Things are quiet. At the moment, I spend a lot of time fighting fairly intense cabin-fever, and still looking for some kind of regular day work. There's the writing, but when it comes down to it I'm one of those people who needs fairly constant external stimulation in order to keep from running down - and that external stimulation usually comes in the form of part-time work. It gets me out of the house, talking to people, and making some extra money. I've applied for a couple of dozen jobs in the past month alone, but no success so far.

But, at the very least, I can get out in the evenings. This is a relatively quiet week, however, the first since the start of the year. Prior to this I've been out pretty constantly since post-Christmas with friends, and that's helped me at least retain my sanity a little bit. To this end I'm thinking about doing a little voluntary work of some kind, simply to get me out of the freaking house for a day or two a week.

In terms of actual writing, things are at least going pretty well. I'm halfway through my editor's edits on Stealing Light, and Tor/Pan MacMillan are generally making exceptionally positive noises concerning the book. This bodes well.

Then there's the ten-minute movie script, currently still caught in its own special form of development hell. It's been through another three drafts since it was first submitted to GMAC, and I think it's improved. The real problem facing myself, Shona (director) and to a certain extent Emily (development), is the cost of the project.

The script is set in a remote Scottish religious community. I've described it as a farmhouse surrounded by caravans, and beyond that a wire fence with surveillance cameras. There are other considerations, but as far as outside shooting goes, that's about it. It's only a ten minute movie, but in that space we have to show a lot.

Until now, it's only been a question of developing the script. But once that part has been done, myself, the director and a producer (assuming we can find one) are going to have to pitch this whole thing - again - to the people with the money, and if we can't prove we can make this movie for the available funds, then our chances of getting any funds at all are pretty much screwed.

Part of the problem is my own unfamiliarity with what it takes to make a movie. Because the idea is science fiction, this of course brings its own wealth of problems in terms of costs of shooting, and if anything trips us up, it's almost certainly going to be this. Other people will be filming scripts set in living rooms, suburban streets, or whatever. But we need ... an isolated community, robots, surveillance gear, you name it.

Next time, I write a story set in someone's living room.

So This Is Development Hell

The script ('Personal Jesus') continues to be redrafted, closer and closer to something that can be pitched in order to get the necessary finances. Between now and the initial meeting at the CCA, I've had several meetings with the director, with the development officer, with both of them, going over the story and refining it and getting it closer and closer to something like a shooting script (as opposed to something which merely describes the story with added dialogue).

It's a lot of work for something that might not happen, but it's better not to think that way. It might well happen, it might well not. Part of me wonders if it's better not to detail all the to-ing and fro-ing in case it does all fall flat on its face, but, eh.

A new review, this time from a German online site. Not too shabby, though given the aforementioned link is run through a translation engine, perhaps also unintentionally amusing.

A week or so ago, I made it along to a spoken-word performance night put together by one or two of the GSFWC-ers, under the name 'Word Dogs'. Some of the performances were excellent. Gavin Inglis was great, having come all the way over from Edinburgh to perform 'Fall of the House of Fraser'. I wish the guy would hurry up and get a video of one of his performances up on YouTube or similar so you could see how good he is, although perhaps some of the more 'Scottish' humour might be lost on our overseas brethren.