tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2945495877745765252024-03-22T01:45:19.836+00:00...the island of Dreamsrobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.comBlogger170125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-30239987791179907992020-10-11T13:13:00.001+01:002020-10-11T13:14:08.540+01:00Unpublished posts: Sticking stuff in my eyes<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="clear: right; float: right; font-size: x-small; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></span><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: courier;">Here is an unpublished and unfinished blog post from space year 2014. It is a little bit like a time capsule. How could 2014 Rob know that eventually even he would be ready for the Moffat era to end, though I would have kept Capaldi forever. </span><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">Also, Gotham did eventually manage to become a complete car crash.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">Stay safe. <br /></span><div><br /></div><div>2020 Rob. </div><div>—-</div><div><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">I think, for once, everybody expected the new Doctor to be fantastic but Peter Capaldi still managed to exceed most expectations. What an extraordinary, prickly, comical, considered and occasionally Machiavellian-seeming Doctor he has been. </span><br />
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The consistency of this run has been excellent, with only one bum note out of the last sixteen episodes. Securing the talents of Ben Wheatley to direct two episodes shows just how much the production team want to keep the programme fresh. If the Steven Moffat era of Doctor Who ever comes to an end, and I rather hope it doesn't, it will surely be looked back on as the most ambitious and innovative period of the show since the 1960s.</span><br />
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That's my opinion, others are available.</span></div>
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><u>Days of Future Past and Guardians of the Galaxy</u> - I loved Captain America: The Winter Soldier but it somehow managed to be my third favourite comic book film this year, purely through having the bad luck to be released in the same year as X-Men: Days of Future Past and the amazeballs Guardians of the Galaxy. What a year for comic films when you can almost overlook The Winter Soldier. </span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><u>X-Men: Days of Future Past</u> had a slight advantage as I am already a pronounced fan of X-Men films and comics and was really bloody excited about it. Aside from translating a truly classic comic story to the big screen (Proteus next please!), this film was going to bring together the casts of two separate and somewhat contradictory big screen X-Men films and confront the continuity problems (well, some of them anyway). The end result could have been a total mess but instead produced probably the best X-Men film yet made and certainly one of the films of the year. X-Men: Days of Future Past is a work of genius. </span><br />
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I'm excited all over again at the thought of the extended version expected next year. I can't get enough of this film. </span><br />
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><u>Guardians of the Galaxy</u> had me excited too but for different reasons. I had no knowledge of the comics at all so was purely excited at the prospect of a new and seeminlgy very different Marvel Studios film.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguMO4Rge_8z4pBwC3Duuh3gQ-02iJXDp1H-zeF1oTgTC31QPdI8guQZTR01BTNz23hLVPo7MPu5FnzA79YuOWwVbd_z8XiSBe9sgz_Q7q4o-Xa0BYgAR0tTUiRz_G5MwonyETRBh9X1Qo/s1600/2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguMO4Rge_8z4pBwC3Duuh3gQ-02iJXDp1H-zeF1oTgTC31QPdI8guQZTR01BTNz23hLVPo7MPu5FnzA79YuOWwVbd_z8XiSBe9sgz_Q7q4o-Xa0BYgAR0tTUiRz_G5MwonyETRBh9X1Qo/s1600/2.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">I wanted to hate this. It was for completely selfish reasons, mind. I have been trying to nail the concept for a supernatural Victorian returning drama for a few years. I might as well give it up now. Penny Dreadful won me over quickly with its lush visuals, fantastic performances and genuinely frightening moments. Eva Green shines among a stupendous cast as the sad and terrifying Vanessa Ives. Series two is one of my most anticipated events of 2015. </span></div>
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<u>Black Mirror: White Christmas</u></span></div>
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">The emergence of Charlie Brooker as a world class screenwriter should have surprised no one. With Dead Set he took his wise and demented eye and created a darkly amusing drama that reflected the same concerns and drive that infused his writing and broadcasting. With Black Mirror he has further explored these themes and honed his skills. White Christmas, his feature length Black Mirror portmanteau special, was Brooker epitomised. Intelligent, vulgar, horrifying and compassionate. </span></div>
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">Bolstered by the talents of the incomparable John Hamm, Rafe Spall and Oona Chaplin among others. </span></div>
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><u>Mad Men</u></span></div>
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">One of the greatest questions facing humanity in 2015 must be this one: What are we going to do in a world without Mad Men? It's with the familiar sense of hot anticipation and rising calamity that I look forward to the last ever episodes of this extraordinary series in a few months. </span></div>
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">Gotham is really, really good. It feels weird writing that as it should be a total car crash. But it isn't. </span></div>
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><u>Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D</u></span></div>
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">Continues to improve. In a world glutted with mediocre comic book tv series SHIELD continues to carve its own path. Uniquely tied into an ongoing series of films it this year gave us something we have never seen before. We were able to see a TV series cross over with a mutimillion dollar movie, The (outstanding) Winter Soldier, and use it to prompt a massive change in direction for the show. SHIELD does not get enough recognition for its innovation and plumb uniqueness. </span><br />
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Ghostbusters</span><br />
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Parks and Rec</span></div>
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<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">Also of note...</span><br />
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Flash, Arrow (by association), American Horror Story, The Lego Movie, Frozen, Star Wars, Star Wars, STAR WARS!!!!!</span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><div><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span face="'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">Some of the things I've enjoyed reading in 2014...</span><br /><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">Bendis' X-Men</span></div><div><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">Snyder's Batman</span></div><div><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">Tomasi's Batman and Robin</span></div><div><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">Hickman</span></div><div><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">Doctor Sleep</span><br /><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;">The Dark Tower</span><br /><span face="Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh83OeyY_z7oER1e7Gm0xAPL28AWWa0QLQWbA6YI5s5PpEtcRhzFZDvzDJGh3eZSG9DzNdH7pDqNHFHL2MxGERx4R8-Hux6DS0ZnHYcUHTHJExGQh2TNFKzgg3cG2wmxCyAnH7K4mVU39g/s1600/OldDesignShop_HorseCarriageChristmasCard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh83OeyY_z7oER1e7Gm0xAPL28AWWa0QLQWbA6YI5s5PpEtcRhzFZDvzDJGh3eZSG9DzNdH7pDqNHFHL2MxGERx4R8-Hux6DS0ZnHYcUHTHJExGQh2TNFKzgg3cG2wmxCyAnH7K4mVU39g/s1600/OldDesignShop_HorseCarriageChristmasCard.jpg" height="214" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Merry Christmas everyone, and a showstopping 2015. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Love always,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Rob. </span><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-90089256365416900912014-03-24T08:00:00.000+00:002014-03-24T20:28:43.896+00:00The Blog Tour<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You must know about this thing. Do you know about this thing? Okay, well there's this thing called the blog tour and it's been passed around from one blogging writer to another. Well from one writer to three others, actually (which kind of reminds me of the projections for how long it would take<i> John Carpenter's The Thing</i> to entirely infect the Earth's population). </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpSHgyg_45EIrbUV2cKj2680tgKBhXVKkrovOagEzqApwN1D9KK4G-pGCbcopL-2Yhqev6YC9sAiWjYf5W6sFq3dnWEOZW_JYy7ul-5LvMoQcQcvWnhLKsnfPTu3VE3p6X0XkJ5h6qxc/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKpSHgyg_45EIrbUV2cKj2680tgKBhXVKkrovOagEzqApwN1D9KK4G-pGCbcopL-2Yhqev6YC9sAiWjYf5W6sFq3dnWEOZW_JYy7ul-5LvMoQcQcvWnhLKsnfPTu3VE3p6X0XkJ5h6qxc/s1600/1.jpg" height="136" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The idea is for writers to answer four questions about their work and habits. </span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The man, the legend, Phill Barron was kind enough to <a href="http://phillbarron.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/the-blog-tour/" target="_blank">nominate me for a turn</a> - which puts me in pretty awesome company. <a href="http://phillbarron.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/horror-movies/" target="_blank">Phill doesn't like <i>John Carpenter's The Thing</i></a> (I know!) but I don't hold that against him.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPEXBuahsK2-19IZTJAOuTEQxv9obH7tc-NQNpIfAWGgh8DHCXppU5qN_O-X29DUMKHFcKPmf8wcPK7SbyYaHytkQueBaxnmgcyiKVfAueY9DuCvK7nQwZrmku_vW9WLyPXi3IQGfD22E/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPEXBuahsK2-19IZTJAOuTEQxv9obH7tc-NQNpIfAWGgh8DHCXppU5qN_O-X29DUMKHFcKPmf8wcPK7SbyYaHytkQueBaxnmgcyiKVfAueY9DuCvK7nQwZrmku_vW9WLyPXi3IQGfD22E/s1600/1.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> I'm sure you're already familiar with Phill's blog but if you aren't then <a href="http://phillbarron.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">check it out</a>. His no bullshit perspective on writing and the filmmaking process is invaluable, and always a breath of fresh air. He's written a shedload of films what got made too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So, on to the questions...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">1) <u>What am I working on? </u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Um... Well, I've almost finished decorating my little boy's bedroom...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But seriously, without getting all self pitiful (<a href="http://www.robstickler.com/2014/01/resolution.html" target="_blank">been there, done that</a>), I've struggled to keep a good work routine since my little boy was born. There's been a lot going on for us and it's hard to be in full time work with a family and still bash out the words if you get some free time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yeah, I know. It's hard. Boo hoo. Anyway, he's a big lad of (nearly) four now and I've been determined that this year writing becomes a priority again. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Trouble is I'm out of my preferred cycle and I don't really feel like I'm working on any one thing. There are a couple of spec scripts rotting in rewrite limbo which are in dire need of taking apart and fixing. One is a pilot which I love but fear I may have been sat on too long. The other is a horror feature set in Wales which (I think) has the potential to be awesome but is nowhere near there yet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm brainstorming a couple of spec projects which I want to take to script in the next month or so. They're both in mediums I've not really tried before which is cool. I hope the clickety-clack frenzy of a draft zero will be the nitrous injection I need to kick my writing process back into gear. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzO5UH-RjXrtagZSiUQ5jC6WQiZxDdTugymAVk9NQNSOOfvmGVcYZDMxSl194ZbfH6kh_XLpwilC7qUGq3mii3jXsIgDSBMTaYzaRv8rw6ag06f7GpgLGgmVpaIxPAaR18HszYrNHZqrs/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzO5UH-RjXrtagZSiUQ5jC6WQiZxDdTugymAVk9NQNSOOfvmGVcYZDMxSl194ZbfH6kh_XLpwilC7qUGq3mii3jXsIgDSBMTaYzaRv8rw6ag06f7GpgLGgmVpaIxPAaR18HszYrNHZqrs/s1600/1.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">One is a radio comedy. I haven't written anything funny, (well, not deliberately funny) for years and (despite being a big fan of<i> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00bfvkd" target="_blank">The Navy Lark</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009t2ld" target="_blank">Hancock's Half Hour</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.grahamduff.co.uk/?portfolio=nebulous" target="_blank">Nebulous</a></i>, <i><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lmcxj" target="_blank">Cabin Pressure</a></i>, the works of <a href="http://www.bigfinish.com/" target="_blank">Big Finish</a> and <i><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03v379k" target="_blank">The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</a></i>) I've never written anything for audio. Not ever. So I'm very bloody excited about that. I don't want to say anything about the other thing yet in case I break the magic, you know how fragile it can be. