Old

I knew I'd do this.  I wrote a new post about how there's nothing going on, went and re-read old posts, and discovered that I've had plenty going on that I simply haven't finished telling you about.  Tsk and all that.  So, as we're still in January, perhaps it is okay to do a little 2011 round-up.  Let's dot some t's and cross some i's.  Or, you know, the other more conventional way round.

So, back in August in my blog titled "Submissions", I mentioned that I had sent some short stories to a couple of magazines.  Neither of them have come back to me.  Ah well.

In January - only two days shy of being a year ago exactly - my posting was called "Momentum" and mentioned that a pitch I had been working on with a producer at Radio 4 (Bristol) was being forwarded to the commisioning editor.  Sadly that pitch went no further.  Ah well.
I'd also entered a competition to write a story in 100 words.  I didn't win it.  In fact I heard nothing from them at all, so did not even place.  I can't even be sure anyone at readersdigest.co.uk even read it.  Still, it's only 100 words and if I can find it I will post it here so that someone might one day stumble across it and think "Huh".  Or similar.
No-one came back to me about "World of Pockets".  Either it was a terrible sitcom premise and my critical brain was right to ditch it, or - and this is unthinkable - no-one reads this blog.  I've gone quite dizzy at the idea. Ah well.

Now I take you back to November 2010... Just to remind you - I had written a short film script for Youngstars, a youth drama association that makes a film starring its various members each year.  This film was for the Oxford branch and the brief was exceptionally tight; it had to be short, it had to be scary, and it had to feature about 30 kids.  This was tricky, but I think I cracked it.  Mandy, my friend and the co-ordinator for the Oxford set, brought me a copy on DVD in September 2011 and we sat and watched it together.  I was actually very impressed with it, given that the cast involved are all young amateurs.  Mandy had done an excellent job in the editing suite, and the sound and visual effects all added to make it happily creepy.  I mentioned in my very last post of 2011 (Submissions) that I try to have at least one landmark writing moment each year, and I think I will count seeing this successful transition from page to screen as the pinnacle for last year.  Phew.

Oh, just in case you didn't know, I have a Facebook page for mini-updates, photos and other bits and pieces.  You can view the page here.  If you could "like" it I'd be just thrilled.

Happy new year.