Doodles and Time Loss

I haven't been keeping to well the last couple of weeks hence the gap between blog posts and as I haven't been well I have fell behind on writing assignments and pet projects of mine which is really annoying me so all I have to show for the last two weeks are a couple of doodles I did for a laugh one night when I couldn't sleep. So here they are hope you enjoy them.

First up is my attempt to draw Sir Sean Connery which I think bares a slight resemblance to the great man at best.

Next up is my poor attempt at drawing the King of rock 'n' roll Elvis Presley which didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped for if I'm honest with you, haha.

Anyhoo I hope you guys get at least a laugh out of how bad they are haha and hopefully I'll be back with some more updates on my writing projects on the next blog post.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer





Wasteland

Wasteland is a television pilot script I have recently been researching and trying to write. It is about a psychic named Connor Song who is implicated in a young woman's murder so he not only has to solve the case to prove his innocence he must also prove his abilities to the sceptical Detective Inspector Bonnie Morran who is leading the case. I hope it will lead to a full series where Song helps the begrudging police force to solve their more complex crimes and also allow me to delve deeper into his murky past as well as his troubled relationship with his 12 year old daughter who feels detached from her father due to his unending search to discover what truly happened to his wife 6 years before when she mysteriously vanished.

It is some ways the hardest script I have ever written and in other the easiest I'll try to explain this the best I can. What is easy about writing this script is at its core it is a drama about a single parent who is trying to raise his daughter the best he can while trying to balance his work which takes him away from her all the time. He is a somewhat famous tv/ theatre psychic and bestselling author of books on the occult so his work takes him all over the UK leaving his young daughter behind in the care of her aunt and when he is home he spends most of his time trying to investigate his wife's disappearance this schedule does little to diminish his daughter's belief that he cares more about what happened to her mother than he does about her.

The hard part of writing this script is the more I research the more questions I end up with instead of answers. I have finally put in stone what psychic abilities he possesses which took many many hours of consideration and a lot of great help from a good friend of mine who has helped me immeasurably in this area. The problem is I don't as of yet fully understand the complex nature of one of these abilities completely or honestly at all. He has the ability to read tarot cards which many of you may think is relatively easy to write about but in practise it is very complex. Each set of cards has a significance and each card in that set has a significance that I just can't quite get to grips with as yet which is probably to do with the fact that I can't really seem to learn many new things these days probably to do with the brain damage I have suffered over the years which makes this aspect of the character alien to me which is devastating for a writer.

The investigation and crime within the pilot episode is not that difficult to write as I can hear the police officers voices clearly in my head and we all have the basic knowledge of how a murder is investigated. I have recently been in email correspondence with an ex CID detective from London and he has filled in many of the blanks for me without going into to much detail for obvious reasons after all I could have been a nut trying to get tips on how to get away with murder, haha. For the show to be successful in my opinion the character of Detective Inspector Bonnie Morran has to be as strong a character as Connor Song otherwise it becomes less dramatic when they have confrontations and there is less of a chance for there to be any chemistry between the characters in later episodes. I think all too often with television shows they concentrate on creating one memorable character at the expense of all the others which to me is frankly stupid and boring to watch as a viewer.

I'll keep you guys up to date on my progress with the script and with trying to get it into production. It will be a long process as I plan on writing and rewriting this till I get it as close to perfect as possible. Anyhoo that is enough for now I got to get back to writing this script and thinking of a way to make tomorrow not happen ha ha I hit the 29 mark tomorrow which many may be shocked by as they seem to think I'm 35 years old for some reason ha ha.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

What? Where? When? Who? Trailers!!!!

Yep another collection of trailers graces the blog as I am currently neck deep in the writing process on my latest script which has my muse working me overtime. So as I have done nothing of real note this week other than write but not write anything I feel I can quite show here yet I decided to go trailers this time, big shock right???

First up a documentary called How To Live Forever a flick I'm very interested in seeing as everyone I know that has seen advanced screening say it is very intriguing and well put together.

Everything Must Go is a film that has sneaked past my radar so that alone intrigues me that and it stars Will Ferrell.

Next is a Bollywood horror film named Haunted 3D yes even Bollywood films are getting the 3D treatment, anyone else think this whole 3D thing is getting stale again?

