back to reality

After feeling like I was on top of the world last week as I prepared for the taping of A Total Write Off, I was nervous and full of energy. I thought about it and was a little jittery, but feeling good. But now, only a few days later, I'm back at work, doing my regular job of covering events, like the Chamber Gala last night, and the MD of Wainwright meeting this morning and the Town of Wainwright council meeting tonight. I'm definitely back to reality.


It's too bad, because it was nice having that 15 minutes of fame, even though it's probably more like 7.5 minutes. I really don't need to be in the spot light, but I wonder why I feel this afterwards feeling, this post-show syndrome. Weird.

I still have a million things going on, chairing the Wainwright Arts Festival committee, meeting with them often, including sub-committees, trying to get enough work done for the art show part of the festival, and helping on the committee to organize the AWNA symposium for January 07. I'm also to help with Wainwright's bid for the provincial curling championships, as the media liasion. It shouldn't be too bad, but I need to be able to handle it correctly. On top, I put my name forward to be the vice-president of the Writers Guild of Alberta at the AGM this Saturday. I've been a 'member-at-large' for the past two years, sitting on the board of the WGA.

I think that is pretty cool, being the vice-prez and all that. I like the idea and I think I can still bring a lot to the board, but I'm not sure how much involvement I will have with the WGA with the addition of being vice. Our illustrious prez, Vern Theissen, explained that it shouldn't be much more than I'm doing now, with the exception of chairing a meeting if the prez is unavailable. Lori Lavallee is putting her name forward to be the pres, unless there are nominations from the floor for that position. The same could happen in the vice position, but it's not likely.

An interesting addition to all this is that I was asked if I'd be interested in putting my name forward to sit on the Alberta Foundation of the Arts board, the granting body that spends the arts funding across the province. I was floored, but I don't think I can do it too, I'm already stretched thin enough. I don't like doing anything half-assed, so I would really need to focus and be heavily involved if I was going to be involved at all. I told my MLA, who asked me if I'd like to be nominated, that I just didn't think I'd have the time to properly commit to the AFA. That may come back to bite me in the ass later, but I think it's the right decision for the time being. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Write this off

Well, Friday th 13th passed with out too much trouble, in fact it was one of the most interesting days I've had in a long time. I arrived at the Catalyst Theater in Edmonton in time to meet the three writers that I'd be working with on A Total Write Off TV show, produced by Panacea Entertainment.

Barbara North, the comedian was the host, and she was funny and was able to think quickly on her feet. The 'mime/dancers' were a little twitchy, but they ended up being pretty funny at the end. The three writers I was working with were Gayleen, Anita and Ron. Gayleen is a supernatural murder mystery writer, Anita writes children's books about planes and Ron is a freelance writer living in L.A. trying to get back on as a staff writer for a sitcom.

Gayleen and I teamed up to write a short story in about 30 minutes, with useful (and sometimes weird) suggestions from the audience. Luckily things worked out for us, and we managed a good little story that was decent and yet still incorporated all the suggestions from the audience.

I'm still not sure when it will air on Access Television and Book Television, but I'm sure I'll post it when I find out. We were told it may not be until April. Overall it was a riot and not as scary as I thought it may be when I paced in the green room, eating my one grape and hoping that I wouldn't become nauseous and spew on stage. Luckily everyone was great and I didn't feel ill at all. The great thing about trying to write a story on an immediate schedule is that you don't have time to worry about the crowd or the cameras, you just have to work quickly before you run out of time. I think I probably made some stupid faces unintentionally, but otherwise it was a great experience.

Friday's coming - oh boy.

It's almost here, and I can feel it in my gut. It's almost Friday the 13th. If that wasn't bad enough, I have the opportunity to have people remember me as the idiot who threw up on TV, on Friday the 13th. I'm not a nervous person by any means, but then again, I've never been on a TV show before.
More after the jump.

I wonder if Barbara North and the people at Panacea Entertainment hand out gravol before the show. It's going to be A Total Write Off, which should be really fun, and hopefully, not a total right off. I'm so looking forward to being on the stage and what it may mean, even though my manuscript is still out there, trying to find a publisher. I couldn't have a better chance to promote myself as a writer, my work and the chance to have fun and show that I can be in this business.

All too often, as writers or as people, we sell ourselves short, worried that we're not good enough and people will most likely make fun of us. Although that's probably true, as a newspaper editor, when I screw up, there's plenty of people out there who are quick to point out that mistake. That's okay, I've got a pretty thick skin, especially after four years of art school at Alberta College of Art and Design. The teachers were quick to give out the criticism, without any positive back up. You quickly learn that you better be able to take a little or a lot of flack during a critique or you have no business being an artist. The same is true as a writer. A smart person told me just the other day that you cannot please everyone. It doesn't matter what you do, someone will not like it. That's really hard for me to understand, sadly, I want to make people happy. It doesn't always happen, especially in this job.

It happened as well with the creation of the Wainwright Arts Festival. I/we took a little heat from someone that had visual art that didn't fit into our criteria. It sucks, but that's the way it is. Instead of talking to me about it, she wrote a curt letter to the editor (me) why the organizer had brushed her off. I guess Sharon was right, you can't make everyone happy, even if you're doing the best you can.

A Total Write Off - Friday the 13th

It looks as though I have a date for the taping of the episode of A Total Write Off that I will be appearing in.
Friday the 13th of October. Spooky. Luckily, I'm not a superstitious person, so it doesn't really bother me in the least. It should be a crazy day, but I'm really looking foward to being on the show with Barbara North. She's a great comedian, and a genuinely nice person. I met her at the taping of her CBC special "Army Brats" here in Wainwright and then I ran into at the Canadian Country Music Awards after party. Sounds pretty swish. She's pretty funny, I think that this show will really showcase her talents. The fact that this gives me an opportunity to promote myself as a writer as well as The Ghost Dance, my fiction manuscript. (See post called The Ghost Dance.)
More after the jump.
I've sent off my complete manuscript, requested by an American publisher and I've got my fingers and toes crossed.
While I've been waiting on responses, I've written the basic plot outline of a new serial killer/thriller storyline. It's one of those stories that gets you excited as soon as you start to write it. I'm still in the honeymoon stage with it, so everything is fresh and interesting. I think once I hit 100 pages or so, then I'll probably get bogged down a bit, I'll just have to power through it. I have probably 18 scenes scribbled out on loose leaf paper, just to get the ideas down so I don't forget them down the road.
I've built fairly elaborate character sketches of three or four of the characters, which gives me a better feel for who they are, and allowing them to just react to situations they are in, instead of trying to force the characters into the scene blind.