Writing and Not Writing

Stretch before working out.

Even when I'm not really writing, I'm writing.  Twittering, emailing, commenting on other blogs.  Every day my fingers are on the keys in some respect.  And even though I'm trying to hold down a non-writing 9-5 in order to pay for a few things (like a wedding), I'm trying to keep the writing going.  The first thing is a new project for a not so new year.  It sprang out of the interview with Danielle Lineker that was on here last week.  'I've got hold of one celebrity', I thought 'People are interested in celebrities - so what if I could get hold of another one?'  So Pass Me On was born.  I asked Danielle if she would pass me on to someone famous, she passed me on to her old man and now Gary has said that he'll pass me on to someone else.  So I'm hoping the idea is going to have legs, that someone in publishing will also think it's a great idea and that it might, just might lead to a few more commissions. Hey I can dream can't I?

Three people have already said it's a good idea.  Admittedly two of them were friends on Facebook, but the third was an actual commissioning Editor.  If you're ever in doubt that keeping a blog is a good idea, here's an argument in favour.  I've said before on here that a regular reminder that I still exist and am keen to write can be no bad thing.  Well, an email went out to everyone on the CIWFAL mailing list about Pass Me On yesterday and by the end of the day I had an offer to go to Central America to write a travel piece.  Funny sort of a day yesterday - nearly got killed on my bike in the morning, had the opportunity to go to Botswana taken out of my hands, got a bollocking of sorts at work and then had that opportunity land in my inbox.  Maybe that's karma (man).

15 minutes with Danielle Lineker

Calm down it's not that kind of 15 minutes - she's a married woman for God's sake.  I met Danielle at a photo shoot a few weeks ago and I thought she was cool - friendly and unaffected.  So I asked her PR if I could interview her.  For those of you who don't read the tabloids, Danielle's surname was once Bux and she was a model.  Then she met and married Gary Lineker, who, before he was on Match of the Day, used to score the odd goal for England and mopped up Gazza's tears when he cried.  Now it has to be said, Danielle is pretty easy on the eye.  The paparazzi, noticing this, started training their long lenses on Gary and Danielle when they went on holiday.  From there it was only a hop and a skip to coming third in 'Hell's Kitchen', presenting a show on step-families for the Beeb and apparently guesting on 'Loose Women' (although I never get to see that as I'm always at work).    Now she's jumped into acting, currently touring in 'Calendar Girls', the stage play about the Yorkshire WI women who stripped off for a charity calendar.  She gave me a ring on a Friday night and we ended up talking about the buzz of acting, fame, booby dresses and Shakespeare.

-So how's it going?

I don't think my first night was the finest performance I've ever done in my life but...Gary's looking at me as if to say 'Dont talk shit'!

-When we met before I asked you how you would feel about speaking in front of a crowd.

I was nervous but the girls have been great. Jennifer Ellison, Lisa Riley and Bernie Nolan have been like sisters to me throughout the tour. They've been looking after me and suggesting that I try this or try that. You worry when you walk into a group of girls and you're the new girl but they've been really welcoming.  We were all nervous - even these girls who have been out there doing it for 10 years were nervous as well. Lisa gave me some Kalms for the nerves but I think you've just got to get out there and get through your first night.  Performing in front of an audience was a real buzz and I think that's what people get addicted to.

-So a lot of adrenalin going on?

Absolutely. It's very intoxicating.

-In the Calendar Girls film there's a lot of trepidation about stripping off in front of the photographer. Do you have to do that onstage?

My part is the only character who keeps her clothes on. I don't think I could have dealt with that, being naked on my stage debut, no way.

-What made you want to act?

Its been a feeling since I was six years old. I was always performing as a kid and then I got to my teenage years and I got alopecia and completely lost my confidence, got very introverted and shy and that's what held me back.  I loved all the musicals, Mary Poppins, the Wizard of Oz, Annie. One of my fondest memories is dancing round my living room with my brothers and sisters and then I always loved Drama and English literature as a teenager. I was 16 when I lost my hair and it was about a year before it grew back. I got to about 28 and so many people had said to me that I should do it..(stops to talk to Joe McGann, who's walked into her dressing room)

-Do you have a favourite actor?

I tell you who I think is really good, Vincent Cassell who is in Black Swan at the moment. I think he's fantastic.

-I saw it the other night, it scared the bejesus out of me.