I don't really need to say anything for this film it's Kung Fu Panda 2 we all know what we are getting from this one not that it is necessarily a bad thing folks.



I hope to be able to post some stuff from my latest script up very soon and possibly some other content also that I am currently considering doing for which I'll keep you guys posted.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Writing by the Housebound Writer

It struck me the other day that I haven't placed much in the way of writing samples on the blog for a while so I decided to place this opening paragraph from a story I'm working on up here. It's probably a strange sample to post but I am working on it right now so I felt it was somewhat relevant. I'm currently researching and developing the idea for television and am just exploring the character and concept a little by writing it in this form before I get down to the nitty gritty of writing the pilot episode. I have become extremely interested of late in the possibilities that the small screen opens up to a writer. You get to really delve into characters in more exciting ways and in much more depth than a 2 hour movie could ever allow. Anyhoo if you are new to this blog don't expect greatness off the bat I am a mediocre writer at best this is just a small snippet of what is to come as I am still researching all the ins and outs and haven't settled on certain aspects yet.

Burden- The Princess and The Frog

Is a cup ever truly half empty or half full or is it just a fine line between happiness and desolation? Is the future written in stone or is it just written on the sand with the tide rushing in? At first the darkness would only occupy Connor Song’s soul for the briefest of time after he entered its world to find the truth but of late the darkness had eclipsed the light and his escape window had been trickier to locate once on the inside but alas his burden wouldn’t allow him to hide from destiny and destiny was calling him ever so loud and ever so very clear. It had been four days since little Rosie Miller vanished while walking home from primary school. She had made that very trip home many times before always accompanied by her best friend Talia Walker and Talia’s sweet natured and soft spoken grandmother but on that fated day Rosie made the short trip home alone and home escaped her but she didn’t escape her captor for that Connor was sure and now her pink princess bedroom is haunted by the vulgar silence where once child’s laughter danced merrily. Connor watched as the sun danced through the tree branches overhead as the taxi he occupied travelled along the picturesque suburban street on that early autumn day. A leaf flirted with the wind and finally made its descent to the pavement below to rest alongside its family. Connor lost in thought seemed lost in another world entirely to the bemused taxi driver as he turned to gather his well-deserved fare from the C list celebrity seated behind him. Connor without being prompted or told of the price for his journey handed a bundle of folded notes over to his bewildered driver and gave him that nod that all taxi drivers hope for the nod that says keep the change.

Anyhoo

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Me an award? You're joking right???



I was given this award by Johnny Madrid aka Tim E. who writes an awe inspiring blog that you can find by following this link: Just Johnny...    http://thetimebi.blogspot.com/  and I can't thank him enough for it. I don't exactly win a lot of awards for anything let alone this oddball collection of ramblings and scribbles I call a blog so I am very thankful indeed. Now there are some rules to receiving this award you give a thanks and a link back to the person who gave it too you (which goes without saying) you also have to share 7 things about yourself (I'll get to that in a bit), award 5-15 other bloggers yourself and of course contact them and tell them of their award.

I didn't have to give to much thought to who I would in turn give this award too so here are the people receiving this award from me in no particular order...

Linda Martin              http://www.needleinanewgroove.com/
Aheila the Writeaholic  http://thewriteaholicblog.wordpress.com/
Jeremy Janson  http://hailingfromgeorgia.blogspot.com/
Ursa Hawthorne   http://www.dyerintherough.com/
Sam Bowron        http://anightmareonsamityvillestreet.blogspot.com/

OK so 7 random facts about me this will be hard to think of stuff I haven't already written on one of these 70+ blog posts so far but here goes nothing...

