Lorena Barron

I've been a hairstylist for more than 30 years (ahem, I claim being a child prodigy). I have always had a natural penchant for telling stories and my most prized possessions is my brain. Challenge, challenge, challenge... this is the mantra for me. I have always been a writer of sorts, working in magazines, web and copy writing, I've even written a teaching manual. I have had a love of movies my entire life, pretty much every type, as well I can be a voracious learner and reader. This is how I discovered screenwriting.

I had been mulling over the idea of writing a book, if for no other reason than the sheer volume of crap out there, surely I could do better than that! What actually came to pass is I came across a small self-published novel by a first time author that although it was not particularly well written, the story is what I found interesting. I really enjoyed the book and the characters lived in my head well after finishing it. I tried to purge them from my brain but they were persistent and I found myself visualizing scenes in my head at pretty inopportune times. (don't tell my clients). I kept thinking this story would make a great Indie film. I thought, "Then it's going to need to be a screenplay." Like most things that I am passionate about that I know next to nothing about, I jumped into the deep end and spent nearly every spare moment learning, researching, reading and trying to figure out how. After more than a few not so wonderful "first drafts", I contacted the author and after a few months of emails back and forth, she signed over the rights to me.

I've sought out critique and feedback whenever I could. (I did go to art school so I am used to brutal critique.) After about nine months of labour (I'm Canadian so it has a "u"), I think I have a pretty tight script. But what the hell do I know so now I want to see if I can pass muster with the professionals and it is out for coverage.

In the meantime, I have an original idea that I've begun working through, building the world, discovering the characters and roughing the outline and plot points. Like I said, I have no idea if I'm good at this but I will find out. In the meantime, I am enjoying the hell out of this... intellectually and creatively challenging for sure! Bring it on!