: About Me

An independent writer, I have penned numerous features and dozens of commentary pieces since 1993, after serving in the administration of President George H.W. Bush as Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services all four years.

I particularly enjoy inspirational biography - writing about those whose lives have been utterly transformed - and am currently working on a book that builds on my feature writing in this regard, among other book projects.  I have also written three screenplays and two pilot sitcoms.  

My commentaries and features have been published in numerous venues including Aceprensa (Madrid-based), Alexandria Times, Austin American-Statesman, Catholic New World, Daily Caller, Envoy Magazine, Human Events, National Catholic Register, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newport Life Magazine, On Patrol Magazine (USO), Our Sunday Visitor, Pajamas Media, Position Papers (Dublin-based), San Francisco Examiner, The Wanderer, VFW Magazine, Washington Examiner, and Washington Times, among others.  I have also done television commentary (nine shows in 2008) to complement my writing on the Middle East.

I've written all my life, starting as a child, when I wrote a play which my third grade class performed. I began to truly understand I had the soul of a "writer" while attending Wellesley College, where I was fortunate to study literature under the tutelage of Dr. David Ferry, a renowned poet, who, in April 2011, won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement, the world's biggest poetry prize.  He recognized and helped nurture my talent as I began to travel the long, arduous road to actually becoming a "writer."

I began writing for Helium at the height of the recession in early 2009. These are sketches, really - mostly on topics I don't normally write about.  Helium, I find, offers a good opportunity to learn and to exercise one's writing skills in between projects, and earn a little extra income.

Samples of my non-fiction writing are available on my website at www.maryclairecinema.com (non-fiction page).

My passion is ...

writing

Why I write ...

I love it...

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

"The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway; "Spencer Tracy: A Biography" by James Curtis

My first job ...

summer of freshman year in college: reshelving books at National Library of Medicine written in various languages, aided by Bryn Mayr graduate who knew Russian

My inspiration ...

those who have had the courage to grow and change

General Invest in T. Rowe Price

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In the depths of the Great Depression, Thomas Rowe Price, Jr. bet on his own ingenuity and the American economy by founding T. Rowe Price (TROW), a financial services holding company based in Baltimore, Maryland.  With a degree in chemistry, Price headed for Wall Street during the 1920's and gradually, according to Investopedia, developed "his own unique investment strategy that helped him and many others achieve superior returns."  His alchemy was simple. First, employ "proprietary research for his investment picks.”  Second, throw out th...

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Writing:

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• Marketplace Premier Writer
• Marketplace Approved Writer
• 3Marketplace Articles Sold
• Helium Charter Member