Category: Self-ish

Rumpus ’08 is here! Rumpus vs. Episode: Rhythmic Emergency
The “party of the year” is eager to fight for its title against some other damn good parties of 2008. This time, the Rumpletron is going head-to-head with another legendary party series, Episode!

Sat 5th July, 1a Kensington Ave Petone (new venue). Be there and be medical!
Track progress with Rumpmeister d3vo
Read about Rumpus 07
Read about Rumpus 06

Sometimes study is like this: you spend all day trying to get through your articles-to-read folder, and when you finish you’re glad that there’s only 10% more articles in there than when you began.
(Because the thing about reading journal articles is they reference other articles and you realise you have to read those too. And so on.)

Yesterday (Sunday) was my beloved Strong-Light’s birthday.
She is a busy bee in the Beehive at present, so her blog is updated only infrequently, but it would still be nice for those who know her to pop over and give her some birthday love.

Have had the busy well and truly this past week. Apart from the usual nonsense of study study and worky worky, I’ve had a major meeting that I had to prep for, two classes of papers to mark, a freelance assignment due, an ethics application to complete and submit, a 6-month report to write and get reviewed and signed, a playtest game to prep, run, and report on, another meeting to prep for, a friend’s housemove to assist, and a job interview.
I sat down on the afternoon of 22 May (last Thurs) to write all of those deadlines in a list, then carefully figured out how I could possibly get them all done. I must have done my sums right because it’s a week later and everything got done and I also returned a mystery postcard to its owner, watched the last episodes of The Wire, and joined in a trashy film fest with the Knifeman.
Was not perfect. I missed a birthday party I really wanted to go to, turned up to some farewell drinks but was confused enough not to find the farewell-ee despite apparently walking right past their table a couple of times, and did not reply to a letter from overseas that really deserves a swift response. Plus, didn’t get all the study done I wanted to.
Still. I’m glad I’m in this Wednesday instead of last Wednesday. Last Wednesday was kind of intimidating.

The 48 Hour Film Comp weekend is now done. Jenni’s Angels had an intense weekend, and got its final cut into the judges with all of four seconds to spare (!). I was in the writing team this year, and my intentions to get up to help with the shoot came to nothing – other errands and tasks took up much of Saturday, and Sunday I just wiped.
This year’s requirements were the character Kerry Post, a perfectionist; the line “Wait a minute”; and the required prop was a brush. Our team had as genre “Superhero” or “Fairy Tale” – we were able to choose. Up at Indigo City we got into some serious brainstorming with almost the whole crew there, pushing through some truly great ideas, but we sifted through to cut ideas that were too big for a six-minute flick, and some that just seemed too technically demanding to be worth risking. Oddly enough, we settled on an idea generated at the start of Jenni’s Angel’s very first 48, passed over on that occasion. We found just the right riff for it this time out.
The writing team then shifted to different premises to work up a script. The team was much the same as the last time I was on it: me, hix and Sean again, joined this time by Chris G. It was an awesome team, each of us bringing different perspectives and strengths to the mix, and best of all we had the collaborative thing going real well. There was no ego in the room as we worked through ideas, shot down bits that didn’t click, elaborated on bits that ran hot, and generally made our way through to a script that made us happy.
By this time it was 5.30am, so we emailed out the script, then hix and I drove around for a while before turning up at Indigo City for the 6.30am actor call. Straight away there was feedback coming from people who had read the script before coming up; we started making a few scribbled changes here and there. As French Toast was put on, furious planning was going on all around us as costumes and props were chased down, filming locations were settled, and technical prep began. Director Lee took me, hix and our four cast into a quiet room and we ran the script. The red pen came out and we chopped and changed the script a bit, and then I decided I was done – Lee and hix and the cast had everything well in hand. I headed away to do the sleeping thing. It was around 8am.
35 hours of intense work followed my departure. I hope the script didn’t have any crazy hooks hidden in it that caused mayhem – I don’t think it did, but…
Unlike previous years, cast and crew are forbidden to watch the completed entry before its big-screen debut. This is only a couple days away: Jenni’s Angels is in Heat 6, on Wednesday 21st May, 9.15pm at The Paramount. I’m hella looking forward.
Thank you to the amazing fellow JAs who made the thing while I was sleeping.
And yay the 48. It is a beautiful thing.

