listen up north!

Worth getting up for!

Setting up a new enterprise, sometimes it's easy to get bogged down trying to dot all the 'Is' and cross all the 'Ts'. You can get quite blinkered  when you're tryng to get all the endless  paperwork sorted - legal stuff like sorting out contracts, business plans, writing up workshop notes, cash flow forecasts, potential marketing, timelines and just who is my customer? And where has that blooming widget gone that can link you together with all those social networking sites?

Then one day you go to a makeshift studio, like me just starting out, to record your play and as a writer experience the delight of your work brought to life by actors - friends from my local am dram.  This is definitely something to jump out of bed for in the mornings! 'Couple' was my first pilot recorded in collaboration with Core Music, Hexham and is based on an imaginary conversation between the two figures in the sculpture ''Couple' sited off the Northumberland coast.   Core is rapidly becoming much more established and I look forward to recording further work in their recently refurbished facilities. 

Another thing that's worth getting up for is when you hear a writer reading out their own work and reading as they feel it.  John Murray was one of four writers who came along to read from their own work at the first recording session I organised - some were published, some not. As well as the immense pleasure I gained from hearing them, I also felt very privileged that such talented and seasoned writers had been willing to suport my new venture and trust that I would do something honourable with their work.

I hope to upload audio samples from the other writers' works shortly but first John Murray who already has the accolade of writing 'Radio Activity' recently voted 'Cumbria's best book ever.   Here John reads from his latest book 'The Legend of Liz and Joe' (published by Flambard Press) keeping the Cumbrian Dialect alive in this comedy satire.  To be honest it was difficult not to chortle out loud as I listened to John reading into the studio microphone, a real pro - barely stopping for breath. Hope you enjoy.

Digital dilemma

Today I woke up and my old adversary the black dog was barking at the door.  My mood was probably not helped by a late night/early morning spent sorting e-mails followed by a fairly traumatic procedure at the dentist. Looking back at my interview for the DigitalCity Fellowship, I feel frightened that they took my vague and hazy dream so seriously; I've called their bluff and now they've called mine and I'm expected to come up with the goods. 

Perhaps I could back out now whilst I can still keep face - go back to the well paid job that I hate?  I'm sure we could do with the money - Teen1 at Uni, Teen2 has a school exchange trip coming up, Wonderhubby's car needs replacing and I still haven't got a pension to speak of.  Not to mention all the domestic matters crying out to be done - you should see all the fluff behind my TV.  People like me don't do this sort of thing. I'm the one who fits in with everybody else's organisation; I don't strike out from the crowd.

Later that day I meet Wonderhubby for tea at The Sage, Gateshead before a concert.

 

  

Making my way from Newcastle station, I enjoy my walk along the Quayside, over that magnificent icon, The Gateshead Millenium Bridge , much better than anything London has to offer - not that I'm a biased Northerner.  Honestly.

 

 

Then past the converted flour mill, The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art : 

Stopping on the bridge, I look along the River Tyne to view all those magnificent bridges - always a lift to see them.   

At The Sage, we have rather a hot and spicy meal latin themed meal to get us in the mood for the Cuban Roberto Fonseca Band.  We are not disappointed with their performance.  Accompanied by 3 other fine musicians, Roberto Fonseca's sheer talent and passion as a pianist enthrals us. I saw that same passion 9 years ago when I went to see Northumberland muscian Kathryn Tickell in concert at our local theatre.  As she played the Northumbrian pipes with its beautiful haunting and lilting tunes, she radiated such a love for what she was doing that I found myself in tears.  I cried because, as I watched her, I realised what was missing from my own life.  Despite Wonderhubby, two great kids and a comfortable home, I needed to need and to feel and to want.  I needed to reach inside, down to my boots, discover what was in there and pull it all out.  And that was the start of the end and of the beginning. 

It still took a further 10 months and other events to find the courage to relinquish my 'career' - a role that was years spent fulfilling other people's expectations.  Stepping out without a safety net was scary; being a pharmacist might have been a life-sapping, tedious job but it was what I knew - it was secure and comfortable. But a few years down the line I am still here, in the love of my family, not only surviving but looking back and realising that I made a life affirming decision and now as I try to start up my spoken word website, I hope I'm about to make another one.      