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">2) <u>How does my work differ from others of its genre? </u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I don't think I have "a" genre. I'll write just about anything, same as I will read, watch or listen to just about anything. I guess if I'd ever had great success in a genre that might have changed but, as it stands, so far so good!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So lets ignore the genre thing and just ask how does my work differ from others? Oh shit, let's not do that. That's even worse. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As Ray Davies sang, "I'm not like everybody else". None of us are. What makes my work different is me. My experiences and perspectives. My hang ups and obsessions. My secrets and my fears.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And maybe an over-awareness of my place in the universe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">3) <u>Why do I write what I do? </u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">To see if I can. To test myself. I don't like to stick to comfort zones in my work so if I'm choosing between ideas for a future project I'm more likely to go for the most difficult one because that's the experience that will teach me the most.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Does everyone do that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">4) <u>How does my writing process work? </u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">First I find a successful writer, then I lure them to my stone altar... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This feels a bit pretentious. My process is nothing special. It's a mixture of things I've read in "how to" books, the insights of other writers and what I've found works, or doesn't, for me personally.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Still, the question has been asked.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">First there's The Idea. Unless I've just woken up one day and said something like "Hey, how come I never wrote a radio comedy?" in which case first, there's the format. Then, later, sometimes much later, there's The Idea. In either case The Idea will be hurriedly scribbled in Evernote or an actual physical notebook and left to it's own devices for a while. Some ideas don't get beyond this stage. Actually most ideas don't get beyond this stage but they're probably just rubbish. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLVkDxpp3MVzMKdzWc0V851EBOCDL3OblWVrYdyoLZtarwaVNSC9qLeOpFftDQMyriJToFOI1AtSWJRanD_tiFPPTI3alGGMy-t3v7tvADW-rbx3IbUNIPhjs38tc5g7gk9d9c-gRtOVc/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLVkDxpp3MVzMKdzWc0V851EBOCDL3OblWVrYdyoLZtarwaVNSC9qLeOpFftDQMyriJToFOI1AtSWJRanD_tiFPPTI3alGGMy-t3v7tvADW-rbx3IbUNIPhjs38tc5g7gk9d9c-gRtOVc/s1600/1.jpg" height="140" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When an idea starts to actually look like a viable story then out comes the A4 notepad and I start brainstorming that sumbitch. At this point I'm most interested in the possibilities of the idea, whether it or something similar has been done before and whether it worked. Basically - is there any point writing this? If the idea were to explore the Cosa Nostra in New York City through the course of the twentieth century then I'm unlikely to think, "hey, I can do that better than <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068646/+" target="_blank">The Godfather</a>." Although, if there was an angle... </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Actually, I'm aware that a personal failing of mine is to be too ready to think my idea is similar to something that has been done. If I'm not careful I can let that kill an idea dead before I've really considered its potential. At the end of the day, especially with specs and Hollywood, no one else will care if it's been done before if it's good enough. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After the storming of the brain comes a one pager. From there we go to some index cards or an electronic alternative. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Once I know who's who and what's going to happen then I'll want get into <a href="http://jasonarnopp.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/magic-of-draft-zero.html" target="_blank">Draft Zero</a> when I should be nailing the treatment. This takes some self control. I'm not a meticulous planner by nature, I like to busk. I can be so eager to get started (this is the fun bit - I'm actually writing!) that I go off half-cocked. So it's about nailing the story without going off the boil. I don't know that I've perfected this. I mentioned those lumbering rewrites, didn't I?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Once that draft is done then it goes on ice for as long as possible (my one <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/" target="_blank">NaNoWriMo</a> effort still hasn't been defrosted). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'll read it straight through first to see if it's any good and make sure it's not just a hundred pages of "I am a fish". If it's salvageable then I start making notes. Usually reading off the screen and making notes on an A4 pad. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's pretty much rinse and repeat after that until I start to feel I could stomach the thought of someone else reading it. The first reader is always my wife. She's an English teacher by profession and damned good at spotting issues, from typos to plot problems. She'll always have notes and then it's back to work I go. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After a few more drafts, if I'm getting to be generally happy with the script, I'll start looking at specifics like dialogue only, sometimes looking at the dialogue of individual characters in isolation. </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Any dead pages? Any unnecessary characters or scenes? Are the action lines as sparse as Poundland on Boxing Day? </span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">If it's a comedy I'll count and categorise the laughs. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Alright, that's enough of that. This is all pretty obvious, isn't it? You'd be far better off reading what <a href="http://phillbarron.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/the-blog-tour/" target="_blank">Phill</a> or <a href="http://fatpigeons.com/2014/03/17/the-blog-tour-what-why-and-how-i-write/" target="_blank">Piers</a> wrote for this anyway.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now it's time for my taggees. I'll let them introduce themselves... </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNqsG7sZ-8QeqrTi3LxOjr74wQeBHwFf4LPLyr_7x4O9A4WmCO7wpTHoU2uZ6ws3k1uL2n6enEF5tdqTEpFTISW_np-RypWRvMeO7NIFW-qPhO72yCkMmtWhRbuvgUbbJv2LcmpSM7iRM/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNqsG7sZ-8QeqrTi3LxOjr74wQeBHwFf4LPLyr_7x4O9A4WmCO7wpTHoU2uZ6ws3k1uL2n6enEF5tdqTEpFTISW_np-RypWRvMeO7NIFW-qPhO72yCkMmtWhRbuvgUbbJv2LcmpSM7iRM/s1600/1.jpg" /></a><span data-measureme="1" style="color: #3e454c; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14.079999923706055px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><a href="http://www.bang2write.com/" target="_blank">Lucy V. Hay</a> </b>is a novelist, script editor, screenwriter and blogger who helps writers via her Bang2write consultancy at <a class="_553k" href="http://www.bang2write.com/" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; padding: 1px 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.bang2write.com</a>. Lucy’s script editing credits include the British Thrillers ASSASSIN , DEVIATION and ACT OF GRACE and she is the author of WRITING AND SELLING THRILLER SCREENPLAYS and THE DECISION: LIZZIE'S STORY. A trained teacher, Lucy is Head Reader for The London Screenwriters' Festival's screenwriting competitions and schemes. As a script reader, Lucy has worked for funding initiatives and screen agencies, as well as literary agents and individual producers, directors and writers, new to professional. Lucy can be found on Twitter (<a class="_553k" href="http://www.twitter.com/Bang2write" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; padding: 1px 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.twitter.com/Bang2write</a>), plus her writing group “Bang2writers” is on Facebook (<a class="_553k" href="http://www.facebook.com/bang2writers" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; padding: 1px 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.facebook.com/bang2writers</a>) and at LinkedIn <a class="_553k" href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Bang2writers-4650546" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; padding: 1px 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Bang2writers-4650546</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;">Lucy doesn't like </span><i style="color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;">John Carpenter's The Thing</i><span style="color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;">.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXfNnstbzT3C3gyuSwAPMCyblf-s36F-BFxt3dxEku4joSuHgAYY0yJqzK_JEtD54eF2SYaDlyejlkhj024L2idESyn990UCW64gsnzIOWQIy1N0YsItbUR1XhZ0smA7LyzQdXzXOdqsY/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXfNnstbzT3C3gyuSwAPMCyblf-s36F-BFxt3dxEku4joSuHgAYY0yJqzK_JEtD54eF2SYaDlyejlkhj024L2idESyn990UCW64gsnzIOWQIy1N0YsItbUR1XhZ0smA7LyzQdXzXOdqsY/s1600/1.jpg" /></a><span style="color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 14.079999923706055px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><a href="http://sharppencils.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Rachael Howard</a> </b>introduces herself as follows: </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3e454c; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 14.079999923706055px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Only 75 words? Cripes. Well I’ve been writing since I could hold a crayon. Early success in a class Limerick competition gave me a boost, I won a pen so binned the crayon. I’m not a guru, just another writer pottering away. I tackle Film, TV, Radio, Stage and Novels. Some have been wrestled into submission, some are fighting on. Feel free to pop by and say hello at <a href="https://twitter.com/rachwrite" target="_blank">@rachwrite</a> or <a href="http://sharppencils.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">my blog</a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I don't know where Rach stands on<i> John Carpenter's The Thing</i>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Check out Lucy and Rachael's blogs next Monday for the next stops on The Blog Tour. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; line-height: normal; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Stickler OUT!</span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-4223408230698599182014-01-04T07:36:00.000+00:002014-03-23T23:12:16.538+00:00Follow the White Rabbit<div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In which I ramble on about <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix" target="_blank">The Matrix</a></i> and Hugo Weaving's teeth. No one can be told what the <i>The Matrix</i> is but there will be spoilers here...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Watched <i>The Matrix</i> the other night, for the first time in years. Well it was New Year's Eve, actually. Way to ring in the new year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We all loved <i>The Matrix</i>, didn't we? It was different and gritty and science fictiony in a way we hadn't seen done well for a while. Then, a few years later, there were a couple of sequels that somewhat tarnished the original. Actually I've never seen the third one, that's why I wanted to rewatch the original. They're running them on ITV or somewhere. I fancied some of that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I really enjoyed most of it. For one thing I've always really liked Keanu Reeves, ever since seeing him in a film called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_Record_(film)" target="_blank">Permanent Record</a> (which I loved!). </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGglsON0NolKK6zMZMst-JDx4RCGZ0xYuQ7wRE02yQvODzKEbMa7O39dnX2qDOALrhh1TU7084-fyKuOJExlXmBpzQuEtxPOZajviRklo7CAAh9eMvwIOfIpfquainW37tZ1-Q1fFt2jw/s1600/The_Matrix_Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" closure_lm_563795="null" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGglsON0NolKK6zMZMst-JDx4RCGZ0xYuQ7wRE02yQvODzKEbMa7O39dnX2qDOALrhh1TU7084-fyKuOJExlXmBpzQuEtxPOZajviRklo7CAAh9eMvwIOfIpfquainW37tZ1-Q1fFt2jw/s1600/The_Matrix_Poster.jpg" gua="true" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Anyway, <i>The Matrix</i>. I love the atmosphere of it. Future noir. Rain. Lightning. <i>Blade Runner</i>. Decay. Shabby hotels. Derelict buildings. Inside the matrix everything is grey and it rains every night. In the real world everyone wears sackcloth tops and eats something that looks like... Well, it don't look too tasty, let's just say. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">There's a rich sprinkling of philosophy, history and big ideas through the film. They turn out to be little more than a garnish, but they are there and they do provoke thought. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I love the little details. The window cleaner's squeaky sponge when Neo is summoned to his bosses office for being late. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's plain that the Wachowskis have a very special vision. