About the Author
In the beginning...
S.C.'s love of creative writing began in 1998 when she enrolled in RMIT’s Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing. She was passionate about words and determined to ‘make it’ as a writer. During her three years as a part-time student, her primary school reader Sea Jellies was published, and she co-founded a student-run publishing collaborative called RANT. The project was a great success and RANT ultimately published two collections of student work, RANThology and RANTevision.
While she was at RMIT, she took an elective unit in screenwriting. She loved it so much, she wanted to explore it further. So, after graduating the Professional Writing and Editing course, she enrolled in RMIT’s Advanced Diploma of Professional Screenwriting.
Screenwriting
In 2002, her experimental short film called The Spider and the Fly... A Fable was produced by a local independent production company. She was fortunate to be involved in some of the day-to-day production aspects from pre-production to post-production (editing with Ken Sallows). The Spider and the Fly… A Fable went on to screen at Australian festivals including the St Kilda Film Festival.
Around this time, S.C. began work on two feature-length screenplays. The first was a comedy called baggage, which went on to become a Top 50 finalist in the Australian version of Project Greenlight. She didn't win the grand prize (which was a production deal to make the film); however, in 2009, she was invited to workshop baggage at Plume & Pellicule in Switzerland with filmmakers from Cuba, the USA, France, Germany, Spain, and the UK. A heart-warming story about a harried young woman in need of a miracle, baggage has been read by several influential actors and filmmakers and optioned several times (four at last count). Unfortunately, the story has never made it to the big screen.
The second project was a biopic about Jean Lee who was the last woman to be hanged in Australia. The unproduced screenplay was performed as a rehearsed reading at The Loft at Chapel off Chapel and at the Kelvin Club, a private members club in the heart of Melbourne's CBD. Jean Lee has been optioned twice, but like baggage the project has never made it into production.
Later in 2009, S.C. was invited to be one of several writers on a micro-budget feature-length horror film called Don’t Fall Asleep. After three drafts the script was declared ready and the film went into production in Los Angeles, California. Don't Fall Asleep was distributed in the USA via DVD and digital download.
Shortly after Don't Fall Asleep's release, S.C. began work on her own micro-budget feature-length project. Working with a writing and producing partner, Killervision (a feature-length psychological thriller) went into production in Melbourne in early 2010. It was distributed on DVD and digital download in the USA and Canada by Maxim Media 2019 and was available at the Family Video chain of DVD rental stores as well as big box retail chain stores including WalMart. It is now available to stream on Ozflix.
In 2011, S.C. began a collaborative partnership with Voyage Media, a film packaging company based in Los Angeles. Voyage optioned two of her feature film scripts, a tentpole action sci-fi and a psychological thriller. Producer Elizabeth Kushman (Scream 4, One Missed Call) was attached to both projects which she ultimately pitched to the Senior Vice President of Production & Development at Constantin Film (Resident Evil series, The Mortal Instruments, Fantastic Four).
She also began assessing manuscripts for adaptation into screen projects (film, TV, web) as well as writing treatments and feature-length book-to-script adaptations. The range of projects that she worked on was broad, from children's animation to erotic gore. Most screen projects were aimed at the low to mid-range market in the USA and all project development opportunities were team-based, which gave her the opportunity to work with experienced producers such as Michelle Sy (Finding Neverland).
Prose Writing
In 2014, S.C. decided to try something different and co-founded a boutique digital publishing business based in Melbourne. The business developed and published several children’s storybook apps that were available on all major platforms.
Regrettably, one of the partners was unexpectedly forced to pull out of the enterprise while it was still in its infancy. Their contribution to the business was pivotal and attempts to find a new partner were unsuccessful. The remaining partners reassessed the business’s viability and ultimately decided to close up shop and move on.
The storybook apps are no longer available, but that doesn't mean these delightful stories can no longer be enjoyed. They are in process of being converted into storybook videos. Bull the Frog is the first of these titles to go live.
When a door closes a window opens—or so the saying goes. In the wake of the business's closure, S.C. returned to university where she studied for a Master of Arts degree. It was here that the concept for This is Not a Lie was developed. It's also where the concept for Stained Glass was developed. Stained Glass is a short visual novel where every decision the reader makes leads to one of four different outcomes.
She also completed a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. In 2018, she started teaching in the Professional Writing and Editing course at Box Hill Institute.
The years 2019 and 2020 were extraordinarily productive. In 2019, the UK based independent publisher Dixi Books published Open Wounds, a collection of S.C.'s short stories, and in 2020, Dixi Books published her contemporary novel This is Not a Lie. Developed as her master's degree research project, This is Not a Lie is an ethnographic/autoethnographic story about a rock band in which the twenty-two-year-old main character is a heroin addict and a closet homosexual.
In the grip of the Covid-19, universities all over Australia slashed funding to arts courses as they were viewed to be 'non-essential'. On the same day S.C. was advised her services would no longer be required at Victoria University, she was advised that her application for PhD candidacy at Federation University was successful, which goes to show there is truth in the maxim that as one door closes, another one opens. Her new novel, called Deafening Silence, about an Australian soldier experiencing PTSD after multiple tours of duty to Afghanistan, will form part of her research studies.
As a creator, S.C.'s interests lie in the areas of philosophy, psychology, religion, spirituality, self-expression, self-discovery, human endeavour, human cruelty, and the human condition. Much of her work can be categorised as ‘trauma fiction’, which is, of course, informed by trauma theory and "the nature of traumatic experience itself, the role and function of testimony, and the relation of trauma and place" (Anne Whitehead). The world is full of broken people. S.C. writes about them. She gives them a voice and a presence, and ultimately a sense of hope.