What have I been up to?

You really don't want to know, but I'm going to tell you anyway!

Writing.
Failing to get an agent.
Holiday.

Not necessarily in that order.

I rewrote The Grim, again, and have sent it off to be inspected by a very kind chap, who is now "going away for a few weeks" but will "read it when I get back". So hoorah! But instead of waiting I am cracking on with the science fiction screenplay ... I'm in the end stages of collating all my previous ideas, and sorting out the plot - prior to starting the actual writing*.
This is an improvement over biting my nails and gnashing my teeth with the whole suspense of it all. And if I get rejected, so what. I shall keep writing darn you all!

Speaking of rejection, I've had three agents come back to me in the space of three weeks, all saying "Thanks, but no thanks." Which is a pretty quick turn around, considering the timescales they are touting on their websites - means I must be communicating effectively, or they are in a dead phase. Two of them said it wasn't their sort of thing, and one of the rejections was the usual, vague "Never darken my door again!" with threats ... okay I'm joking, but you know the type of rejection I'm talking about - basically they know enough about me from my attempted overtures to know that we would never ever go out on a date together, and if we did, marriage would be right out SO DON'T EVEN GO THERE. *sigh*
Mind you, I think I shall delay my next bout of attacking agents until I've finished the first draft of the science fiction screenplay ... concentrate all my efforts on that, without the petty distractions of World Conquest.

Hoorah! Holiday! That was fun. :)
My friend Lucy** took me away to the Isles of Scilly for a week for our joint "How fricking old are we?" "SHUSSSSSH!" birthday present. Once I get my act together, I shall probably post pictures on my Facebook page.
NB: If you don't like plants, don't even bother - - we were on Tresco and spent much of our time in the Abbey Gardens oohing and aahing over pitcher plants in flower, and puyas: flowering in three different colours (yellow, green and BLUE! Who knew the puya came in blue? Lucy didn't and she's the plant queen.)
Admittedly there are some fairly good shots of islands, and amazing coloured sea, and INTERESTING ROCKS ... What? I'm a boring bastard at the best of times. Tough. Suffer. You have been warned in advance.
Oh, and there was a Borg Cube there, for some reason? It appeared to like it so much that it has deactivated itself and is now pretending to be a sculpture - but I know a Borg Cube when I see one.




*But when I start the actual writing, this is usually the point at which my brain churns out half a dozen ideas for other stories in an effort to derail me, the rat fink.
**Not that Lucy, a different Lucy altogether. - - Heck, that Lucy knows nine million Eleanor's (spelling optional), am I complaining about not knowing who I am anymore? Huh? Huh? - - Easily confused me. Grr.

;)


NB: I've had to turn on comment moderation due to the unremitting spam linking/comments by annoying personages who can't take a hint.
I don't delete you for the fun of it you know! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

UPDATE: 20th June 2010. I've just realized that this pic may be a bit misleading - sure, as Borg Cubes go, this one is small, but the foliage in the foreground makes it look really, really small. I wasn't able to measure it because of the gulf between it and where I was standing, but it is at least man-sized, if not bigger.
Here's another pic, which hopefully shows it better.

The Mountain Effect

You are flying along in a clear blue sky, humming a little song to yourself, when someone pulls along side in their jet-fighter and says they really like the way you fly. 'And incidentally, don't you like my jet-fighter?'
It's a cool looking jet-fighter. But when you take a good look close to, you realise it has some gaffa tape in a few places. Infact, it's quite a ropy old jet-fighter, but it has potential. There is quite a bit of rust that could do with a good scrape and respray/rebuild.
But small parts of the jet-fighter are quite breath-taking, angles, curves, the sheen and sleek of it. You can see the potential. You like.
If it's rebuilt it could be stunning. - - You say this.
'You wanna help rebuild it?'
Sounds like a plan.
But as you fly along in tandem, making a list of changes that really need to be made, it's becoming quite cloudy, until you can't see where you're flying anymore. And all the while the guy is distracting you with compliments.
"Look, I can't see because of all these clouds, and if I'm gonna work on it we really need to land, so you can sign the rebuild paperwork and I can get on with fixing it." He agrees, but keeps on flying through the clouds.
"Are you gonna land?"
He thinks about this for a good long while. 'Nope. I've decided the jet-fighter is fine the way it is afterall. Bye!' He peels away in a vertical climb.
The clouds part and you are nose to cliff face with a mountain.
SPLAT!
Belatedly you realise that that wasn't cloud, it was all the smoke he was blowing at you.
Darn.


Well, that was educational. Sometimes these things need hammering home.

So, the American re-write is well and truely dead. I suspected this was the case back near the start, but it was such pretty smoke that I allowed myself to get carried away and ignore the many warning signs.
FOOL THAT I AM!

Take heed kinder. If someone says they love you but won't commit, it means they don't love you at all, they just want the chance to use and abuse you.
*narrows eyes*

Goodbye Producer No#2. That was ... interesting.