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSrQprJqJS-yStHcnq7dvihyphenhyphenpcM3SJ4wgncQpYrqUYfi3GQztI2BIzbjwrTxOFttZTPFTN2ha1DkwVGEDogH-fB6pezZ2uu_kH8Gzc_y2RHA8s6m4oSwpHmDakgmxRmvl-39TiusZzIns/s320/The+MAtrix+Smith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" closure_lm_563795="null" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSrQprJqJS-yStHcnq7dvihyphenhyphenpcM3SJ4wgncQpYrqUYfi3GQztI2BIzbjwrTxOFttZTPFTN2ha1DkwVGEDogH-fB6pezZ2uu_kH8Gzc_y2RHA8s6m4oSwpHmDakgmxRmvl-39TiusZzIns/s320/The+MAtrix+Smith.jpg" gua="true" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Laurence Fishbourne, Joe Pantaliano and Hugo Weaving are just on fire. Terrific performances. Cypher's treachery especially is played with total conviction. I find it quite affecting that the character would rather live a fantasy as a battery than fight for survival in the real world. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The idea of an insane artificial intelligence combined with Weaving's rabidly toothy performance as Agent Smith is top dollar. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And Jebus but that Ericsson phone looked sexy with it's little swishy mouthpiece keypad cover thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3gP90zwo-4r5RoSnS2KM8PnhwqkrFwxjMozQrGXiHp3scfyh_uNjAphNSVMsSLf6S0gaMqGfOJT7wtWAWY2jgyh-m25QYrw0GupTrCX3yICQiU81TTkNgtvq9hyS0qgPBYMIApmX8pUc/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3gP90zwo-4r5RoSnS2KM8PnhwqkrFwxjMozQrGXiHp3scfyh_uNjAphNSVMsSLf6S0gaMqGfOJT7wtWAWY2jgyh-m25QYrw0GupTrCX3yICQiU81TTkNgtvq9hyS0qgPBYMIApmX8pUc/s1600/1.jpg" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I remember having the impression that Switch swapped genders between reality and the matrix but I didn't get that when rewatching. Maybe I was reading a bit too much into that (Nice idea though, with the self image avatars). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So I was really having a great time. And then they start with the guns. Guns and guns and guns. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They establish quite quickly that if you die in the matrix you die in the real world. So when Neo and Trinity start shooting the shit out of security guards and policemen those are real humans dying, yes? 'Cos only the agents are artificial. Right? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">We already know Neo and Trinity can hack the matrix. They know kung fu. Why do they need to massacre these guys? They could probably just run past them. No one but an agent gives them reason to pause. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Is it for the spectacle? I don't remember how much I liked it in 1999 but it got kind of boring the other night. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">After that though it's all good to the end. The rescue of Neo and his battle with Agent Smith is dynamite. And I still love that closing Neo-does-Clark-Kent bit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I've spent over ten years thinking that <i>The Matrix</i> was a full on classic SF film but on rewatching I find it's just pretty damn good fun. Glossy but lacking in real depth. I am disappointed. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyu3McBmmaOm7n6kIwPoTOJJpaBIJJg9qJzkcuWlommJYhqkQIHjg1ki1PwFoy_cINjFBJ6Hl0512ZmuIjs5KxrtOd2h9cGugKrmv-zaEPTYca3tJOSiG9V2xXB2ajpJim64G7oFEujQU/s320/large%2520matrix%2520blu-ray7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><img border="0" closure_lm_563795="null" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyu3McBmmaOm7n6kIwPoTOJJpaBIJJg9qJzkcuWlommJYhqkQIHjg1ki1PwFoy_cINjFBJ6Hl0512ZmuIjs5KxrtOd2h9cGugKrmv-zaEPTYca3tJOSiG9V2xXB2ajpJim64G7oFEujQU/s320/large%2520matrix%2520blu-ray7.jpg" gua="true" height="180" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I was never that fussed on number two, Monica Bellucci cameo aside (why didn't they get Vincent Cassel to play her husband????), so I hardly know whether to bother rewatching that now. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'd be interested to hear anyone else's opinions on the film. Have I lost the plot? Am I being too harsh? Clue me in.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Happy New Year!</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq2vnSEALIjLwZVRNBC2mj-lvkM7f2fGdRG0mg9gq2Ay7K5fgFUWiRgZtFYOSGh-J6RaZ6hVffsTH-VDUIzlsVPKmPMhzbXQkMeYQDaXBjLQdBU7N3CPubIrM0IcFek4SZDbMo3kBH49Y/s1600/photo-1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq2vnSEALIjLwZVRNBC2mj-lvkM7f2fGdRG0mg9gq2Ay7K5fgFUWiRgZtFYOSGh-J6RaZ6hVffsTH-VDUIzlsVPKmPMhzbXQkMeYQDaXBjLQdBU7N3CPubIrM0IcFek4SZDbMo3kBH49Y/s320/photo-1.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I've been wanting to blog for a while now. I've rather fallen out of love with Twitter, I don't know why really, and I guess I've been missing the experience of venting my brain into cyberspace. I still think Twitter is A Good Thing, and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">really important, but I've been struggling to get back into tweeting, or even reading tweets. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And anyway it's time the blog got some love. I</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">miss that old blog camaraderie. So few people seem to comment on blogs now.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> It w</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">ould be really cool to have some interaction on the here so if you read something you like, or something you hate, or whatever, then drop a comment please and we'll pass the time o'day. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I'm going to aim to spew up a new post at least once a week. Might be about writing, or telly, or what I had for breakfast (cheese on toast). I really just want to get into a routine. It's a part of a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">2014 relaunch strategy I've come up with because it's not just the blog that's been idle for a year. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I've quite unintentionally taken a little over a year off from writing. I didn't want or mean to but there have been so many things going on in our lives that I've found it impossible to get any coherent work done. There was half a short story in February. Some script pitch busking in the last few months. Otherwise nowt.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">So what were the distractions? Many and varied. Minor health issues, commitments, dayjob stuff, poor time management, moving house, and sometimes (for me at least) I think the less free time you have the less effectively you use it. I didn't find time to write but I have managed to complete sixty odd percent of <i>GTA V</i>. *ashamed face*</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">As a result of this lack of material I'm even missing Red Planet cos I have nothing ready that they've not already seen. That's a wake up call. I bloody love Red Planet. (in the wildly unlikely event that you don't know what I'm on about then go <a href="http://www.redplanetpictures.co.uk/prize.php" target="_blank">here</a> or <a href="http://ukscriptwriters.podomatic.com/entry/2013-11-11T13_16_01-08_00" target="_blank">listen to this</a> (you still have six days to enter your first ten pages)). </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Anyway, phase one (or January) of my 2014 Relaunch plan involves me coming out of the month having sat at my desk and worked at least three times every week. A modest ambition, surely? I'll keep you posted. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Has anyone else got a January target they'd like to share with both my readers?</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com4Sedgley, West Midlands, England, UK52.543603999999988 -2.123148000000014752.466341499999984 -2.2845095000000146 52.620866499999991 -1.9617865000000148tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-35555981775384662592013-12-24T20:09:00.001+00:002013-12-24T20:09:26.220+00:00Greetings for Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wishing you a Merry Christmas, a restful break and an incomparable 2014!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">xx</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-79291089105819167002012-12-24T10:06:00.001+00:002012-12-24T10:06:47.745+00:00May your days be merry and bright...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Merry Christmas and very best wishes for Space Year 2013! xxx</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-52512498821791144272012-07-27T15:55:00.000+01:002012-07-27T15:57:08.560+01:00The Man Inside<h2>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Support British cinema and check out Dan Turner's new film - out now!!</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">"...a quality drama that's down to earth, uncomfortable, well-made and worthwhile." <a href="http://www.denofgeek.com/other/22112/the-man-inside-review"><i>Den of Geek</i></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">"This is intelligent and ambitious work." <i><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jul/26/the-man-inside-review">The Guardian</a></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;">Dan Turner's <a href="http://dansdisasterarea.blogspot.co.uk/">blog</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/dan_e_turner">twitter</a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><a href="https://twitter.com/_TheManInside">The Man Inside on twitter</a></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-85000384248864070092012-05-17T19:43:00.000+01:002012-05-17T19:44:13.417+01:00Five Years<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">It's five years this month since I started this blog so I thought I'd better squeeze out a commemorative post.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">This is it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I might post something of more substance soon but for the mean time here's one of my very favourite David Bowie songs...</span><br />
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<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-90976174455403386142012-02-01T19:18:00.008+00:002012-02-03T05:56:00.112+00:00Orbiting the Red Planet<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUMORG9Nb3nlOIeb3hyQolSj_P5OJewx37J6DzSgalDtvREVV5pDEMc23fNneBThZXIC5x_AUpfq3rzcLgFwAIkI7QOwU_u8_fakKqZ3d7kz9GNDmESC9dDRq3V4KFDEnKQTwe-jF_Ks/s1600/orbit+red+planet.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5704263961981184114" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 181px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUMORG9Nb3nlOIeb3hyQolSj_P5OJewx37J6DzSgalDtvREVV5pDEMc23fNneBThZXIC5x_AUpfq3rzcLgFwAIkI7QOwU_u8_fakKqZ3d7kz9GNDmESC9dDRq3V4KFDEnKQTwe-jF_Ks/s320/orbit+red+planet.jpg" border="0" /></a>I'm through to the second round of the </span><a href="http://www.redplanetpictures.co.uk/prize.php"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Red Planet Prize</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span></span>! <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">What a great surprise it was when the email came, just as I was queueing to pay for a falafel and houmous wrap in Tesco!</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">This is the third time I've entered the Red Planet Prize, the second with that script, and I'm absolutely over the moon to get to round two for the first time.</span></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Congratulations and good luck to everyone who got through to round two. If you didn't get through this time then don't give up, have a read of these posts... </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://jasonarnopp.blogspot.com/2011/10/your-script-is-not-lottery-ticket.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Jason Arnopp - Your Script Is Not A Lottery Ticket</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://phillbarron.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/ivory-tower/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Phill Barron - Ivory Tower</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.scriptpunk.com/red-planet-prize-script-whats-next/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Script Punk - Red Planet Prize - What's Next?</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I'd better get back to work!</span></span><span style="WORD-SPACING: 0px; FONT: medium Tahoma; TEXT-TRANSFORM: none; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); TEXT-INDENT: 0px; WHITE-SPACE: normal; LETTER-SPACING: normal; BORDER-COLLAPSE: separate; orphans: 2; widows: 2; webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></span></p><br /><div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-84162684927155146482011-12-24T16:56:00.004+00:002011-12-24T17:02:51.069+00:00Happy be your Christmas!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk0n31dkf_Rr-B-Rbvjcmh7tiyNqRR_m741XDHtKeF3VFBKzLct-Qrkpwr7MQF2yROeFWMc4bt-qeFg7dV7KgnLdhCndgLrs1ZXINNWTcH_zS6-o1b2pDOQjE8j_UdpFZnj1ZjeWpOBp4/s1600/Happy+Be+Your+Christmas.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 248px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk0n31dkf_Rr-B-Rbvjcmh7tiyNqRR_m741XDHtKeF3VFBKzLct-Qrkpwr7MQF2yROeFWMc4bt-qeFg7dV7KgnLdhCndgLrs1ZXINNWTcH_zS6-o1b2pDOQjE8j_UdpFZnj1ZjeWpOBp4/s400/Happy+Be+Your+Christmas.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5689740055767904914" /></a><br /><div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span >Happy Christmas everyone. </span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span ><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span >I hope you have a fabulous break and a prosperous 2012.