Happy New Year... Already? Where does the time go?

I seem to have accidentally slipped into a sidestream of the timeline, and have spent my whole time editing, writing ... and also either procrastinating or doing research - whichever term you feel happier with.

I've joined a writers' group a while back, which for once is compatible and actually works for me - which is nice. They want the same sort of things I do, and we all bring our own unique take and strengths to the table. :) Lovely stuff.

As a result we are bringing out a book of short stories, which I will tell you more about nearer the time. We are now ready to finalise the number of tales and the story order. It's very exciting.

In addition to working on this, I've been reading up on grammar and punctuation (which I was never 100% utterly amazing at, just fairly good and very patient at combing through things, plus the rules keep effing changing!), and I've been helping to edit both other people's work (the mad fools) and my own. I've even managed a bit of writing. Woo hoo!

A newly proofed version of The Grim will be out later this year - hopefully with fewer gaffs and punctuation errors.

The MS has tried to rear its ugly head a few times, but so far I've managed to bash it back down and get it mostly under control - although the exhaustion is something I'm having to learn to work around.

And I've been adoped by a stray cat. She's a black and white lovely, very demanding, but a purrfect companion in many respects. She replaces my Monster, who was killed in a hit & run nearly two years ago. He and the other ghost cats come and visit regularly, and Pushca (not Russian, its short for Pushy Cat) doesn't seem to mind. Although she does stare at Dereck when he visits.

So what else has been going on?

I loved The Hobbit, and The Desolation of Smaug. Also the new series of Sherlock looks like it's going to be fun. The 50 year anniversary of Doctor Who was great. A little disappointed by the change over episode - in the past they have always been hair-raising stuff. This time it seemed to be more of a by-the-numbers, not-really-trying to worry about the cliff-hanger factor, adrenaline-free afair ... or maybe I'm just getting really jaded in my old age. Having said that some of the episodes have been brilliant.
I enjoyed Vicious. And there have been quite a few comedy and police/crime things on that have been great... titles escape me for the moment. I shall blame my MS and the tiredness factor, which is currently kicking in, for the memory lapse. There have been a lot of good films. Again, the titles elude me at present.
And many other things I've enjoyed too, but I have to go and lie down in a darkened corner for a bit and recoup my energy and get my brain working again. Sorry. Please bear with me.

Have a great 2014, I know I will.

Zombie apocalypse?

Writing style...?

A chap I know, friend-of-a-friend, kindly agreed to read The Grim give me some feedback and possibly a review. Which is very nice of him. I greatly appreciate it.
But as we talked he mentioned that my writing style is very different from the writing style I use in this blog.

Hmm. Is it?
Actually that's not the question I asked myself. I was confused...
The question I asked myself was, 'Why would he think that they would be the same?'

The style I use when writing this blog is different to the style I use when writing a film script, and different again from the various ones I use when writing fiction, and different again from the style used when making notes, writing a letter to a friend, writing a letter to a corporation, etc, etc. ... There are going to be aspects in common, but doesn't everyone adopt a different writing style for the specific task they are engaged in?

The syle I use when blogging is, I hope, engaging - and I speak as though chatting to a friend on the internet. (?) Informal. Just a chin-wag, a bit of a natter. ... The mad ramblings of an insane mind!!!
You know the drill, surely?

Anyhow, I'm supposed to be writing, and instead, here I am procrastinating. *sigh*

I'd better get back to it.

An annoyingly 'interesting' year so far...

Well, my writing plan was interrupted slightly - okay, that's an understatement. It was interrupted a lot.