1. I have lived in the UK all my life (best part of 30 years) and I have only visited London once and it was for a football game this year strangely it was a Scotland game why it wasn't played in Scotland I have no idea.
2. Ironically as a guy who stands anywhere between 6'6" and 6'8" depending on how bad my back is hurting me I have a problem with heights I don't like them be it on a ladder or high building I don't like it at all haha.
3. I am a diehard Airdrie United Football fan but have been to so few games over the last five seasons I feel like a fraud for saying so.
4. As a writer I find writing about dark subject matter much easier than anything else so either I'm nuts or I just have a good imagination........ I think I may be nuts haha.
5. For my work experience placement at high school I spent a week working at my local newspaper learning everything from reporting to printing and loved every minute of it.
6. In the last 6 months I was assigned to write a web series but after seeing the poorly executed 8 minute pilot episode I had my writing credit changed from Andrew Carson to Randal Fleming Jr. to try and distance myself from it but saying that if a second series goes into pre pro Randal will be happy to return to writing duties for a rewarding fee.
7. I am planning to either make it or break from it this year when it comes to my writing. If I don't sell something before the end of the year I will find some other kind of profession and just write as a hobby. No pressure then on me to succeed huh? haha.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

So Many Trailers So Little Time

Hopefully this will work and post on the 15th I say hopefully coz I haven't ever done this before I always just post when I've written it so there is a good chance I'll come back to no update on the blog haha. I have put together a slightly weird concoction of trailers here but they all seem to be very interesting film projects and I'm interested to see how they pan out as movies. Water For Elephants is based on a best selling novel so the filmmakers were handed the task of having to keep an entire audience of book lovers happy while cutting enough out so they weren't left with a 12 hour film. Legend of The Fist: The Return Of Chen Zhen is a film I have been waiting for since I heard it was going into production. Donnie Yen is either incredibly brave or incredibly crazy to try and fill the shoes of Bruce Lee but I believe if we all put the Lee film to the back of our minds we will be amazed with the martial arts skills of Yen and the awesome stunt work showcased in this film. There Be Dragons is a film I had heard nothing about until I saw this trailer and to be honest I watched the trailer expecting there to be some freaking dragons in it but this title refers to something else and going by the trailer this looks quite a polished piece of film making that will be well worth a look. Lastly we have The Troll Hunter I had seen this trailer a while back so I don't know if it has already been released in the US or in the UK for that matter I just really liked the documentary style it is shot in which is old hat for horror films now Blair Witch springs to mind but I really like the way this looks.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Holiday Countdown

I'm heading for sunnier climes on Monday as I'm heading to Majorca for 10 days with my Brother and my Dad for some relaxation and drinking and sightseeing and drinking and well you get the picture. So If you don't hear from me for a while don't worry I aint dead more likely slightly drunk and/or sightseeing. My family have had a holiday apartment on the island for 26 years maybe more so we’ve been a lot but we like the culture the people are friendly and the food is great and the weather is definitely an improvement on the weather back home here in rain soaked Scotland but saying that I wouldn’t live anywhere else I love my Country to much to leave it I wouldn’t leave even for a Hollywood career and that is the God’s honest truth.


In other news my sitcom pilot script has entered the usual re-write phase which means I’m both excited and incredibly irritated by it at the same time. Annoyingly this should be the fun part of writing as the shape is there and it’s just about trimming the fat off but by the re-write stage my brain has always already moved on to getting excited about some other project it wants me to undertake and it always tricks me by making it seem so much more appealing haha well this time I am not going to let myself get distracted I owe it to myself to stay focused as I think this may be my best script in years at least the most commercially friendly script i.e. the one most likely to sell as I don’t think my dream A and D trilogy will ever make it to the silver screen and for the people in the know who have read any of those scripts they will know why haha very, very curse heavy and very, very Scottish in humour.

Some people would argue my best script ever may have been my take on the video game Resident Evil a lot of people I showed that script to really seemed to flip out over it and stated it would have made for a better film than what was made but maybe my best script is my other TV venture called Bureau that is truly all kidding aside my dream project and the one thing I have written I would do almost anything to get put on screen. I had logos, mouse mats, cups, posters and all sorts of merchandise made up for this project as I was writing it I even considered having some models made for it as I truly believe this is a project with “hit” written all over it that is of course my opinion but I have so much passion for this project it is evident on each and every page there are so many subtle nuances and character traits sprinkled throughout even characters that appear for a brief scene have extensive backstories written for them even the characters that would be played by extras I really went that anal about the whole thing haha.

Anyhoo as I was saying before I began to ramble on about whatever I was rambling about I will be away for a week and a bit so there won’t be any posts unless I manage to put together some trailer posts to be posted up on certain days when I’m away which is something I would like to do but I don’t know if I will have the time to do so.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer