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Friday update

It’s been a good week in many ways, but the not-so-good things first: a rejection from the London Magazine (not unexpected) and no new poetry writing done at all 🙁

Good things: the first of our Brighton Stanza small group workshopping sessions was on Monday, and although there were only three of showed up in the end (of the others one called in sick, two were delayed on the train, one got the date wrong) I took away one excellent insight (thanks to Tom Cunliffe) which I know will have far-reaching consequences for me. More good things: I sent my pamphlet off to print!! Cover reveal:

The Great Vowel Shift cover

 

I’m very pleased with the cover illustration by Hannah Clare, who I will use again for future pamphlets as I want to establish a brand look. My only reservation is whether I shouldn’t have gone for a dust jacket. I like the traditional feel of one, but if it gets detached from the booklet it does mean the booklet cover has no markings. Anyways, that’s what I’ve opted for at the moment, as I liked the look of the pamphlets by Smith Doorstop.

Next nice thing was an evening at the Redroaster in Brighton last night for Pighog poetry readings – top of the bill and clearly the big draw was fine poet John McCullough, who I always love to hear read, but sadly he had to wait until about 10pm due to open mic-ers being given too long. After the first half I was remarking how I liked the fact that the open mic had seemed relaxed and gave people more time than usual, with just 3 readers. But I didn’t realise there were about 10 more readers to go in the second half, many intent on hogging the limelight for as long as possible. It seems that saying ‘one poem’ is fair enough but you need to add ‘no more than ONE sheet of A4 paper’ too, otherwise you’ll sure as dammit get ‘Paradise Lost’.

Anyway I had a good catchup with poet Marion Tracy and very jolly to see so many familiar peeps from the Stanza group and elsewhere.

Other than that I’ve been nose to the grindstone or rather bum on seat typing, skimming my way through a myriad blogs and websites etc all in the name of this blogging book I’m working on. Around 15k words written so far and a weekend of graft to look forward to, probably on my own in the office taking hundreds of screenshots,  getting Photoshop-itis and trying not to re-use the same cheery phrases too often.

Sorry for the brief post … off to celebrate my husband’s birthday this evening so twill be nice to turn the computer OFF. Have a nice weekend 🙂

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  1. Sorry about the rejection. We all know what it feels like!

    • Thanks LIsa, I guess it wouldn’t be a typical week without a rejection! But they serve a purpose – to make the acceptances feel special… 🙂

  2. That’s such a striking cover design – looks very impressive on screen and I’m looking forwarding to seeing how it looks in the flesh. Intriguing title, too! Good point about open-mics but difficult to manage unless time slots are agreed on at the start.

    • Thank you Josephine, and thanks also for the pings from your blog! Yes the open mic thing is hard to handle. I think I have encountered the ‘one sheet of paper’ rule. But if people are determined to ignore requests to stick to time there’s not much you can do if you don’t want to seem unfriendly or draconian.

  3. What a great title and cover Robin. Put me down for a copy.

    • Thank you Abegail, that’s very kind. A copy will most certainly be winging your way.

  4. […] come along if you’re around) and some comments by Robin Houghton about open-mic slots in her recent blog post have made me think about speaking poetry aloud: how I love some events but cringe at […]

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Robin Houghton 2021