Notification: flatwarmer-ing party on June 14.
To celebrate it being thirteen months since we moved in! Or something.
Details to come.

And with that, I’ve finished draft 3 of Ron the Body.
Good. It doesn’t feel any different to knocking off any other bit of work – I know from experience it takes a while to sink in, and there’s still a bunch of reformatting, spellchecking, etc to do before I can truly put it in the finished file. Not to mention a bit of punching up the synopsis and cover letter when I get pitching the damn thing again.
I slipped about a month over deadline on this. Not too bad, in the grand scheme of things.
Best of all, it feels like Ron is done this time. Sure, I could go back and do another draft – it isn’t perfect. Nothing ever gets to perfect. But what I have now is a draft I’m happy with and proud of and, most importantly, that I think is publishable. Just got to find the right publisher, namely one who thinks the same.
So, yes, it’s good. I’ve had versions of this moment twice before – finishing draft one in ’06, and finishing draft two in ’07. Both those times I knew there was more work to do. Right now, looking at those final words? I’m done.
I love the final words of Ron. I remember exactly where I was when they came to me – sitting on a rock formation in Wadi Rum, in Jordan, looking at the sandy desert and the blue sky. They were the perfect words to end the book, and they’ve stayed unchanged through all three drafts. They’re probably my favourite words in the whole thing. It’s good to see them again.
—
Other writing-ish things:
1) Unearthly: Cosmic Heroes, an RPG supplement for superhero gaming, has garnered another review in the last month, this time a nice five-star bit. I’m pleased. I don’t have much time for the freelance writing at the moment, so it’s good to see this is still getting sales and good responses.
2) Oddly enough, I am a featured interviewee in issue 26 of Doctor Who fanzine RTP. I still haven’t got around to organising myself a copy, but it is mentioned in the Zeus Blog issue review: “Speaking of intelligent opinion, the Morgan Davie interview…” *blushes*
3) I’ve picked up another freelance writing contract with local computer games company Sidhe Interactive… last time it was writing spot dialogue for the new movie-based Speed Racer game (I’m finally confirming this now, I figure the NDA won’t kick my arse now the game is actually on release in the US!), this time it’s another project that I also can’t talk about, but promises to muchas super fun.
4) The 48 Hour Film Fest is here again, and this Friday I’m saddling up the ol’ laptop and rocking along to join the elite writing team of doom. This time we’re gonna break the 48 entirely. It’s gonna rock. I direct your attention to the team’s 2006 entry, Monster Hunter Iv: Beyond Repair (cowritten by me and with me in a prominent acting role as well):

And the even-better 2007 entry, Destination Earth, in which I held a flecky board and carried things around the set because that’s hella important too:

Enough of this madness. Now to do the sleeping thing.

Me an’ my godson Isaac.
(This photo kindly sponsored by Epicurean Empire Ice Cream.)

Moose don’t need antlers to stomp y’all.
I’ve been pushing hard these last couple days, and blogging has fallen right off the wagon. Maybe get some good linky tomorrow, we’ll see how that go. Up side = writing the last couple weeks has been hard, grinding, sore, thankless work, but writing the last couple nights has seen everything fall into place beautifully. Ah yes, that’s a good feeling.
(Image is another from the outstanding photoblog riotclitshave.)

If a busy and rather non-productive one. I read poetry (Mr Scott Kendrick’s much-loved Wellington poem Lambton Shuffle ) at Hottieperm’s talentquestparty, kicked a football around a schoolyard without breaking myself, made some very nice soup and fed it to people, watched the end of The Wire season 4, talked Mexico with people going to Mexico, did some work on Ron, slept in real good, and had a very nice time overall.
And right now I’m waiting for the one-hour-before-food direction for my short antibiotic course to elapse so I can have some breakfast and go to school. Another late start. Ach.
Anyway. Here’s a taster of the art for the first issue in comic story The Beast, written by me and with art by Brynn. (Previously mentioned waaaay back in Feb ’06, here.) Learning how to do comics collaboratively – there is much for us both to get our heads around. Anyway, enjoy.