LA/Los Angeles – Page 34 – On Screenwriting and Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch

Rosanne Reads at Paperback LA 3 Launch Party [Photos]

It was marvelous to be asked to read a portion of my contribution to Paperback LA #3 (“Hey Hey They Wrote The Monkees”) at the launch party on Sunday.

See the entire collection of photos from the event

Editor Susan La Tempa hosted all the local contributors at the event space in the Helms Bakery district, which gave us a chance to check out that lovely landmark. Then I had the chance to meet Lisa See – author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of 4 generations of her Chinese-American family living in Los Angeles and running a factory, an antique shop and a restaurant popular with the Hollywood crowd of the 1930s and 40s. We had first heard of her book when Doug and I were docents at the Autry Western Heritage Museum in Griffith Park and they had a whole exhibit dedicated to telling the story of the book (which it turns out Lisa curated!) It was so popular an exhibit that it hung around long enough for Joseph to be born and to become old enough to play in the little mini restaurant they set up with pots and plates and menus. So it was wonderful to hear Lisa read an excerpt from the book and then to talk to her during the book signing segment of the afternoon.

I was also deeply impressed by the way Susan opened the event with a native Tongva greeting – something I had only seen done at the public events we attended in New Zealand where everyone began events with the traditional Maori greeting where you introduce yourself in terms of what is your mountain, your river, and your ancestry. Beautiful! So hearing it in Los Angeles was a lovely idea we all ought to emulate.

Then the super cool thing was that several friends made the trip down to Culver City – thanks Duke and Dena Jackels and Dan and Liz Forer – and Euphemia – for coming to the reading, and for buying books!

Females, fiction and uprising in the Poly Post, Cal Poly Pomona

Cal Poly Student journalist Daniela Avila did a great job summing up the points I made in my recent library lecture on my favorite female science fiction writers. — Rosanne

Education on the role of women in science fiction — which has been gravely overlooked — was brought by Rosanne Welch at Cal Poly Pomona’s University Library last Thursday, April 25.

Welch discussed several different women in this genre.

Not only in books and written works, but also in television and movies.

She was very passionate about the subject and the significance of women in the genre which many fail to acknowledge.

“It’s a place where audiences and writers go to discuss the issues of the world in a safe place,” Welch said, in regards to science fiction.

Welch began the lecture with the woman that started it all — Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Shelley is responsible for writing the famous novel “Frankenstein.”

This was written in 1818; however, she asked that the book remained anonymous due to the reactions of a woman writing such a dark and challenging work. Her intentions were to sit back and wait for the book to be judged based off of merit not the author.

It wasn’t until 1823 that her name was placed on the cover.

Read Females, fiction and uprising by Daniela Avila in Poly Post

Watch the entire presentation here!

The Sisterhood of Science Fiction: A Walk Through Some Writers and Characters You (Should) Know And Love

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!

The Sisterhood of Science Fiction: A Walk Through Some Writers and Characters You (Should) Know And Love [Video] (36 Minutes)

Thanks to Kris Zoleta for inviting me to give yet another library lecture last week.

This one allowed me to riff on some of my favorite female science fiction writers across time, whether they be novelists or television writers. It also opened up a good conversation on what art we support and include in our lives – and what that art says to us and about us.

The Sisterhood of Science Fiction: A Walk Through Some Writers and Characters You (Should) Know And Love

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!

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01 Introduction from “When Women Wrote Hollywood”, Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal State Fullerton [Video] (1 minute, 6 secs)

Part of the California State University, Fullerton Faculty Noon Time Talks at the Pollak Library.

Watch this entire presentation

Transcript:

Thank you so much for being here. I hope that you find what I have to tell you enlightening and interesting. We’re going to unearth the names of some women who have written some things that either began ideas and tropes that went on and on through Hollywood or are people that you already know their work but you never realize that those pieces were written by women. That’s my personal interest. Before we get to that though I’ll give you a couple rounds of where I come from. I was a screenwriter and a television writer and my first second career I’m not sure sometimes which one it was. So I was on Touched By An Angel, Picket Fences. I’ve worked for ABC News Nightline and I’m kind of ending today with my first job which was on 90210 because, of course, we’re all very sad to have heard that Luke Perry died the other day at 52, which is to just way too young. He was one of the nicest men on the show. It’s very sad but it was a wonderful show to work on and obviously very iconic in America and I’m going to credit that not to a female writer — they didn’t have one in charge — a male writer named Chuck Rosen. He really deserves the credit for why that show worked.

