Colleen Shannon
About Me
Published romance novelist Colleen Shannon began writing fiction when she was eight years old. At the age of 26, she sold her first novel herself to Putnam Berkley. It was a Waldenbooks general fiction list bestseller and garnered her a Romantic Times nomination for Best New Historical Romance Author. She’s since published another seventeen novels and won numerous awards. She currently has well over a million books in print. She’s been reviewed by Publisher’s Weekly and The New York Daily News. She studied at UCLA’s Advanced Professional Screenwriting program and is currently one of Film Freeways’ top international screenplay winners.
PARTIAL LIST OF COMPLETED SCRIPTS:
Michelangelo and Me
Fantasy Christmas romance based on her own published romance series. Michelangelo’s David awakens in modern NYC, furious at his best boyhood friend for putting his nakedness on display for centuries. He is forced to seek the meaning of his rebirth, or in one week he will turn back to stone. In his quest, the statue becomes in the modern world the man he failed to be in the Renaissance, ironically transforming everyone he meets–including the art historian who wishes him into being and the cynical NYC that has forgotten the power of dreams.
Full Circle
Comic thriller. Cryptologist Alfred Hitchcock is stuck in one of his own diabolically clever plots. Only his dilettante millennial Cary Grant-like nephew can rescue him from foes out to steal the world’s first totally unbreakable computer algorithm.
Foster Justice
Action romance. A tough Texas Ranger arrives in sin city (L.A.) to track down the red-haired floozy he blames for his brother’s death. But he didn’t count on falling in love with her. This script was purchased in novel form by Kensington Books.
Time Will Tell
Time travel action. A pacifist physicist must travel to 1878 to stop a skinhead from assassinating Martin Luther King Jr.’s Buffalo Soldier ancestor—and remaining in the past to kill the infant Joseph Kennedy. .
Majority Rule
Action thriller. An estranged father-daughter team of Secret Service agents are the only ones who can stop a U.S. government takeover so well planned that assassination isn’t necessary. But first they have to put aside their bitterness and work together–or die alone.
Plug Nickel Blues:
WGA Registered
Please note: this entire treatment is deliberately written in over the top Texas parlance. Rita is the town sheriff of San Saba county facing yet another election. But this time, her competition is stiff– :the long lost son of one of the town’s most wealthy, respected citizens comes back home with his lovely British cowgirl girlfriend on his arm. Rita’s gettin’ old and while the whole county is grateful to her for keepin’ the peace all these years it’s about time she was put out to pasture. Between the election and old man Carruthers, the biggest rancher in the county and the sole heir, rumored anyway, of a cache of gold coins buried by his grandpappy somewhere on his ranch, there’s plenty going on to keep lips flappin’ and bulldozers diggin’ all over the Carruthers ranch. Only problem is, the IRS has heard the rumors too. And then, miracle of miracles, another beloved son comes home: Sam, the best quarterback ever for San Saba high school, is back in town. He just retired and as a Dallas CPA he wants to help his daddy’s old friend Carruthers out of trouble. Only problem is, he and Rita were sweethearts in high school and when he left her for the prom queen she went on the rebound and got knocked up by the first guy who bought her a malt and a cheeseburger and then ran off to a big city, leaving her as a single mother whose only job was dispatch at the Sheriff’s office. After many years of working her way up, in the biggest election battle of her life, she doesn’t exactly cotton to Sam coming back from the big city trying to weasel in on the gold with his old friend Carruthers. Thing is, there’s plans going on, several of ’em, all mixed up with the election, the gold and a forgotten spark between two old foxes with snow on the rooftop but plenty of fire left in the gullet.
Click Here to learn more about this extremely rare nickel.
Since the first question a writer is asked is where I get my ideas I decided to include my own little salute to some of the films that turned me into a screenwriter. I wrote my first short story at eight and began a novel at 13 riding on the bus. At fifteen I was reading books like Atlas Shrugged and To Kill a Mockingbird. So stories have been a big part of my life as long as I can remember. I always loved film, too. I was raised by my grandmother and she was the first person to introduce me to many of the films on the first list. I truly believe these films will long outlive me and anyone reading this list because they speak to the human experience in unforgettable ways. The second list I’d call Modern Classics, to me at least as I can watch them over and over.
Not in any particular order
Not in any particular order
1. CASABLANCA 1942
2. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 1936
3. NORTH BY NORTHWEST 1959
4. REAR WINDOW 1954
5. NOTORIOUS 1946
6. PILLOW TALK 1959
7. GIANT 1956
8. CHARADE 1963
9. GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER 1967
10. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON 1939
It’s no accident all these films have strong romances and flawed but likeable characters in challenging situations. But hey, I’m a romance novelist.
Not in any particular order
1. THE SHAPE OF WATER 2017
2. THE GREEN BOOK 2018
3. THE IMITATION GAME
4. PRETTY WOMAN 1990
5. QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER 1990
6. JURASSIC PARK 1993
7. THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS 1996
8. GLADIATOR 2000
9. LA CONFIDENTIAL 1997
10. GIFTED 2017
There are many others but for anyone who loves stories as I do if you haven’t seen some of the lesser known films on this list I recommend them. They all did for me what I attempt at least, to do for my readers: make ’em laugh, make ’em cry and make ’em think.
Film Award Winner
