SMC Media Studies professor Lynn Dickinson becomes a published author and sets her sights on the big screen

  With lofty goals of making a movie and having a successful Hollywood career, Santa Monica College professor Lynn Dickinson wrote a screenplay with ambitions of one day seeing it on the big screen.

Jeff Gordon (President of Writers Boot camp) told her, "The fastest way to get a movie made in this town is to write the book."

But with the tanked economy in 2008, Dickinson would have to wait several more years in order to get her movie funded.

Dickinson decided to follow the advice of Gordon and write the book in advance of her screenplay, "Brother Haters Anonymous," which was published in February.

Although the book is fiction, "Brother Haters Anonymous" is a story that hits close to home for Dickinson.

The story takes a comedic approach and looks at sibling relationships, specifically brother/sister rivalries during early adolescence.

It follows a 13-year-old girl Molly and her 11-year-old brother Zack as they attend the same middle school. On the very first day of school, Zack humiliates his sister in front of the entire school.

Shortly afterwards, Molly finds a mysterious letter in her locker inviting her to join a secret club of girls who hate their brothers. The story chronicles the adventures of the girls in this secret organization of brother haters.

Although the book was written with elementary and middle school girls in mind, Dickinson has found a surprise audience in young adults who were raised with siblings.

A prevalent theme in the book is female empowerment. "I wanted to write something where the girl is the main character and the girl has to solve her own problems," said Dickinson.

There are a diverse group of girls in the book and they are on all sorts of different social strata. They can't be seen in public together because of the stigma, so their secret club is in a mystified state of existence.

Writing the book certainly didn't come without obstacles.

Dickinson has a Master's Degree in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California and specializes in comedic screenplays. "I feel like I have a really strong writing background, but it was a challenge to take on a new form, it was a novel," she said.

It's been a journey for Dickinson as a first time novelist. A week after the book came out, a film producer from Switzerland contacted her and asked if the rights were available to make a film out of it. "I hope it works out, I'm excited about it," she exclaimed.

The book has had universal appeal and Dickinson has seen the reviews for the book, one of which was all the way from India. She has also had friends reaching out to her all the way from Australia, Paris, and Canada.

A friend of Dickinson's in Long Island did a Skype chat with a Girl Scout troupe and was discussing different ways to go about screenwriting. She said, "My friend Lynn wrote a screenplay and then turned it into a book called 'Brother Haters Anonymous' and one of the girls went, 'I know that book.'"

Her book "Brother Haters Anonymous" is currently available as an E-book, but the publisher is set to release the book in print if it sells 170 copies in 60 days.