dim sum diaries

I'm signing off for Canada, but I wanted to report that I'm finished the first draft of the serial version of The Forbidden Phoenix. I strapped myself to a chair and bashed out the last two chapters. Phew! It was pretty hard work considering that I had to boil the action of the play into a narrative of 1,500 words per chapter. Very cool exercise in summary and it forced me to think what were the most important story elements. The wonderful thing about this exercise is that it helped me clarify what I'm thinking about with the play. In fact, I may change the climax of the play based on a scene I wrote in the final chapter. While I wouldn't recommend this exercise for all my plays, I did think the adaptation was a pretty cool thing to try out.

Happy Canada Day to all. Good night!

Posted by marty at 08:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met with my director and composer yesterday to touch base about the play. We still have a couple of blank spots in the cast, but we have a plan of attack to fill those roles. We'll be auditioning in Edmonton and Ron (my director) will make a few calls.

All in all, it feels like everything is proceeding as it should. We have our creative team in place, and we're sorting out scheduling. We'd like to get three days worth of workshopping so that we can bring out our Peking Opera consultant a little early to work with the main cast. We've found in the past that immersing the cast into the world of Peking Opera off the top has given them a vocabulary that they can use in the play. When we don't start off with our consultant, we leave our actors floating in limbo. This reminds me how important it is to create the world of the play not only for the actors, but the audience. I'd better take another look at the opening of the play to make sure that I'm doing that work for the audience as well.

The only new wrinkle in the whole plan is the fact that we now need a little girl to play Phoenix's daughter. She only shows up at the end of the play, but she has to be able to sing and we're talking about doing some sort of illusion to transform her from a silk to a girl. It should be a pretty magical moment.

We were supposed to talk about the script, but Ron hadn't had a chance to read it, because he just flew in from NYC after opening Bash'd, the latest Off Broadway hit. Ron shared a few great stories about working on the show, and I'm sending good karmic thoughts to Nathan and Chris, the creators/cast of the show. They're from Edmonton... and they're the toast of NYC!!!

Posted by marty at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday fun time. My article ran in today's Edmonton Journal. I was thrilled to see the article above mine was all about summer reading. In the insert, Edmonton public librarians recommended books for kids to read over the summer. The list included my book - The Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul. Yay!

The Wii article was fun to write, but I wished I had waited until I picked up the Wii Fit to write the article, because there have been way more hijinks with the balance board. I discovered very quickly that I have the balance and posture of a weeble. I don't fall down, but I do wobble a lot.

Okay, now I have to finish the serial story for the Edmonton Journal. I have two chapters left, but I'm distracted by a corporate gig that I have to do tonight.

Hope you enjoy the article.

Posted by marty at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two deadlines are about to collide. I have to finish the revisions of The Forbidden Phoenix stage play and the final draft of The Forbidden Phoenix serial story on the same day. Yikes! I'm hoping to get the first draft of the serial story finished by Saturday, and I have a potential meeting on Sunday to discuss the final notes on the stage play. If all goes well, I won't have a ton of notes to address, which would give me enough time to do both.

And to make my life even more interesting, my Edmonton Journal article runs in tomorrow's edition, which means I have to come up with another article idea for July. Oh boy, this is going to be one of those weeks.

I finished the school year with a bang. A pair of grade six teachers bought their students a parting gift (my book!). They asked if I could come to their school and sign the copies, and I was glad to come out. The kids were all decked out for their "graduation" from elementary school. The were excited for the end of school, but they were an awesome audience. I hope they enjoy the book and I hope they remember their teachers when their in the thick of junior high school angst.

Posted by marty at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What a difference a genre makes. Writing kids fiction is like slipping into a comfortable pair of slippers. I'm so at ease and relaxed working on the serial story for the Edmonton Journal. Just two weeks ago, I was pounding my head against the wall as I tried to piece together the revisions to the play, but now that I'm adapting the same play into a five-part serial story, everything seems effortless. I'm already working on the third part.

Part of the ease comes from the fact that the story is already there, but I also think that I'm way more satisfied with fiction than I am with theatre. I know that at the end of the day, the serial story will be my vision and my words that go in front of the readers. With the play, I always know that no matter what I write I have to accommodate other creative visions in the project. That's the collaborative nature of theatre. But as I get older and more reclusive, I'm thinking I'm just not a team player any more.

Ah well, that's how I feel today. Let's see how I feel in the thick of rehearsals.

Posted by marty at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night, Edmonton's theatre community celebrated another season with the Sterling Awards. Congratulations to all the winners, especially the playwrights. Collin Doyle took home the award for Outstanding New Play for The Mighty Carlins (Workshop West Theatre) and Chris Craddock won Outstanding New Fringe Play for Poptart.