</span></i></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span ><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span >With love always,</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span ><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span >Rob.</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span ><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span >xxx</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-67840166664641867112011-12-10T21:20:00.000+00:002014-03-23T22:53:00.991+00:00"In the end, winning is the only safety."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQ3zKdvmfbBnMuLcrvtUxLH_dOJtPOzUAtS5df2kZIcVVty0o4YNQDBOOxEwaFqeXMLlzjR6QvNfTMRv20M1xUZuXD4qb0NnVmzYWSN2Di66yznAIw2N6pLH79kQQIOQ9jRaWW2RvRU4/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQ3zKdvmfbBnMuLcrvtUxLH_dOJtPOzUAtS5df2kZIcVVty0o4YNQDBOOxEwaFqeXMLlzjR6QvNfTMRv20M1xUZuXD4qb0NnVmzYWSN2Di66yznAIw2N6pLH79kQQIOQ9jRaWW2RvRU4/s1600/1.jpg" height="256" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: x-small;">While my memories of Doctor Who dribble all the way back to 1979 and beyond I was a teensy bit young for <i><a href="http://www.blakes7online.com/news.php" target="_blank">Blake's 7</a></i> the first time around. I have a few memories of watching the series from between my fingers<span style="color: red;">*</span> but it wasn't until UK Gold reran the series in it's entirety in the early nineties that I finally got to appreciate the show. I think I went a bit<i> Blake's 7</i> mad for a while.</span><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: small;" /><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: x-small;">I think I've gone a bit <i>Blake's 7 </i>mad again. I don't know what's caused it. It might have been playing through <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Effect_2" target="_blank">Mass Effect 2</a></i> or reading <a href="http://www.iain-banks.net/uk/the-player-of-games/" target="_blank">Iain M. Banks' <i>Player of Games</i></a></span><span style="color: red; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: x-small;">**</span><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: x-small;">. It might have been finally getting around to listening to the first of the B7 media audioplays, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008hscc" target="_blank">Rebel</a>, two or three months ago (it's good stuff). It may just have been a rising pitch of excitement since <a href="http://www.bigfinish.com/" target="_blank">Big Finish</a> were revealed to be preparing a new series of audio dramas and novels. Squee doesn't come close to covering it. I've even dug out issue one of the Blake's 7 poster magazine</span><span style="color: red; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: x-small;">***</span><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: x-small;"> and now have a tatty picture of the series two Liberator crew adorning the study.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqn-vhrkF440r7mAnu2zgbWkgjmKwm6sYs72Q1Ulmib7ETaBf9AQX6TGW5occeaptR93_gL-spYXfMUqCvDwTK_2VrfYWElJzTrbrQr47ISEi_K4PgWXfnE4A-uU0L7pvwPa5XvQ8Zu4I/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqn-vhrkF440r7mAnu2zgbWkgjmKwm6sYs72Q1Ulmib7ETaBf9AQX6TGW5occeaptR93_gL-spYXfMUqCvDwTK_2VrfYWElJzTrbrQr47ISEi_K4PgWXfnE4A-uU0L7pvwPa5XvQ8Zu4I/s1600/2.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Anyway, after talking about it for many years my good lady (or woman, as Gan would say) and I finally started watching the series from the beginning recently. She has never watched it before (well, maybe a few episodes when the DVDs were coming out) and I am well due a rewatch. I might post some notes here as we go. If you are, or were, a fan of <i>Blake's 7</i> I'd be delighted to have any comments, notes or disputes offered via the comments</span><span style="color: red; font-size: x-small;">****</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: red;">*</span> <a href="http://www.robstickler.com/2010/07/fear.html" target="_blank">I've mentioned this before</a><br /><span style="color: red;">**</span> (if the main character isn't at least partly inspired by Kerr Avon I'll eat my hat (and also, I've often thought the AIs in the Culture seem very similar to those of B7))<br /><span style="color: red;">***</span> There were only seven issues, and I only ever saw one in a shop, worse luck.<br /><span style="color: red;">****</span> I'm not too interested in knocking the effects. I think that's been pretty extensively covered in the last three decades. Of course, I wouldn't let that stand in the way of a good gag.</span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-68243924062719951182011-12-09T13:12:00.006+00:002011-12-12T20:50:42.555+00:00The Road to the Red Planet<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8-ToFQ1cSp-JVGLJqndDatW0Y9vLwuszCRserjBKQ5Y_DLD_T79OrBnjdU8WgyRJVcbiL4bvkogQuacVneaYKZGmsXHcEphgwWAzA-1lzTAQR2iAxEHJvSQGFWlD-1r4BofcrMsAkDIw/s1600/mars-rover-simulated-image-on-the-red-planet.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8-ToFQ1cSp-JVGLJqndDatW0Y9vLwuszCRserjBKQ5Y_DLD_T79OrBnjdU8WgyRJVcbiL4bvkogQuacVneaYKZGmsXHcEphgwWAzA-1lzTAQR2iAxEHJvSQGFWlD-1r4BofcrMsAkDIw/s320/mars-rover-simulated-image-on-the-red-planet.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5685347130778987954" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">This update is late, sorry. I meant to do a 'What did I learn from <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a>' type post last week but time has rather got away from me. I will try and do something like that soon but in the meantime I'll just say that it was a really good exercise, got me in to a nice (if intense) routine and I'm happy to have met the traditional target. I hoped initially to write 60k words rather than 50k, and on learning of the Heartlands opportunity I amended this to trying to finish a week early, but due to a family emergency type situation I lost a few days and failed both of those self-imposed targets.<br /><br />Although it was fun to write I can't see me ever going back to revise the book. It will require a lot of work to make it into a sellable, or even readable, manuscript and the potential for the market is teeny-tiny. Still, the exercise was the important thing. I didn't really set out to create something sellable, just to test myself. On the other hand I could see myself harvesting the plot for a feature script one day...<br /><br />I definitely want to write another novel, whether I will leave that until next November or get underway sooner I don't know. Having shown myself that <em>hey, I can do this!</em> I think I would like to set a more demanding wordcount target for a fully prepared novel intended for publication.<br /><br />No sooner had I wandered, dazed and confused, over the NaNoWriMo finish line I was thrown head first into revisiting a bottom(top?)-draw script which I felt was the most appropriate thing I had to enter into the BBC's excellent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/heartlands_new_writing_talent_search.shtml">Heartlands</a> opportunity. It's kind of funny really as I have never known quite what to do with that script but it seemed perfect for Heartlands, or that's my feeling. Fingers crossed they have a similar view at the Beeb. In any case I had a day or two to work that up and send it in. It was pretty rushed but hopefully I managed to make it shine. I genuinely like the script. Actually, while rereading it, I laughed out loud at a couple of lines. I hope that's a sign that the script is good and not a sign that I've lost all perspective on my own work!<br /><br />The Heartlands shortlist will be announced on Tuesday. Good luck to all.<br /><br />So now it's all about the <a href="http://www.redplanetpictures.co.uk/prize.php">Red Planet Prize</a> again. This time I'm going to write something from scratch, specifically for Red Planet. In previous years I've sent in what I thought was my most suitable existing script (as you may remember they passed on what is still my favourite effort last time, sadface). I don't suppose it really makes any difference but I have some superstitious idea that it will infuse each word with extra special Red Planet-ness that will make it a winner, fingers crossed.<br /><br />Obviously I won't say too much about the script, mainly because I'm not commited yet, I'm still kicking around a couple of ideas, but I'm very excited about writing a new script.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">The Red Planet deadline is January 16th.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-28233270763356013912011-11-25T09:30:00.003+00:002011-11-25T09:34:50.192+00:00It's the Final Countdown<div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Greetings Carbon-based units,<br /><br />It doesn't look likely that I'll meet my self-imposed target of finishing the novel today. It's a bit of a cliché but real life has caught up with me in a sudden and upsetting way this week which meant that work ground to a halt Wednesday and Thursday.<br /><br />I guess there's a chance that I might write the last 9,000 or so words tonight but as I will be away from home for at least part of the weekend it's far more likely that I will finish early next week. There is still plenty of time before the official deadline of November 30th, after all. I was hoping to be able to concentrate exclusively on my </span><a href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/heartlands_new_writing_talent_search.shtml&sa=U&ei=JVjPTs1qy5TyA96P1cYP&ved=0CBQQFjAB&sig2=hDtjuImZFiy1blalPTTTOA&usg=AFQjCNENwm-ZDlj_OblI91CrRCbSreKyPA"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Heartlands</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"> entry all next week but I do have a couple of days booked off from the day job for that purpose so I'm sure I will still be able to catch up.<br /><br />If this were a film then we'd be at the part where you keep cutting between the clicking countdown and our hero's herculean efforts to beat it...</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></div></span><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678863781224929442" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 154px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9-rcTT5FEZJ-tlyuzVXax0oqrd3jrdVOLeOp2pFO82j4YKoD0zdxgtAPMOkdyOtPBX1uhD10hHLmNPcCn_DnjdyZmhMDL3SJwkZbEad2HnTpyppHkjtZ9J1vYJFofOBUtb5PhYlHAXjI/s320/007.gif" border="0" /><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-51517248148447098072011-11-24T21:32:00.008+00:002011-11-24T22:04:32.522+00:00In Memoriam Freddie Mercury<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ses3Wni66n7Vq8ImZcSNVRnVfHqEpsM-ycR7gFwxkchFC-NVE9XJN8_m8t06y9IMuLPX3F7adQxSdKeSa_40tphrs3gkyI06D5rh9maTWace0p1ZKrS1DOnqKarMfdyF-WCzgpz_BJ8/s1600/Freddie+1.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 178px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7ses3Wni66n7Vq8ImZcSNVRnVfHqEpsM-ycR7gFwxkchFC-NVE9XJN8_m8t06y9IMuLPX3F7adQxSdKeSa_40tphrs3gkyI06D5rh9maTWace0p1ZKrS1DOnqKarMfdyF-WCzgpz_BJ8/s320/Freddie+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678679584330385794" border="0" /></a><img style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 178px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYHxNVwbvqxgI1lnvwf5X4bHaQL4PFDdP6YQjURnFwEcwDUA3h7qKhLjR3rHQcV_svPQx-C9n5aUwDjfCZzgscvKTh6Bictyf1K3NQgP2Xzwd09S2irAdrF_FK_0c87wXC9YQVFwZyj2k/s320/Freddie+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678679676724277938" border="0" /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><u><br /></u></span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ></span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>So dear friends your love is gone</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Only tears to dwell upon</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I dare not say as the wind must blow</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>So a love is lost, a love is won</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Go to sleep and dream again</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Soon your hopes will rise and then</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>From all this gloom life can start anew</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And there'll be no crying soon</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); white-space: pre; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" > </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); white-space: pre; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" > </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" >Brian May<br /><br /></span></div><div></div></blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGam-H1k7U2FulC10Zr-ie8UqA8QdmSeFQFz58VhGRZq1nBkPmEZuz2dYgfI_poiIDHXFy__5HXx-1J4JHVImG_yQXJyLEaqOZCQBtTCSVJ55Z9N27UZ9X0KP3It_IRDmTmCpe-Hj3Ehg/s320/Freddie_Mercury+%25285%2529.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678681426009183362" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 238); text-decoration: underline; display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 235px; " border="0" /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;" ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><a href="http://queenonline.com/en/freddie-mercury-20-/">Freddie Mercury (5 September 1946 - 24th November 1991)</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px;font-size:14px;" ><br /></span></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-71200856824463463052011-11-18T14:35:00.005+00:002011-11-18T18:27:43.925+00:00New Writing Talent Search: Heartlands<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAEODo4344WOAiXvqRvopzFydeEEUH5nCx5RiqlIjJAKT5FkcKeWX229uJBfOyN6q0OvAZjhYmPypfSuF1HF0F66p_BaWqeSCaUvR16Kt_yeiaRlAMyZNEs4mtjgcASppEJ75D2InlNPk/s1600/Writersroom.JPG"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5676344565885394146" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 164px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAEODo4344WOAiXvqRvopzFydeEEUH5nCx5RiqlIjJAKT5FkcKeWX229uJBfOyN6q0OvAZjhYmPypfSuF1HF0F66p_BaWqeSCaUvR16Kt_yeiaRlAMyZNEs4mtjgcASppEJ75D2InlNPk/s400/Writersroom.JPG" border="0" /></span></a><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">BBC <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Writersroom</span></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"> have joined up with the nice folk who make </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mh9v"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><em>Doctors</em></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><em> </em>to develop an exciting opportunity for Midlands-based writers.