Ship ahoy!

Although absolutely anxiety-inducing and nerve-wracking, the FaxFiction event turned out great. To use some boating terms, plain sailing and without a hitch (almost - had to swap out the word "archipelago" from my story when I realised in dress rehearsal that I really couldn't say it into the mic. Yes, reader, we had a dress rehearsal!). And as well as managing to write another new short story related to water (you know the drill by now, right?), I also successfully recorded the Shipping Forecast from the analogue kitchen radio then transferred my selected sections onto a recently procured but still old Dictaphone (my original one has died; it is ancient). I also created a set for the stage show - a microcosm of a yacht's chart table, complete with sailing books, bird encyclopedia, boat wellies, binoculars, an old ensign and genuine log book and other ephemera and general flotsam and jetsam. And I read the story along to a soundtrack of a gaff-rigged sailboat at sea, for added atmosphere, on an actual rainy and blustery evening at the Waterside arts centre. All good - here's a couple of pictures (first one courtesy audience member Phil Olsen; thank you, Phil).