Tag Archives: geoff holder

In which the Author proofreads a Swiss script…

I’ve just finished proofreading and copy-editing another script written in English by a non-native speaker, this time a theatrical piece by a Swiss playwright. The original text was in French, and there is always a difficulty in

translating idiomatic dialogue from one language to another. If you translated ‘It’s raining cats and dogs’ word for word into French, for example, it would be absolutely meaningless to a Francophone. (The equivalent French idiom is ‘It’s raining spear-points’.) So there were some knotty issues with understanding what the author wanted to say originally, viewing the English translation, and then fine-tuning those phrases into acceptable vernacular English,

but a peek at the original French text helped work things out.

I should also say that, despite the author being a native Francophone, the proofread of the English script

uncovered fewer mistakes of spelling, grammar and punctuation than I see in the average script written by a native English speaker. Go, as the Americans are wont to say, figure.

This job is the latest in a line of proofreading / copy-editing jobs I’ve been doing for European scriptwriters, with

recent examples stretching from France and Scandinavia to Hungary. Which is, of course, most excellent.

In which the Author talks zombies on the Grand Dark Conspiracy…

I was recently interviewed by Daniel Bautz of the Grand Dark Conspiracy (‘Exploring the Unexplained, the Unseen, the Unknown’) on WQTT out of Ohio, the matter in hand being that pesky issue of the zombie apocalypse.

Specifically I was talking about Zombies from History, and how when the apocalypse does arrive, rather than wait

for that dull salesman from No.27 to eat you, why not step and seek and destroy some of history’s big guns?

The talk ranged wide and indeed far, taking in the likelihood of the author receiving abusive tweets from disgruntled readers during the apocalypse (‘Dude! Henry VIII wasn’t where you’d said he would be!’) to the exploding corpse

of William the Conqueror. We also covered records of belief in the walking dead from archaeological evidence and medieval chronicles. All in all, zombie fun central.

You can still listen to the podcast here. My thanks to Sunny Lambert and Daniel Bautz of the Grand Dark

Conspiracy.

In which the Author is commissioned to write the script for an animation film…

Well chuffed to note that I’ve been commissioned by The Lives of the Dissidents project to write the script for a 10-minute animation about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Protestant pastor who resisted Adolf Hitler and after a

long imprisonment was eventually executed by the Nazis in 1945. Other films in the series will highlight others who resisted state power, such as Martin Luther King, Victor Jara and Sophie Scholl.

This is the first time I’ve scripted an entirely animated film. Once the script is complete, the animation is scheduled to go into production in 2015.

Now I’m going to celebrate with a nice cup of tea.

In which the Author gives another writing class…

The next in the series of writing classes here in Gascony will be on Sunday 7th September, in Nogaro (Gers).

The topics of the day will be ‘Dialogue’ and ‘Voice / Style’ – both crunch issues for many authors.

The full-day writing class is suitable for authors of all kinds of fiction.

The fee is €23. The venue is wheelchair accessible and there is free parking nearby.

Everyone welcome. And if you have writerly friends, don’t bother to share the news with them (wait, that’s not quite right…).

In which the Author takes a Halloween tour in Scotland (and looks for further gigs)…

Are you in Scotland and looking for a speaker during Halloween week? In the last week of October I’ll be knocking the French mud off my boots and venturing back to Scotland for a series of talks, and there are a few gaps in the

schedule, so I’m looking for some other opportunities.

Here’s the skinny:

On the evening of Tuesday 28th October I’m talking about ‘Supernatural Scotland’ at the Breadalbane Library in

Aberfeldy, Perth & Kinross.

On Wed 29th (evening) I’m presenting my crowd-pleasing ‘Zombies from History’ to the Edinburgh Skeptics at the Banshee Labyrinth. Warning: may contain corpses.

Thurs 30th (evening) I’m in Perth with the Filmmakers Club.

And in the afternoon of Friday 31st, Halloween itself, I’m at the (drum-roll) Scottish Paranormal Festival in Stirling,

giving a talk entitled ‘Sex, Lies & Poltergeists’: expect scenes of destruction, pointless violence and icky fluids from the very beginning.

So, if you are looking for a Halloween speaker on all matters ghoul and ghast anytime between Monday 27th

October and Saturday 1st November, please get in touch.

In which the Author’s first film goes into production…

Running Scared, a tense pursuit thriller, goes into production next week, with filming at various spectacular

outdoor locations in Tennessee. Yowsa.

The story: In rough country, three teenage boys are running for their lives from a mysterious group equipped with

helicopters and automatic weapons. Who are the pursuers? Why are they hunting down and killing youngsters?

The answer comes when the sole survivor finally reaches his destination – and it’s nasty.

Writing the script for the ten-minute short was a hoot. It’s now up to the crew and cast assembled by Pinpoint

Productions out of Florida to do the really hard work over three days’ location filming. It’s great, isn’t it? I write a

screenplay in France, and then before you know it people are running round the south-eastern United States with cameras and squibs of make-up blood.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress of the film. In the meantime, here are some of the likely locations for Running Scared:

Geoff Holder / Geoff Dupuy-Holder

Screenwriter, Author, Curmudgeonly Old Git