Dare to be digital

Monday morning and I know what I've got to do.  Holiday over and it's straight into the study at 8.30am to prepare my powerpoint presentation. This will form part of my interview for the DigitalCity Fellowship which could potentially help me to get my digital media website up and running as a business.  First I need to decide what are the most important points to get across in the allocated 10 minutes, namely that I am setting up a spoken word website and hope to build up a library of audio dramas and also record authors reading from their own work including poetry, short stories and extracts from novels. I want to give a platform for new writers with quality work and although it will have a North East flavour I hope it will also attract listeners from further afield. 

Thereafter follows a seemingly endless juggling of slides which takes the entire afternoon.  It's all a bit dry and so I try to jazz it up with a few photos and get Teen1 to take some on my i-phone. whilst I pose as a writer at my laptop.  One of these is downloaded and made into a slide assisted by Teen2 who also helps me to make the individual bullet points on the slides whiz on at the right time.  By now, I start to have serious doubts about my capability to take on a digital fellowship.  I intersperse the writing with more photos taken from the pilot recording of my audio drama 'Couple' at Core Music, Hexham which was based on Sean Henry's sculpture 'Couple' at Newbiggin on Sea.

There's nothing in the fridge on returning from holidays, so I decide I'd better go out and forage for food at our local Co-op and on return find that Wonderhubby has left a message that the car has broken down and he's having a tow.  By the time I fetch him from the garage, have tea, tidy up and annotate the slides with extra notes it's 10.30pm before I am ready to read it out to an audience of one.  Wonderhubby tells me it runs at 13.5 minutes and it sound like I'm reading it out - which I am.  He tells me it will be fine if I take 3 slides out and learn it off by heart.  It's now 11pm and I want to cry.  Never mind, the interview isn't until 12.30 the next day so I manage to make some hasty adjustments in and amongst taking Teen2 to the station and an assortment of domestic chores.  

My main concern on reaching the  Institute of Digital Innovation, Teesside University is finding a parking space and I get out the car, check I'm not overhanging someone's drive and get back in and edge it as far forward as I dare, get out again to check and back in to the car to throw on a smattering of make-up in the rear view mirror.  Then I run along the road to arrive at the IDI and find that the interview is running late (should I read my notes through again?) and to be honest when I eventually arrive in the room it's all a blur.  In addition to the 2 people from IDI on the panel that I've already met, there's 3 men all something very established in the digital media business, one of whom looks very severe. 

I struggle to find where to put the memory stick in the hard drive - any moment now they're going to discover that I'm the most digitally inept person on the planet.  It doesn't help when I hold the mouse up and keep pressing it, thinking that it's the remote to change the slides.  'Use the cursor keys' , so I search for them and someone has to come up and show me where they are on the keyboard.  I haven't learnt my notes off by heart and even if I had, I wouldn't have the confidence to go 'off-cuff'. I expect a grilling 'Dragon's  Den' style on completing the presentation but instead some genuinely interested questions and suggestions; they seem to like it.  I thank them for their time and that it was nice to meet them  (because actually it was) but I'm not really sure how it's gone.

At 4pm a message comes through on my i-phone, a 6 month Digital Fellowship with bursary!  Elation! A wonderful validation of my business idea.  Perhaps my talk was OK after all - I 'm digital savvy!  A potential media mogul!  At this moment in time, there isn't anything I can't do.  

Langdale Co-op

A blogging shame.  I tried to send this photo from my e-mail to put into my previous blog, couldn't find where it had been posted to and then discovered it had a formed a post all of its own!  I was about to delete it when I noticed on sitemeter that it had generated a of of interest including visits from Brazil and Spain so I thought I would leave it in.

Postcard from The Lakes

Sunday 12^th July

As soon as I turn the key of our holiday place I feel the tranquility of our surroundings  We’ve been coming here for years now and we’ve yet to get bored.  Some years I've sat on my suitcase the midnight before setting off and cried with the sheer effort of having to empty the entire contents of our home into the back ye olde estate car. But as soon as you reach here it’s like instant balm on the raw nerve-endings of life.  You feel cocooned and hidden – in these little villages nestling in the shadows of lofty hills, the newspaper headings seem part of a completely different world or at least you can pretend so for 7 days.  

