Today’s News

Well, by the time this gets posted it will be yesterday’s news, but isn’t everything? Reminds me of an old joke: Knock-knock. Who’s there? Kylie. Kylie who? That’s show-biz! A bit unfair to Kylie, but you can change the name to anyone, and that was how it was first told to me. Anyway… Along with some more photos of St George’s beach, as promised, here is today’s news from me.

I have been told that the official Greek premiere of ‘The 13^th‘, which will be held on Symi, is now to be on the official opening day of the Symi Festival 2017, on Monday 24^th July. Still up in Horio at the sports hall complex. There should be announcements and a programme before long to concrete that date and possibly time. I say ‘possibly’ because the festival events are usually subject to a bit of leeway when it comes to venue and time. They usually start at 9 pm, and an announcement during the day lets everyone know where they are to be. Last I heard, the screening will be the sports complex, and I guess at nine at night.

Also in ‘The 13^th‘ news… (Backers will be receiving an update about this and other things in due course)… It has picked up some monthly awards at the Calcutta International Film Festival: Outstanding Achievement in the Horror category, Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography, Best Editing for Daniel Webb, Best Sound Design and Best Supporting Actress for Wookie Mayer – who has a house on Symi. It will now compete for the ‘Golden Fox’ award at the festival’s climax in October. Each month leading up to that event the festival gives out awards, and the winners of those then compete for the top place in each category. So we could be up against 12 others in each category. But still… It means that now ‘The 13^th‘ has 13 festival/awards laurels, and there may be more to come. It has been entered in over 50 festivals, and so far the company (1066 Productions) has only heard back from a few, Calcutta being the latest one.

In home news, Neil is off to Rhodes this morning for some shopping and things, and I have just commissioned a new cover for ‘Remotely’. This is because I am working on a series of ‘Miss P shorts’ and need a cover design that can be adapted for each one as they come out. Something which immediately says, ‘This is a Miss P story.’ My designer, Diogo in Portugal, hopes to get some mock-ups back to me by the end of the week. The first short in the series, ‘Honestly’ is being proofed, and I hope to have it set and ready in a month or so.

Meanwhile, I am beavering away on ‘The Witchling’ again after taking a rest break over the weekend. I am up to 50,000 words now, and about halfway through the first draft. As per a few requests, I’m now going to have a dip into my Dictionary of Kentish Dialect for you. Just a couple at random, and I can’t remember what I’ve already told you, so apologies for any repeats.

I am 54, so on page 54 we have:

Feetens. Footmarks, or footprints, makes sense to me.

Fenny. Let’s hope your cheese is not fenny, it means mouldy or dirty.

To fickle: To put something, like an idea, into someone’s head – in a rather bad way. ‘He fickled me the thought.’ Or rather, ‘’E fickled the thought a me.’

Fild – or Feld – or Fill. I have used Feld in The Saddling and The Witchling, it’s a word for a field. So, if you read it there, it is not a typo! (Unlike many words you rad on this blog. (See what I did there?))

And my favourite of the day, an expression used as to any person or anything lost: Fill-Nor-Fall. If you paid attention, you will now (and again) that a fill is a field, but a fall is a portion of underwood ready to fell. The expression would be used as in, ‘Neil went a Rhodes Wednesday, and I ain’t ’eard neither fill-nor-fall of ’im.’ Hopefully not the case.

If you want to see some of these words in action, head over to ‘The Saddling’ and treat yourself to a good, mysterious read.

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St George by night

Before we get there, I just have to point out one of yesterday’s errors, on my part. I said the film showing in the festival would be at the sports centre in Yialos. There isn’t one, so it will be at the sports centre in Horio, which is what I meant to say. Thank you to my secretarial services for pointing that out.

Anyway, Neil was invited on a birthday trip at the weekend, as I was I. Sadly I was unable to go, so he took the photos you see today. The Poseidon took the party out to St George, one of Symi’s famous beaches. This one is only accessible by sea unless you abseil down the rocks, or base jump from the top, which has been known. I would advise the sea route just as the characters in ‘The Guns Of Navarone’ did when they came ashore at ‘Navarone.’ Some of the film was shot at St George’s beach, Symi, and other parts in Rhodes, and probably other places.

Yiannis Poseidon does take private charters for evening parties if you are interested in organising one. Just go and chat with him in Yialos (not Horio) of an evening or early morning before he takes the boat out for his usual daily excursions around the island. I can’t tell you too much about the St George trip for a birthday party as I wasn’t there, but some of Neil’s photos below will give you can idea of what it’s like there in the evening. I hope no-one minds me showing their image on the blog. As usual, if you do, let me know, and I will take the photo down. (There are more to come another day.)

