Yes, that's right. This is perhaps the most ambitious project I've ever set myself, but 2023 marks the start of my attempt to adapt Off Track into a stage musical.

There is a huge amount to deal with to make this happen.

Where does one start when adapting a book into a musical and having relatively few contacts in the industry?

I'm planning to start with a single song. It'll probably be something from early on in the eventual show, something that features only Eden, and something that doesn't give too much away. I'm hoping that'll happen in the first half of this year, and I'll start posting teasers at some point, and eventually the full song.

This will be used, along with other avenues such as advertising, to get crowdfunding, sponsorship and other funding. It's going to be expensive, so I'll need all the help I can get.

I'll hopefully have a reasonable script by this point, and more songs written. I'll need to complete it, then I'll need to figure out some way of workshopping the show. Getting feedback, revising it. Making it as good as it can be.

Depending on the stage of funding at this point, there may be a full cast recording which will be for sale and streamable.

Following this, I hope to be able to stage a full production at the Edinburgh Fringe at some point in the next few years, which I'll also record for sale, and offer streaming tickets for, too.

That's my endgame. If it proves to be successful enough that the production can continue elsewhere, great, but I'm under no illusions. Musicals are expensive and the market still seems quite subdued-post COVID. Hopefully that'll change before I come to stage Off Track.