Dr. Rosanne Welch discusses the women in her new book “When Women Wrote Hollywood” which covers female screenwriters from the Silents through the early 1940s when women wrote over 50% of films and Frances Marion was the highest paid screenwriter (male or female) and the first to win 2 Oscars. Yet, she fails to appear in film history books, which continue to regurgitate the myth that male directors did it all – even though it’s been proven that the only profitable movies Cecil B. de Mille ever directed were all written by Jeannie Macpherson film ever won for Best Picture was written by Robert E. Sherwood (who people have heard of, mostly due to his connection to Dorothy Parker) and Joan Harrison.

Buy a signed copy of when Women Wrote Hollywood

Paperback Edition | Kindle Edition | Google Play Edition

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** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

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Semester In LA Writers Round Table Class – Columbia College of Chicago

Semester In LA Writers Round Table Class

Here’s a great photo of my current (and nearly graduated) Columbia College Writers Round Table class together with the marvelous actors who joined us for the last 3 weeks. The did table reads of all 9 student scripts. The actors are: Erron Jay (on the right in the back row), Khanisha Foster (2nd row #6 from the left/standing next to me), Juan Villa (last one on the right in the 2nd row) and Christina Nieves (in the middle in the front row). Kudos to Khanisha for gathering them all for us because they went above and beyond the call of duty by giving great notes for the (inevitable with all writing) rewrites to come. All in all, a fun and productive 3-week collaboration!

“When Women Wrote Hollywood”, Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal State University, Fullerton

Watch the complete presentation

Buy a signed copy of when Women Wrote Hollywood

Paperback Edition | Kindle Edition | Google Play Edition

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

“When Women Wrote Hollywood”, Dr. Rosanne Welch, Cal State University, Fullerton [Video] (53 minutes, 30 seconds)

I’ve taken part in the Pollak Library Faculty Noon Time Talks for the last couple of years. This year I had a great time delivering this lecture built around all the wonderful female screenwriters included in my book When Women Wrote Hollywood.

Thanks to subject librarian John Hickok for organizing these events – and for the nice introduction.

Part of the California State University, Fullerton Faculty Noon Time Talks at the Pollak Library.

Buy a signed copy of when Women Wrote Hollywood

Paperback Edition | Kindle Edition | Google Play Edition

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

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Dr. Rosanne Welch Speaks at the Golden Leaves Presentation, Cal Poly Pomona University Library [Video] (6 minutes, 8 seconds)

Golden Leaves Presentations 2019 at Cal Poly Pomona University Library.

Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on her 2 new books for the 2018-2019 season, “Technical Innovation in American History; An Encyclopedia of Science and Technology” and “When Women Wrote Hollywood”.

Since 1986, the Golden Leaves program has celebrated those members of the Cal Poly Pomona campus community (faculty, staff, students, alumni, and retirees) who have authored or edited a book* in the preceding year. The Golden Leaves program is funded by the University Library.

Each year, books published by Cal Poly Pomona authors are on display in the Library during the month of April. The Golden Leaves program is celebrated annually at the University Library in conjunction with National Library Week.

*A book is defined (per UNESCO) as “a non-periodical printed publication of at least forty-nine pages, exclusive of cover pages.”

See more Golden Leaves books

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

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Dr. Rosanne Welch Honored with 2019 Golden Leaves Award for 2 New Books at Cal Poly Pomona

Thanks to the librarians at Cal Poly Pomona for all the work they do in preparing the Annual Golden Leaves Awards honoring faculty members (current and emeritus) who have published works this year.

I’m once again happy to see two of my works included in this year’s list – first, the three volume encyclopedia I co-edited with my good friend and colleague, Peg Lamphier, Technical Innovation in American History and the second is When Women Wrote Hollywood, the collection of essays on female screenwriters from the early days of the film industry which I also edited.

I can’t wait for the event this Friday the 12th.

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
† Available from the LA Public Library

Rosanne Hosts The New Mentoris Project Podcast – Episode 1 – No Person Above The Law – Judge John Sirica

Hosting the Mentoris Project Podcast has been both fun, engaging and educational – I love meeting and interviewing writers from all over the country and learning about their subjects.

In my latest conversation with Cynthia Cooper, author of No Person Above the Law: A Novel Based on the Life of Judge John J. Sirica, I learned more about Watergate and Judge John Sirica, the justice who caused Nixon’s resignation than I thought possible.

Did you know how many times those infamous tapes were requested by the court? Or how many tapes there were in total? Imagine being the man tasked with listening to them all and having to decide which information might be top secret and which information could be released to the public.

Listen to this interview and hear all about it!

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