Maryanne Melloan Woods
AUTHOR
PLAYWRIGHT
TV WRITER
SCREENWRITER
Maryanne Melloan Woods writes books, plays, musicals and tv shows. Welcome to everything you could want to know about her writing career and more.
BOOKS
LAZARUS
“Lazarus” is the story of Margo and Hank, teen detectives in tiny, god-forsaken Lazarus, Nebraska. Margo and Hank, 16 and 17, have a profoundly deep relationship; the only hitch is that Hank has been dead for two months. The pair team up to solve a local murder, with Margo doing the everyday gumshoe work and the late Hank spying on suspects unseen. At the same time, Margo’s trying to solve the cold case of her mother’s murder seven years ago. As Margo’s quest becomes more perilous, Hank will try to protect her, anguished that he can’t do more as Margo finally battles the sinister forces that killed her mother.
Maryanne has noted that she learned to write YA novels by studying Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games trilogy and John Green's The Fault in Our Stars.
Lazarus – OHP | world-altering stories, real & imagined (owlhollowpress.com)
Amazon.com: Lazarus: 9781945654626: Woods, Maryanne Melloan: Books
SOUR FLOWER
A YA journey through family dysfunction, friendship and self-acceptance, told with both heart and humor.
Fourteen year old Marigold – “M” - Hayes can’t believe she was born into her crazy family. It’s 1970 in San Francisco, and both of her (divorced) parents are free spirit hippies without an ounce of responsibility between them. As a result, pragmatic, sardonic M. is the one who makes sure the family’s bills and rent are paid on time, picks up the bottles and cigarette butts after parties and looks after her younger brother. Plus her father’s recovering alcoholic status makes M. uneasy; will he fall off the wagon and endanger the family again, like he did when she was ten? M. hates feeling anxious and vulnerable, so she hides her wounds under a shield of sarcastic humor.
Luckily, M is part of a close-knit, diverse trio of friends who come from similarly unconventional families. Together they laugh and fret like parents over THEIR parents’ ridiculous antics. But living hand-to-mouth isn’t easy. When the friends, who call themselves “The Committee”, find out that the city’s elite prep school is starting a magnet program for under-privileged kids, all three want to apply. As they make their way through the grueling application process, friendships are tested, crushes are crushed and M. must come to terms with a long-suppressed trauma from her past.
Sour Flower won the 2023 Chanticleer International Book Awards' Dante Rossetti Grand Prize for YA Fiction. It is not yet published.
WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD BOOK?
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book? is a fun family musical in one act. It's the story of 8 year old Herb, who loves his story books but doesn't take very good care of them. One night when his friend Ezzie is sleeping over, Herb falls asleep while reading his book of fairy tales. When he wakes up, he's inside the book, face to face with different characters as he begins his journey. The characters are not very happy about how Herb has "ruined" their stories by doodling, cutting things out and dropping food in the book. None of the stories work properly anymore, thanks to him! On his journey to find a way out of the book, Herb learns that stories belong to everyone, so he needs to take better care of his things.
To see/hear a script sample and demos, click here: http://www.bigbadbookmusical.com
THE CLIPPER
Gardening blogger Joyce, 50, likes to grow plants much better than she liked raising children. As the play begins, Joyce has grudgingly agreed to host her daughter Kim's baby shower. When Kim admits that she's invited her father (Joyce's ex)'s fiancée, Sandra, to the shower, Joyce is even less happy. Against Kim's wishes, she busts out the wine.
The shower starts out fine, but falls apart as the mothers share parenting horror stories, unnerving pregnant Kim, who's a bit on edge at the best of times. Joyce and Sandra fall into a comically vicious rivalry, interrupted by the arrival of Kim's husband Brendan, a New York City newscaster. He appears nervous, shutting all the shades and closing the curtains against the prying eyes of reporters outside. Brendan has gotten himself into hot water. Some skeletons have come out of his closet that will up-end this already precarious family.
As the play progresses, Kim will have to find the strength to do what's best for herself and her baby, and Joyce will have to face her past failures head-on in order to finally learn what it means to be a parent.
THE BLONDE AT THE PARTY
Nick Weston, 28, has met the woman of his dreams, and she’s invited him to meet up with her at a party on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. When he arrives, she’s not there, but everyone he meets seems to know of her and want to meet her too, each for their own, distinct reasons. As he pinballs from one eccentric party guest to the next, Nick gets the sinking feeling that his dream woman was an illusion, something he desperately wants but will never attain. Until he meets Trish, a lovely, kind woman who opens his heart again. As this bittersweet farce reaches it’s conclusion, Nick must decide whether to leave the party with Trish or continue to wait for the mysterious blonde he came looking for.
ITHE POLAR BEAR
A climate change-themed dark comedy in one act about two southern Alaska residents, Kayla and Dewey, who find a polar bear trapped in their garage. Kayla is desperate to free the bear; Dewey doesn't think it's a big deal. He's more concerned with an audition he's preparing for a dystopian movie that's shooting locally. Their inefficacy/apathy in reaction to the bear's predicament mirrors society's current response to climate change.
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