Blackpool mum's novel set for big screen debut
A Blackpool mum whose series of novels described have taken the Amazon book charts by storm is looking forward to the big screen premiere of one of her works – and it’s in her home town.
Stephanie Oram, who writes under the name SJ Carmine, gained a string of four and five star reviews for her books, with reviewers say the stories, described as ‘erotic comedy’, are “laugh out loud funny” and a breath of fresh air.
Now her debut novel written during lockdown in 2020 - Wax, Whips and My Hairy Bits: An erotic comedy of errors – has been made into a short film and its premiere is at Blackpool’s Regent Cinema on March 14.
“I’m thrilled,” said Stephanie. “The film has been shot on location in Blackpool and is very northern.
"We have Kelli Hollis of Emmerdale and Shameless fame as our narrator and have the most amazing northern cast including a fabulous drag queen.
"My one condition when working with the production company was that it had to be very, very Blackpool. The town gets such bad press at times, I wanted to rail against that.
"The production team are all ladies of a ‘certain age’ and we are really keen to shout it loud and proud that age is not a barrier.
"The film is due to premier in Blackpool at The Regent Cinema on Saturday, March 14. This really shouldn’t have happened to me, I’m a self published, menopausal northerner who isn’t celebrity and hasn’t been on Love Island.”
Stephanie’s writing career started when the first Covid lockdown pulled the shutters down on her plans to set up a recruitment agency for the over-50s, forcing her into a major life-changing re-think.
Her books follow the ongoing story of Ann who, after a series of dull and uninspired relationships, begins a journey to find her very own Mr Uninhibited but, as related in hilarious detail, things do not go quite as planned.
Stephanie, 55, turns all the clichés of romantic and erotic fiction on their head by casting a humorous eye on how things really are in the world of courting.
Her books are light and aimed at giving mainly female readers a laugh, while writing for an audience she feels is often ignored in literature.
“If someone had told me I’d be sandwiched between the Hairy Bikers and Richard Osman in the book charts, I’d have said they were having a laugh,” she said.
"It’s been an incredible experience and it shows what ordinary working class women in their over-50s can do.
"I’m not a celebrity and the publishing industry frankly looks down its nose at this kind of thing – there is no way a publishing house would bother with these books.
"So I’ve done it by myself. Self publishing is really easy, Amazon does nearly everything for you.
"A lot of my ideas have come from reversing all the usual tropes – my heroines have cellulite and frizzy bad hair days but it’s about strong women who know their boundaries and are not going to do anything they don’t want to.
"It’s a celebration of women in the over 50s and I’ve had a lot of women contact me to say these stories really resonate with them.
Stephanie says Ann’s frank amorous misadventures are not drawn from her own personal experiences, but are a winning mixture of real life anecdotes from people she knows, her own imagination and some very earthy sayings in the Urban Dictionary.
How Stephanie became a writer
At the start of the first lockdown, in 2020, Stpehanie was in the process of setting up a recruitment agency to help the over-50s get back into work.
"When lockdown hit all my plans were in tatters,” she said. “I was suffering from horrendous menopausal/lockdown anxiety and I was in a terrible place.
"I knew I had to do something to occupy myself and maybe make other women in the same position as me laugh.
"As a woman of a certain age and former member of the PTFA, I had two choices – write funny, mucky books or make banana bread.
"I’m a rubbish cook, so banana bread was never going to be an option.”
Another door opened when Stephanie ventured into stand-up comedy.
She added: “As one door closed several others have opened.”
But the writing did the trick of giving her a new pursuit which has proved a resounding success and now she is relishing the prospect of the premiere, which is close to a sellout.
The film itself lasts 15 minutes and the evening will also feature a director’s cut screening and a question and answer session with Stephanie and the production team.
All Stephanie’s books are available in Kindle and book formats on Amazon under her pen name of SJ Carmine and details of any remaining tickets for the film premiere are at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/wax-whips-and-my-hairy-bits-film-premiere-tickets
Narrator Kelli’s TV pedigree
Kelli Hollis, the Leeds-born actress who narrates the film, was a familiar TV face as Ali Spencer in ITV's Emmerdale from 2011 to 2015.
She is also known for playing Tina Crabtree in two television dramas, Tina Goes Shopping (1999)and Tina Takes a Break (2001) as well as Mischief Night (2006) which was a cinema-released feature film, as well as playing shop owner Yvonne Karib in Channel 4's comedy-drama Shameless from 2004 to 2010.
A landmark venue
The Regent Cinema is a landmark building on Blackpool’s Church Street, which originally opened its doors in 1921.
The white tiled neo-baroque building harks back to the days of the old ‘picture palaces’ in the exciting heyday of the silver screen, when crowds of people would flock to enjoy some Hollywood glamour.
But it gradually fell into a state of disrepair and disuse before being restored as a working cinema and antiques hall after businessman Rick Taylor bought the derelict building for £100,000 in 2013.
It re-opened in July 2016 and shows classic films as well as being available to hire for private events.