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AUTHOR / SCREENWRITER

Simmone Howell is an award-winning short story writer, screenwriter and small press publisher. Her debut novel, NOTES FROM THE TEENAGE UNDERGROUND has enjoyed wide-spread praise from reviewers, high-school students, writers and everyone in between. In 2007 NOTES picked up the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction and the State Library's Gold Inky Award!

EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL is the newest book by Simmone Howell, to be published in November 2008 by Pan Macmillan. It continues Simmone's style of raw and honest writing, and will be a highly sought book for her fans.

Synopsis:
Riley Rose doesn't want to be at Spirit Ranch Holiday Camp. Riley wants to be partying with her best friend Chloe at the beautiful Ben Sebatini's house. She has a plan to get away from the jumpsuit-wearing counsellors, the feel-good mantras, do-gooder campers and the monotonous schedule of team-building exercises and outdoor activities.

But is everything at the Spirit Ranch as it appears? What secrets are waiting for discovery in the abandoned Fraser house? And why doesn't anyone want to talk about the accident that landed the mysterious Dylan in a wheelchair last year?

Everything Beautiful

 

 
Notes from The Teenage Underground

Simmone on her career so far:

"I grew up in Melbourne’s outer eastern suburbs feeling far away from anything interesting. At eight I raced BMX; at thirteen I was into hair dye and pop music; at fifteen I decided that (like Sheila E) I wanted to lead the glamorous life, but school was a reality I couldn’t ignore.

"After school I boarded the carousel of casual employment - pubs, cafes and record shops. I read all the time – I loved the beats, pulp fiction and cult writers – I had lots of literary crushes. I finally went to University where I set up a small press called Vandal Press – and began writing seriously. Then I went overseas, leaving a trail of short stories.

 

"In 2002, one of my stories was made into the short film PITY 24. I won the Australian Writers Guild award for the script and travelled with the film to the Los Angeles Shortsfest where I saw the blind guy from Becker, walked on Kim Basinger’s red carpet and went to a pool party atop Schwabs Drugstore (and learned that no one swims at LA pool parties, NO ONE).

"Finally I got a proper job working on hit TV show THE SECRET LIFE OF US where part of my job was writing the guff - the seven seconds of something that no-one actually hears. And when that job folded, I took all this stuff about movies and false starts and appreciating the background bits and turned them into a novel. "

Simmone is available for talks and workshops for secondary students. In her workshops, participants are encouraged to find inspiration for writing from a wide variety of props including short film clips, photographs and classified ads.

 

NOTES FROM THE TEENAGE UNDERGROUND: www.teenageunderground.com

Simmone's MySpace page: www.myspace.com/simmoneh

Information on PITY 24 can be found here.

Simmone's website: http://www.simmonehowell.com/

Simmone's blog: http://postteentrauma.blogspot.com/

Read ABC's 2010 story on Simmone's Zine-making workshops here

 

"She was very authentic and the students really responded well to her."

-Anne McIlroy, Genazzano College.

Students' responses from Simmone's workshop at Brighton Library:

"Simmone was really nice and really inspirational".

"I really enjoyed my time with Simmone and the other girls. Simmone helped us express our feelings to each other and she also helped me consider other forms of writing".

"The program took an interesting view on things which could morph into works. I enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere."

" Fantastic! Tons of fun!"

 



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