So who speaks Kitlish then?

My daughter's cat has been visibly pregnant for a while and looking immanent for several days, so it wasn't a surprise this time. But still...

I awoke at 5am to the soft squeak of a newborn kitten's voice. The fact that she had them during the night was, as I said, no surprise. But I wanted to find out where and how many right away, as you do.

She actually had them in the cave part of a cat tree that all the cats have steadfastly refused to go into for years! This of course means that she was all fluff in a small area and counting kittens was going to be a challenge until she decided to come out for food.

As it turns out, what I heard was the firstborn. The others were born during the morning hours, so my sleepy attempt at kitten counting among the fluff was a losing battle anyway. But several hours later, one cleaned up mother cat is happily nesting with 4 little kitters, 3 identical blackish females and a black and white male that looks rather identical to the male cat downstairs. Hmmmm...

We will definitely get her 'fixed' after weaning this time. We can't keep populating the neighborhood with kittens, even though people actually run adverts looking for them around here. But in the meantime, they are beautiful, like their mother. Aisha is among the photos in my gallery if you want to have a look.

Pity she never tends to have any with her own markings. Or maybe that's good, as I have a full complement of cats and one more would be so tempting if such a kitty was produced.

Gods I'm going to hate giving all these little buggers away when the time comes.

Photos will be along in due course.

Yes, in the morning I trudge through the snow (I mean it, it's snowing outside right now!) to begin a trip to warmer climes, filled with artwork! It's a package trip that my pretty toyboy won, seeing all the important places in Italy in just over a week. I expect to return exhausted.

Meanwhile, I've been learning to edit (as the editor I got just wouldn't use the shots I asked for) and have re-cut my marketing trailer myself, how cool is that? The new version has replaced the other on my website at [link] and is on YouTube at [link] YouTube trashes picture quality so the website is better.

Keep in mind this is no-budget shot in one day, the film will be professional quality in ways that only money can buy (like a good professional cameraman, actors, editor, etc)

While you're there, some general comments on the change of look to my website would be welcome. I haven't done the Media page yet, previously all pages looked like that. I decided it was too corporate, and took some inspiration from an artist's site. I also haven't done the secondary pages yet, just 5 of the 6 main ones.

Got a promise from another small investor this morning, to be followed up after my holiday. 99 more like her and we've got a film.

Did I mention that I have a letter of intent from a distributor in Los Angeles now? Apart from the fundraising (which I'm crap at), every other aspect of this project is almost too easy. The story sells itself.

just wish my publisher would quit globe trotting long enough to focus on getting US distribution for the book! Anyone got a US based book business that would like to strike a deal with him?

Anyway, this is my first real holiday in 8 years. I've travelled a bit in connection with giving talks, even to Japan which was partly like holiday, but a normal non-working holiday is far too infrequent in my busy life. It's going to be on the move all the time though, we sleep somewhere different almost every night and have constant day trips to all the important cities.

At least I'll finally be able to tick Rome off my list of must see places. And Pisa, and Florence, and Venice....

How I always manage to live well despite being dead broke is a mystery, even to me. See you all in April!

Is finally up. [link] or if your tech is archaic, a lesser quality YouTube version can be seen at [link]

Note that this is based on back story, not the actual Dance of the Goblins film. It's Count Victor's first encounter with the goblins, 5 generations before the story occurs. A radio play based on this is in progress.

But it shows what we can do with 1 day and £1000. Proper production funds will do something much improved.

Well, hopefully doing sound for the marketing trailer on Sunday. I'm slowly catching on that it's December and this Christmas thing is interfering with my creative efforts.

Should have it up soon, there have been some minor delays due to a key person disappearing, not sure if we're looking at tragedy or Aquarianism. Either way, the show goes on.

And there is a bit of goblin silliness to share...
[link]

Oh, and we now have interest from a distributor in L.A. I checked them out, small but legitimate.

All I need is £200k for production now...

Well, last Saturday saw me directing a film set. How cool is that? And it went well. We got all the shots and many extra for action sequences. We'll have the rushes in a few days and get into editing. A couple of silly things will go up on YouTube fairly quickly, but one and maybe two serious marketing trailers based on back story for the novel will appear in a few weeks after we do sound and such.

Meanwhile, the publicity trickles along and the book sales keep happening, even if it's a few at a time. More people have heard of the story now. We had a BBC film crew filming our filming, for a programme about things going on in the region. Fingers crossed that it airs. My goblins had the presenter Morris Dancing...

12 hours on my feet in the cold and nearly nothing to eat and all I can think of is how fun it was and what good images we expect to get. It looked good on monitor. The results will be seen soon. My lead actors were both gorgeous and the goblins were suitably horrific.

And it didn't hurt that we had use of the grounds of a beautiful stately home with a moat. The fight on the bridge adds a nice touch. I want to do some more!

Hopefully this marketing trailer will sell some product placement and I'll get to make several goblin videos for the sponsors while collecting cash for the main film production. This is the plan anyway. Meanwhile, there are still 397 shares of the company available for £1000 investment each, if anyone wants in. As soon as we have £100,000, we can start serious production.

This is fun.