspirations of becoming a famous actress and letting Laurie pen all of her scripts for her. Already
displaying the early talents of becoming a professional author, Laurie is astonished when not only her
school is awarded a grant to produce a feature-length film but that she has been selected by the teachers
to write it. Can Life imitate Art? Or is the word just Arthur? Laurie sees an opportunity in the making to
spin a tale of high school romance, cast her hunky hero opposite her in the lead, and put the words in his
mouth that she’s been pining to hear. In the meantime, she has to deal with pressure from Kathy to make
her a star and the escapades of a homeroom class that give new meaning to the phrase “Goin’ Hollywood.
Movie Girl will be released in June by Hard Shell Word Factory with new books to follow every six months.
First Date, which picks up two weeks after Movie Girl leaves off, is already in the works.
Awesome Plays for Teens and Tweens is a product of Sterling Partners under the director of publishers
Elizabeth Preston and her husband Peter Dimond. Liz and I actually have a very long association that
goes back to the 1980 sale of my very first play, The Knight of the Honest Heart, to our mutual mentor,
the late Sylvia Burack who started Plays eons ago. (Interestingly, The Knight of the Honest Heart and its
sequel – which was written exactly 20 years later – are both included in this book.) My passion for writing
plays for young people – and especially smart young brunettes – stems from the frustration of auditioning
in third grade for a play in which there was 1 beautiful princess and 12 earnest male suitors. The teacher
announced that the role of the princess would automatically go to Mary Alice, a somewhat vacant, blue-
eyed blonde who was deemed the “prettiest girl in the class”. “Rats!” I thought, for not only did Mary Alice
have roughly the IQ of a stuffed animal but she also couldn’t get through a complete sentence without
botching it. “If I ever grow up to write plays,” I silently vowed that day, “I’m growing to write parts for girls
who are smart and brunette and who even wear glasses.” Happily, it’s a promise I’ve kept to this day.
If you could only tell your readers one thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what
would it be?
All three of these books will change your life (and make you laugh a lot!)
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
Day-to-day Life. It’s never dull.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My biggest fan and best critic is my husband, Mark, who is an excellent writer as well. Some of the most
fun I have is brainstorming projects at the dining room table with him and getting his feedback on the
latest chapters, articles or scenes. (In the case of scripts, we split up all the roles and read them out loud
with different voices.) Writing is such a solitary craft that there's no greater treasure than having a partner
whose intellect, insight and wit I respect. In addition, he's the first to pour the champagne with each new
success and the first to hand me a Kleenex whenever I start whining that I'm not becoming famous fast
enough.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
A bowl of pasta with lots of Parmesan and garlic.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Hit the snooze bar 3 times! But seriously, I begin and end every day telling my husband I love him. What
can be better than that?
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
How many boxes of loose photographs have yet to find their way into photo albums.
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If
you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Emerald green. It reminds me of Scotland.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
Snoopy. Sally.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
I’ve always thought it would be intriguing to go to Ancient Egypt and see for myself how they built those
pyramids!
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
It’s mostly a mix of Broadway show tunes and classical music. I also enjoy Rod Stewart and Jim Brickman.
If I’m working on a period piece (i.e., the turn of the century), I’ll put on music which evokes the spirit of
that era.
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie
you saw at the theater?
No current favorites. Past faves, however, included Mad About You, Frasier, Murphy Brown, and Briscoe
County. I enjoyed the early years of The West Wing but felt that Bartlett et al. stayed in office way too
long. As for movies, I’ve always enjoyed re-watching Galaxy Quest, Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights,
True Lies, Quigley Down Under, Die Hard, Back to the Future (1 & 3), Star Trek (the one with the whales),
While You Were Sleeping, Indiana Jones (1 & 3), and Somewhere in Time. As for movie theaters, we
actually prefer to wait until a film comes out on DVD and watch it at home. If memory serves, though, the
last one we saw at a theater was Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
I recommend that everyone print out the following rules and tape them up in plain sight:
1. Allow rejection to teach you what you need to know in order to be better at your craft. Success is often
a matter of simply outlasting everyone else who gave up along the way.