A brief recap of the year so far:

January 2012 - The MS tried to inflict another attack on me while everything medical was shut for New Year. Great. Thanks for that. - - The second everything opened again I was obtaining meds ASAP. Got the MS attack under control. Phew!A little later my day job came to the end of its contract and I set about converting The Grim into a novella. (It is currently available on Kindle The Grim - if anyone is interested in posting a review I'm sure a free copy can be located, please email me? The hard copy of the novella should be out in the next few weeks / months? (depending on whether you prefer to buy direct from the publisher, or wait for Amazon to get their act together.) I'll post again, with links, when it is.
[My contact at the self publishing company - Authors Online said that it was not normally something she would read, but she could not put it down! Hooray!]
Towards the end of the month I got to see my MS spcialist again and this time there was enough evidence for a diagnosis. It's official, I have multiple sclerosis - currently of the relapsing / remitting variety.So life had decided to be "interesting" at me. *Gnashing of teeth*
You may remember that I told myself I should have kept my mouth shut.
... Mind you, I suspect I had my first attacks when I was 15, I would joke with my friend that I had "tripped over the wall!" I was walking next too. There was nothing on the floor I could have tripped on, not even a matchstick! But thankfully stayed in remission for many, many years, at least visibly on the surface. Until August 2011, when it mangled me. Grr!
Ah well, such is life... back to writing!
February - the day job asks me to come back earlier than expected for the spring garden season, so I do - part time because the MS has a fatigue element that prevents anything more strenuous. And I write in my spare time, when I am able to; the text is finally done, and I love the artwork! (Thank you, Siobhan)
All I have to do is apply a final set of tweeks and a read-through to make sure everything is in order ... except ...
... 12th March onwards, The MS meds they have put me on have side effects, as they all do, but because I'm such a delicate flower - - STOP COUGHING AT THE BACK! - - (my specialist nurse knows of only one other person under her care who has had a similar initial reaction to this particular drug.) one of the many wonderful side effects was to destroy my ability to concentrate; as well as highlight all my symptoms; and ... a lovely one ... to destroy my liver ... !Eek! Better come off that drug then. Grr.
So that's March and 10 days of April lost to side effects.(The hope / my hope was that my body would get used to the drug. But the blood tests I eventually took prooved that wasn't happening, and that it was screwing up my liver enzymes. ARGH!)
Having come off the drugs, the effects have wained, and my liver is finally back to normal - mid to late May.

So now it's time to crack on with the writing, when the MS allows - which is not as frequently as I would like, ... mainly because I am devoting a lot of my time to reading up on MS in order to find out how to nutralize this effing disease, since I am unlikely to be able to use the normal interferon modifiers.
Although there is a new tablet coming out in a few months - fingers crossed it might be more suitable to my 'delicate nature';
But in the mean time, diet seems to be a key factor that I've tripped over in my reading. Although it's blinking strict and will take some getting used to, I also need to finish reading up on it. (I bought several tomes that I've only just started to wade through.)
Then there's the house hunting, and the form filling, and the doctors and nurses appointments. Family and friends.
And of course the actual thing I am supposed to be doing, the writing!
Wish me luck!

SHERLOCK

I was excited to see that Sherlock is back, for another 3 episodes.

So that's tonight's (this weeks?) TV entertainment taken care of. :) I'm looking forward to it!


UPDATE: Great episode! ... Sadly there were several distractions that pulled me out of the story - - well, they were all the same one: his violin playing. The bowing did not match the music being played - almost all the time!

This is Sherlock Holmes people. The violin is kinda important. The fact that it took me out of the story means it didn't work for me...

Please, Stephen, get Benedict a violin-continuity coach?

To Twit, or not to Twit... Um, most likely 'not'

To end the year (well, nearly... I then wrote an Annual Round Up post on Boxing Day while my sister snored and I wondered how to fill up the time from ungodly o'clock to a slightly more reasonable time of the morning - - like noon!*) ... sorry, interrupted myself a bit there. *rolls eyes* I'll start again:

To end the year, I joined Twitter.

Not because I wanted to, but because I had a terror of waking up one day in January, like Phill to discover that I am not me! At least not on Twitter at any rate. So I took preemptive action and opened an account.
Kind of pointless really. ... I already twitter on about this and that in real life, and most people sensibly don't listen. And anyone who meets me for more than a few seconds can rapidly, easily, and accurately arrive at the conclusion that I am a bit of a twit. They're right. I am.
So, you should be aware, that I am extremely unlikely to tweet very much. If at all.

Sorry.

But if you haven't already decided to follow** a mostly unused account, then this is me: Eleanor

*And of course there's this post.... Hmm.

**you mad, flattering (fluttering?) fools!

I guess I'd better go and say, Hello???

...

