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WORK TITLE: Lost Luggage
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://wendallthomas.com/
CITY: Los Angeles
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Female.
EDUCATION:University of North Carolina, M.A., 1986.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author, casting director, director’s assistant, script reader, story editor, development executive, entertainment reporter, script consultant, and screenwriter for A&E, Disney, NBC, Paramount, PBS, RKO, Scottish Screen. Showtime, Universal, and Warner Brothers, 1986–. Adjunct professor of screenwriting, Graduate Film School, University of California, Los Angeles; speaker, Los Angeles Screenwriting Expo, Consultant for producing programs, including Atelier du Cinéma Européen, Paris; director, SQ Projector program, Screen Queensland, 2015, 2016; director, Retold diversity project, Screen Queensland, 2017-18.
AWARDS:Best Debut Mystery nomination, 2017, for Lost Luggage.
WRITINGS
Contributor of short fiction to anthologies, including Ladies Night, Smashwords (Los Gatos, CA), 2015, and Last Resort, Down & Out Books (Lutz, FL), 2017.
SIDELIGHTS
Before publishing her debut novel, Wendall Thomas spent decades working in film production and education. “Since receiving her M.A. in English in 1986 from the University of North Carolina, Wendall Thomas has worked in Los Angeles,” wrote the contributor of a biographical blurb to the author’s home page, the Wendall Thomas Website, “developing projects for companies including Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal, Showtime, PBS, RKO, A&E, NBC, and Scottish Screen.” She serves as an adjunct professor in the graduate school of filmmaking at the University of California—Los Angeles, and she has worked extensively with the Australian organization Screen Queensland, where she worked for two years as director of their SQ Projector program and in 2017 wss named director of SQ Retold. “In line with SQ’s commitment to bring more diversity on and off screen,” said a contributor to Inside Film, “SQ Re-Told will focus on promoting diverse faces and stories–supporting gender equality, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation and all cultural backgrounds.”
Thomas’s debut novel is Lost Luggage, a thriller-mystery-adventure novel. “This book,” asserted a Jeannie Reads reviewer, “reminded me of a Goldie Hawn movie – lots of silly – great physical humor.” The story begins by introducing Cyd Redondo, who works for her Brooklyn-based family firm Redondo Travel. Cyd is something of a free spirit; her life thus far has definitely not prepared her for the discovery of a dead parrot on her desk. The parrot, it appears, seems to be linked to the elderly next-door pet store owner Mrs. Barsky. But Mrs. Barsky, Cyd finds, has also passed on. “Cyd isn’t too worried about the outcome of Mrs. Barsky’s post-mortem,” declared a Kirkus Reviews contributor, “because she assumes that after surviving four strokes, her neighbor finally succumbed to a fifth.”
Putting the past behind her, Cyd heads off to a convention in Atlantic City, where she has a one-nighter with a chiropractor named Roger Claymore, and then finds that she’s won a safari to Tanzania for herself. Soon she and Roger are off to Africa, where the two encounter continent-sized troubles. “Cyd dodges Interpol, faces off with a cobra, steals a diplomatic bag, hijacks a FedEx truck, crashes an eco-safari, winds up in a leopard trap,” explained a Bookreporter.com contributor, “and is forced to smuggle snakes.” “Lost Luggage is a funny romp with a little bit of sex and a lot of humor,” concluded a reviewer for the Lesa’s Book Critiques website. “As I said, think of Cyd Redondo as MacGyver on an African adventure.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2017, review of Lost Luggage.
ONLINE
Bookreporter.com, https://www.bookreporter.com/ (May 9, 2018), review of Lost Luggage.
Inside Film, https://www.if.com.au/ (December 20, 2016), “Wendall Thomas to Helm SQ Writers Initiative.”
Jennie Reads, https://jenniereads.com/ (October 4, 2017), review of Lost Luggage.
Lesa’s Book Critiques, https://lesasbookcritiques.blogspot.com/ (October 4, 2017), review of Lost Luggage.
Wendall Thomas Website, http://wendallthomas.com (May 9, 2018), author profile.
Since receiving her M.A. in English in 1986 from the University of North Carolina, Wendall Thomas has worked in Los Angeles as a casting director, director’s assistant, script reader, story editor, development executive, entertainment reporter, script consultant, and screenwriter, writing and developing projects for companies including Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount, Universal, Showtime, PBS, RKO, A&E, NBC, and Scottish Screen. Her novel Lost Luggage (Poisoned Pen Press, 2017) has been nominated for Best Debut Mystery of 2017 and her short fiction has appeared in the LA crime anthologies Ladies Night (2015) and Last Resort (2017).
In addition to writing and consulting, she is in her twentieth year as Adjunct Professor of Screenwriting in the Graduate Film School at UCLA, has been a Star Speaker for the annual Los Angeles Screenwriting Expo, and runs the Living Room Lecture series. She has consulted for the Atelier du Cinéma Européen Producing Program in Paris, served as Writer’s Mentor for Screen South’s Good Foundations program 2005-2007, and directed the LA FEATURES writer’s mentorship program in the UK for 2007-2009. She also consults for Australia’s Film Victoria and The New Zealand Film Commission, has directed Screen Queensland’s SQ PROJECTOR program for emerging feature filmmakers for 2015 and 2016 and will direct their RETOLD diversity project for 2017-2018.