I know everybody's going on about that but I thought it got a bit ridiculous when she was growing feathers. It's great but when she looked in the mirror and the feathers started growing out of her arms I just thought 'Oh come on!' I thought it got a bit ridiculous then. It's shot beautifully though. Natalie Portman is one of my favourites too. She plays it well.

-You haven't had any freaky hallucinations while appearing in Calendar Girls?

No, I've had dreams where I forget my lines and can't speak on stage. It wakes me up. For about a week I kept dreaming I was stood on the stage and couldn't speak.

-You've been in the show for a couple of weeks now so is it becoming easier?

The first couple of shows I just wasn't present on stage and now there are times when I'm really enjoying it and I'm, oh I hate to say 'In the Moment' because it sound actor-y and wanky but there are times when I know I'm completely in the moment and that's when you get the buzz of performing live. I'm hoping that the more I perform that'll happen for more than a moment or a minute and it'll be for the whole time I'm on stage.

-The WI ladies had a taste of fame so I wondered how you felt about it.

For me, its weird, I don't see myself as a famous person, I'm just married to someone who is very famous. There are obviously lots of advantages. I know I wouldn't be in this play if I wasn't Gary's wife. There are lots of things I'm thankful for. The modelling contract with La Senza came as a result of me being photographed in Barbados with Gary. I find it hard to look on the bad side. You get the press intrusion but you learn how to deal with it.

-Is it scary when you come out of restaurant and you've got a bunch of photographers waiting for you?

Completely and I was very naïve. People might believe me or not but when I first met I knew he was a footballer so because of the celebrity side to it, I wasn't sure about dating him.

-Had you thought about the level of press intrusion there might be?

Absolutely not. Once we'd got pictured together it was like 'Oh My God what's happened to my life?' The intrusion was everywhere, people I went to school were approached by journalists, people tried to see my brother in hospital saying they work for the Mirror or the Mail – they didn't, they were just freelancers trying it on, trying to talk to nurses to get stories. I couldn't sleep, couldn't eat and went to the doctors in the end to give me something to help me out. I knew he was a footballer, I knew there would be some interest but nothing like the interest that there was.

-Did it ever make you think 'Is it worth it'?

I remember Gary coming to see me just after we'd been pictured in the News of the World and I told him 'I can't understand this, its not like you're Brad Pitt or anything'! I knew he was really special but there were times when I thought I couldn't handle the celebrity side of it.   He's had it for a long time so he just helped me through it. If the relationship hadn't had been as strong as it is, you probably would split up in that early stage because its really difficult.

-So in a way it reaffirmed that the relationship was a good one?

It did yeah.

-When you went out in 'that dress' did you think that you might see yourself in a few of the papers?

No. We were getting ready to go out. The dress was really draped and you couldn't see much. I asked Gary if it was ok, it wasn't booby - I wasn't going to go out with my boobs out with his son and all his best friends! We drank so much as it was his 50^th birthday and I think throughout the night the corset underneath had slipped and the drape of the dress had gone down. I remember I was so concerned about not appearing drunk I hadn't even thought about the dress.

-You looked pretty together but Mr Lineker looked like he'd had a few.

Well it was his 50^th...

-Do you hope being in 'Calendar Girls' might lead to other things?

I'd love to do some more theatre, some Shakespeare, like Portia in Julius Caesar.

-That sounds like quite a heavyweight role.

It is. I've had two years of training and my coach was very classical.  My Director in Calendar Girls has said to me 'You're so serious Danielle, you need to lighten up.' It's the way I've been taught, Stanislavski method, so I'd love to put some of that training into practice.

(In Stanislavski's system, actors deeply analyse the motivations and emotions of their characters in order to personify them with psychological realism and emotional authenticity). It's very difficult in the acting world. I think people would look at me and say 'Oh she's a bit commercial'.

-It would be a very unexpected move for you and in a way, the knives would be out – you'd be up for that kind of challenge would you?
Yeah. The part that I'm doing at the moment is comedy and I think making people laugh is harder. I would love to do a Shakespeare part.

-You should get your PR to have a word in someone's ear.
They'd say (adopts luvvie type voice) 'I don't bloody think so! DANIELLE BLOODY LINEKER!'


And with that, I left her to it. The usual tabloid story for celebrities in this country is, if you can't find any dirt on them at the beginning (and with Danielle, the hacks came up short), build them up, then knock 'em down.  Pretty sure that Danielle has that sussed, which is why it was surprising when she said she wanted to do Shakespeare - it proves she's ready for whatever criticism comes her way and I liked her for that. 