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><blockquote><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/heartlands_new_writing_talent_search.shtml"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Heartlands</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"> will provide an industry training and development opportunity for writers with some of the most experienced producers in the country. A shortlist will be invited to a masterclass day. Selected writers will then be chosen to take part in an intensive three-day mini-academy for <em>Doctors</em>, and/or<br />receive mentoring on their original script from an established writer.<br /></span></blockquote><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><br />On Monday evening I went along to the launch event at Birmingham Library Theatre.<br /><br />Will Trotter (BBC Executive Producer, Drama Series) Peter Lloyd (Senior Producer, Doctors) and Paul Ashton (Development Producer, BBC <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Writersroom</span>) were there to officially launch the search, to talk about BBC One drama, <em>Doctors</em>, and to answer questions.<br /><br />The main focus of the Q&A was on Doctors, as you would expect, but Paul Ashton did cover the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Writersroom</span> unsolicited script process and speak a little about television drama, both in the region and nationally, in the current economic climate.<br /><br />I came away feeling really excited about the opportunity, but also about <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Writersroom</span> in general. I think in the past I've thought of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Writersroom</span> as a big impersonal mechanical process, but having heard Paul Ashton speaking about it I can see that it really isn't, and of course it wouldn't work if it was.<br /><br />All in all a brilliant opportunity and I will definitely be entering. The deadline is 9am on December 2<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">nd</span> so no time to waste.<br /><br />--------<br /><br />The </span><a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">NaNoWriMo</span></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"> novel is still <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">chuffing</span> along. Had a very bad time of it last week, so much so that I ended up feeling that the week might have been more productive if I'd just headbutted a wall every night for five days while chanting “NA-NO-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">WRI</span>-MO-NA-NO-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">WRI</span>-MO”.<br /><br />This week I finally seem to be settling back into the groove and I'm now relatively happy with how it's going. Again.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8xP3HxU5EXPjjLiDeUEX9CTTi_FeczzxPWzy3iGwiTyUKHKAY6_uRLeCs-0x51lt-BjQBGxAjHSecIFQ5BlPeZZArmwJuxy8gDPjgPH-NAJbPjMrQj3sHEK9VgjF7Fq49waMoWCptQc/s1600/Douglas+Adams-1st+FP+signing+copy.JPG"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5676344466868530882" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 163px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8xP3HxU5EXPjjLiDeUEX9CTTi_FeczzxPWzy3iGwiTyUKHKAY6_uRLeCs-0x51lt-BjQBGxAjHSecIFQ5BlPeZZArmwJuxy8gDPjgPH-NAJbPjMrQj3sHEK9VgjF7Fq49waMoWCptQc/s200/Douglas+Adams-1st+FP+signing+copy.JPG" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">I've found myself recalling the anecdote about Douglas Adams being locked in a hotel suite until he finished </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Long,_and_Thanks_For_All_the_Fish"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><em>So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish</em></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><em> </em>quite a lot lately. I think I've found some strength in his example this week and it's helped me pick myself up. I'm also rereading </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Gently%27s_Holistic_Detective_Agency"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><em>Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency</em></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"> as a small tribute to him and a treat for me.<br /><br />Support has also been provided by that lovely </span><a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Neil <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Gaiman</span></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">, who </span><a href="http://nanowrimo.org/en/pep/neil-gaiman"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">linked to this</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"> on twitter and cheered me right up. There can't be all that many professions where the news that it <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">doesn</span>’t get any easier can be encouraging.<br /><br />Something else that I've been reminded of - years ago James Moran mentioned in a blog post that while you might say you don't have time to write, you still find time to watch television every night, or read a book (I can't find the link sorry, so just go and read his <a href="http://jamesmoran.blogspot.com/2009/03/big-writing-faq.html">Big </a></span><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><a href="http://jamesmoran.blogspot.com/2009/03/big-writing-faq.html">Writing FAQ</a> again instead). I feel like the living embodiment of this point, having hardly looked at a television or seen my <a href="http://www.twitter.com/MsELH">ever supportive wife</a> all month. On the other hand I've written about 26,000 words of prose. It's amazing what you can do when you try, eh?<br /><br />Due to the </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/opportunity/heartlands_new_writing_talent_search.shtml"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Heartlands</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"> deadline, and with a heavy heart, I've decided to abandon my secret target word count of 65,000 words. My new ambition is to finish (hit 50k) by November 25<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">th</span> to give me a full week to work on my Heartlands entry. A full week, you scoff. Yes, a full week. Luckily I have just the draft zero script for this competition sitting in a draw. I've been meaning to do something with it for ages but now the opportunity has come knocking it's time to make it shine.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Trebuchet MS;font-size:85%;">Exciting!</span><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-27888625305415145882011-11-08T11:06:00.011+00:002011-11-08T19:41:08.185+00:00Set Course for the Red Planet!<span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5n7LBKJeKA0lWsHhmmbWUCerUrmEyTlMzTDHka1Cw7R2KLr_sTSOZpnsbRK0e2Q5vjzMvXGk6doGXs1W9SCP5y73N5j7tWyHlNvkZxHMQOhe9T1HUXz49q6rpUaWB6J4FAOCRlko3zD8/s1600/red+planet.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672582705271469874" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5n7LBKJeKA0lWsHhmmbWUCerUrmEyTlMzTDHka1Cw7R2KLr_sTSOZpnsbRK0e2Q5vjzMvXGk6doGXs1W9SCP5y73N5j7tWyHlNvkZxHMQOhe9T1HUXz49q6rpUaWB6J4FAOCRlko3zD8/s400/red+planet.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">How curious, here was I just throwing together a post about my progress with NaNoWriMo so far and what I might do next month when BOOM! Scribosphere superstar guru </span><a href="http://dannystack.blogspot.com/2011/11/red-planet-prize-20112012.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Danny Stack</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> throws down something more exciting to blog about. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Yes, it's that time again - </span><a href="http://www.redplanetpictures.co.uk/prize.php"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Red Planet Prize 2011/2012</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">I'll let the man himself fill you in... </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3333ff;">It's the best screenwriting competition in the world. Here's why:</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#3333ff;">- FREE to enter.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#3333ff;">- A truly amazing prize: £5k, a script commission and an agent (if you don't already have one).</span><br /><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3333ff;">- Lots of opportunities and mentorship for the finalists.- </span><a href="http://twitter.com/#!/robthor"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3333ff;">Robert Thorogood</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3333ff;">, a finalist in the inaugural 2007 competition, developed his new BBC series '</span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016mw91"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3333ff;">Death in Paradise</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3333ff;">' via the Red Planet Prize. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#3333ff;">- Many other finalists have launched their careers through the scheme and have worked, or are working, on other shows.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#3333ff;">- Quite simply, it's a screenwriting competition by writers for writers. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#3333ff;">Here's how it works:</span><br /><br /><span style="color:#3333ff;"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">- Submit the 1st ten pages of a 60-minute pilot or one-off 60-minute TV script. Any genre you want. A 100 word synopsis and a 16 word maximum logline is also required. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">- If we like your first ten pages, we invite you to submit the entire script.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">- A shortlist is compiled. A winner is chosen from an esteemed line-up of judges.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3333ff;">Full details and how to enter can be found on the </span><a href="http://www.redplanetpictures.co.uk/prize.php"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3333ff;">website</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3333ff;">. And/or </span><a href="http://dannystack.blogspot.com/p/red-planet-prize.html"><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3333ff;">click here</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;color:#3333ff;"> to read how and why the competition started.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#3333ff;">THE DEADLINE IS 16TH JANUARY 2012. </span><br /><br /><span style="color:#3333ff;"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">Plenty of time to think of a new idea, polish the first ten pages to an inch of their life, AND have the entire script finished in case it gets chosen for the second round.</span></span><div><span style="color:#3333ff;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><strong>GET WRITING!</strong></span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;">I'll be entering, of course, and so should you. It really is the best screenwriting competition out there.</span></span><br /><p><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">---------<br /><br />NaNoWriMo week one has gone pretty well. Hopefully you can see that wee progress bar filling up daily over on the right there. I'm now a quarter of the way to the 50,000 word official target, although I've actually set myself a more challenging target of 65,000 words. I've been pleased with the amount I've been producing. I do have concerns about the quality of the work but hey, </span><a href="http://jasonarnopp.blogspot.com/2011/08/magic-of-draft-zero.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">that's what Draft Zero is all about</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Most of all I'm just pleased that I'm sitting at my desk every day and bashing out around 2,000 words. It's a long time since I've had a good spell like this and it really feels like a new start.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">Even though I'm not accepting an award or anything, I'd like to thank my lovely wife (who is blogless but can usually be found on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/MsELH">twitter</a>) for all her support. She's always been enthusiastic about my writing but I'm sure I wouldn't have thrown myself into NaNoWriMo so wholeheartedly if it hadn't been for her encouragement.<br /><br />I was only thinking this morning that come December, in the post NaNoWriMo glow, I might bash out a first draft on a feature idea I've had knocking around for a few months. Hear the sound of smashing window panes? Now I'll be working on a new TV script for the Red Planet prize - how exciting!</span></p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-10833862466244413792011-10-10T21:04:00.007+01:002011-10-10T22:09:51.584+01:00A Novel Idea<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">Where was I?