Kids of today, etc.

I'm back up London next week, for a meeting with the Cartoon Network (everyone should have one of those at some point in their life). It's for a project which is in its early stages, and is confidential, so posting details could queer the pitch somewhat, as t'were. It sounds fun though, and if it goes well, I'll be rewriting the 'series bible': the mighty tome/scrappy few sheets of paper that define the main character, antagonists, potential themes for future episodes and so on. Series bibles are fun objects in their own right, especially when said series has been around for a few years and they become thicker than actual, well, bibles. And bibles for animated shows are best, as they're full of brightly coloured concept art which really helps trigger the imagination. And depress me mightily for being a rubbish drawist.

My Bob the Builder one got lost on the move from Canterbury to Cornwall, which was a great shame as it had things like lists of all the propmakers had ever made (tiny laptop - 1, tortoise - 1, rabbits -30, that sort of thing). Many many years ago I went to a book fair for schoolkids which had loads of actual writers doing talks for children, one of whom was Elizabeth Beresford, creator of 'The Wombles' who told us that the BBC animation crew used to take the Wombles and their props home at weekends, and quite often had to rush home because they'd left Uncle Bulgaria's hat on the mantelpiece.

Much better than my last talk to my mum's primary school, who were doing a scriptwriting module (with a laptop and screen projector - it was like finding out modern schoolkids take their geography fieldtrips to Mars), and when we got talking about books they liked, I told them that the writer Lemony Snickett also doubles as the accordion player in my favourite band, The Magnetic Fields. Cue sea of blank faces.

As if one of the ten year-olds was going to say 'Hmmm, I quite like the Fields, but really Merritt's spin-off project The Future Bible Heroes appeals more to my current musical sensibilities, which are rooted very much in the electropop style with the occasional foray back to the dream pop subgenre of the early-to-mid-nineties. However I remain resolutely unconvinced by the Gothic Archies'.

WORLD OF WARCRAFT UPDATE: I now have a cool sabretooth tiger, and the ability to scare wild animals, which is handy. They only run away for ten seconds though, it turns out, and then come back and eat you while you're doing a celebratory dance. Also I keep picking up bits of armour I can't use, so if anyone knows what level my hunter (called Shard, wave if you see her) can wear it, and be killed by things slightly less often, I'd be terribly grateful.