Transition and New Opportunities

Here we are at the end of the month and I suddenly realise I am about to break a streak of 28 consecutive months of posting on this blog. Please accept this token effort as a last ditch effort to continue the streak… though I suspect most of you won’t get to read it until tomorrow.

Why transition?

Well, after 583 days since I was involuntarily made redundant, the money has almost gone. Yes, sports fans, it’s time to rejoin the world of the living dead employed. Some of you know how unsettled this has made me but there’s no getting around it. People continue to insist on payment for things like rent, electricity, food and stuff.

But before we get to good news – terrific news actually – on that front, let’s recap where the screenwriting misadventures are at:

The short film “Coffee To Go” has been shot but I’m yet to see a rough cut. When I ask, everyone says it LOOKS terrific. Funny though about a writer’s perspective as I keep replying, “yes, but does the story work?”

The second short for Filmbites goes into production in a couple of weeks with rehearsals scheduled for tomorrow. I’m hoping there is no significance to this also being April Fool’s Day!

Of the three shorts I was hawking online, one has been submitted for Link funding with an excellent creative team and some good news on the casting front though I’m not at liberty to discuss that.

Another has been sent to South Australia, hopefully to be selected by, what I believe, is a TAFE style college.

The third has been incinerated with the ashes buried in the back garden and covered over with concrete and a pergola.

As for features, I haven’t heard back from the producers of The Red Bride; I haven’t finished the low budget thriller yet; and the true life political script appears to have fallen over due to recent events. Some times real life is far more interesting… and harder to structure!

But to the good news. Some of you know I travelled to Canberra earlier this year to spend time with my sister, nephew and niece. Also to do some research for the now defunct political script… and to pursue a long shot that I wasn’t able to mention at the time.

Any of you who know me well understand that The West Wing is my all time favourite show with Toby Ziegler my favourite character – the "prickly, mumbly Communications Director."

I need a job. I can write a little. Well, what about speechwriting? So after a speculative query got me a meeting in Canberra then jumping through quite a few hoops including submitting a mock speech, I was told yesterday that I have the gig! Okay, not THE gig – not quite Toby yet… but on the writing staff of a politician who is generally considered to have a ”communication problem.”

I have a meeting next week to confirm all the details but I must confess to being, oh, just a little excited! More information as I get it… and if I’m allowed to discuss.

Fancy that, instead of putting words in the mouths of fictional characters, I get to do it for a living, breathing person. Though I guess the level of acting and fiction is arguably comparable!