I was also thrilled to see Vimy win Outstanding Production. This new play by Vern Thiessen was produced at the Citadel Theatre, and serves to give the Citadel yet another reason to continue developing and producing new plays. At the end of the night, the artistic associate James MacDonald threw down the gauntlet and invited Edmonton's writing community to approach the Citadel with their new play ideas. If they haven't already, I certainly hope that the first two people they approach are Collin and Chris.

Thanks to the booming economy, it gets harder and harder for producers to put on independent productions of new works. Truth is, the venture is financially risky. I'd like to see Workshop West have a five-show season of all new plays by Edmonton and Alberta playwrights. I'd be thrilled to see Theatre Network take more of the gems from Nextfest and put them on their mainstage season. I'm glad to see Shadow and Teatro reaching out to other playwrights in the community to fill out their stable. And now that the Citadel has committed to producing two new plays in a season, the future for a playwright is looking a little better. The road is still pretty tough and lonely, but at least there's a few more stops along the way.

Anyway, the highlight of the whole evening was Patricia Casey's acceptance speech for Outstanding Contribution to Edmonton Theatre. She talked of the importance of being a part of the community. She essentially gave a primer to new artists on how to make a life-long career in theatre. I hope the younger artists in the room were paying attention.

Posted by marty at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Totally wiping out this week. I tried to get working on several different projects, but I just couldn't find the energy to do anything. Looks like I'm calling it quits early this week and hoping that I can get back on track next week. It's about a month to the home invasion anniversary, and generally I get a bit out of sorts about this time. I'm hypersensitive to noise and I'm not getting any sleep as a result. Not a good time to be me.

Posted by marty at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met the marketing person at the Edmonton Journal earlier this week to talk about adapting the stage play into a five-part Serial Story that will run once a week in the Edmonton Journal starting in September. Okay, time to take off the playwright's hat and put on the fiction writer's hat. It's going to be fun to figure out how to adapt a play into a novel and in only 1,500 words per chapter. I'm up for the challenge. The deadline is the middle of July. What am I doing blogging? I'd better get to work... right after I play a few rounds of Wii bowling... it's one of those weeks. I had a good start but now I just want to sleep and play video games.

Posted by marty at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The wheels are in motion for the picture book. I'm meeting with my illustrator to kick things off. This morning, I made a few tweaks to the manuscript based on some feedback from some friends who shared the draft with their students. I'm pretty happy with the structure of the story, but I also know that a picture book is a marriage of visual and text. I have to make sure that these two elements work together and enhance each other, rather than cover the same ground or compete with each other. I've a few ideas about visual elements that I want to run by my illustrator, but I also want her to feel like she has the freedom to add her vision to the book as well.

Yay! I love starting a week like this. It's creative and fun.

Posted by marty at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To all the dads in the world, have a great day. Sleep in and enjoy the cards and multi-coloured neckties that your children think you want.

Posted by marty at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm back on track with the writing. Thanks to some hardcore work on the Forbidden Phoenix, an Edmonton Journal article and three synopses, I can feel myself back into the familiar rhythm of plunking down in front of the computer and writing. Today, I wrote the rough drafts of all three synopses for my mystery books. I'll polish them tomorrow and send them off to my agent so she can start shopping the U.S. rights to publishers.

Great news on the Edmonton Journal article. My editor will run the article on June 27, which will be the day before my Chapters Southpoint book signing. She'll mention the signing in the article's shirt tail.

All this work makes for a pretty productive week, but next week is the real test. That's when I get started on A Close Shave.

Posted by marty at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Had an inspiration this morning and decided to work on my Edmonton Journal article instead of my mystery synopses. I think I have a good first draft. I'm going to polish it tonight and send it off in the morning. The article is about how I'm using my Wii as an exercise machine. I did the photo shoot for the article yesterday, so I figured I'd better send the article to my editor this week.

Posted by marty at 05:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yes! I'm finished. I just went through the script and polished it. I might be off on Horne's motivation, but I took a stab at it. Just to be sure I'm not out to lunch, I've passed the script to a friend to go over. He's connected to the show, but came late to the process, so he can look at the script with fresh eyes, and give me an objective opinion. I won't hear from him for a couple of days, so I'll take the time off to catch up on my other work. My agent wants synopses of my kids' books, and I'm trying my darndest to remember the entire plot of The Mystery of the Frozen Brains. Anyone have a book report and plot summary? Anyone? Guess I'll have to re-read my own book and figure out what it's about.

