Been doings and To dos

I've been a bit busy in the last few weeks:

- The Chimamanda Workshop

- A Young Adult Novella commissioned by a UK publisher seeking to enter the African educational market (I'm new to YA fiction. Huge learning experience)

- An episode of an ongoing Nigerian drama series (I'm new to screenplay writing - my only experience before now was as a member of the writing team for Episode 9 of the BBC Worls Service Trust Radio-drama STORY STORY in 2006 - steep learning curve it was, very challenging but also exciting. It's not the easiest thing in the world switching gear from "poetry" to "screenplay". It's manual transmission, not auto.
But after doing it, one will never see the world in the same way again)

- Regular submissions (poetry mostly - anthologies, journals)

- My articles for MADE Magazine. (restaurant reviews, an interview)

- A 6,000 word piece on Mental Health in Nigeria (should be due out in -------- magazine before the end of the year.

TO DOS

I want to enter for the Acbebe Adaptation (Theatre) Competition organised by the Association of Nigerian Authors to mark 50 years of the publication of Things Fall Apart

I want to enter for the BBC African Playwriting Competition 2007

I want to do a few short stories - short stories are a weak point for me. I always get caught up in the temptation to be over-literary, playing with language at the expense of telling a good story, Chimamanda style. (I read Helon Habila's story THE IMMIGRANTS this afternoon. Men, I wanna write stories like that. Subtle, understated, filled with emotional truth, stories that linger with you long after you have left those pages...)

I learnt a lot of stuff in the writing workshop, that I'd like to put into practice. And of course it goes without saying that, as I write any story, I will be glancing over shoulders regularly, hearing a voice behind me saying:

WHAT WOULD CHIMAMANDA AND BINYAVANGA THINK? LAWL!