</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEjgBV9zuKjdDiAUP2bOnmwztU7SV89aJbAwB3ju9q1DHIZ7FNg2jTjNdm0HTRt832d-vpV-JfNKoWxOeXqBrXx8nVvA9hHFvg1KfjGKj-Ix_pjIiwmULVirAOCh1jozIJOO8Zk3SuaO0/s200/Jason+King.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 116px; height: 200px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661971601295477970" border="0" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">Oh yeah. So three weeks tomorrow marks the beginning of <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo</a>.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.robstickler.com/2011/05/nanowrimo-2011.html">I mentioned this back in May</a> when I revealed that I would be writing a novel in November, though I had no idea what it would be about. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">I've been kicking around ideas ever since then. I came up with three possibilities. One quite heavy idea, which seemed like it would be a complex, if rewarding, story to tell. One which was a lighter, more humorous supernatural/detective sort of affair. The final idea is basically my very own pulp novel - A genre mashing thriller with no purpose other than helping me to produce at least fifty thousand words and be a NaNoWriMo winner.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">It may seem daft to set out to write something that you think is probably unsellable, but I feel I have the best chance of completing this exercise if it's a fun, relatively straight-forward piece. I can start getting clever and stretching my technique with </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: small; ">my second novel,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: small; "> all I want right now is to finish book one.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">I'm excited. I've been concentrating on scriptwriting for so long I can't really remember the last prose story I wrote. I feel pretty rusty.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicLmtUYZ5rz4SO3x5m0_4geGIFZyr8sG2qoepf8ULmJ_rMhuLz3N8Ly6zsWpLzXP0Ng6lCRTdFQYxvTaoHmjPwp5Ya5DMGA0_TI-gkIj7SI-Ifk5wGo81lCBTKGmNn5wa37l9nNZOg618/s200/Chuck+D.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 186px; height: 200px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661970446043047298" border="0" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">Also, this hasn't been the most productive year for me and I want to use NaNoWriMo to kick start my routine so I can get back down to scripting with some energy. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">I may also start blogging more often. I miss blogging and I miss the community of screenwriting blogs we had a few years ago. I love <a href="http://twitter.com/#%21/robstickler">Twitter</a> but it has definitely thrived at the expense of the ol' blog. It's a lot easier to chuck a couple of thoughts straight on to Twitter than it is to develop them into a full post. Even a rambling aimless one like this. Must try harder.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">I hope to keep you posted throughout NaNoWriMo but it will depend how I get on. Otherwise you should be able to follow my progress <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/814523">here</a>, if you have a mind to.<br /><br />Cross a finger for me why dontcha?</span></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-51097059105427086722011-06-24T16:02:00.012+01:002011-06-24T20:07:25.168+01:00Game of Thrones (No spoilers)<div style="text-align: center; font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1p8w9YHqPonxUBtJowBvJbbyQ8CYdc9AZt8nKODzfPagtU2oM9GdafFB5G5jvxjmyUTsmDYHAahIxOiAV3-V7ris4tMUZ272Jp0XmgBJWsnUkjd3VLzNfGuxcaW4CAsBdn0xN16jYBxs/s1600/800px-Game_of_Thrones_title_card.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><span class="Apple-style-span"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1p8w9YHqPonxUBtJowBvJbbyQ8CYdc9AZt8nKODzfPagtU2oM9GdafFB5G5jvxjmyUTsmDYHAahIxOiAV3-V7ris4tMUZ272Jp0XmgBJWsnUkjd3VLzNfGuxcaW4CAsBdn0xN16jYBxs/s320/800px-Game_of_Thrones_title_card.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621843133579309762" border="0" /></span></a></span></div><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">I've just finished watching the last episode of <a href="http://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones/index.html#/game-of-thrones"><i>Game of Thrones</i></a> and I thought I'd share a few thoughts about the first series now that it's finished. I know a lot of people won't have had the chance to see it yet so I'm not going to spoil anything.<br /><br />I should probably say first off that I've never read the books, so I came to it only as a mildy curious viewer. I may check out the first volume (on which this series is based, I believe) now. I'd be interested to hear what fans of the books thought of the adaptation.<br /></span></div><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">There were a few complaints early on in the series that there was a lot of exposition. There was. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:85%;">There are a hell of a lot of characters in this story, and a rich and detailed world in which they live. What wasn't mentioned so much was how masterfully this exposition was slipped into the scripts.</span></div><div style="text-align: center; font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTnNgRCfDFfTYzwEVeVSeHAgGYwuyqBY8RKVonWLiF_vusdnmbUHBZ4aljd5hnOgMY7plV4zmZr0h35HnQ2ku6-ChZxhiHsH2uXLSw3IcYV09M1hXpiMF1SXPgExEbvYTmJG0WLwIEvko/s200/game_of_thrones_white_walker.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 125px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621844846653596306" border="0" /></span><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">OK, it's true. There are a lot of characters, and all of them come with their own back-stories and relationships with each other. There are several families with alliances and feuds dating back generations. <i>Game of Thrones</i> chucks you straight into this and doesn't hang around to wait for you to catch up, but then neither do <i>Eastenders </i>or<i> Coronation Street</i> and I don't hear anyone crying about that. </span></div><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">The characters and back-stories in <i>Game of Thrones</i> are no more complex than those found in Albert Square or Weatherfield. There are a lot more swords though.</span></div><div style="text-align: center; font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;" class="Apple-style-span">This is a rich show with a fantastic cast and brilliant scripts. I loved every second of it and don't quite know what I'm going to do for a year while I wait for series two. </span><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">It seems rude to pick out a few members of the cast when the performances are so good across the board. I'm going to do it anyway though. Sorry.</span></div><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">Sean Bean is on great form as Ned Stark, head of the Stark family, loving parent and an honourable man. He gives Ned great integrity, and a lovely, quiet outrage at the political schemings of others.</span></div><div style="text-align: center; font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd06htjMzilwl6RDD8UuGuXhH-goyDIfjsMbkJRQBr3xB6oFcigAfmw7Z_WgV7y9OkHyguALmWCm9qhdDx2O-EJQvc6-ZKRQ5BBAW3-46hSBmjG999R0BpyndA9H1Rokg84K-h85gk7gI/s320/emilia-clarke-iain-glen-game-of-thrones-lord-snow-01.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 263px; height: 148px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621844265322438898" border="0" /></span><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">Emilia Clarke, as Daenerys Targaryen, has one of the most engaging arcs of the series. Her situation changes considerably over time and Ms Clarke, in her first major screen role, plays the part beautifully. I think we'll be watching her on our screens for many years to come.</span></div><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">Iain Glen plays Ser Jorah Mormont, an exiled knight who is far from home, and gives him the stillness and poise of a man who could drop you where you stood before you knew what was happening.</span></div><div style="text-align: center; font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivRWkdvXsroVSs06Qwnkth3onEkcEyrSDECUl1JUMIWajaGn67FFiVSI6aZyyJaw8Spu-yPJMeraJOmCZfbJRrM4XrDBrZG695BzdrXSayTeeKL3ddrYzM7kxi0wtQjLcxJRW4unlVTdY/s320/Game+of+Thrones+2011+-+Peter+Dinklage+02.jpg" style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 139px; height: 186px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621843797646546786" border="0" /></span><div style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">I'll not be the first to say that Peter Dinklage is an absolute revelation as Tyrion Lannister, a boozing, womanising dwarf who relies on his wits to survive. Well, that and his family's money and reputation. A pleasure to watch and one of the show's greatest selling points.<br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Game of Thrones</span> is also littered with distinguished supporting actors, the likes of Peter Vaughan, Julian Glover, Charles Dance, Jerome Flynn, Clive Mantle, Owen Teale, Roger Allam - well, you get the idea.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">It's also got one of the best opening titles sequences I've seen for years.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">I didn't mean to gush quite so much but if you are, somehow, still reading then I urge you to check out <i>Game of Thrones</i> should you get the chance. It's dynamite.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-size:85%;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja_HyuwnxMv_jJfGzvDpgqA4IFISI0xNsrP_AtJLlbUtiRUMNEL6e6yDmwig1QkqF21dpnWXqUSYk03q48beDrrkiS0jCRRuup02gUqkyIC_NibI6fhaOO1zucYGOTcAIhWk0WjOwngIk/s320/game-of-thrones-poster.jpg" style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 324px; height: 480px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621843159505256562" border="0" /></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-1179331695107574112011-05-25T19:12:00.006+01:002011-05-26T20:26:14.715+01:00Feed The Birds<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU1aA11vUM2VBXljFqBNXjj7oOlxUBzgJ7_vGsoL5O8Sl6XImEvyYa0altmhgSoLIz0-fx75KA-H_VF30UZNPaLw5r9E6lIfuWrWAwjE0xOcXCe6m8lIhZ2L-YU21tsldCn_48WQp1qIA/s320/Feed+The+Birds.jpg" style="float:center; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 234px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610721362224936002" /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; ">Evenin' squires,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">Waaaay back in the dim and distant past, last February, <a href="http://pavementandstars.blogspot.com/">that splendid fellow Piers</a> set up a new screenwriting forum, to serve as a sort of UK version of <a href="http://artfulwriter.com/forum/"><span style="text-decoration: none; ">The Artful Writer</span></a> and <a href="http://www.wordplayer.com/forums/welcome.html"><span style="text-decoration: none; ">Wordplay</span></a>.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; ">He called it Feed the Birds (no idea, ask him), and many of us twittering, blogging, screeching screenwriters signed up straight away and got electronic-chin-wagging. It was all very exciting. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; ">Since then it's gotten a little quiet, so we thought we'd have a bit of a promotion and try and draw in some fresh blood.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; ">As <a href="http://pavementandstars.blogspot.com/2011/05/tuppence-bag.html"><span>The Webmaster has said over at his gaff</span></a>, it's a great place to ask questions, share knowledge and discuss writing (or not writing) with a community of like minded folk. Or to lark about when you should be getting on with some real work. You could even use it to make contacts and promote your work.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height: normal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; ">Why not check it out? I hope to see you there.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span"><b><a href="http://www.fatpigeons.com/feedthebirds/index.php?sid=a44c2db903ede2e9dba988c4d168e6ca">Feed The Birds</a></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; "><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; color:black;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><br /></span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-16597738508771055632011-05-16T20:21:00.009+01:002011-05-16T20:43:53.122+01:00Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; font-family:arial;color:#000099;" ><i>Came across this article the other day. It's ten years old now but may be worth revisiting. Much wisdom from one of America's most prolific, and most adapted, writers of fiction...</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: small; "><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: small; ">---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: small; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: small; ">Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">from the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/16/arts/writers-writing-easy-adverbs-exclamation-points-especially-hooptedoodle.html">New York Times, Writers on Writing Series</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">By ELMORE LEONARD</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAe_qKo4MSWco-JrJYtfcyF3uidm8fhWiFlQFA3FSZXwLP7E5fpA7VA6zN6RNfU6oPHUVrHnZg7Mw1PlXz6wGo0mybD89I0W0QbS_e9qPqu2LyjT3HEuD1A-RTGfO5egiBwpiWyxExTEg/s200/Elmore+1.