 

Monday  13^th July

          

 

 After a restless night, we awake to the rain and wander out late morning just as the sun is coming out.  Firstly, we call at The Langdale Co-op in Chapel Stile where we find this wonderful sign outside its door. 

 

 

 

 Behind the humour is a serious message: it’s really important to support local shops, keep them going, don’t just bring everything in from your neighbourhood 24 hour aircraft hangar.

 

Catching the best part of the day we take a short but most satisfying walk from Elterwater village down to Skelwith Bridge, stopping to look across Elterwater (water!) itself to the magnificent Langdale Pikes with their characteristic shape.  Whenever I approach The Lakes and see their enigmatic peaks then I know we’ve arrived.

 

 

 

Tuesday 14^th July

A lazy morning and the teens are impossible to rouse out of what has quickly become their pit of a bedroom.  Eventually, we start out for Keswick and arrive at George Fisher’s the definitive outdoor shop where after an hour’s explanation and demonstration and 2 very patient daughters I purchase a belated birthday present for Wonderhubby - a digital thingy that tells you the exact location of where you are on the planet to 10 decimal places.  I suppose if you are ever lost on a mountain, 12 hours from civilization and have a life-threatening injury, you would be really glad that your wife had spent next month's food money on a boys’ toy.  That is providing that you have been able to pick up a signal from a passing satellite and that your mobile phone could get a reception to inform anyone who’s interested exactly where you are.

 

Of course, we need to test this whiz bang piece of kit out, so after 2 hours drive and feeling rather green from all the windy roads, we arrive at the end of Wastwater, one of the remotest spots in The Lake District which just happens to be home to a pub with its own micro-brewery.  First things first, we set off for a late afternoon walk, beautiful mellow sun after experiencing a downpour as we left Keswick.  Shadows and light play on the hills as we wind our way ever upwards.  Teen2 races on ahead with Wonderhubby, whereas Teen1 and I chug along in the rear and stop to watch what we later identify as a wheatear on a rock, issuing what we suspect is a territorial warning.  Not having been in the best of health since last year, it has been a long time since I had undertaken such a strenuous walk and take my time. 

Eventually we reach the top of Black Sail Pass and rest at a cairn looking out onto Haystacks.  Although not as high as some peaks it is worth the climb as we gaze at the amazing panorama, looking down upon Ennerdale and across to Honister slate mine.  Coming down of course is much quicker but also much harder on the big toes as they continually push against our boots. Down at the bottom we partake of well-earned refreshments at the local hostelry and guess who has to drive back!

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 15^th July

We agree to meet my sister Em and her husband who is on holiday in the northern Lakes.  We meet up at Great Dodd Wood Car Park and make our way up to the upper viewpoint for the Osprey Watch where the RSPB have set up several telescopes onto the nest and a webcam.  We take turns to watch the adult pair and the 3 growing chicks in their treetop nest and consider it a real privilege to share this window into their world.  We go back to Em’s caravan and have a hearty lunch and sit out in the sun and gorge ourselves on homemade scones with double cream, jam and strawberries.  The blokes compare grid references and drink beer and guess who gets the car keys again!

Thursday 16^th July

Em and hubby come down to our place for lunch with Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding for afters (made locally in The Lake District ) and ice-cream on the menu.  Then it’s onto Ambleside to queue outside the cinema for the latest Harry Potter film, ‘The Half Blood Prince’.  Despite being the 6^th film, the momentum has never waned and we sit enthralled for over 2 hours.  I think they’re going to have to be quick bringing the next one out though as it’s going to be difficult making Daniel Radcliffe et al look 17 for much longer.

 

Friday 17^th July

Rained all day but we just stay local, Teen1 and I both have a facial with a head, neck and shoulder massage at a local salon (bliss!) whilst Wonderhubby and Teen2 go for a swim.  Still torrential, we drive for a pre-booked and pre-paid session in Grizedale Forest at Go Ape - a high wire adventure though the trees.  My anxiety goes into overdrive as I leave Teen1 in charge of Teen2, giving the instruction time again to listen carefully to the instructor and to check at every stage that their safety harness are properly attached.   Still with a pit in my stomach, we leave the two girls and drive down to Hawkshead where we find an nice old pub ‘The Kings Arms’ and read for a couple of hours over drinks. My turn again to drive and we return to Grizedale Forest to find the girls just completing the course, both absolutely safe and having enjoyed themselves. 