Posted by marty at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Almost at the end of the revision process... well, this round anyway. I've addressed all the notes that came out of the act 2 reading, and some notes that came from the Citadel's artistic director, Bob Baker. I clarified Horne's desire for the Iron Dragon and what the Iron Dragon could do. The basic idea is that Horne can't stand to not be in control of nature, so Iron Dragon (a.k.a. technology) gives him a measure of control. The transformation of the silk into a person is magical and a great suggestion from Ron (my director).

I also hammered out the link between Phoenix and Iron Dragon and the link between Empress Dowager and Laosan. The changes are pretty minor in terms of plot, but they are pretty major in terms of exposition and character. If I have the major pieces taken care of, then all that's left is a general dialogue polish and notes for the sake of the director and production.

Each revision gets me a step closer, but the finer details are harder to revise because even a stray sentence or word in a sentence can send people off into the wrong direction. I wish there was a line editor in theatre.

Okay, I'm going to work out some frustration on my Wii... provided my arm stops hurting.

Posted by marty at 06:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The ceremony was held at the Royal Alberta Museum, and I had a wonderful time even though I had to deal with a bit of my bug phobia. Drinks were served in the bug room, and dinner was also being prepped there. Yes, the bugs were in their glass cages, but I was still freaked out when I saw my arch nemesis, the millipede. Kind of lost my appetite after that, which was good because it took forever for dinner to get to our table.

The presentations were very nice. Alas, I didn't win the R. Ross Annett Award. The honour went to Katherine Holibutsky, who I haven't met yet. She was gracious in her acceptance, as were all the other winners of the evening. My category was up first, so once I knew the results, I could sit back and enjoy the rest of the evening.

Okay, this morning I'm going to try to get to work on something, but I'm a sore loser... not from last night's awards, but from the new Wii my wife and I picked up this week. My shoulders are killing me and I think I have Wii tennis elbow. Anyway, it's all fodder for my next Edmonton Journal article.

Posted by marty at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My article on fear of public speaking showed up in today's Edmonton Journal. No picture of me... phew! Instead, you'll see the beautiful Halle Berry blubbering with an Oscar in hand. Hope you enjoy the article.

Posted by marty at 09:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sad news. I just learned that Book TV is moving the Edmonton operations to Toronto, and letting go of the producer of the 3 Day Novel TV series. After all that work, the series will probably sit on a shelf. The unofficial word is a Toronto producer will finish out the series and the executives will make their decision about the fate of the series after that.

Ack. I'm reminded of why I stay away from working in television. My heart breaks for the wonderful original producer, Tate Young, who busted his butt for the series. I'm sad that he couldn't see the second season all the way to the end, and I wish him all the best wherever he goes.

Posted by marty at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tough day to write. There are some casting issues. As we try to finalize the cast, there are some hiccups. Always tough when your first choices turn out to be unavailable. Sigh. I tried to get excited about working on the revisions, but I kept hitting a wall. Instead, I tried to map out character motivations all day long. Ouch. My brain hurts. I think I've figured out Horne. I'll try out my ideas in the script tomorrow. If they fly, great. If not, back to the drawing board.

Posted by marty at 09:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I just picked up a new pair of glasses which are meant only for reading and working on my computer. When I put them on, the computer screen was still too hard to read. I pulled the monitor closer and everyone was clearer. I then realized I could have done this without spending all my money on a new pair of glasses. Sometimes, I'm just plain dumb.

Anyway, this was a pretty fun day. I finished out the school year with my final school visit at Belmont School. The kids were awesome. There were great listeners. I also worked with a group of grade five students. I was the retirement gift for an elementary teacher's last year. The kids were eager to share their ideas. They were all very bright.

And on the writing front, I just started to go through The Forbidden Phoenix. I got as far as the first page... that's far enough for the first day. Seriously, I'm going to devote the entire day to the play tomorrow. How many times have I said that?

On a happy publishing note, the Edmonton Journal is running my article on public speaking this Friday, in advance of the Writers Guild of Alberta Awards.

Posted by marty at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ugh, this was a tough day. I had to bash out an Edmonton Journal article, but I hadn't been writing for a few weeks, thanks to all my school visits. The first day back was hard. I kept wanting to take a nap, but I forced myself to stick with the article until it was done. I kept revising and re-reading the piece until I finally had something I liked. Just sent the article off to my editor. Hopefully, she'll like it too. The article is about awards and the fear of the acceptance speech.

Now I have to take some time to get started on The Forbidden Phoenix revisions, and I have some good news about the China book. It looks like the publisher is willing to give me more time to deliver some sample chapters. I have until the middle of August, which should be enough time for me to clear the decks on my exisiting projects and get some research time for the China book.

I'm also itching to get started on the Sasquatch book this summer. Looks like I'm going to be pretty busy for the next few months.

Posted by marty at 03:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)