Real life . . .

. . . keeps getting in the way. It's Thursday and I have spent no more than an hour this week on my supposed acting career. I had planned to learn a modern monologue and to confirm a photographer for a headshot, but work got in the way.

I say work, but the Other Half disagrees. He thinks that because he heads out into the city five days a week, taking a bus, then the Northern Line followed by the Central Line, while I sit at home semi-dressed, sipping tea by my computer, that he's working and I'm doing nothing. The fact that I deal in old books for a living and spend a considerable amount of time cataloguing and uploading stock and promoting the business, doesn't impress him, particularly when he knows that I very much enjoy what I do. I'm my own boss and run my own schedule; for him, that's not really work. Only the fact that money gets paid regularly into my bank account - money which goes into paying my share of utility and grocery bills - reassures him that I'm not just doing it for fun. He's also mollified by the fact fact that I ensure there's always rice waiting for him when he gets home at the end of the day (he's from South-East Asia and would die if he did not eat his weight in the white stuff every day).

Anyway, it's been a busy week in the book world, but I haven't entirely neglected the Acting. I've booked another course for November (I'm away from London several times in September and October - does this mean I'm not serious about my career?) and I've provisionally scheduled a photographer for next week. With a voicereel scheduled by the middle of September, I should be ready to launch my own website (I already have the domain and a temporary notice up), put myself on castingcallpro.com and start contacting agents and looking for auditions.

I've cleared the decks so that tomorrow I can concentrate on Acting. I intend to draw up the first draft voicereel - short phrases in different styles and accents to showcase my vocal range. I will also prepare a list of longer pieces - short stories and monologues that I can put on the website and give to agents and producers who are intrigued enough by the voicereel to want to hear more. I wonder what I'll come up with...