As a lecturer, she has worked throughout Europe for the Arista Screenwriting Workshops and in the U.K. for the Welsh and Northern Irish Film Commissions, Northern Film and Media, the Folkstone Literary Festival, and Screen South. She has also presented a series of dialogue and rewrite workshops for the New Zealand Film Commission and was opening speaker for the Santa Fe Screenwriting Conference in 2009. She has presented her “Wendall Thomas Talks Scripts” series at the Melbourne International Film Festival since 2011 and will return in 2018.
Recent student/client projects include Don’t Tell (Audience Award Newport Beach Film Festival 2017), I’m Dying up Here (Showtime 2017), Superstore (NBC 2016), The Water Diviner (Warner Bros. 2015), Web Therapy (Fremantle Media/ Moviestar+ 2016), Killing Joan (Todfilm, 2018), The Republic of Rick (official selection Slamdance Festival 2014), Any Day Now (winner Audience Award Tribeca 2012, Music Box Films, 2012), The Republic of Two (Winner Chris Brinker Award San Diego Film Festival, official selection Hollywood Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, Circus Road Films 2013), The Space Between (Official Tribeca Selection 2010, USA Films 2011), The Truth Below (MTV Films 2011), and The Most Fun You Can Have Dying (NZFC 2012).
Wendall Thomas to helm SQ writers initiative
20 December, 2016 by Staff Writer
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Screen Queensland has launched a new initiative, SQ Re-Told with Wendall Thomas, which will support three early to mid-career writers or writing teams with script and story development to fast-track feature film projects.
SQ Re-Told will be convened by story consultant Wendall Thomas and will take place across 2017 and 2018.
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Since 1986, Thomas has worked in LA variously as a casting director, director’s assistant, script reader, development executive, entertainment reporter, script consultant and screenwriter. She’s developed projects for companies including Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, Showtime, NBC and PBS.
Thomas is also an Adjunct Professor of Screenwriting at UCLA’s Graduate Film school, and consults for Film Victoria and the New Zealand Film Commission. In 2015 and 2016 she ran SQ’s Projector program for emerging feature filmmakers.
In line with SQ’s commitment to bring more diversity on and off screen, SQ Re-Told will focus on promoting diverse faces and stories – supporting gender equality, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representation and all cultural backgrounds and sexual orientations.
The initiative is specifically looking for imaginative projects that re-tell a popular public domain story and reimagine it to focus on diverse characters in fresh landscapes.
“We are so excited to be launching this initiative and supporting Queensland practitioners to take risks and be innovative by re-telling well-known stories without the stereotypical characters, points of view and narratives,’ said SQ CEO Tracey Vieira.
“Wendall has been working with Queensland practitioners for SQ Projector and is an incredible talent and mentor who can offer our early to mid-career writers fresh insights into how to write screen stories that can succeed in the global feature film market.”
Projects must be at conceptual stage and have the potential to connect with audiences both domestically and internationally.
The three writers or writing teams will attend four development workshops over an 18-month period commencing in late March. They will receive one-on-one development support from Thomas and pitch to producers in December 2017, with a view to taking the projects to market in mid-2018.
Eligible applications will be assessed by SQ executives and Wendall Thomas, and short-listed applicants will be asked to complete further work on their idea prior to interviewing with SQ and Wendall Thomas.
Applications close 9.00am (AEST) February 13, 2017.
Applications are through SmartyGrants via: http://screenqueensland.smartygrants.com.au
Thomas, Wendall: LOST LUGGAGE
Kirkus Reviews. (Aug. 1, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Thomas, Wendall LOST LUGGAGE Poisoned Pen (Adult Fiction) $15.95 10, 3 ISBN: 978-1-4642-0892-8
A Brooklyn travel agent wins the trip of a lifetime and ends up in a world of trouble.Redondo Travel has been a staple of the close-knit Bay Ridge small-business community for three generations. So when Cyd Redondo arrives at the office one October morning to find a dead parrot on her desk, her first move is to call locksmith Gonzo Gonzales from four doors down and trade him four Circle Line tickets to change her locks. Her second is to check with Mrs. Barsky, owner of Pet World next door, to see if any of her inventory has gone missing. That's when she discovers the elderly owner's body on the floor of her shop. Cyd offers Dr. Paglia, the local medical examiner, a free room in Atlantic City (smoking, high floor) for information concerning her neighbor's demise, then leaves for the shore herself to spend a couple of days at the National Association of Career Travel Agents convention, where she hooks up with San Francisco chiropractor Roger Claymore. Cyd isn't too worried about the outcome of Mrs. Barsky's post-mortem because she assumes that after surviving four strokes, her neighbor finally succumbed to a fifth. In fact, all thoughts of Mrs. Barsky and Pet World vanish when Cyd learns that she's sold enough tours to Tanzania to earn a safari of her own. She's even more delighted when sexy Roger agrees to be her plus-one. Little does she suspect that lost luggage, courtesy of British Airways, will be the least of her challenges. Her clients are arrested, she's confronted by men with guns, and her first sighting of African wildlife is a king cobra who gets up close and personal. But what scares her most is a call from her Uncle Ray back in Bay Ridge telling her that Mrs. Barsky's been poisoned and she's the prime suspect. Thomas packs a whole franchise's worth of adventures into her heroine's debut, leaving readers to wonder what might be left for her follow-up.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Thomas, Wendall: LOST LUGGAGE." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A499572789/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=edcf62bc. Accessed 12 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A499572789
Lost Luggage
by Wendall Thomas
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Cyd Redondo, a young, third-generation Brooklyn travel agent who specializes in senior citizens, has never ventured farther than New Jersey. Yet even Jersey proves risky when her Travel Agents' Convention fling, Roger Claymore, leaves her weak in the knees-and everywhere else-then sneaks out of her Atlantic City hotel room at 3am.