New Adventures in Sound

One of the advantages of the Itunes supermarket (other download sites are available, as Shaun Keaveny might say) is that we're no longer tied to purchasing whole albums in the hope of musical satisfaction.  So many times in the past I'd invested hopefully, willing an album to be another 'Blue Lines' 'Stone Roses' or 'Stories From the City', good from start to finish.  It rarely happened, too many fillers in amongst the songs I'd play to death.  Although there is no doubt that 'Limit to Your Love' is a standout on James Blake's self-titled new album, with it's spooky atmosphere and hard truthfulness, the other ten songs are much more than supporting acts.  Deservedly included in the Beeb's 'Sound of 2011' list, he lives up to the hype.   It is such an interesting album to listen to, especially through earphones.  I've been spending time with it on tube journeys, the grey gloom of January and the worn out commuter faces in urban settings providing the perfect filmscape for this soulful electronica.

Truly avant-garde and forward looking, it might initially flummox ears more used to verse-chorus-verse.  Simple phrases are used as a starting point to build around and Blake obviously sees the studio as of much of an instrument as a piano.  The songs, no doubt extremely carefully put together, often sound a bit broken, abstract or dissonant. Occasionally, on tracks like 'I Never Learnt to Share', which builds to a maelstrom of whirring angry sounds, the structure seems to allude to underlying neuroses.  Lyrics are often masked with distortion and vocoder, sometimes revealed like land through a mist only after repeated listens; how much to expose, both sonically and emotionally, is a theme that runs right through the 11 tracks.  In amongst all the experimentation there is soul - snatches of piano sound gospelly and the harmonies in Blake's voice often sound similar to John Legend or Antony Hegarty.

Like the more notable of dubsteppers and those influenced by it, melancholy abounds.  Burial had 'U Hurt Me' and 'Broken Home' and the XX panicked against the fear of disappointment (those 'Can I make it better...?' lyrics).  James Blake reveals doubt ('I don't know about my love') and pain ('My brother and my sister don't speak to me, but I don't blame them').  The space in the production lets this soul baring stand proud and its all the more affecting for it.  It is Blake's voice above all, that cuts through all the technological wizardry to shine.  He makes a virtue of all the slight quivers and cracks in his voice in the same way that Chris Martin did at first - it was this open vulnerability that first drew people to 'Parachutes'.  In doing so, he is more effortlessly able to convey emotion more tangibly, making the caterwauling histrionics of the X-Factor mob seem all the more fraudulent by comparison.

Cerebral, moving and a must-have if you're at all into your electronic music, 'James Blake' might yet be one of those albums that, in time, is considered a classic.

CIWFAL v 40before30

 Does someone who writes a blog usually interview one of their followers? Once we were both on Twitter, I noticed that Jayne was always tweeting from glamorous foreign locations and I wondered how, a little jealously, she could afford to be gallivanting around so much. We met up on a freezing night in Islington in a coffee bar, having had to abandon the pub we'd initially planned to meet in due to exuberant pre-Christmas noise levels. There was no way the Iphone recorder was going to pick her up in that din.

It turns out that she's an Event Manager for a company called Red Hot Locations, organising international financial conferences - Governmental bodies will employ her company to organise a conference designed to attract foreign investment. As she says 'I always wanted to see the world and nothing less' so she made the job work for her. Having previously worked in events management, she sought out an international events job.

Red Hot pays for the speakers to travel, pitching it as prestigious to be invited. 'We pay for their flight, hotel and food. We sell it as a good PR for them to come and get their name known in, say, Eastern Europe. It's my job to make sure they get there; I organise the flights, hotel, the events on the day, the AV. It takes about six months to organise each one and the week or two before an event I'm flat out.'

The good bit comes next. She also has to keep an eye on what the competition is doing, which involves some work but a lot of play.

'I went to China and Argentina this year to attend other peoples events to get some more contacts. You can't go that far just for a couple of days so I'll fly for a week, attend an event for two days then do what I want for a few days, which is mainly sightseeing. I'm in the office about half the year but the rest of the year I'm travelling'.

Her face lights up as she says it. But if you think that her job sounds too good to be true, rest assured she's working her cojones off when a conference is on.

'Just before a South African conference this year I was in the office on Monday, flew that night, arrived Tuesday morning, went straight to the printers to check brochures and then went to check the venue. After that I had to meet the speakers and took some clients to dinner The next day I got up at 6am, went to the venue at 7, got everything set up, then ran the day. I have the seating plans on me and a timetable to stick to, in order that we can get through all the presentations. I do find it stressful. All the delegates need hand holding to a certain degree.'

