About

2009

My name is Henry Sheppard. I have been writing novels (Play the Devil, Haematemesis) and screenplays (unproduced) for over twenty years. 

This blog was set up in 2011 when a small group of people were looking at the possibility of establishing a Screenwriters' Co-op in Adelaide. Amongst other things, we identified a need for an online presence that would make it possible for other people to locate us.

In the beginning, my goals were to:
(a) Provide a point of contact for wannabe screenwriters in Adelaide,
(b) Develop a pool of short films that could be readily accessed, watched and discussed by a group of friends who wanted to write their own short films, and
(c) Pass on information that might be of interest to budding screenwriters/filmmakers living in the Adelaide area.

Today you can find a collection of links to both short films and webseries on the blog. I have accumulated over one hundred examples of each.

The original project fell by the wayside, but as I ran into interesting people from around the world and asked them for interviews, a repository of information (and light entertainment) developed. 

2016

In 2014 I stopped writing the blog, giving my reasons here. In that post I was trying to explain why I was stopping, but some people read it as an announcement of my imminent death. Sorry about that. I'm still here, if not especially well. The leukemia went out of remission; so in 2015 I went back on chemotherapy. In 2016 I'm in remission again, but this time the damage to my bone marrow means I have about one-third the red cell manufacturing capacity of the average person. I function, but at one-third rat power, so make allowances. 

Then I had half my nose removed by a plastic surgeon, in the hope of ridding myself of an aggressive skin cancer, only to have a biopsy show lingering remnants in the cartilage. I enjoyed a prolonged course of radiotherapy into 2017, which seems to have done the trick. Life has many wonders...

Meanwhile, I am, following many requests, republishing The Best Of posts, one per week. Plus I have been unable to resist putting up new, interesting material that I come across. That should keep this blog alive for a little while yet.

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Footnote:  In 2016, this blog was listed on Feedspot as one of the best Top 50 Screenwriting Blogs on the web.