2. Talk about your work to anyone who will listen. You never know who can provide your next piece of the
puzzle in getting published.
3. Always hold the door open for your competitors (and I don't mean elevator shafts). This is not only
essential to generating good will but will raise the bar in terms of compelling you to write better, faster, and
more creatively to keep up with them.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
My Muse has yet to divulge that to me but I guarantee there’ll be plenty. ;-)
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
name is Jen, and I’ll be your server toda…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out
of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and
fans.
Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you
wanted to be a writer?
I’ve known it for as long as I can remember! As an only child in a wealthy family, I entertained myself a lot
by writing plays for my Barbie dolls, stuffed animals and puppets. Since I also supplied all of their “voices”,
it turns out that I was getting pretty good training for acting, too.
Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing?
Interestingly, my writing and theater careers have always been joined at the hip. As a result of my very
first job as a newspaper film and play critic in 1971, I was sent to review a new melodrama that was
opening at a neighborhood theater. A few months later, I wrote to the director and producer and asked if I
could audition. (Mind you, I had never acted before, not even in high school.) Although they politely
turned me down, they did invite me to come and watch a rehearsal for their next production. As Fate
would have it, the heroine was painting her house that day and forgot there was a rehearsal. Since they
needed someone to stand in and read her lines, I was recruited on the spot. I must have done a good job
because they made me the show’s understudy, wrote me into a few dance numbers, and I ended up being
in theater for the next 16 years, half of which involved the development and management of my own
touring theater company, The Hamlett Players. In addition to writing magazine/newspaper articles and
short stories, I suddenly found myself writing all of the one-act plays that my actors were performing…and
subsequently sending them out to be published. Today the total number of sales of plays and musicals is
at 118. I also have 25 books, 4 optioned screenplays and columns that appear in publications throughout
the world. The secret to so many published works? Perseverance!!!
Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming releases.
Screenwriting for Teens: The 100 Principles of Scriptwriting Every Budding Writer Must Know is a working
text that can be used in classrooms as well as by individual students who want to learn how to write for the
movies. Targeted to the interests and vocabularies of junior high and high school age students, each
chapter defines a concept, illustrates it with study examples of current and/or classic films, and challenges
the reader with three writing, analytical or discussion exercises which will reinforce his or her
understanding of the principles contained in that section. This cumulative approach to building the
learners’ knowledge of screenplay structure and dynamics will enable them by book’s end to develop and
write their first short films as well as apply the content to the development of longer works for classroom,
competition or career. In addition to the book’s obvious use in a film-oriented curriculum, the material has
application to coursework in English, Media, Theater, Journalism and Psychology.
Movie Girl is the launch book for a new fiction series targeted to teen and tween girls. In a nutshell, my
young heroine’s goal at this stage of her life is pretty much the same as any 15-year old girl of any
generation: specifically, to be one of the popular people and get the cutest boy in school to pay attention
to you. Although I often project a lot of my own personality onto my fictional heroines, the cathartic joy of
this particular series is that I can relive the past and have it come out the way I want it to!
Here’s the inside scoop:
For as long as she can remember, Cambridge high school sophomore Laurie Preston has practiced
writing Arthur’s last name after her own. Mrs. Laurie Weisberg. Of course by the time her storybook
wedding actually comes—and at 15 it seems as if that happy day will take forever to arrive—she might
even drop her nickname in favor of the more elegant-sounding “Lauren.” Neither her best pal Kathy’s
obnoxious brother Wayne can dissuade her from her blissful daydreaming nor Kathy herself who has
aspirations of becoming a famous actress and letting Laurie pen all of her scripts for her. Already
displaying the early talents of becoming a professional author, Laurie is astonished when not only her
school is awarded a grant to produce a feature-length film but that she has been selected by the teachers
to write it. Can Life imitate Art? Or is the word just Arthur? Laurie sees an opportunity in the making to
spin a tale of high school romance, cast her hunky hero opposite her in the lead, and put the words in his
mouth that she’s been pining to hear. In the meantime, she has to deal with pressure from Kathy to make
her a star and the escapades of a homeroom class that give new meaning to the phrase “Goin’ Hollywood.