When the conference finishes though, it's payback for the work she's put in.

'Our events are generally two days mid week and I wont be due back in the office until Monday. So no matter where I am I try to fly back Sunday night so that I have maximum time to see something of the country I'm in. If I've gone straight into the office from a flight, I'll be running on adrenalin, but usually crash on Tuesday, am a bit grumpy and want people to stay away from me! My boss is also passionate about travelling so she likes me to make the most of the opportunity. She's lived abroad a lot and she knows I love the travel so, to a certain degree, she lets me do what I want.'

Since starting the job 18 months ago she's been to Lithuania, Cannes, Estonia, Argentina, China, and South Africa but she doesn't let up when it comes to her own holiday allowance.

'I went to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore in my last Christmas break. I never tire of it. A big bonus is that I never suffer from jet-lag because I can sleep anywhere. I do get to the point where I will tell my friends that I'm not going to be around for a week, that I'm just going to sleep. That's my way of relaxing. Watch TV, in bed by 8pm. I do a lot of writing to relax as well - I keep a blog to share my experiences.'

It seems this kind of life comes with only one drawback.

'I'm single, I have been for a long time and relationships are a problem. I met a guy who's studying to be a Doctor at the beginning of September but what with my schedule and his studying we are yet to have our first date. Obviously there are a lot of men at the conferences but I don't like to get involved with them; that's work. Hopefully travel will stop being a priority at some point. I'm happy for now because I want to enjoy my 20s. I think 30 will be the cut off point.'

Which is handy, given that her blog is called 40before30 (40 countries before she's 30 years old). Jayne is 26 currently so it's a given she'll hit her target. She tells me she had that aim before her job accelerated to the point it's at now. So what's with the travel fixation?

'I enjoy seeing or doing something new every day, the discovery element. I find it liberating. There is always an adventure to have. Im a pretty robust traveller, I've never got ill, never been robbed. The worst it got for me was an awful night in Fiji where I got conned – after being promised accommodation I ended up staying in a chicken shed. There were still chickens in it, a wasp nest in the corner and no lock on the door. Or maybe the time I got bitten 46 times by sandflies in Peru and people thought I was a leper'.

Nice. With over 600 followers on Twitter, Jayne has become a bit of an authority on travel, so much so that TravelZoo have advertised on her site and she's received free flights. So if I wanted to escape the remains of the British winter where should I head to?

'My favourite country is Brazil because of the scenery in Rio and the party atmosphere. If you're after a beach, Thailand's are just amazing and I haven't seen any better .'

Unsurprisingly, she's also been pondering where she to go to next.

'I love South East Asia, I'd love to go the Philippines and also Antarctica, because then I would have been to all seven continents.'

I met Jayne for three reasons. I like interviewing and believe that non-famous people can be as interesting as celebrities. Jayne emailed me to say she thought I'd have to work hard to make her sound interesting but I hope she thinks differently after reading this. Lastly, but most importantly, one of my fixations (and major gripes) last year was the amount of time we are spending looking at screens and not actually physically socialising anymore. If nothing else, I proved to myself that all this social networking can actually lead to meeting someone in the flesh and having a decent conversation. More of that in 2011 hopefully.

Let's Go Round Again

One last chance to get the fingers on the keys before I get away to see my family.  A couple more presents to buy, a train ride and then three days of reacquaintance.  At this time of year I always find myself weighing up how the year has gone for me.  In terms of the blog, I got my question answered - I can't write for a living.  Perhaps I wasn't trying hard enough.  But for all that it was a pretty good year.  I travelled 3 times and got paid to do so (ok, twice, but the trip to Texas was definitely worth it, even if it didn't bring in any cash).  I got a couple of coverlines and I met more than a few interesting people as a result of this blog - there'll be an interview with one of them on here in the New Year incidentally.  The big highlight was the completely unique, unlikely ever to be bettered experience of inadvertently getting married in Ghana.  I'll get to do it all again, English style, this year.  Personally, it has been a challenging year and it looks like there's going to be a few more potholes in the road in 2011.  But I'm a London bike rider - I'm good at avoiding potential disaster.

