Novels and Screenplays

Novels and Screenplays by Sharyl Ann Heber

I created two of my YA novels in screenplay version first.  I can’t help it-- I’ve got that movie projector running full time in my brain.  It’s an interesting way to write a novel, fraught with its own challenges.  A script makes a nice outline for a book, but the sequence, flow and pacing are rarely identical, scene transitions are differently crafted, characters may change, and then there’s all those pesky words you need to flesh it all out. 

Keepers of the Dream

Be careful what you imagine in the Garden of Possibles where what is envisioned becomes real.  Little Curtsy Winterberry is orphaned and sent to live with her aunt Zinnia to supervise stories in the magical garden.  Sweet Curtsy creates delightful chimera; the wicked nephew, Bertrum spews only terror.  All of it manifests and lingers for eternity, requiring constant vigilance.  Zinnia oversees with The Cask of Mischief to contain Bertrum’s Beasts.  But, Zinnia dies.  Who now will monitor the monsters?  Winterberry women must keep the dreams!  Through kidnap and murder, greed and deception, will Curtsy triumph to fulfill her destiny?  In the remarkable Garden of Possibles… anything can happen when the mind is applied!

In 2000, the amazing Harvey Weinstein, of then, Mirimax Films, along with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, sponsored the first Project Greenlight – an online, screenwriting peer review process where high ratings lifted you upward and the final winning script was produced.  

My current claim to fame is that my screenplay version of Keepers of the Dream rose to the top 250 out of 7000 entries in year-one of that project which means, I think, that Matt and Ben may have watched a video of me plugging my script.  I didn’t win, but placing so high in the competition made me VERY happy!

In Your Dreams  

(formerly titled As Beauty Does, then Staircase of Dreams)

Can 17 yr. old, Maradee Northam keep her date with a dazzling destiny?

A long-recurring dream of a mysterious staircase is haunting Maradee when a phantom old woman in a tacky blue muumuu bullies her way into the mirage. The annoying crone escapes Maradee’s fantasies to invade her real life, making outrageous predictions in flashes of blue. As Maradee battles a feckless family and a gauntlet of obstacles, she is torn between two fates: pander purple cosmetics with her meddling aunt, or follow her own desires of design at the Young Architects Competition. A turquoise time warp unveils the Blue Muumuu’s predictions sending our girl racing against the cosmic clock to manifest her calling.

Currently in progress:

The Shrine of Giving

A sequel to Keepers of the Dream -- a Christmas story in the very magic setting of Winterberry House.