Slug/Monterey County Screenwriter
By Danek S. Kaus

Screenwriter Madeline DiMaggio had never intended to move out of her native Los Angeles. Then she got divorced.
DiMaggio was nudged a little more when she ended the professional relationship with her then writing partner, who enjoyed the seductions of the Hollywood lifestyle a little too much.
And, the work itself became stressful. Although DiMaggio was an extremely successful TV writer, she became burned out.
"The longer I stayed in LA, the harder it became," she says.
She needed a place to heal and reassess her life. She opted for the Monterey Peninsula, which was both serene and accessible to Hollywood. "My agent at the time told me it was a grave mistake career wise, but perhaps it wasn't spiritually," DiMaggio says.
Back then, screenwriters were expected to live in LA, so when DiMaggio moved to Pacific Grove, she arranged to have an LA phone number that was call forwarded to her. But she still had to be available for meetings with producers, which meant driving down to LA, sometimes on the spur of the moment. "Nobody knew where I really lived, but it got too tough," DiMaggio says. "Eventually I fessed up."
She considered quitting the business and living on her residuals, which would allow her to enjoy a comfortable life in the Monterey area. "What I like about living in Monterey is that it is the most beautiful place on the planet. It's so beautiful that you never take it for granted," DiMaggio says. "The people are extremely nice. They're savvy, but laid back."
One day a local teacher asked her to speak to his high school class on screenwriting. "They really liked it," DiMaggio says. "It turned me on to be helping the kids write their own TV shows."
There were also other perks. "What teaching did for me that writing didn't is that it gave me immediate feedback," DiMaggio says. She adds that teaching others to write also helped her to become a better writer.
She came to like teaching so much that she put her own writing career on hold in order to school others in the skills necessary to write quality scripts and also how to go about the business of selling them, a challenge that takes creativity, thick skin, tenacity and more than a little luck.
As part of that mission, DiMaggio helped found the annual Screenwriting Day sponsored by the Monterey County Film Commission, this year to be held on May 4.
DiMaggio also teaches at several colleges and to writers' groups across the country and around the world. Last year she taught in Finland and this October she'll be teaching in Prague. In addition to teaching workshops, DiMaggio also mentors a very small group of students each year in the Monterey area on an extended basis.
One of her students was Vera Blasi, who wrote "Woman on Top," starring Penelope Cruz. "Now she's working like mad," DiMaggio says. Another former students is Kevin Falls, one of the executive producers of the TV hit "The West Wing."
DiMaggio is also turning her hand to producing. One screenplay she got her agents to represent was written by Monterey County resident Joanne Storkin, who developed the script in DiMaggio's workshop.
Despite the rewards of teaching, DiMaggio found the call of the keyboard too compelling, so she resumed her writing career. At first it was hard breaking back in because Hollywood has such a short memory. And though there is less sexism than before, there is still some subtle gender bias as well as a more obvious age bias. "Young writers definitely have an edge, but the truth is I'm working now more than before," DiMaggio says.
DiMaggio and her current writing partner, Pam Wallace, who won an Oscar for "Witness," sold a TV movie called "Alibi" to ABC.
They just finished writing "Murder with Privilege" for Showtime and they also sold a feature film called "Catherine, Called Birdie," based on a young adult book. "It's 'Young Shakespeare in Love' meets 'Clueless,'" DiMaggio says. "The Harder They Fall," a comedy that she wrote on her own, was optioned last year. DiMaggio is currently working solo on another comedy script.
Needless to say, she is very busy. DiMaggio divides her time between Hollywood, where her work is, Texas, where her significant other is, and Monterey, where her heart is.
"I'll always come back here," she says.
For information on Madeline DiMaggio's screenwriting workshops, call 831-601-0701.