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 179px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607398796187938130" border="0" /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">These are rules I’ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Never open a book with weather.</span> If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">2. Avoid prologues.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">There is a prologue in John Steinbeck’s “Sweet Thursday,” but it’s O.K. because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: “I like a lot of talk in a book and I don’t like to have nobody tell me what the guy that’s talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guy’s thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . . Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That’s nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don’t have to read it. I don’t want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.”</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with “she asseverated,” and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb1IMksQo7lfNsP1JaAvUM6XzSq_Qt42sXnoOakyKhCRNnoSewUawJ_EaoS7EdHgt3Hfh2hpTP4dfknWHABu17_nqQ48RmC42zgdfkMRZuMNmDmb58TE5WM3uwysgRniGQjKZgKjOGjwk/s200/JUSTIFIED.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 152px; height: 200px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607398803827531602" border="0" /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” .</span> . .</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">. . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances “full of rape and adverbs.”</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">5. Keep your exclamation points under control.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">This rule doesn’t require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use “suddenly” tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><span class="Apple-style-span">7. Use regional dialect</span><span class="Apple-style-span">, patois, sparingly.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won’t be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavor of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories “Close Range.”</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” what do the “American and the girl with him” look like? “She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">Unless you’re Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if you’re good at it, you don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">And finally:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he’s writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character’s head, and the reader either knows what the guy’s thinking or doesn’t care. I’ll bet you don’t skip dialogue.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It’s my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing. (Joseph Conrad said something about words getting in the way of what you want to say.)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character—the one whose view best brings the scene to life—I’m able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and what’s going on, and I’m nowhere in sight.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSQPseNfTMnf1n-jPzu8Sdxl6MeygQx37awVPAogVyWtzssKan5C9SbIkmZypwYTg1O0w6Jqz28XQ9nqbAKtQN_LqioUT8azn9FVcROaAZZOayvSyC3jMn5N6sd6vKJycC6TCjox0UMMQ/s200/elmore+2.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 142px;" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607398801557356706" border="0" /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">What Steinbeck did in “Sweet Thursday” was title his chapters as an indication, though obscure, of what they cover. “Whom the Gods Love They Drive Nuts” is one, “Lousy Wednesday” another. The third chapter is titled “Hooptedoodle 1” and the 38th chapter “Hooptedoodle 2” as warnings to the reader, as if Steinbeck is saying: “Here’s where you’ll see me taking flights of fancy with my writing, and it won’t get in the way of the story. Skip them if you want.”</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">“Sweet Thursday” came out in 1954, when I was just beginning to be published, and I’ve never forgotten that prologue.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">Did I read the hooptedoodle chapters? Every word.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/%20features/elmores_rules_of_writing/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';font-size:85%;">Elmore Leonard's Official Website</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-35150277281613700622011-05-13T18:59:00.010+01:002011-05-13T19:37:20.018+01:00Stormhouse<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; line-height: 18px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span">In 2002, the military captured and imprisoned a supernatural entity.</span></b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; height: 195px; width: 320px; " width="320" height="195"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tp5a6T0kCCw?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="320" height="195"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Directed by <a href="http://dansdisasterarea.blogspot.com/">Dan Turner</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Written by <a href="http://jasonarnopp.blogspot.com/">Jason Arnopp</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span">Premieres at the <a href="http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/">Edinburgh International Film Festival 2011</a></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3vwX8npsqqKFQAIJ-SA5ImAChARiPAWReKO7nDvj5WCiRj7rTjo8yKY5sA9E-3TV8XeBEcEyIZQD8Nc0COq5yXwwaZ5iNYjMhs0RLr3pBZprKlsuLiws-3eFIATI5V3uqt_ni_utKo0/s320/hayley3.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 136px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606270690946337170" /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG2dz8U_CLq7LETiO_7FriD4I2Dn0DP24Y7EMKDnV8Pl6CT8GWM4VBQmWIRF8wonmZ_pb9YR_YOuigGv6YrTtEmQOn0JU84lfQ7c-lnmWXJUUier_F67NYvc72z-gGasO5RKR0QB2tbiw/s320/clap.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 138px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606266984761072002" /><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitkkrNSIyoHJqBrTbWru68cxGQ88SBKixOUc8MTkOgX5VRfPm0FEmpZ59h4Wyr3XGeCUAImuxskqDBLTH5zZ5utrMiuFPE8nh75mJ8eWVLwBuQqePPSV6k0GuvbVh_RnFUQHzsWb-9BhY/s320/salim.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 138px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606267007589819202" /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stormhouse/188818661155744"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgti9JNuDseP5IcIstfCB5398it8E598ILGhf3_sZxlgfuTR3RAifvt1Akh631ISRvi6dAP3bH4WNnTn2K2KSlofZG0s8JVDwqOC1-_-I1QUcmzdmCLKnj6GLlMFAsD1EP-rrxGaCNaG9I/s200/fbook.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 79px; height: 78px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606265209114374946" /></a><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1864494/"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOk1x7kc0K8QynNmSu1iusANp87pYsau4RZgvpcNnZEZvyq-Lfs6P41y0vlF5H6Spke9OIG88pHh4bfMZHOvhLtvif839LulGKfx_HWGB85LAPJUOHai4eoBL4zSys6Q5XPZpxUKx2dig/s200/imdb.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 110px; height: 56px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606266337134272114" /></a><a href="http://www.twitter.com/Stormhouse_film"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6vvDxoc3y2nKuUvZdWfdeCaRQSjXZGj16nKJohyphenhyphenJLLwKVnISqrC4J0C6DbSXpfe8t86x_44YEV3FVo-ipdVMK-e3ytGN2OuWJXcKCuHmrOcAuNXsb0conuGL9DhbglTZY-hyKUEBWaiE/s200/twit.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 78px; height: 78px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606265217100538114" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-70290076997232145582011-05-11T14:53:00.008+01:002011-05-23T20:10:46.859+01:00NaNoWriMo 2011<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607386660329024930" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 102px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 122px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPpIOmTBbBU7S6UmCJDx5nG-385jgcclUFQ6BSWKvSrtSYOHJ4v-0uxVgrzv85oKq3Uy5MIqpS1t1Q_Kbs5Hd8bHm0U7MXQi8Wu54xu-ngrhX5YgG9G9Igc7gS3iYZrwxsQVlQiBRJhEU/s200/header2.gif" border="0" /><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;">So I'm writing a novel.</span><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span><div style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;" ></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span><div style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;">Not yet. In November. Don't ask me what it will be about, or for any details other than how long it will be and when it will be finished. It will be at least fifty thousand words and it will be finished by November 30th.</span><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span><div style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;">I have, like many others before me, decided to take advantage of NaNoWriMo, the annual event where thousands of people set out to write a novel in thirty days.</span><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span><p style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 2px; padding-left: 2px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 2px; margin-top: 1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 2px; background-color: transparent; border-right-width: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; "><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5605522793015009202" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; FLOAT: left; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: pointer; PADDING-TOP: 0px; HEIGHT: 200px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqGgb23ASC62Uc2Ud90X-6tQXzb3mG6MpcrFV_tUdoTLpwwN7y-3xATPQiWm5crzibuOhyphenhyphen4iIPSlADHrUIdGHUqdhdrg5BE_TIQcyNc4VwxeUIWuobuLFy444jADGDFBw7uZuJmJfNr-k/s200/IMAG0285.jpg" border="0" /></p><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span><div style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;">I've started to write a novel twice before (see left for my first effort, circa '92 (I still may go back to this one day </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;">(this will never happen)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;">)), but that was in the old days, before I knew about structure, and planning, and... writing a novel.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span><div style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;">Having focused exclusively on scriptwriting for a good five years now I've been feeling like trying something different. I love the extra motivation provided by </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;">i)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;">having an external deadline, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;">ii)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;"> having a community of people on hand who are all trying to meet the same deadline, and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;">iii)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;"> having quacked on to anyone who'll listen (or not) that you're going to have written a novel by the end of November.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span><div style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;" ></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span><div style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;" >My head is spinning with the possibilities as far as picking an actual story go. I have had an idea for a novel knocking around for some years, but I fear it may now seem a bit like a British Dexter, and I never know whether an association like that works for or against you. Could adapt one of my script ideas, but not every story wants to be a novel. Plus it would certainly be more fun to come up with something brand new just for this exercise. New is always better, after all.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span><div style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; "></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /></span><div style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;" >Anyway, if you fancy a challenge or have nothing planned for November why not check out the <a style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; background-color: transparent; border-right-width: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; " href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">NaNoWriMo website</a>, you might decide to churn out a novel of your own. Otherwise please do feel free to bother, cajole or even support me as I produce my magnificent octopus. You can find my NaNoWriMo profile <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/814523">here</a>, but there's not much going on just yet.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /><br /></span><div style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;" >In the meantime, I'd better get planning, there's only one hundred and seventy-three days and four and a half hours to go till the starting gun.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /><br /></span><div style="border-top-width: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; padding-top: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; "><span class="950291713-11052011" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;" >Wicked.