Back in Brooklyn, when she reads about smugglers stopped at JFK with skinks in their socks or monkeys down their pants, she never imagines she will join their ranks. But days after the pet store owner next door to Redondo Travel is poisoned, Cyd wins a free safari. Her boss, Uncle Ray, wants to cash it in for computers, but Cyd is determined to go. When Roger turns up at the Redondo clan's door, Cyd invites him along as her "plus one." And just like that she is thrown heels-first into the bizarre and sinister world of international animal smuggling.
She and Roger arrive in Africa, luggage lost, to find two of Cyd's elderly clients in a local jail. She manages to barter them out, only to discover smugglers have hidden five hundred thousand dollars' worth of endangered parrots, snakes, frogs and a lone Madagascan chameleon in the clients' outbound luggage. When Roger steals the bags --- is the U.S. Embassy in on the contraband ring? --- Cyd and the chameleon helicopter into the jungle to go after Roger on their own.
Wondering if "plus one" Roger is actually a minus, Cyd dodges Interpol, faces off with a cobra, steals a diplomatic bag, hijacks a FedEx truck, crashes an eco-safari, winds up in a leopard trap, and is forced to smuggle snakes in her bra. It's a scramble to find the smugglers, save her clients, and solve Mrs. Barsky's murder before finding herself at the top of the endangered species list.
For fans of Elaine Viets, Lisa Lutz, Janet Evanovich and Blaize Clement.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 04, 2017
Lost Luggage by Wendall Thomas
Wendall Thomas' debut mystery, Lost Luggage, is a romp that may remind readers of the best of Janet Evanovich or Tonya Kappes. But, Cyd Redondo, narrator and amateur sleuth, may actually be more reminiscent of MacGyver. She's resourceful, intrepid, and uses her shoes to get out of so many jams.
Cyd is a hard-working travel agent in her family's business in Brooklyn, Redondo Travel. At thirty-two, she's only broken away from her male-dominated family once, and it resulted in a fast marriage and divorce. She's never been farther than Atlantic City. When she finds a dead parrot on a office desk, she feels as if she's covering up for a family member again. But, it's even worse when she finds the dead body of Mrs. Barsky, the woman who owns the pet store next door. Right after the funeral, Cyd makes a break for Atlantic City and the Travel Agents' Convention she yearns to attend. Maybe Cyd's judgement is still bad, though. She has a fling with Roger Claymore, who sneaks out of her room in the middle of the night.
If Cyd can sneak away from her family once, maybe she can do it again. She wins a trip to Tanzania, but her uncle wants to turn the vouchers in to buy new computers. Instead, she scoops up Roger as her plus-one and heads off to Africa. Her trip immediately goes haywire when she arrives. Their luggage is missing. She receives a call from a cousin who says she's the primary suspect in her neighbor's murder. Murder! And, she has clients in jail in Africa. It just gets worse for poor Cyd as she's soon caught up in the illegal animal smuggling trade. But, the resourceful woman is up for all the misadventures.
Lost Luggage is a funny romp with a little bit of sex and a lot of humor. As I said, think of Cyd Redondo as MacGyver on an African adventure.
Wendall Thomas' website is www.wendallthomas.com
Lost Luggage by Wendall Thomas. Poisoned Pen Press, 2017. ISBN 9781464208928 (paperback), 258p.
*****
FTC Full Disclosure - I received the book to review for a journal.
Lost Luggage by Wendall Thomas
OCTOBER 4, 2017 / JENNIEREADS
Lost LuggageThis is labeled as a cozy mystery but really I think Zany is a better description. This was enjoyment from the first page and all the way through.
The main character Cyd works in a travel agency run by her family and through hard work and sneaking around she has managed a trip to Atlantic City and the story takes off!! Cyd lives with her mom and about 8 other family members! Her days are spent trying to sell tours and then help Seniors have some great travel adventures (most of the time minus time in jail). There are bad guys, exotic animals, travel and an OMG Roger, quirky amusing Barry (you’ll just have to read it to figure that out) and law enforcement.
This book reminded me of a Goldie Hawn movie – lots of silly – great physical humor and a smart character that doesn’t always get it. A fun light read with all the right, good qualities.