Teen 2 shows me how to put links into the blog this evening and then we watch ‘Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day’, which we all enjoy.  It’s been one of my favorite films since I saw it at The Tyneside Cinema last September which included a question and answer session with the director Bharat Nalluri.  One of the writers was Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) (more namedroppng here) whom I have  also heard talk, fresh from the Oscars, at The Story Engine screenwriters conference in Darlington last February. I pick up a message on my phone that I have an interview next week for the DigitalCity Fellowship – that leaves just a day when I get back to prepare for the interview and get  10 minute presentation ready.

Saturday 18^thJuly

 

It’s intended to be a morning walk but by the time we manage to persuade the Teens to get out of bed, we reached Grasmere at lunchtime where we park and set off for Helm Crag.

On the way, Em texts to say they have just watched a young osprey fly from the nest for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

A short walk initially flat, it soon turns into a sharp uphill climb which leaves me straggling behind.  We reach the ‘Lion and Lamb’ rock formation although there’s some debate as to which is ‘The Lion’ and whether it might also be rock a little further along the ridge also known as ‘The Howitzer’.  I am trying to imagine Reginald Dixon sat astride and rising up from the moor a la Blackpool ballroom when it was pointed out that a ‘howitzer’ is actually an American gun and not an organ. Perhaps naming rock formations is like naming stars – it leaves a lot to imagination and depends whether you possess any spacial (sic) awareness. 

In true Lakeland style, just as I am considering whether to get the sun cream out, a hailstorm appears out of nowhere and soaks us all through leaving my butties a little soggy.  However, within 10 minutes, we’e sitting in the sun again and watching a perpendicular curtain of rain move across the other side of the valley.

We finish our week’s holiday with a meal out in a local restaurant and quite a few glasses of wine (no driving this time), a real blow out with the resolve to eat sensibly tomorrow – I am on holiday after all.

Whoever invented holidays?

Whoever invented holidays?  It’s the same every year – all that frantic tying up of loose ends and leaving them in a nice bow.  That’s why it’s 11am on the morning of my holiday, I’m still in my dressing gown, on the laptop, and not a thing packed.  I don’t want to think about all the 1am  mornings I’ve spent this week tiptoeing to bed and all the lists I’ve made from lists.

Thank goodness for ‘Wonderhubby’ who constantly wears his underpants on the outside of his trousers and as I type, puts a washer-load on and irons what’s in the basket and packs the car with hiking boots and waterproofs. 

 

It didn’t help that I had 3 days out at various business-related events this week - all very worthwhile, just not very convenient.  A pre-application seminar at DigitalCity, Teesside University, with talks on Presentation Skills and ‘Have you got what it takes to run a business?  An essential principle learnt for business – ‘Cash in the bank is King’.  There were about 60 at the seminar, mostly young guys – fresh from graduating and hoping to make their fortune by designing games, but more reassuring: one or two around my age – and female. This session was prior to applying for a digital fellowship which I hope would take my idea to the next level and would mean lots of opportunities e.g. appropriate networking,  the right people to advise me on technical specifications and a mentor to guide me in making my website into a successful business.

 

Then there was a workshop on ‘Selling Your Creativity’ with Steve Dougan, looking at the best techniques to get that important meeting - a brilliant session with lots of relevant role-play.  I also made a lot of potential contacts for the website including a performance poet and publisher and others whose role was somewhat less defined but still may be very useful.  The next day, another meeting given by NE Business Link, aimed specifically at writers wanting to set up in business. This was organised by New Writing North and held at their headquarters in the ancient  Holy Jesus Hospital, Newcastle.  Only the planners of the 1960s could have had the arrogance to envelop such a jewel of building in a maze of bleak concrete flyovers and subways which haven’t stood the test of time.