</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /><br /></span><div style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initial; BACKGROUND-: 0px" ><span class="950291713-11052011" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;" >-------------------------------<br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" ><br /><br /></span><div style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:initial;"><span class="950291713-11052011" style="BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; PADDING-TOP: 0px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; background-clip: initial; outline-: initialcolor:#000a00;"><span class="Apple-style-span" >EDIT - This post restored from <a href="http://scribomatic.com/the-island-of-dreams-nanowrimo-2011-05-2011/">Scribomatic</a> folowing the great Blogger outage of 12th May 2011.</span></span></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-25800866099259962492011-04-20T12:02:00.014+01:002011-04-20T13:12:33.524+01:00Lis Sladen, 1948 - 2011<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLwzHJ6c01duo38Pr8qIATa14TcfHQhSvr0A9jOv1vFDO6WgDveN-FTxsWqpDEt9VsaP0TW5jiIGEQB5o-Vy50vo_sU5feS9eBiRYFTLr6arkQ822PcAsgOAo5ZznbR_7IEVzJEDuA1Y/s1600/sarah_jane.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597623143524629810" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLwzHJ6c01duo38Pr8qIATa14TcfHQhSvr0A9jOv1vFDO6WgDveN-FTxsWqpDEt9VsaP0TW5jiIGEQB5o-Vy50vo_sU5feS9eBiRYFTLr6arkQ822PcAsgOAo5ZznbR_7IEVzJEDuA1Y/s400/sarah_jane.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:85%;">I was just about to settle down to write for the evening when I saw Nicola Bryant's tweet flash up in a Tweet Deck notification. I stopped in my tracks, rereading it over and over again. Trying to make it make sense. Trying to understand.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaAI9laH8YyarUzGLzh8zxb6pOvEmQ4t99ot7XpIk34VYjXLaVFn6efMWFX2wS9xelzkTsmalHTdoO6v78v9MiJkPAMHSk-mLrNNBeFjGsbua5tKWFdYbzQI_pehPGSkET6OWHa4WbUwE/s1600/Lis+&+tom.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjodQxGz9fQGWyXUqPrIsvfDCrTCqHmqJ8AUzE-0EckaDkc2txdTYCg5ug3KpdxorFrHiuzgTkY7h-XpfA-heAjVsue0UraYAgPHSi-eZHq8iXsQ82Kae1q0XgmOw-IU1UWKsA88nO9QAI/s1600/lis+&+Jon.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597621154388098130" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjodQxGz9fQGWyXUqPrIsvfDCrTCqHmqJ8AUzE-0EckaDkc2txdTYCg5ug3KpdxorFrHiuzgTkY7h-XpfA-heAjVsue0UraYAgPHSi-eZHq8iXsQ82Kae1q0XgmOw-IU1UWKsA88nO9QAI/s200/lis+%2526+Jon.jpg" border="0" /></a>For ten minutes I watched as the rest of Twitter did the same. Is it true? It's not true. Is this some cruel joke? When it was confirmed by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">DWM</span> there could be no doubt, if there ever really had been any given the number, and the integrity, of the sources.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-L9DwlISplvie4amPbiMAInXWGQX8Z-dhAq0AXGI5gSczk6W8tk5WsiycDsC6sn-8NoqizVReRVJq6AlCSNZDGrcs7sD6i-k4dYEjiY5m8mCokaFVIeOl8QcaqFvQb4ZJqjPvEDeAPA/s1600/Lis+&+tom.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597629290338713794" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 194px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu-L9DwlISplvie4amPbiMAInXWGQX8Z-dhAq0AXGI5gSczk6W8tk5WsiycDsC6sn-8NoqizVReRVJq6AlCSNZDGrcs7sD6i-k4dYEjiY5m8mCokaFVIeOl8QcaqFvQb4ZJqjPvEDeAPA/s200/Lis+%2526+tom.jpg" border="0" /></a>I sat in much the same position for hours. Reading tributes as they came in from all quarters. Seeing the breaking news banner on the BBC website. Hearing of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Newsnight</span> piece. I didn't know <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Lis</span> personally, I was just a fan, but I wonder how she would have felt at the scale of the reaction to the news of her horribly untimely passing. She didn't like a fuss, they say. We must all try to do better.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg62bEqgGT37PTIKvpSxdKYLMADeyjNZOfLV0Nb0aIdtYF222KZd0LnPmp6pfq9HQolfe5K7nytOSrV4OSTItcV5q6LqFzuKspzRALeoNVRTU3QvW4spjz4hwKYsIjgeqoX09QSkXDPuzg/s1600/lis+k9+&+comp.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597621407536176610" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg62bEqgGT37PTIKvpSxdKYLMADeyjNZOfLV0Nb0aIdtYF222KZd0LnPmp6pfq9HQolfe5K7nytOSrV4OSTItcV5q6LqFzuKspzRALeoNVRTU3QvW4spjz4hwKYsIjgeqoX09QSkXDPuzg/s200/lis+k9+%2526+comp.jpg" border="0" /></a>It's difficult to find a positive angle to this terribly sad news, but I guess we should realise how lucky we fans are that Russell T Davies, and the success of his vision of <em>Doctor Who</em>, allowed Sarah Jane to have so many new adventures on television over the last five years, and that yet another generation of children were able to fall in love with her.<br /><br />I don't have anything to say that hasn't been put better by tens of fans already. She was the archetypal companion, she was an inspiration. She was Sarah Jane Smith, and I loved her.<br /><br />Goodbye <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Lis</span>. x<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5597621569093818114" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 369px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz03uvWpZj8xyhzV_qFXl2TZErFiaawr190SkVP6nRUOZDgGaW1KpeC-fgmPVz6lGaionYY6vPHZ5VOKLPnI-0lEy9zNqbL-8HV5ExXsbI1v_vpfy2fek9vMzdKjI8fe6dC2VQwZBq5Dk/s400/lis.jpg" border="0" /></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13137674"><span style="font-size:85%;">BBC News</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/apr/20/elisabeth-sladen-sarah-jane-doctor-who-tributes"><span style="font-size:85%;">Guardian</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2011/04/dwn190411204508-elisabeth-sladen-1948.html"><span style="font-size:85%;">The Doctor Who News Page</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.tom-baker.co.uk/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=159"><span style="font-size:85%;">Tom Baker's tribute</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.samwatts.co.uk/news"><span style="font-size:85%;">Sam Watts</span></a><br /><a href="http://cathoderaytube.blogspot.com/2011/04/elisabeth-sladen-1948-2011.html"><span style="font-size:85%;">Cathode Ray Tube</span></a><br /><a href="http://keithtopping.blogspot.com/2011/04/lis-sladen-if-you-think-im-going-to.html"><span style="font-size:85%;">Keith Topping</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.tonylee.co.uk/index.php?option=com_wordpress&p=255&Itemid=1"><span style="font-size:85%;">Tony Lee</span></a><br /><a href="http://famousfanboy.blogspot.com/2011/04/elisabeth-sladen.html"><span style="font-size:85%;">Last of the Famous International <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Fanboys</span></span></a><br /><a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/io9/full/~3/uKi-Wi3gMSI/rip-elisabeth-sladen-doctor-whos-apprentice"><span style="font-size:85%;">IO9</span></a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294549587774576525.post-19952674728576922632011-02-27T19:48:00.009+00:002011-03-01T10:24:13.220+00:00Outcasts<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x8fw4"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5578462468061400674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 100px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTySVDTUQ4FIXUUDjtIRtQUPpRT3b9Cj-oRUxYdVTAXDYW3aksKgpkeGpUw-CU8P4fHach7GG7g3QUq0erg32ajo0OhwH5zLzN3JNF-q60IdHOr0Tw6bu01PjDuhbgVr8Ierdl0FPjSHg/s200/Outcasts.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><br />Well. What a load of rubbish has been written about <em><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00x8fw4">Outcasts</a></em>, mostly by people who should know better.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEice9Hu2nz8c7jjR8Kh_emIJAka12ADH5d1-dNNBpXRxRBLevxBZciJQQWlLZY4dzd1TiyrKDQWij6S7WZKjyqT3Z5P0OwfsVHonqP0LOLs8S2Cm9lD1WAkNGg_GSy6NxcUWoBdMio5t3A/s1600/Outcasts-05-600x399.jpg"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5578462037094644658" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 213px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEice9Hu2nz8c7jjR8Kh_emIJAka12ADH5d1-dNNBpXRxRBLevxBZciJQQWlLZY4dzd1TiyrKDQWij6S7WZKjyqT3Z5P0OwfsVHonqP0LOLs8S2Cm9lD1WAkNGg_GSy6NxcUWoBdMio5t3A/s320/Outcasts-05-600x399.jpg" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The reality is that <em>Outcasts</em> is a thoughtful, entertaining and rewarding series which has been, perhaps, let down by a less than dynamic first episode. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Issues of pace have been covered in depth elsewhere but it is not an arresting first episode, and certainly not an episode that will hook a non-genre audience. If they wanted another <em>Life on Mars</em> then the opener needed to be much, much stronger.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">As </span><a href="http://www.denofgeek.com/television/761768/outcasts_episode_1_review.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Den of Geek suggested</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"> we badly need to see more pilots being made. They test the programme concept and, I think, they make the production team focus a bit more on tightening up. They know what's at stake, I guess, as if the pilot doesn't get a good reception then it's game over (man!). I think <em>Outcasts</em> relied on people sticking with it beyond the first episode (whereas regrettably I doubt some people made it <em>through</em> the first episode). I don't think, as a writer, producer, leading television company, anyone-else-in-the-decision-making-chain, you can ever assume that the audience isn't going to turn over if you don't keep them interested, that's a basic rule (particularly well drummed/seared into writers).<br /><br /></span><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5578461597617246978" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 244px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCbhqU60MGJI_91ABtzHK-60Gt86KBGrU1pMwHThPT8Uwwb47KwdH9Sxqx6lnJ2Z0iaghhfSSL3laT1kNPl2lHWLrROB_Uh8ASToOKlWkRl257QYI6MOPpVzzw2_-hGTgoGaH0lyVKsHY/s320/550w_tv_outcasts_0101_5.jpg" border="0" /></span></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">I also think that the heavy ad campaign, primetime BBC1 slot and decision to show two episodes a week have worked against the programme, particularly as the Beeb then decided to move <em>Outcasts</em> to 10.45pm on Sunday nights after two weeks/four episodes. That's not really a vote of confidence in your product is it? If it was running on BBC3 they'd be crowing about how good the ratings are (the same bitterly ironic situation <em>Survivors</em> was in when it was cancelled)<strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">*</span></strong>.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">The fact is that this is a well written, beautifully shot programme with excellent performances. Locations are stunning and are used to spectacular effect. Aside from some clunky exposition in episode one the dialogue has been good and the characters and relationships interesting. There are many threads being woven here, given time this could become a very rich, muti-layered show.<br /></span><br /><div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5578461526116243858" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 214px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhru7vRqrINfB-vDSXDto3GASXH3mwwH4iQfyW3_-fargD5J0FkJZ1WFQqMyBdwtZW5FycSLiH3L2glz5QNMgV5-TFUOvSRI0p2yG0WHEQM0OkHjSqi6Qv4BX4Mzd4fJ1jgunEVeinl6wU/s320/OUTCASTS-CUNNINGHAM.jpg" border="0" /></span></div><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;">Of the cast Hermione Norris, Liam Cunningham (always a pleasure to watch), Ashley Walters and Daniel Mays are excellent, while the rest are very good. Only Eric Mabius and Jeanne Kietzmann have seemed a little passive to me, but hopefully will be given room to impress before the first series ends.<br /><br />Anyway, the point of this waffling is to tell you that I'm really enjoying <em>Outcasts</em>, and I very much hope that the BBC accepts that there is an audience and allows it to continue.<br /><br />And if you're not watching it because you've heard or read that it's crap, then give it a try yourself and make up your own mind.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#3366ff;"><strong>**UPDATE**</strong> (1/3/11)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#3366ff;">Dom likes Outcasts too, why not </span><a href="http://doms-world.blogspot.com/2011/02/outcasts.html"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#3366ff;">wander over and have a read</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;color:#3366ff;">?<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong>*</strong></span><span style="font-size:78%;">For illustration: in its second week <em>Outcasts</em> </span></span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/22/outcasts-bbc1-monday-night"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:78%;">averaged 2.703 million viewers and a 10.8% audience share</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:78%;">; <em>Survivors</em>, cancelled after its second series, had enjoyed an </span><a href="http://danowen.blogspot.com/2010/02/tv-ratings-survivors-bbc1.html#"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:78%;">average of 3.81m viewers that year</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:78%;">; while the third series of the stonkingly successful (and precious to this blog (and bloody hell how good is this series???)) <em>Being Human</em> opened (on BBC3) with </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/24/being-human-benidorm-ratings"><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:78%;">1.368 million viewers, a 5% audience share</span></a><span style="font-family:trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size:78%;">. The benefits of multichannel programming.... </span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">visit the island of Dreams...</div>robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07526513814843569586noreply@blogger.com0