PIPPA ROBERTS - INVESTIGATION:HAUNTED HOUSE, AND A LOT OF ADMIN WORK


Hi everyone,

Time for some more news from me. I am actually doing slightly dull stuff at present and I was ill for most of last week... perhaps a result of too much admin work and not enough writing! It's funny, the only thing I seem to thrive on is writing.

You probably don't want to hear a lot about Fractal here, or you'd be in the Fractal blog, but I'll just say that I have been working with Emma to organise a lot of our past correspondence, and put out advertisements about our books, and adverts about my talks, readings, etc. I'm finally getting the nack of making better blogs (watch this space, it can only get better. :D) Here are the results of that work:

Stacey at The Works did the actual design, and very well too!

I have also been working on my final final final revision of Investigation: Haunted House (novel). I have spent so long on it it's unbelievable, but the problem is that the structure is really not applicable to the content... or do I mean that the content is not really applicable to the form... yes, the second, I think. :D I am still not satisfied, and I should just let it go, as I know I never will be.

The moral of this for me is that I must never think something's a bad idea but I can just run it off quickly to make some money. I'm like a dog with a bone. If there is a way of making it work I will 'sure as hell find it', but if there isn't I'm capable of spending a lifetime trying to achieve the impossible. This does NOT apply to the play of Investigation: Haunted House, by the way. I'm 'pretty damn pleased' with that. (How interesting, my creative daemon seems to be speaking with a cowboy accent, or something, tonight. Perhaps we should be writing about the Wild West? :D)

Oh dear, we writers are so darn wacky. I now have to go and prepare Miz Margenon's Jungle, so that a short extract can be put on on Thursday week in Cheltenham Studio theatre (and by short I mean very short! Three minutes or so.) Being me I'd like to finish the whole thing before then. :D

See you all soon,

Pippa

THEATRE WRITING FOR KEY STAGE 2: A MODERN FAIRY TALE


Hi everyone,

I promised to post a piece of something I'm working on, so here it is. This is a script based on a children's book, 'Miz Margenon's Jungle', that I had published as an ebook many years ago. It's a modern fairy tale. Something rather terrible has happened to all the men who live on this estate, but I won't spoil it by telling you too much... (Please excuse the lineation and lack of italics. It's the software).

This is how it starts:

MIZ MARGENON'S JUNGLE


(A one-act play)


Scene 1

Two children, Theresa and Daniel (aged 9 and 6 respectively) are playing in the street. They are shabbily dressed, and have a broken bicycle. A woman (Miz Margenon) is standing in the shadows. As we watch she begins to move towards them.

NARRATOR: Two children play when in she strides
With flashing shoes and snake-like slides.

THERESA: Daniel, look!

DANIEL: Who's that?

THERESA: I've seen her before. I think she's a witch.

DANIEL: I don't believe in witches. Anyway they have black hair and black hats.

THERESA: Shhh! She's coming this way. Look out! (Both children shrink back as

Miz Margenon strides over to them.)

MIZ MARGENON: Ah! Theresa! Daniel! How are you?

DANIEL: (to Theresa) How does she know our names?

THERESA: Shhh! (They look at Miz Margenon in silence)

MIZ MARGENON: What's the matter? Don't you know me?

(She twirls around and her cloak sparkles and her shoes flash in

the light.)

THERESA: (quietly to Daniel) I don't think she's the kind of person we'd

forget, do you?

DANIEL: (Loudly) No, she's really cool! (Shouts to Miz Margenon) What's your

name?

MIZ MARGENON: I'm Miz Margenon. Do I frighten you?

DANIEL: Of course not! I'm not scared of anything!

MIZ MARGENON: (laughs) I think your sister is.

THERESA: I'm not.

MIZ MARGENON: Good. I was going to ask you both if you'd like to come and play in

my garden. There's not much to do here, is there?

DANIEL: Do you have bikes?

MIZ MARGENON: Do you like bikes?

DANIEL: Yes. Mine's broken.

MIZ MARGENON: I can find a bike for you. (Turns to Theresa). Do you want a bike too?

THERESA: No… I mean… we're not allowed to talk to strangers.

MIZ MARGENON: Oh, I'm no stranger. Your mother knows me well. You wouldn't believe

the things we've done together.



Sorry about that formatting. I hope you managed to read it. I'm taking part in the Skylines course with the Royal Exchange Theatre and Theatre centre, London, which is a great learning experience for me. The play I wrote for Hull University, 'Investigation: Haunted House', was for 9-12 year olds and we writers at Cheltenham Writers' Lab will be putting together a play for the same age group. (Not this one. Miz Margenon is my own, but it seemed a good time to revive it. :))

See you all again soon,

Pippa :)

PIPPA ROBERTS: WRITING AND TECHNOLOGY

PIPPA ROBERTS: WRITING AND TECHNOLOGY



Hi everyone,

I seem to be going through a long period of putting my life (and my house) in order! I've finished sorting all the paper in the house, and put many things onto the computer, but now I'm messing around with my technology. I was having small problems with Internet Explorer and I decided to download Google Chrome. This evening I've been playing around with that, and have connected all sorts of things to it. I invariably come onto the computer to do one thing and end up doing another! I hope I'm going to be more technologically efficient, as a result of all this. :D

I still haven't managed to get my Google + groups going properly, which is a pity because I love the idea of having groups for specific subjects. (Most of mine relate to my research interests, and I'd like to make a lot more.) I hope that Google Chrome will ease my way with that. :/ (?)

My printer cartridge is empty again. I ordered a new one last week but it hasn't got here yet. I've been trying to print things today, without success. I travelled miles to a library to print an invoice... only to find that their printer wasn't working either. :( I hope it'll arrive on Monday and then I can print my whole children's book and give it a final edit.

You see folks, this is the day to day reality of my exotic career! I've been giving you all the downside lately, so next time I will post something I've been writing. Watch this space!

Pippa :)x