My Year

Well, every other blogger seems to be doing it... but I'll keep mine short because, frankly, it's been one of those years where you can't run through the best of it without the risk of sounding like a total arse. Let's just say I've had a lot to be grateful for.

But to put that into perspective, here's how I started the year. I was working quietly on a book and my last half dozen screen jobs had included:

Sales to two successful shows created by other people and cancelled by channel controllers for reasons only an insider can know

A BBC commission torpedoed by a rival producer and followed by an ugly battle with Business Affairs over payment due

A project that I’d walked off two weeks before it went to shoot

And then, almost the last straw, an expensive two-parter that I was particularly proud of, hastily rescheduled to run against one of the biggest live football matches of the season. They didn't even waste money on a trailer. Don't ask me what I think of the £45,000 launch party for Merlin unless you've got an hour to spare.

(For the actual last straw, you'll have to look at a piece I wrote at the request of BFS chair Guy Adams for the next issue of Prism, the newsletter of the British Fantasy Society. A barefaced plug for the BFS? Whatever next?)

I think I learned two things this year.

1. Nothing ever turns out as you planned. But if you don't make plans, nothing happens at all.

2. The secret of happiness, in work and in all of life, is to go where you're wanted.

Happy New Year!