Okay. Been there. Done that. Now, back to writing! (okay, maybe not quite writing, but I am doing research. Alright, stop pressuring me! The truth is, I'm watching Xena episodes on DVD. What? It might count as research? ... They tell some good stories, and it shows action scenes, er, in action. ... It was a Christmas present to myself, okay?. Move along now, nothing to see.)

End of year update

What happened to me this year, you ask? Except you probably didn't. But you're here, so I'm going to do my best to remember, and tell you anyway.

It's a little difficult, as my memory sucks at the best of times, and my computer committed suicide in late September taking most of the useful links and information I had stored with it. - - Thank goodness for external back up drives! So at least I managed to keep the majority of my writing and important documentation safe. Phew! (Heck, I print out the important stuff as soon as I get it. Well, you have to don't you. That's what filing cabinets and recordable CDs are for.)

The highlights as I remember them were:

January - rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.
February get manipulated / bullied into eventually signing (in March) a contract with Paul Dawson, who then proceeded to try to screw over me and the other three people who were intent on making the film trilogy we were talking about. ... Managed to get a day job which lasted all of 5 days - thanks for that. Cheap labour required. I made the mistake of trying to be helpful, since they had me updating their company letterhead with their new version, of pointing out on my first day that they needed to quote their company number and registered address on it in order to comply with Limited Company status regulations. Next thing you know all my office admin training (specific to them) was over and I spent the next 4 days sweeping the floors and tidying the yard. Crap company all over. Sod 'em.
March - finally twigged what was going on with PDs attempted screw job and spent the next several weeks trying to get him to return full rights to me as he had confirmed he had no intention of making the film, so that myself and the other three could get on with trying to find a producer who actually knows the job and go about raising funding. Had to get the union involved before he eventually caved and finally did the decent thing.
April - all rights eventually returned to me. Thank f**k. ... lesson learned: Never sign anything without a solicitor involved, no matter how tempting, or how pressurised the 'it's only an agreement at this stage' may turn out to be. In my opinion, if he wasn't so blinded by the bright lights of Hollywood, he would make an excellent conman, he already has all the tactics and the gift-of-the-gab skills required for such a nefarious trade. ... Landed another day job working in an excellent garden centre, with excellent people, and plenty of green growing things to look at (which is one of the requirements of my cave-dwelling lifestyle) and learn about while I sell them to the general public. Lovely people.
May - rewrite, research then adjust accordingly and rewrite, speak with director, rewrite,
June - rewrite again, tweak, director's notes, rewrite.
July - Day job contract ends, they tell me to reapply at the end of August for the Christmas contract. Very happy. ... Rewrite, director's notes, rewrite. It's getting there! Hoorah! ... get a day job working in sales - - given lurgy by the boss at the interview near the end of the month. Thanks for that.
August - work through the lurgy, even though all I want to do is curl up and die. Boss then gives all of us another variation on the lurgy-- Which in my case attacks my brain, and -- in the same day that he tells me I'm not aggressive enough for sales, I realise I can't see properly out of one of my eyes, and my balance that has been getting progressively worse over the previous four days sends my foot coordination and spacial awareness to hell in a handcart. So, spent mid August in hospital A&E being poked and prodded and MRI'd, followed by spending the night for observation, knowing that when I get out I have to find a new job as soon as I can function again. Deep joy. On a massive dose of steroids to bring down the brain inflammation so that my own white cells will stop trying to kill me! It worked and stopped the symptoms from getting any worse. Phew! ... Contacted the garden centre, they were very pleased to hear from me and told me to fill in the application form they are posting.
September - Still can't balance properly, still only partial vision in the affected eye. ... Working at the main tills in the garden centre (rather than the plant centre tills which I prefer) as the mad dash to Christmas gradually ramps up, and shoppers start the whole shop-til-you-drop insanity.
October - Manning the tills full-time ... oh, and I've got to get some paperwork ready for the Trilogy plan for the second and third scripts so the director can take them to the American Film Market in November, if he's able to raise enough funding for the trip. - - Eek! Quickly reverse engineer a treatment for the first film, and then spend all my spare time getting the plot, character arcs, new villains and old villains worked out and then written up into treatments for the second and third films. Director seems pleased with the results.
November - Director decides not to go to the AFM after all, but take them to the Berlin festival in February (which will probably be a better fit?) ... So I breath a silent sigh of relief and collapse in a heap and try to recover from this dratted brain malarkey in my spare time away from the day job.
December - still dealing with shop-til-you-drop insanity in the day job, and coming up to Christmas am just about feeling the effects of needing to write or go nuts. Begin to plan my next writing projects - but family and Christmas prevent me from doing anything much beyond mental planning and some research. Realise I haven't been reading the blogs or keeping up to date with what's what since I got the brain thing in mid August. Bum!

