Emerging from the ether - it's awards time!

Happy Friday!

This week I believe if you write it, it shall come to pass!

SABRINA
Pay attention team because I’ve got some very important newses. We are salon of the year!

TANISHA
Wales’ least active salon of the year?

SABRINA
No, awards-wise: we are Clipadvisor’s Salon of the Year.

TANISHA
Really?! Us? How exciting! How?!

SABRINA
Oi! What do you mean how?

So we wrote way back in 2016 and now, just 3 short years later, Foiled has been nominated (Hold on, we haven't won?) for best radio comedy at the highly prestigious Celtic Media Awards.

Compared to theatre, writing for the radio is a strange experience. We write the scripts, have a laugh recording them, listen to the broadcast with butterflies in our stomachs and then - nothing.

No one reviews radio comedy. No one gives us the listener figures. We have no idea how the show's gone down with our audience - or even if there was an audience. We have no idea which episodes - or even jokes - worked for our listeners, which didn't, and why.

In Bird By Bird, Anne Lamott paints a pretty picture of this eternal, gaping, yawning silence. She's writing about book publishing, but it seems to me that the sense of emptiness and craving is the same for radio.

There will be a few book-signing parties and maybe some readings, at one of which your publisher will spring for a twenty-pound wheel of runny Brie, and the only person who will show has lived on the street since he was twelve and even he will leave, because he hates Brie.

So it's wonderful for something, some acknowledgement and approbation, to come crawling out of the ether and say: YOU DID A THING AND WE LIKED IT.

The nomination cites my personal favourite episode from the last series, starring Miles Jupp as Richie's dad. Sitting across from Miles as he read out words that I'd written was one of the most thrilling events of my life last year.

There is nothing more rewarding for a writer than to watch a talented actor rub your words together and make sparks fly until the whole thing catches fire.

But where do we go now, now we've been nommed by the Celtic Media Awards? Will the Celtic imprimatur spur us to write ever funnier scripts - or will we become complacent, crippled by our glory like Wet Wet Wet after Four Weddings came out?

I guess I can turn to Anne Lamott again:

The fact of publication is the acknowledgement from the community that you did your writing right. You acquire a rank that you never lose. Now you're a published writer, and you are in that rare position of getting to make a living, such as it is, doing what you love best. That knowledge does bring you a quiet joy. But eventually you have to sit down like every other writer and face the blank page.

Series 3.

For now, big love to everyone for supporting Foiled. I'll get Beth to give you a shout out in her acceptance speech. (Hold on, we still haven't won?)

Saddles for this year's Thighs of Steel charity bike ride are now up for grabs!

Check out the video for some inspirational shots of people cycling in the sunshine - bonus points if you can spot my backside.

Then sign up to join me for a week of steely thighed adventure - I'll be in the core team for Rome-Bari, Dubrovnik-Corfu and Corfu-Athens!

When it comes to awards, I'm not just a taker (Hold on, we really still haven't won?) - I'm a giver too.

I help fund The Next Challenge Grant, an annual bursary for adventures chosen and administered by adventurer (and accountant) Tim Moss.

This year's grant winners have just been announced and they're a terrific bunch of adventurers who I'm proud to help out.

My personal favourites: Mark Holmes who's making swimming escapes from the UK’s three prison islands, and Sue Manning who's walking around Scotland with a pack pony (pictured).

I particularly wanted to help The Next Challenge Grant because my first big adventure, cycling 4,000 miles around the coast of Great Britain, was only possible thanks to support from my nan.

One of the last things she said to me before she died was 'Do it while you can!' She'd have loved to help out these intrepid adventurers.

If you like this sort of thing, then you'll probably also like my back catalogue of over 500 posts, all found at davidcharles.info.

Time spent travelling is time well spent.

I've published 5 books, including stories of hitch-hiking from London to Ben Nevis, and cycling 4,110 miles around Britain. Visit my tiny book shop.

The ebooks are Pay What You Want, so you choose the price tag. Can't say fairer than that.

Right. Time to get down to the serious business of comedy. Beth's come down to Bournemouth for a weekend of high-octane typewriting on Foiled. Wish us luck - we've got award-nominated reputations to uphold!

Much love, - dc

CREDITS

David Charles wrote this newsletter. David is co-writer of BBC Radio sitcom Foiled, and also writes for The Bike Project, Elevate and Thighs of Steel. Reply to this email, or read more at davidcharles.info.