Diana Stout

Sharpened Pencils Productions
Author, Playwright and Screenwriter

Marshall, Michigan

Member Since:
April 2015

Last online:
> 2 weeks ago

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About Diana

Diana Stout, MFA, PhD, has taught others how to write and still continues to do so. She writes full time, giving life to those voices that demand she tell their stories. She's been published traditionally and is now an indie publisher through her company, Sharpened Pencils Productions. ()

She's published 9 books of her own and served as author, editor, and publisher on a 10th book, as a fund-raising event for a writer's group.

She's currently working on her how-to series of books that her students, friends, teachers, and other writers asking her to write. The first in the series, just published in March 2022, is Finding the Fire & Keeping It Hot: Discovering Your Why, Your Passion, Your Purpose in Life.

Currently, Dr. Stout is finishing work on six romance novellas, where the first, Shattered Dreams, was published in 2017. Taking place in a small South Georgia community, the story centers on nine classmates, providing seven stories, seven conflicts, and seven romances, with the stories taking place in the same 15 days with a mystery centered around a 1969 Volkswagen bug.

Dr. Stout has been both a magazine and newspaper columnist, has optioned a screenplay, had two short plays produced in New York, and has published numerous poems, short stories, and articles. As a college professor, she served as a reviewer for the Queen City Writers journal published by the University of Cincinnati, has judged contests for several screenwriting organizations, and other writing organizations, national and regional.

In addition, she's returned to her true passion--screenwriting and is working on several scripts. She writes several blogs: Into the Core (), about her intuitive and mystic experiences; Behind the Scenes (dianastout.net), about life as a writer; and Behind the Scenes with Diana Stout and Featured Guests (dianastout.org), welcoming agents, producers, and screenwriters to be interviewed and featured (click on the "want to be interviewed?" link on the website).

A medievalist and Arthurian, Dr. Stout’s other interests include Blackbeard, Vikings, other early cultures & religions, earth and astrological sciences, British authors and their landscapes, with Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen two of her all-time favorite storytellers. She enjoys the research process driven by her curiosity to learn, and especially enjoys helping others writers in her role as a Writing Coach.

Unique traits: Curious, enjoys analyzing movies and stories, and plotting her own. Been told I smile when I talk about writing, and those I coach tell me I should find a way to teach again because I have so much to share.

Gender:
Female

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David & Goliath Thriller ⋄ Crime Mardi Gras, voodoo, nursery rhymes, and a serial killer. Two cops, each haunted by their past, amid Louisiana’s sultry landscape and rising attraction, have two weeks to find the killer before Mardi Gras. And then, her niece disappears. The script has been published as a screenplay (8x10 book), available from Amazon and other favorite booksellers. 2017 Quarter-finalist (272 quarter-finalists out of 3272 entries) in Bluecat Screenplay Competition The PDF is available for submission to agents or producers for option purposes.

Awards

Creative Writing Graduate Award, Drama (WMU) 1st place - The Elevator
(2204)
Lamia Ink! (playwriting) - First place - College Bound
(2006)
Creative Writing Graduate Award, Drama (WMU) - 2nd place - Out of blanace
(2005)
Lamia Ink! (playwriting) Finalist - The Funeral Question
(2004)
Kellogg Community College (literature contest) 1st place (poetry) - 50
(2001)
Writer's Digest writing contest, Television/Movie script Division (63rd of top 100) Miss Mississippi
(1998)
The Writer's Network - Quarter finalist - Miss Mississippi
(1998)
Autust Heart of Films - Quarter finalist - Charlie's Christmas Carole
(1998)
The Writer's Network - Semi-finalist - Charlie's Christmas Carole
(1997)
Writer's Digest writing contest, Television/Movie script Division (51st of top 100) Still Waters
(1996)
The Writer's Network - Quarter finalist - Still Waters
(1996)
Georgia Romance Writer's (romance novel unpublished division) - Fuss and Feathers
(1990)
RWA Golden Heart (unpublished) - Semi-finalist - Fuss and Feathers
(1990)
Tallahassee Writer's Association (unpublished division nonfiction) 1st place - Grandma's Reflection
(1989)
Tallahassee Writer's Association (published division nonfiction) 2nd place - Recapture Your Feelings
(1989)
RWA Golden Heart (unpublished) - Semi-finalist - Cross Country Fire
(1989)