python -> multiprocessing module

Here's what I am trying to accomplish -

1. I have about a million files which I need to parse & append the parsed content to a single file.
2. Since a single process takes ages, this option is out.
3. Not using threads in Python as it essentially comes to running a single process (due to GIL).
4. Hence using multiprocessing module. i.e. spawning 4 sub-processes to utilize all that raw core power :)

So far so good, now I need a shared object which all the sub-processes have access to. I am using Queues from the multiprocessing module. Also, all the sub-processes need to write their output to a single file. A potential place to use Locks I guess. With this setup when I run, I do not get any error (so the parent process seems fine), it just stalls. When I press ctrl-C I see a traceback (one for each sub-process). Also no output is written to the output file. Here's code (note that everything runs fine without multi-processes) -

import os
import glob
from multiprocessing import Process, Queue, Pool

data_file  = open('out.txt', 'w+')

def worker(task_queue):
    for file in iter(task_queue.get, 'STOP'):
        data = mine_imdb_page(os.path.join(DATA_DIR, file))
        if data:
            data_file.write(repr(data)+'\n')
    return

def main():
    task_queue = Queue()
    for file in glob.glob('*.csv'):
        task_queue.put(file)
    task_queue.put('STOP') # so that worker processes know when to stop

    # this is the block of code that needs correction.
    if multi_process:
        # One way to spawn 4 processes
        # pool = Pool(processes=4) #Start worker processes
        # res  = pool.apply_async(worker, [task_queue, data_file])

        # But I chose to do it like this for now.
        for i in range(4):
            proc = Process(target=worker, args=[task_queue])
            proc.start()
    else: # single process mode is working fine!
        worker(task_queue)
    data_file.close()
    return

what am I doing wrong? I also tried passing the open file_object to each of the processes at the time of spawning. But to no effect. e.g.- Process(target=worker, args=[task_queue, data_file]). But this did not change anything. I feel the subprocesses are not able to write to the file for some reason. Either the instance of the file_object is not getting replicated (at the time of spawn) or some other quirk... Anybody got an idea?

EXTRA: Also Is there any way to keep a persistent mysql_connection open & pass it across to the sub_processes? So I open a mysql connection in my parent process & the open connection should be accessible to all my sub-processes. Basically this is the equivalent of a shared_memory in python. Any ideas here?