Thanks.
PS - I haven't gotten to debugging the set alarm section, which I don't think is ready to work, because I've been stuck getting the date entered. I had a simpler version that just requested date and time as 2 dialogs instead of 4, but it wasn't working, either.
tell application "iCal"
activate
view calendar at current date
--Get event description
display dialog "Enter event name:" default answer ""
set eventName to text returned of the result
--Get date
display dialog "Enter event year:" default answer "2007"
set eventYear to text returned of the result
display dialog "Enter event month (1-12):" default answer ""
set eventMonth to text returned of the result
display dialog "Enter event day (1-31):" default answer ""
set eventDay to text returned of the result
--get time
display dialog "Enter event time:" default answer ""
set eventTime to text returned of the result
set eventStart to date (eventMonth & space & eventDay & space & eventYear & space & eventTime)
--get event duration in minutes
display dialog "How many minutes will the event last?" default answer "0"
set eventDuration to text returned of the result
set eventSeconds to (60 * eventDuration)
set eventEnd to eventStart + (1 * eventSeconds)
--get alarm
display dialog "Enter time before event for alarm to trigger (in minutes)." default answer "15"
set minutesVariable to text returned of the result
set eventAlarmOffset to (-60 * minutesVariable)
--make the event
set newevent to make new event at end of events of calendar "Alarms" with properties {summary:eventName, start date:eventStart, end date:eventEnd}
display alarm {trigger interval:eventAlarmOffset}
end tell