Back from holiday less than a week and plenty has happened. While I was away I received three rejections (boo!) and one ‘long listing’ (hurray!), so now I’m faced with a big hole in my sending out schedule. I haven’t written anything new for a while and am about to go into another busy periodRead more ⟶
Category: Writing
The wonder of positive conversation
Yesterday I had an inspirational afternoon with the lovely Catherine Smith on the sunny terrace of Pelham House in Lewes. OK, so I’ve been a bit low this week what with the pending house move & lack of sleep for worrying about it. But I hardly have a bad life! I was reminded how crucialRead more ⟶
Poetry titles, aka the naming game
Earlier this week I had two tasks on the go: firstly to whip my pamphlet into shape before sending it off to the Mslexia comp (well, someone has to win it!) and secondly to have an initial read through of several hundred poems in my ‘guest co-selector’ role for a magazine. It was interesting toRead more ⟶
An update on submissions, readings etc and a nail-biting aside
My fingernails are looking reasonable at the moment, which is pretty good considering that the house-moving stressometer is probably at its highest right now. A short aside about nailbiting – a bit off-topic and do not read if you are squeamish I can usually tell if I’ve got too much on my mind by theRead more ⟶
So when is the editing done?
A quiet morning, so I’m taking the time to go through all the hurriedly-filed poems and get organised, as I want to send a few more submissions out – to fill the hole left by those I’ve finally given up on. I knew I’d been hanging onto a few, waiting for the submissions windowsRead more ⟶
A short post about long poems
Next month, Long Poem Magazine opens its submissions window. So if you have a poem or two more than 75 lines long, now’s your chance. I think I can safely say I won’t be submitting, mainly because I don’t seem to have any long poems in me. I’ve never been anywhere near the magic ’40Read more ⟶
Can you get a poem out of it?
This is question I’ve been asked (and have asked myself) every since I knew I would be doing jury service these two weeks. Having been given a day off tomorrow (a case finished today) I’ve been thinking about this. It could be an ideal opportunity to observe/experience something new, and comment on it in someRead more ⟶
Poetry writing retreat at Standen
Back from a couple of days away at Standen, a National Trust house in the Sussex countryside about 45 minutes from where I live. The idea was for it to be a poetry reading & writing retreat, time away from the internet, work and house moving stuff. I love visiting Standen and it was a treatRead more ⟶
A Bridge (not) Too Far – workshop with Anne-Marie Fyfe
Today I made my first visit to the Troubadour cafe, after thinking about it for a long time – I thought I’d start by going to one of Anne-Marie Fyfe‘s Coffee House Poetry workshops, which always sound enticing. The theme was ‘bridges’, and the first irony of the day was my inability to locate Wandsworth Bridge,Read more ⟶
Breaking this week (poetry and tech)
The eagle-eyed reader of this blog may have noticed a few wee changes in the look of it. Yes, I’ve changed the Theme, but it all happened rather more quickly than I was expecting, and the day before I was giving a blogging workshop. So I spent four hours trying to make my broken blog lookRead more ⟶