Went to Nottingham yesterday...

[panik]

Where Hilary, my sister, was spending a day working on a show-reel for voice-over work. It’s something she’s wanted to do for a long time and she found a studio in Nottingham that specialises in that very thing. They’re also an agency and they’ve put her straight on their books. Talking to the sound-engineer after, it appears she impressed everyone mightily with her talent for characterisation – apparently it’s really hard to get voice-actors to characterise, they tend to want to do everything in their own voice - and Hilary is really good too, with a massive range. They’re sending her audition disc up for a couple of ads, talking books and the new series of Creature Comforts, which is most excellent news indeed.

I took my lappy assuming there’d be a green room where I could sit and work since I was only there for the moral support. There wasn’t, so I spent the morning in Starbucks, had a browse about (its been years since I wandered the streets of Nottingham) and passed a very long afternoon in the Costa in Waterstones where at least they had comfy sofas and a host of students and academics similarly occupying space for hours on end on the strength of a pot of  Earl Grey  and a ginger snap. *g*

I got a goodly bit of my sitcom worked out and some interesting ideas for the novel, switching to notes when the lappy batteries finally failed – a productive day, if a tad tedious and massively tiring, but there are far worse places to spend a day than drinking coffee, writing and browsing in a bookshop.

In other news, I got my first ‘where’s this story then?’ email from one of my Moonridge winners today. Gently worded but a prod nonetheless. Gentle reader, if  you too are one of those poor, patient souls waiting for the next update to the Academy tale (and/or waiting for Rainbows 3 to start) I can only tell you what I told them – I'll be back with you as soon as I can. I’m truly sorry, but the muse just isn’t dancing in that direction right now. I guarantee I will finish them  – barring death or coma – but I honestly can’t say when that will be.

Needless to say, I’m not offering anything for Moonridge this year.

And as my fannish life continues to diminish, I dropped another 23 communities from my flist – the bulk of them fandom and fic-related -
doctorwho, crack_van and the like. My morning sojourn on LJ hasn’t been this quick, easy and stress-free for a very long time. (o:

Comments

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Bookshops and libraries are lovely places to live (I have spent the entire day in the latter, and very nice it was too :)

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

Heh. I used to think so but like I told Jen, after more than five hours in the same spot, jittery on tea and coffee and sugary snacks, it was getting too much even for an idle bastard like myself. I'm OK when I can break off and move around more - and in a library there's the constant candy-store excitement of new books. My day wasn't quite like that. (o:

But I got plenty done and that's the main thing. If I could only get some peace in the house... but that's just idle thinking that will come to nothing... ::sigh::

I'm getting on best with the sitcom because I already have the Big story arc worked out and the comedy is, by it's nature, momentary, so I can think up a scenario, get the gags working in that matrix and it doesn't seem to matter so much, working in fits and starts with constant interruptions. Narrative writing; fic and my novel - I need sustained peace for and I never ever get that. So I'm concentrating on the radio-com and it's coming on rather nicely. I got the first scene scripted at Waterstones - this made me glad. *g*