Problem was, after all the other engagements that left me with just one day to complete the application form for the DigitalCity Fellowship before I go away on holiday.  If I am fortunate enough to get an interview I have just one day after returning from holiday to get a presentation ready.  Bring on Teen 2 –a whiz with Powerpoint and all things digital see Revenge: 7 Dwarfs vs. The Deadly Garden Knomes

 

So a very fruitful few days, just the timing not ideal, but still you just have to carpe diem whilst you can in between family dental and hair appointments and music exams.  Oh yes, in and amongst all this, I’ve been trying to find about 100 sound effects for an audio drama which I recently recorded, get another set of recordings off the ground, set up a shared platform for co-workers on listenupnorth, arrange to see my bookkeeper and set up a business account with a bank.  Along comes an angel in the shape of Teen 1 fresh from her first year at University and looking for some extra pocket money. She helped me get all my receipts in order and entered on a spreadsheet and somehow managed to type up my illegible workshop notes into readable documents.

 

Even so, I still feel like a naughty schoolgirl who hasn’t done her homework.  The Cash Flow  Forecast – source of all funding and indication of a viable business (so I’m led to believe) has been jumping out at me from behind the settee like a bogey man; ethereal and purely theoretical, I have struggled to pin it down psychologically as well as on the page.  Well at last I’ve plucked some figures out of the air, they may not mean much but at least it’s a start.  

It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed with everything that you need to do to get a business up and running and I sometimes wonder why I’m doing it, especially as it takes so much time away from my creative writing.  Then I think what it would mean if I didn’t do it - my work never reaching an audience, so that drives me on.  But I must also try to redress the balance – make time for the creative as well as the business side and time for exercise and earlier nights and relaxation and of course time for family.  So perhaps that means time for a holiday. 

The Raggy Baggy Entrepreneur

About a year ago, I had the idea to set up a website which featured my own dramas as an audio form - like a radio play.  Not having earned anything for 8 years except £7.50 per week (+ 50p expenses) for writing a village column for our local weekly newspaper (a recent front page headline - 'Hunt Continues for Stolen Garden Gnomes'), I wondered whether I could make a moderately profitable venture.  When I look back sometimes it feels like I haven't moved much further forward in terms of setting the website up, but  that's just being very hard on myself because my knowledge base, contacts and confidence have all increased considerably compared to this time last year.  Hopefully this might mean that I've been setting up a solid foundation for the business and not that I've just been pratting about .

I've been on a series of workshops about business in general run by North East Business Link and last December I hobbled out of hospital post-op to attend an interview for the Creative GLEAM scheme (Graduate Learning of Entrepreneurship Accelerated through Mentoring). To be honest, I couldn't have looked or felt less like an entrepreneur.  I turned up, fresh from major abdominal surgery, wearing a baggy old skirt with elasticated waist - the only half decent thing I could find to fit comfortably (well even I drew the line at the jogging pants for an interview) and some mock suede fringed boots borrowed from Teen 1. I went to the front and sat down rather gingerly to deliver a power point presentation of my idea which had been cobbled together thanks to teen 2 .  They must have liked it because I started the scheme in January and now, 6 months on, the workshops have just come to a close and I'm very sad to be saying goodbye to a group of lovely people, some middle age, some with kids, some with health problems.  In fact, people just like me wanting to express themselves in their own creative way and striving to make a living at it.  The course leaders Wendy (Conversations with Purpose) and Jane (People into Enterprise) were inspirational working Mums with not a pin-stripped suit or a pair of red braces in sight.  They turned what I thought business was about on its head and made me realise that 'creativity' is not just the making of some kind of art form but is actually a way of thinking that can be applied to problems in even the most industrial and commercial of settings to bring about solutions and opportunities.

Taking part in Creative GLEAM I was really privileged to be alongside other creative practitioners such as jewellers, painters, photographers, actors, dancers, digital media and animation artists and furniture designers.  In pride of place in my study is textile artist Donna Cheshire's picture of 'Beach Huts' which I won in a draw after completing a market research questionnaire for her company 'love textiles'. 

I also spent a great afternoon at Alison's house making glass jewellery with some other 'Gleamers', Cutting, designing, all different texture and colours, fusing them them together in the kiln.  I provided the entertainment for the afternoon when a tube of superglue stuck to the end of my thumb (Doesn't that stuff dry quickly!).  The jewellery that Alison makes for sale through her venture 'Entropy' looks far more professional but it's also great to wear something that you've made yourself.

 

  Now the hard work - putting what I've learnt into practice to build that successful creative business!