I have decided to self-publish a small collection of short stories on Amazon and iTunes. I am still working out all the technical details – creating the iTunes version is pretty straightforward, but converting to Kindle is more involved – but it should all be done and dusted in a couple of weeks time.

New radio script completed – as part of StroudFM’s Radio scriptwriting course – and recording should happen this week, with real actors, plus the excellent Chloe who was so good in ‘See You Later, Elevator.’

Alas, I didn’t make it through to the shortlist. Still, being involved was an amazing experience, and there’s nothing to beat watching real actors reading your lines and making the whole thing work. Also, I think the underlying idea I came up with was good and has the legs to be used elsewhere.

Thanks to all at Theatre West for the opportunity.

At last the read through! The Alma Tavern theatre sits above a pub (the Alma Tavern) in the Clifton area of Bristol, not far from Clifton College. It’s a very small theatre, barely 50 seats in total. The minutes beforehand felt like waiting for a dental appointment – not a mere checkup, but the kind of appointment when you haven’t been near a dentist in five years and suspect all sorts of problems –  but in the end it all went very well. There were four scripts to be read before mine – all of them dramatic and interesting; all of them making me feel both that I wanted to know more and terrified that my ‘Cards for Clara’ wouldn’t measure up. Also, I felt incredibly stupid that I hadn’t realised how read-throughs work, and had left one of my characters with no actual dialog – in a read through, the cast sit on chairs and read their lines, with stage directions read aloud.

But in the end, it was all fine. It was truly inspiring to hear real actors (two of whom had been on Casualty, according to Google) bring the words to life, and my 10 pages really seemed to work well on the stage, even getting a couple of laughs despite the overall dark tone.

I don’t know when I learn about whether I’ve made it to the next stage, but even if I don’t, it’s been well worth it, just to get this far.

My ten pages of script plus treatment have now been submitted to the Picture This team… ten minutes before the deadline!

Next comes the read through, in the Alma Tavern Theatre (in Bristol this Saturday and Sunday) of all the 50 scripts. Eight will be selected for further development and a final five actually staged in the Autumn.

I would normally spend a much longer developing an idea into a script – plus it’s only the second time I’ve ever written for the stage – but all writing experience is good, and no matter how bad it may turn out to be, I am still looking forward to hearing my script being read by real actors.

My photograph has arrived from Theatre West/Picture This and looks like this:

I was hoping for something showing people, as I had a number of ideas that could probably have been quickly adapted, but that’s show business.

Now – inspired by the photo – I have to provide 10 pages/1500 words of a script plus a synopsis of the completed piece by 25th May, and all 50 entrants will get a reading over 29/30th May at the Alma Tavern in Bristol.

The complete list of runners and riders can be found here.

Back at the start of the year, I submitted a script to Bristol’s Tobacco Factory Theatre for their Script Space competition. I didn’t make the short list in the end, but they liked it enough to pass my details on to Theatre West (also of Bristol) and as a result, I have been invited to write a script for their Picture This project/competition – a one hour play, on one set with a cast of three, so watch this space!

I have finally managed to spend some time working out scenes and FX for the follow up to See You Later, Elevator. This will be a 4 part series (again for Corinium Radio) called Finders, Keepers. I have added a new page for this, which includes some location and FX testing.

28 days later – and 51636 words long – Crooked Usage is now complete and posted onto the official site! It’s nowhere near being publishable, but a first draft is better than nothing at all.

Back at the start of the month I heard Ian Rankin and Frederic Forsyth on R4’s Today program discussing the National Write a Novel in a Month, which involves submitting a 50,000 word novel before midnight (local time) n the 30th November. So there and then, I decided to take the plunge and make a start on Crooked Usage, an idea I have been kicking around for over a decade. It may not make a great novel, but it will no longer be an unwritten novel. Even if it’s no better than a first draft, at least it will be a first draft, and it’s easier to turn 50,000 words into something than it is to turn 0 words into something. As of 19th November, I have managed 38747 words, and am confident I will make the 50,000 total.

Crooked Usage is set in an unregarded corner of North London at the end of January 1947. The unexpected winter isolates people in their homes, bringing power cuts and a breakdown of infrastructure. As the inhabitants of 12 Crooked Usage (it is a real street, honest!) fall back on their own resources, an ancient secret – long unsuspected – is forced out of hiding in order to survive…