Biography

Mardeene Burr Mitchell has more than 22 years in the publishing and film industries as an author, skilled writing coach, publishing consultant, and now literary manager.  

Formerly Executive Director of Writers Connection, a San Francisco Bay Area organization serving writers, Mardeene helped founders Steve and Meera Lester manage a membership of over 1500, plan a year-round   seminar program, and publish a 16-page monthly newsletter. She oversaw the bookstore, job shop, Writers Referral Network, consulting service, and publishing division. She helped coordinate and direct major writing conferences, including the highly successful Selling to Hollywood screenwriting conference for which she recruited and introduced panelists/speakers in the film industry, including agents, writers, producers/studio execs from Star Trek, Disney, Miramax, Warner Brothers, Paramount, and NBC, among others. She wrote, edited and critiqued feature articles, short stories, books, screenplays and proposals, and pitched and marketed projects on both coasts.

She has been collaborative author of books on a selective basis, including Hidden Faces of the Soul: 10 Secrets for Mind/Body Healing from Kabbalahs Lost Tree of Life (which she sold to Adams Media, 2000), with Dr. Sheldon Z. Kramer, Ph.D., endorsed by Deepak Chopra, M.D; The Gift of Taking: Honor Yourself First&All Else Will Follow with Dr. Jill Kahn (2001); Soul Adventures with Jean Adrienne (2003). Her book proposal for Dr. Marlene M. Maheu, Ph.D., sold Dr. Maheus book, Infidelity on the Internet: Virtual Relationships and Real Betrayal, to SourceBooks, Inc. in 2001

Her short story, With and Without Wings,was published in the book Angel Over My Shoulder (Fair Winds Press, 2004). Also a photojournalist, Mardeene is marketing her own photostory book and a television documentary and drama series based upon the book. Her original dance romance, These Boots Were Made for Dancing, was a finalist in The Best in the West Screenplay Competition, was optioned by a producer, and is currently back on the market. She was an occasional guest and co-host on Ron Montanas San Jose cable television show, Creative Encounters. She helped producer Joe Gora of Agora TV in Atlanta with some of the writing and developing of his television series pilot, My Fork in the Road, introducing choices to easy healthy cooking, currently being marketed. She served for three years on the Board of Directors of Women in Film/Atlanta.

She studied English literature at Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia; Fine Art, painting and drawing at the State University of Iowa, Iowa City; and German Literature at the State University of New York at Albany, graduating there with a B.A. cum laude in Secondary Education and German, with minors in French and Art. She taught high school English and German in New York and California.

She is a dynamic speaker and has presented seminars on writing, collaboration, and brainstorming your writing projects:  privately and for organizations: in Atlanta for Mercer University language and linguistics faculty from all of their campuses; for Writers Connection in California; Georgia Writers, Gainesville (GA) College, and at various writers conferences in California and Georgia. Her mission statement:  bringing visionaries and visionary ideas to light to facilitate personal and global transformation. She believes it is through the sharing of our stories that we learn and transform.