no time to discuss anything meaningful right now. write now.
instead, a list :
1. going to Harrogate at crack of dawn tomorrow (having been to an old mate’s wedding for no doubt far too late tonight) – sincerely hope the trains are all on time and behaving themselves.

the panel is : “Dangerous Dykes – Why do lesbians make such successful crime-fiction writers, and why do they give the straight male opposition sleepless nights? Stella Duffy, N J Cooper, Val McDermid and Manda Scott, four of the best gay women crime writers, who between them embrace a wide range of styles and subject-matter, discuss their writing, the pros and cons of labels, and the more controversial aspects of their work with journalist and broadcaster Mark Lawson.”

so it should be interesting. it’s certainly not the same old ‘where do you get your ideas’ panel – yay.

Manda has this to say about it in today’s Indie – briefly, (in crime writing at least) more or less fine to be a lezz, still harder work being a woman. Not least because men are still not reading women in the same numbers they’re reading men. Weird, isn’t it?

2. then on Sunday night there’s the Old Vic New Voices.
Which I’m delighted to attend given there’s one nephew-in-law directing and two people I know acting – BUT BUT BUT – what they really mean is Young Voices.
IF the Old Vic honestly meant NEW voices then it would be open to new actors/directors/writers of any age. These are between 18-25. And that’s not to say these initiatives can’t be valuable – it would have been wonderful if things like this had even existed when we were that age! – BUT I think the companies who behave as if new = young are really missing a trick by excluding the new that is over 25 or 26 or whatever is their cutoff point. Where’s the help for those in the 30’s, 40’s 50’s etc etc (70’s? brilliant!) who are wanting to start anew, to do something NEW with their lives/work?
There is nothing intrinsically good (or bad!) about being young, ‘new’ is an entirely different thing, and I’d love to see some older brand-new actors/writers/directors also getting the kind of support the young ones get. In every field. I really believe it would help our creative industries enormously to consider what is really meant by ‘new’ and not continually behave as if it’s always ‘young’.

3. Steam Industry’s version of ‘my’ Medea opens on Thursday. Oh there’s so much to say about writing/adapting, about who is the ‘real’ writer when it’s an already-written piece (and why do writers say they’ve ‘written’ an adapation??!!) … suffice to say for now, having seen a run which made me very happy indeed, Euripides wrote a great play, and I think I’ve given it some good (new) words.

must run, nice hairdresser’s giving me grown-up lady hair* for this wedding.

(*the kind that goes swish when you walk … )