Bonnie and Andy

THE BLOND AND THE BRITYep, we're The Blond and the Brit, a name we're taken from the cable TV we do once a month called "Screenwriting Squabbles With the Blond and the Brit." Andy is from England. My hair is usually blond. We're both screenwriters and together we founded Screenbrokers, a screenplay evaluation service, and an unique screenplay competition, The 20/20 Screenwriting Contest, now in its fourth year.Andy and and I, Bonnie (not married to each other)are both screenwriters and screenplay reviewers. We collaborate in a "write n' fight" arena which miraculously works well. His style is fast and furious; mine is slow and steady. That's probably why I'm writing this profile. Fewer typos!Andy has had several plays produced, including "The Plot" and "Brodsky and the Bandit." He has also had many screenplays optioned and written articles.I have taught writing, had articles published and screenplays optioned.In his article published in "The Writer Magazine," he wrote how few good screenplays he'd ever ever read. (About one in 100) It is through this article that we met. Andy said he was always willing to read 20 pages of anything. I was a writing neophyte (or less) at the time, sent him one of my early works. Despite its many flaws, it turned out to be one of the few screenplays (1-100) good enough to merit a phone call.Since both of us lived in L.A. beach communities we decided to meet at one of Andy's writers' support meetings. I had formed my own group but in time, the two groups merged and together we co-founded "Writers' Bloc Ink," probably one of the longest running support groups of all time. It's pretty much open to all screenwriters in the area. If you're interested, contact us for the details.As a team we have also written and produced four children's plays with themes of the environment, brotherhood, self-esteem, and virtue. That was back in the days when I was teaching elementary school.We have both served as jurors for the Hartley-Merrill International Screenwriting Competition and I have been a reader for several of the Carl Sautter screenwriting competitions, sponsored by the scriptwriters' Network.Andy used to enjoy teaching fiction and playwriting at a local Barnes and Noble but numerous book signings at the same time didn't allow for the necessary continuity. .People ask us what our accomplishments of Screenbrokers are. Our biggest coups have been our success in placing four screenplays directly into the hands of studios. None of the writers of those scripts had an agent, but we were able to broker the material through one who values our critiquing abilities.This agent took the gamble and was willing to represent these writers based on our recommendation and he wasn't sorry. It was a win, win, win situation. He got agency fees for negotiating the deals, Andy and Bonnie got a finder's fee for discovering the projects, and the writers were able to cash sizeable checks.One we realized that we had eliminated one of the major barriers for writers, that of getting an agent, which is almost akin to getting an audience with the pope, we knew we had hit upon something unique.