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Symi Film News

Let’s start off the week with some film news. For anyone who has not already heard, the film that was shot on Symi in 2013, called ‘The 13^th‘ will be shown as part of this year’s Symi Festival on Sunday 23rd July, at the sports centre in Yialos. Exact location within the complex and the exact time are yet to be announced. The event will be free, as all parts of the festival are. Here is the current version of the film poster. (It doesn’t read so well on screen, but apparently looks fine in real life.)

As you can see it carries a few laurels already. These are not always for awards. For some film festivals, just being selected is award enough to warrant a laurel. Which brings me on to the next piece of film news. The Symi International Film Festival. This is a new festival that’s being or has been set up by those who have been organising the Symi cinema and other events for some time now. All I know about it is, it should also be able to award laurels, and it is due to be held for the first time his year. It will become part of the Symi Festival too, so I am told. I was also told that it will be held between 18^th and 22^nd September, but there has been no official announcement made yet, that I know of.

Now then, here’s the thing. A few people have already asked me if there can be another showing of ‘The 13^th‘ later in the summer when they are here on holiday. It doesn’t work like that. Although I wrote the screenplay, worked as an associate producer (which means you do a lot of work for no payment) and although Neil did the same and is also an associate producer, the film has nothing to do with us. We don’t own it, and we can’t say when or how it will be shown. All we can do now is support it. So, we are unable to whip it out of the can and put it up on a screen whenever we want to. If we did that publicly, we would be pirating it. It belongs to 1066 Productions and is their product. Where and when it gets shown is up to them, not me, even though I co-wrote it. If you are unable to see it in the Symi Festival, you will have to wait until it is shown again somewhere else. Where and when this might happen is out of my hands. The whole thing is out of my hands now. Backers should have been able to see it already as part of their perks from the Kickstarter programme, and if you’ve still not been able to do this, you need to contact 1066 Productions rather than me. I shouldn’t even be watching it at home without having first bought a copy. When that might be possible is also out of my hands.

I can, though, get a plug in here. If you want to know what the story is based on, then you can read the novel version of the original first-draft screenplay by buying a paperback or Kindle copy from Amazon, as regular readers will already know. Here’s the link. The Judas Inheritance.

Remember though, films are very different to books. And on that note, I will leave the film world and tomorrow, will return you to Symi.

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Symi Saturday Photos

A few photos for you today to round off the week. Have a good weekend!

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Paying the bills

Ah, don’t you just love bill-paying time? No, not a lot. Actually, the bills are not a lot, considering they are for electricity and water. This is an ‘actual’ bill. We usually try to pay the estimated electricity bills when they come in as it helps soften the blow. The details of the bill are still a bit of a mystery to me, but I know what all the bits and pieces are for. This one covers four months from February and it’s surprisingly acceptable – luckily we paid the estimate. The water bill is the same as it’s always been, but that’s because the meter has not been read for a long while now. I assume that when it is, we’ll get a more accurate and probably more surprising bill, just as we did last year.

At least they are paid now, and the joy of online banking! I can’t tell you how easy it is. Except that now we can pay the water online I keep forgetting how to do it so have to ask Jenine to remind me. With those two out of the way, the next one, after the rent, is the health insurance bill, as I have private insurance and Neil has a small policy that covers his annual MOT. We do this on our annual ‘health holiday’ to Rhodes where we are looked after by our insurance agent and a few private doctors in the mornings, and by the bar staff at the Plaza and other favourite watering holes in the evenings. Next month will come the phone bill, I think, and so the months roll on. We’ve also asked our accountant to do our tax returns so that punch in the pocket will be landing on us soon.

Not complaining! I can’t, Neil has a ‘No Moan Zone’ shirt that he had made in Rhodes when we were being prodded and scanned, poked with needles and pressed up against machines last April. In fact, there is nothing to moan about around here at the moment; we’re lucky. The sun is out and not quite as blasting as it has been, the writing is coming on, we are having the house done up bit by bit (painting the courtyard and that kind of thing) ready for Neil’s birthday in September, and other events, and there is always work to be done.

On which note, I must press on. I’ve left two characters searching for a witch’s curse on the Romney Mashes and I don’t want to leave them there alone too long in case she finds them and does nasty things to them.

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