Biography
Denise is an award-winning, best-selling novelist and screenwriter. Her stories feature ordinary people who become extraordinary in crisis. She recently won the Raindance Pitch Competition with her Spotlight project, Tough Old Broad, and also won the Shedunnit Short Script Competition at WOFFF20 with her proof-of-concept short film for Tough Old Broad.
Denise writes young adult novels under her own name and women’s fiction under the pen name Aimee Alexander. Her internationally bestselling novels have been published by Penguin Random House, Hachette and Lake Union Publishing. One of Denise’s young adult novels was a Top 50 Finalist in the ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Competition. Another was in the Top 50 of Roadmap’s 2020 Write Start Manuscript Competition. Her radio play won the Little Wonder Radio Plays Competition 2020.
Denise lives in Dublin with her family. She would like more sun in her life. That is not a metaphor.
Project Title: Tough Old Broad
- Genre: Buddy Comedy
Target Audience
Tough Old Broad features an inter-generational duo of female protagonists and explores universal themes of loss and bullying. It will appeal to female audiences with a broad age demographic (15+). Given the popularity of Grace and Frankie, this may be a conservative estimate.
"With Tough Old Broad I want to spotlight the magic that happens when an older person connects with a younger one."
Synopsis
Martini-drinking, CBD-oil vaping, caustic Nina, in her 80s, is a rebel by nature. She fights the rules of her care home, her Parkinson’s disease, her nemesis, Gloria, and her beloved husband Paddy's efforts to get her to accept that he wants to die.
Paddy nudges Nina into a two-week companionship programme with the local school, suggesting she pair with a timid teen, Holly, who he alone has witnessed being bullied. Nina and Holly get off to a bumpy start – until Nina discovers that Holly is mute due to bullying. Nina’s passion for defending the underdog kicks in. She sets out to take down the young offender, Sarah. This was Paddy’s plan: for Nina to take on a new case.
Nina has two weeks to help Holly reclaim her voice and future. If she fails, Holly might never speak again. And Nina might not find her way back to the career and life she has given up for a man who wants her to go on without him.