Oh yeah - my car committed suicide in August just after my brain did, and my computer committed suicide in late September. Got it up and limping again by early October. Not properly fixed until mid November - when I finally had time to devote to all the updates, and programs, email etc, that I need on it. Er, and my Neurology Consultant thinks I probably have MS, but more tests are needed. Apparently living in the Wild West and having a Scandinavian Grandmother may both be a risk factors; on the plus side: eye involvement, being female, and being relatively young are all positive factors. But then they don't really know anything about MS. We'll find out more about that next year.

Blinking heck! This has been an overly interesting year. (on the plus side, lots of great experiences and perspectives for story) ... And I haven't even mentioned all the family trauma and bollocks that I've had to work through all year. If it's not one of them giving me problems to solve, it's another. - - But then again, I guess that's what family is for. ;)

Hopefully next year will be a little bit easier to deal with? Although I won't hold my breath. ... With a bit of luck the Trilogy will finally get some funding, and if not, well I am starting my next project (a novel and its accompanying screenplay) - I hope to have both done by mid year (unless the joyful happiness of the Trilogy delays things a bit.) Here's hoping!

Despite everything, I've enjoyed 2011. It's been an eye-opener, to say the least. (sick joke included on purpose) Heck, you only need one that actually works. ;)

"All I Want For Christmas Is You"

HMS Ocean has made a great Christmas video to celebrate their return to home for Christmas! ... Made me giggle.

[Update: I've changed the link - as BBC SPOTLIGHT seems to have watered down the video a bit by editing it. *Grrr*]

All I Want For Christmas

LIFE'S TOO SHORT

I'm enjoying this comedy series.

You might want to take a look too? Mind you, you probably started watching it when it first came out, because you are in touch, in tune, up to date... whereas I've been hiding in my cave for far too long - sorry about that!
... I'm catching up via i-Player


Gosh, ever since that virus attacked my brain in mid August I've turned into a really boring f**ker!

What is it with August and the Universe trying to mangle me? Last year it went after my lungs with a serious asthma attack, this year it went after my brain.

Sigh.

Gotta laugh, though, ... maybe? ;)

CASE HISTORIES

SUNDAY, BBC1, 9pm - CASE HISTORIES

An engaging P.I. series. I'm enjoying the ongoing mystery, and I think that Jason Isaacs is always worth a look see - nice eye-candy, and an actor who makes you pay attention while he's on screen. :) Good supporting cast too.
Most importantly, good story...

I think the BBC are getting quite good at picking detective type shows.

Currently available on iPlayer, if you missed it.

Yes, I'm procrastinating. ... Back to the writing!

The Doctor's Wife

I love Neil Gaiman's brain.

'nuff said.

STORMHOUSE

Check out the teaster trailer for Jason Arnopp's awesomeness....
(er, well, it sounded good in my head)

New horror film, that I plan to see/own.

In 2002, the military captured and imprisoned a supernatural entity:


So when's it out on DVD/Blueray Jason? Huh? Huh? Hurry up!

PSYCHOVILLE

Thursday - BBC2, 10pm.

Psychoville (series 2) - If you like surreal, dark/black humour it is well worth a look see.

Also currently available on iPlayer, if you missed it.

Now that series 1 has already set up most of the characters and their flaws, - I enjoyed series 1 a lot. - series 2 promises to be truly outstanding! - - Mind you, this is just a guess (from half way through the first episode via iPlayer). But I'm extremely impressed. :) And had to blog about it!

EXILE

Exile - BBC1, 9pm.