Movie Girl will be released in June by Hard Shell Word Factory with new books to follow every six months.
First Date, which picks up two weeks after Movie Girl leaves off, is already in the works.
Awesome Plays for Teens and Tweens is a product of Sterling Partners under the director of publishers
Elizabeth Preston and her husband Peter Dimond. Liz and I actually have a very long association that
goes back to the 1980 sale of my very first play, The Knight of the Honest Heart, to our mutual mentor,
the late Sylvia Burack who started Plays eons ago. (Interestingly, The Knight of the Honest Heart and its
sequel – which was written exactly 20 years later – are both included in this book.) My passion for writing
plays for young people – and especially smart young brunettes – stems from the frustration of auditioning
in third grade for a play in which there was 1 beautiful princess and 12 earnest male suitors. The teacher
announced that the role of the princess would automatically go to Mary Alice, a somewhat vacant, blue-
eyed blonde who was deemed the “prettiest girl in the class”. “Rats!” I thought, for not only did Mary Alice
have roughly the IQ of a stuffed animal but she also couldn’t get through a complete sentence without
botching it. “If I ever grow up to write plays,” I silently vowed that day, “I’m growing to write parts for girls
who are smart and brunette and who even wear glasses.” Happily, it’s a promise I’ve kept to this day.
If you could only tell your readers one thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what
would it be?
All three of these books will change your life (and make you laugh a lot!)
What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?
Day-to-day Life. It’s never dull.
Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!
My biggest fan and best critic is my husband, Mark, who is an excellent writer as well. Some of the most
fun I have is brainstorming projects at the dining room table with him and getting his feedback on the
latest chapters, articles or scenes. (In the case of scripts, we split up all the roles and read them out loud
with different voices.) Writing is such a solitary craft that there's no greater treasure than having a partner
whose intellect, insight and wit I respect. In addition, he's the first to pour the champagne with each new
success and the first to hand me a Kleenex whenever I start whining that I'm not becoming famous fast
enough.
Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?
A bowl of pasta with lots of Parmesan and garlic.
What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?
Hit the snooze bar 3 times! But seriously, I begin and end every day telling my husband I love him. What
can be better than that?
If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise
me the most?
How many boxes of loose photographs have yet to find their way into photo albums.
Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If
you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?
Emerald green. It reminds me of Scotland.
Who is your favorite cartoon character? Which cartoon character is most like you?
Snoopy. Sally.
If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history,
where and when would it be—and why?
I’ve always thought it would be intriguing to go to Ancient Egypt and see for myself how they built those
pyramids!
So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while
you’re writing?
It’s mostly a mix of Broadway show tunes and classical music. I also enjoy Rod Stewart and Jim Brickman.
If I’m working on a period piece (i.e., the turn of the century), I’ll put on music which evokes the spirit of
that era.
Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie
you saw at the theater?
No current favorites. Past faves, however, included Mad About You, Frasier, Murphy Brown, and Briscoe
County. I enjoyed the early years of The West Wing but felt that Bartlett et al. stayed in office way too
long. As for movies, I’ve always enjoyed re-watching Galaxy Quest, Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights,
True Lies, Quigley Down Under, Die Hard, Back to the Future (1 & 3), Star Trek (the one with the whales),
While You Were Sleeping, Indiana Jones (1 & 3), and Somewhere in Time. As for movie theaters, we
actually prefer to wait until a film comes out on DVD and watch it at home. If memory serves, though, the
last one we saw at a theater was Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.
You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?
I recommend that everyone print out the following rules and tape them up in plain sight:
1. Allow rejection to teach you what you need to know in order to be better at your craft. Success is often
a matter of simply outlasting everyone else who gave up along the way.
2. Talk about your work to anyone who will listen. You never know who can provide your next piece of the
puzzle in getting published.
3. Always hold the door open for your competitors (and I don't mean elevator shafts). This is not only
essential to generating good will but will raise the bar in terms of compelling you to write better, faster, and
more creatively to keep up with them.
One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?
My Muse has yet to divulge that to me but I guarantee there’ll be plenty. ;-)
Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!
| Visit Ms. Hamlett's Website! |