Mary Claire Kendall is a Washington-based journalist and screenwriter, working with Providence Productions in L.A.  Prior to her work with Providence, she wrote two original feature film screenplays, including The Rose and the Thorns,  the catalyst for this website; and a pilot sitcom. Among other literary projects, including various screenplays, she is developing the novel version of The Rose and the Thorns, as well as a work of historical fiction.

A graduate of Wellesley College, she has extensive political experience, including a stint as one of Lee Atwater’s “30 nerds.” She served as a Reagan political appointee at the U.S. Department of Education from 1987-’88 writing speeches; and as a George H.W. Bush political appointee at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1989-’93, where she was Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Health, as well as number two staffer to the National Commission on America’s Urban Families, May-October 1992, serving at the Assistant Secretary’s behest.

Since 1995, she has been published in many venues including, among others, Aceprensa (based in Madrid), Alexandria Times, American Enterprise Magazine, Austin American-Statesman, Big Hollywood, Catholic New World, Daily Caller, Envoy, Huffington Post, Human Events Online, National Catholic Register, National Review Online, NY Daily News, New York Post, Newport Life Magazine, Our Sunday Visitor, Position Papers (based in Dublin), The San Francisco Examiner, The Wanderer, The Washington Examiner, The Washington Times, and VFW Magazine. During her college years, she was a frequent contributor to The Wellesley News.

In her writing, she focuses mainly on healthcare and the economy; our brave troops; the Middle East; and cultural issues. She also focuses on celebrities, especially icons from Hollywood’s Golden Age, with a special emphasis on “celebrity recovery.” To date, she’s written about, among others, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Jane Wyman, Betty Hutton and Dolores Hart.

Ms. Kendall is a member of The Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where she has studied screenwriting since January 2001.