It's running for three consecutive nights. If you missed the first one you can catch it on iPlayer, I expect.

I enjoyed it ... if that means anything at all to you.

It's advertised as a Thriller by the promoters ... certainly the drama is very good, with plenty of questions to ask yourself and encourage you to keep watching to find out the answers. :)
Great acting too - it's worth watching for that alone! But it has sooo much more. :)

Working towards validation

You find encouragement in the strangest places! ;)

"congratulations: You’re a writer, and the reason you’re good at it is because your life kinda sucks." Daniel Thomsen c/o John August

Of course, whether I am any good at it* is a matter for history to deliver a verdict upon. ... So far the signs are encouraging though.
Then again, I could be hallucinating again. :)

The whole post is worth reading (if you haven't already?), whether you are interested in writing for TV or film, so I recommend following the link and giving your eyeballs some quotable treats.

*writing - you gutter minds

CAMPUS

Tuesdays, C4, 10pm.

It's great! Go watch it!

:)

Effective advertising....

1.30pm and my stomach was grumbling, a lot. So I headed to the kitchen, and idly glanced out of the window as I-- -- totally lost my train of thought.

There was a black Dalek blowing up the shop window across the street!
... Sorry, I'll try that again.
It wasn't quite that exciting.

There was a blow-up Dalek, a black one, in the window of the shop across the street.
- New shop, old premesis. - Made me forget everything. - Took me a moment to realise it was an inflatable Dalek. Not a real one.
Whoever heard of such a thing?! (Well, probably all of you. But muggins here doesn't get out much.)
My shocked and numbed brain managed to mumble "Great advertizing!" to me*.
Note to self: Utilize someone else's well known and eye-catching brand to more effectively promote and advertise your own services.

Then I wondered why I was in the kitchen, and my body reminded me "LUNCH, YOU BARBARIAN! GET ON WITH IT!" - - "Um, you'll be hungry, then?" "GET ON WITH IT! FOOD! NOW!" "Okay, okay. Keep your hair on."

Highlight of my month.
I'm trying to work out how sad it is that I can admit that...?
No, don't answer.

Back to writing!


*What? I'm a writer, I need to be able to compartmentalise bits of my personality.
Well, that's my** excuse.... Anyway, Nothing to see here! Move along!

** See: *

Solar roads for electric cars

NOW THAT IS A CONCEPT!

Check out this post by Jim Henshaw which includes a You Tube vid that you need to watch.

I'll just try to.... - -



Woah! Neato! It worked! Sorry, I shall just pass out from shock.

Anyway, well cool - why ain't the UK leading the way with this? Huh? Huh?

Sherlock

Bit like Doctor Who, but different. ?
I really enjoyed it. Gold stars to all involved. :) MORE, PLEASE?

And we were all thinking, "What you do not smell is called iocane powder. It is odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in liquid, and is among the more deadlier poisons known to man...."

And the best thing is, we'll never know! (Unless they reveal it next time? I hope not.)

*evil laughter*

What? It's waaay passed my bedtime.

I'm busy doing nothing....

Jason has a great post on THINKING. Which I discovered just now while I was procrastinating as I tried to avoid that very subject - or even as I was immersing myself in it. Not sure which. They tend to be the same thing with me.
You divide your brain up into parts and trick the smallest part into thinking it is actively engaged in something, while the rest of it mulls over stuff. And then suddenly the main part of the brain derails the smaller part, and you put down whatever crap you were distracting yourself with and THE WRITING starts to flow ... At the start of a project this is ideas and inspirations (which I have to write down quick before they vanish); and then later in the project the sieving, refining, focusing, initial plotting; then later again reworking, recombining, replotting, deleting, refocusing, and finally; I start the typing/scribbling part of the process, during which I usually go through all the previous stages several times AGAIN!
Which maybe is why it can take me FOREVER to actually complete a story*.
However when the characters start talking to you it can really speed all of this up, because you already have a 'lock' on the story, whether you realize it consciously or not.
*Or sometimes less than two months (for a two hour feature), start to finish, when the writing really takes over and your active brain has vanished into the mist of creation. And the majority of that two months is thinking time.
Hmmm.

And now I must go write.