...and Robert Dick

Off to Venice first thing tomorrow, so have mostly been doing chores and getting things agreed so they can progress without me. A few new projects are up and running, and am already embroiled in a learned discussion on the teaching of 20th century history...

Also come up with a silly idea I only hope I'm allowed to do, and have until the end of the month to get another pitch in for something that's already turned me down five times. This is what freelancing is all about; throwing ideas every which way, in the hope that one or two of them stick.

It used to be ('cos I counted) that maybe one-in-ten on-spec pitches got a reply, and-one-in ten of those ultimately led to paid work. Not surprisingly, I have a stack of pitches, scripts and stories of one sort or another lying about the flat.

Every now and then something gets reused. "A Good Life", for example, took the better bits from my very first pitch to Big Finish, "Killing Demons". But generally, it's better to come up with new stuff.

Not only are there usually good reasons why stuff has been turned down, it's also less exciting to write about something second-hand. Which all leads me back to stuff I've been discussing by mail, regarding this Da Vinci Code trial.

(The discussion began because a mate pointed out that the third author of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail", and the one not taking part in the court case, is Henry Lincoln, who co-created Yeti, Quarks and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.)

Anyway, my not-entirely-the-same-as-what-the-court-case-is-about view is it's not helpful to bogart your ideas. Don't look back, just get on with the next thing.

Right, back to work. Being dragged off to do my second interview this week (with me being asked the questions). And it's also just been announced that I'll be doing my first panel at a Doctor Who convention next week.