New Hair

Right, well, I have had my hair cut short again (see Facebook pic for those of you who have befriended me), and the sad fact of the matter is that only two people in my office (of 15 people) have noticed or comment. Hmpf.
I have a driving lesson tonight, and it's really not going very well. After dismissing two driving instructors due to incompetence on their parts, the third is really great, but my confidence is shot. If only I could teleport, then I'd never need a car ever.
There's a Leicester group for NaNoWriMo now, and I'm thinking of heading on down to meet them on Sunday. I'm looking forward to writing Dorcas, finally, but there are still things I need to do in the name of research before 1st November, namely visiting Leicester Graveyard (which I can't do by myself because I'm a big wuss) and wander around Highfields with my notebook and camera (strangely, this doesn't terrify me). The main theme of Dorcas is coping with death and living in the present, but I also need to come up with a non-cliched time-travelling adventure she can go on too for the middle of the book. I guess this is where the pressure of NaNoWriMo comes to play, as I may come up with something brilliant in the spur of the moment - well, here's hoping!
I've also been looking at agents recently ("be prepared" and all that), and I found a really cool agent in America who I'd love to represent me. You see, I've decided I need an agent who specialises with adult and young adult fantasy/sci fi fiction, and the agency in the USA that I found represents most of the best selling authors today from this demographic (writers who write for both adults and YA). Unfortunately, they don't seem to have links with any UK agencies, so I'm back to the drawing board again. I know there are dozens out there (probably), but just need to do a bit of research. Maybe in December, after Dorcas is finished. What an exciting prospect.
Right, I'm going to flip my hair around a few more times as I walk across the office, just to see if I can finally get some "new hair" recognition.

Skins

I watched Skins on E4 last night, and as much as I was looking forward to watching it, I was also concerned that there was a TV drama that seemed (from the promotional material) to be my entire 'Hoodies' play! Well, I can breathe a sigh of relief, cos although it's a bit similar, it's not really the same at all. Skins is about a group of 16/17 middle class kids who go to a tech college and live in Brighton and smoke spliff, party and have sex a lot. In last night's episode, the group tried to help one kid lose his virginity and they ended up driving their stolen car into the canal. I enjoyed the programme, but it was also good because it made me focus on how my play is not like this show; it helped me to define what I actually wanted to write about. 'Shilton Rec', or whatever I'm calling it at the moment, is about a group of 14 year olds who are lost and forgotten about, who drink and shag and smoke because there's nothing else to do. Society is afraid of them, so they are outcasts, sitting outside a shop, in a park, anywhere brightly lit and safe, killing time until it's bedtime and they can go home. It's about teens in the countryside, and how they're affected by social decay and the economic deterioration of their villages that saw their parents and grandparents having to look elsewhere for work. Yes, they swear and shag and get themselves into trouble, but the undercurrent of their situation is a lot different from some posh seventeen year olds from Brighton. So thank you E4!

New rota means I have to write 2,500 words three times a week in order to achieve my self-imposed deadline of a completed first draft of Inter Vivos by April. Wish me luck!

In other news, I've just had my hair cut, and my new fringe is starting to piss me off already...