Heading Home

I have one more meeting this morning for tea and then it's off to Heathrow for my flight home. It has been a very busy and productive week of "get-to-know-you" meetings in London with top level executives at various networks and production companies. I believe that my agent and I accomplished exactly what we set out to do here this week — introducing people to me and my work and establishing relationships that will lead to writing & producing opportunities in the future. 

All the meetings went well and I made some great contacts, so I am feeling very optimistic. I am eager to get home and foll0w-up on everything (sending thank you notes, pitch treatments, etc.) I get home late Saturday and that gives me two days to conquer  my jet-lag before a week of pitching and staffing meetings.

You probably know what a pitch meeting is, but if you aren't in the TV biz, you  might wonder what I mean by "staffing." Now that the network schedules have been announced, everybody (me included) is running around trying to land one of the few available writing staff jobs. It's an intense, competitive and exciting time…full of big emotional ups and downs.  I try not to get my hopes up on any particular project…but I do anyway. I never learn. But I guess enthusiasm and optimism in this business is actually a plus…even if it it inevitably leads to some disappointments.

It wasn't all business in London. I had great dinners with screenwriter & novelist Stephen Gallagher and author James Swallow, browsed lots of bookstores, stocked up on DVDs of UK TV series, and even squeezed in a show of STAR TREK at the BFI Imax theatre. And I won't tell  you how many times I ate chicken pot pie at Square Pie at Selvridges…but the sales clerks and I got to know one another on a first-name basis.

But I am eager to get home and see my family. For some reason, it feels like I have been away much longer than a week.

2 thoughts on “Heading Home”

  1. Wow, Lee. You’re a machine. Hope this pays off for you — but I suppose there’s really no other way of going about it, is there?

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  2. Sounds great! Hope something develops soon!
    Today in the Toronto Sun, a big Canadian cable company is arguing against a government bailout of CTV and CBC, saying they bought U.S. shows instead of creating home-made shows for much less money. It crossed my mind, Lee, that Canada might be a place that might appreciate your sense of humor and drama. Maybe you could do a similar trip to Toronto or Vancouver. U.S. entertainment persons are, I believe, usually met with a lot of enthusiasm and good cheer.
    Anyway, hope you get a staff position in L.A. as that seems to be your first love.

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