Press Kit
Bios, project facts, and images for press, producers, and event organizers
For the Press
Everything on this page may be used in reviews, interviews, listings, and event materials. For scripts, review copies, interviews, or anything not covered here, please use the contact form and choose Screenwriting — Script Request, Criticism — Review Copy Request, or Press / Interview.
On second reference, please use "C.M." or "C.M. Dinsmore" rather than the surname alone.
Bio
Short
C.M. Dinsmore is a writer, scholar, and digital media producer. C.M. is the author of the critical study The Robinsonade and Authorial Context (forthcoming 2027) and the novel The Melody That Binds (2023). His screenplay Christabel, which completes Coleridge's unfinished Gothic poem, was a finalist at the 2026 Cambridge Script Festival.
Full
C.M. Dinsmore is a writer and scholar who works across the narrative arts: fiction, literary criticism, screenwriting, and digital media. He trained first in film and media studies before earning a doctorate in Literature and Writing. C.M. is the author of the critical study The Robinsonade and Authorial Context (forthcoming 2027) and the novel The Melody That Binds (2023), a Robinsonade about a Japanese soldier who flees into the Philippine jungle during the Second World War and stays for more than forty years. His screenwriting includes an adaptation of the novel and Christabel, which completes Samuel Taylor Coleridge's unfinished Gothic poem. Paired with an original score by composer Albert Syeles, Christabel was a finalist at the 2026 Cambridge Script Festival.
Books
The Robinsonade and Authorial Context: A Critical Study of The Melody That Binds and the Genre · Literary criticism
The Robinsonade has long been read as adventure. C.M. Dinsmore reads it through an essentialist lens of his own, finding beneath the adventure the shared human core that remains once social role, cultural identity, and material security are stripped away. Reading six castaway novels, from Robinson Crusoe to The Martian, alongside his own The Melody That Binds, C.M. examines authorial context and the "ebb and flow" of conflict and cooperation. E Pluribus Unum, unity through diversity, is the conviction behind both his novel and this study.
The Criticism page carries the full synopsis.
| Publisher | Heliotropic Media |
|---|---|
| Publication date | February 9, 2027 (first edition) |
| Hardcover | ISBN 978-1-961421-06-6 · $44.95 |
| Paperback | ISBN 978-1-961421-05-9 · $29.95 |
| Ebook | ISBN 978-1-961421-04-2 · $19.95 |
| Pages · Trim | 243 pages · 6 × 9 in |
| Review copies | Request through the contact form |
The Melody That Binds · Novel
Amidst the harrowing tumult of World War II, a Japanese soldier escapes into the unforgiving jungle of the Philippines. His desperate flight from the horrors of battle leads him to a hidden enclave, where he anticipates spending his remaining days in solitude. A father, a husband, and a soldier, he navigates a path of atonement, forgiveness, and love: a story of the human spirit tested by the trials of war and the complexities of the heart.
More on the Fiction page.
| Published | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Genre | WWII historical fiction · Asia Pacific theater |
| Hardcover | ISBN 978-1-961421-02-8 · 199 pages |
| Paperback | ISBN 978-1-961421-00-4 · 229 pages |
| Ebook | Kindle |
| Audiobook | Narrated by Benjamin Powell · 7 hrs 36 min · Audible |
| Screen | Adapted as a screenplay by the author |
Screenwriting
C.M.'s screenwriting spans original screenplays and literary adaptations, built on undergraduate training in film and media studies. The approach: economy of language as a primary formal value, character revealed through a thoughtful and patient pace, and adaptation that seeks the essence of character and story. Scripts are available on request to producers, development executives, and literary managers.
.jpg){kind=link}
Christabel · Screenplay adaptation
Finalist · Cambridge Script Festival · 2026
A whirlwind of a mystery revolving around the tragedies and mental anguish of one English noble family. Centered on Christabel, who experiences friendship and love in the midst of loss and loneliness, the story unfolds and twists until it culminates in one woman finding her source of strength.
| Source | "Christabel," Samuel Taylor Coleridge's unfinished poem, first published 1816 |
|---|---|
| Genre | Gothic mystery |
| Score | Albert Syeles, rhapsody for violin and orchestra (11:35); the score has won first-place awards at international film festivals, 2022–2023 |
| Project page | cmdinsmore.com/projects/christabel |
| Script | Request through the contact form |
The Melody That Binds · Adapted screenplay
Developed in parallel with the novel: the same story of a Japanese soldier in the Philippine jungle, 1945, rendered in the visual language of cinema and inspired by the dramatic grammar of Kurosawa. Available on request.
Interview Topics
The Castaway Story
- The Robinsonade, the castaway story from Robinson Crusoe to The Martian, and why writers keep returning to it
- What remains when everything is stripped away: an essentialist reading of castaway stories
- The forgotten Robinsonade: The Female American
- What castaway fiction knows about solitude and trauma: The Melody That Binds
- Colonial legacy and cultural hybridity in castaway stories
- E Pluribus Unum: unity through recognizing our essence over the physical
Craft
- Conflict and cooperation as the engine of narrative tension
- Economy of language: saying more with less, on the page and on screen
- What novelists can learn from Kurosawa's visual drama
- Atonement and forgiveness as a story arc
- Using music in the writing process
Fiction, Film, and Screen
- Fiction set in the Asia Pacific theater of World War II
- Finishing what Coleridge left unfinished: adapting the Christabel fragment for the screen
- Adapted screenplays: what carries over from page to screen, and what has to change
- From screen to page: what changes when a screenplay becomes a novel
- Adaptation as distillation: looking for the essence of character and story
- The filmmaker's eye in fiction
- Borrowed blueprints: Genesis and Erikson's life stages as screen structure
- From film school to a doctorate in literature: moving between disciplines
Digital Media
- Virtual production and the independent filmmaker
- Independent publishing in the digital era
- The public intellectual online: essays, audiences, and independence
Contact
Script requests, press and interview requests, review copies, and library or bookseller inquiries: please use the contact form.
Support the Work
Your support makes these projects possible. Please subscribe at Patreon.
Become a Patron