So here's some good stuff that I found this year.  I found a few websites that I really like - it was nice to have some choice as my default sites are usually Twitter, Facebook and the BBC, in that order.  Platform and Sabotage Times should provide you with some distraction, should you get bored of sitting in front of the box in the next couple of days.  Always entertaining, best bloggers around are He Said, She Said and Pitchy.  Things are going really well for Pitchy it seems (despite being ill and living in Surrey) - hope he holds it together and becomes the success he deserves to be in 2011.

There are quite a few people I need to thank for helping me have a pretty cool year. A journalist that wrote back with useful advice was Rosie Swash - her podcast with Alexis Petridis is good if only because it illustrates how intensely passionate they both are about music.  Given that I no longer pore over the pages of NME, it's also a good place for me to find new music.  Journalists I need to thank for giving me the chance to write for them this year: Marie Claire Dorking at Company, Terri White at Shortlist, Duncan Craig at The Express, Matt Weiner at Sabotage Times, Martin Deeson and Mark Hedley at Hedge and Square Mile (and Eugene Costello for all the help and support he has given).   Lucy Land at West London Living.  Also Rachel Johnson at The Lady, perhaps the most surprising place I found myself this year.  The Lady also wins best office award; it's got character in abundance, lovely people and Coco the dog wandering around.  Thanks too to Jenny Wood at Look (now Buzz) and Andrea Thompson at Marie Claire.  There's bound to be someone that I've forgotten so if so, apologies and please feel free to write and berate me.   Eat, drink, be merry and we'll do it all again next year eh?

Sociable Networking

As much as I gripe about always having to look at a screen (monitor at work, Iphone on the tube, TV if I'm weak when I get home) one positive thing about social networking is, if you want to, you can get to meet some of the people that like your stuff.  In the case of @40before30, she started following this blog, then I started following her on Twitter and the other night we got to have a drink together.  Nothing dodgy about it (I've put on here that I got married in any case), it's because I think she might be good for a column I read regularly in a magazine.  I thought her job was pretty interesting (she gets to fly all over the world for a living) so even if the mag I've got in mind isn't keen, the interview will probably end up on here.  I mention the meet up because there are lots of features popping up stressing how lonely social networking can be.  You know the sort of thing; people have 376 'friends' on Facebook but they can't think of a single person to call when they're feeling a bit pissed off or they're on Chatroulette because they've formed an umbilical cord to their laptop and can't get out to the pub.  If you want to read a good blog on how the enjoyable social aspect of work has been removed for one bloke, you could do a lot worse than read Chris Floyd's blog on it here.

As I've never been formally taught how to pitch stories (does that happen?) and I was getting frustrated at not having placed a story that I had in mind, I went on Susan Grossman's 'Pitching to Editors' course.  If you've googled those keywords and you've ended up here, you're basically wanting to know if it's worth the money.  It is.  Susan breaks pitching down into a few very simple rules, you're left with a template for future pitches and her energy and enthusiasm is infectious.  Plus it's likely that she'll be holding the course at RIBA, which is a beautiful building that you've probably never been into (unless you're an architect).

Lastly, I'm ending the year with a bang.  The commission that I mentioned in an earlier post is out now, in Square Mile magazine.  Not only that, but it was their cover feature.  Ideally I wouldn't be defending fat cats in print but the truth is I enjoyed the challenge of writing about someone whom I knew nothing about when I took the commission.  Proved to myself that I could do it.  Lastly and for no good reason you should check out the wonderful, Burial produced 'Night Air' by Jamie Woon.  I'm hoping if I it gets into your head, it'll come out of mine.

Buy my friend's book

I go to the Marylebone Writers Group on a Monday night.  Someone reads 3 pages of their work and then everyone else offers constructive criticism.  One of our lot has only gone and got herself into print so this week the blog is given over to her.  As well as being good enough to publish, she's obviously also some kind of marketing whiz - she's got 450 bloggers, mates, whatevers helping her to do the below.  Given that I'm working at Marie Claire this week it seems kind of appropriate to plug some chick lit.  May I just add that there is nothing in this for me except for good karma.  And obviously the pint that Talli is going to get me next time she makes a cameo appearance at the writing group.  Right Marsha?


Help Talli Roland's debut novel THE HATING GAME hit the Kindle bestseller list at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk by spreading the word today. Even a few sales in a short period of time on Amazon helps push the book up the rankings, making it more visible to other readers.


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About THE HATING GAME:

When man-eater Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she's confident she'll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she's perfected from years of her love 'em and leave 'em dating strategy. After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £2000,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it's revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes. Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end?