LOST!

What a nightmare – had a rehearsal this morning before work for Mouth & Music tomorrow night, tried to find a new Found Poem to show (fortunately our set is at 9/10 minutes and we don’t need anything else)…. sudden dawning realisation that in the early hours of the morning I must have oversaved a document and I have lost the entire weekend’s writing! I have searched – all the documents are identical. Kicking myself because I always back up on email or memory stick…. lesson learnt! Just posting to remind you all to BACK UP! 

From a Week Off to a Week On (It)!

Last week I took a week off from performance events, open mics and any socialising generally. I worked for 4 days and wrote in the evenings (mainly , desperately need to catch up with NaNoWriMo)!  I then had a 3 day weekend which consisted of a day off with Mr G to visit a newly opened Home store *they had 25% off, to buy paint and materials to start decorating our place, a missed birthday party, a 60th/ 40th Wedding Anniversary Party, planting seeds, catching up with writing projects, and missing the WLF Poetry Walk.

I have slept a lot too.

This week is the last week of work before Easter, I don’t get any pay in the holidays so I took on some extra work. I have 3.5 days work, a rehearsal (in a few hours) for Mouth & Music Dualogue set before work,  I am working all week, bar Friday (thank goodness)!

I have Mouth & Music   Tuesday evening,  a meeting with the other writers who work for Writing West Midlands on Thursday and on Friday night (after a day in my writing skin) I am going to  for the first of three events which link the Worcester Literature Festival and the Ledbury Poetry Festival.

‘Four poets with assured and distinctive voices for whom ‘place’ is not just the geographical or natural environments that inform the poems but also the human histories that unfold there, the people who are part of the landscape and part of the poem.’

Angela France

Martin Malone

David Caddy

Fiona Sampson

After a busy week I have an even more action packed weekend (start of my 2 week Easter break). On Saturday Najma Hush (a.k.a PhotoGiraffe) is having her 2nd Exhibition opening in Birmingham. The Exhibition is already up. I planned to perform at her opening which is from 11 to 1:30 and will be amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed watching every at the Diverse Dancers Exhibition and have since met up with Najma several times at poetry events (which would make celebrating her photography even more exciting)!

It is also Birmingham’s Independent Book Fayre, great way of meeting small presses and networking – but I may as well forget that 11 – 5pm because I won’t have time to get to it, maybe next year. This event is also run by Writing West Midlands, who I will be working for on Saturday.

My issue with getting to the exhibition, is that I then need to travel across county to get to my Assistant Writing job for 1:30 and I KNOW if I make it to the Exhibition opening I am going to want to stay there.

After all that it is also a friend’s 40th Birthday Party, she is celebrating at a pub with a band on and is having a buffet also. Plus it gives me a chance to see friends I missed this weekend and have not seen in a long while.

On Sunday I am celebrating an anniversary with friends who are having a lunchtime function.

I also hope to write and submit 1 short story and several poems.  

Have a good week! Happy Writing!

My First Poetry Competition

The title is not strictly true, as a young writer I entered one or two and I have sent off poetry for FREE subscriber magazine competitions, however this was the first Poetry Prize Festival Competition I entered.

For the Wenlock Poetry Festival. Funnily enough I was thinking about this earlier whilst doing some chores, I decided that I don’t feel strong enough, whether that is confidence or belief in my work to enter PAID competitions yet. With the exception of some local ones I have chosen to support this year.

My inbox just confirmed that. I have only been back in the writing chair of poetry since September and in that time I have produced many poems. I should count them and make myself feel good – I know I have written about 14 this weekend!

I received a lovely email, they have now shortlisted from over 500 poems they were sent and I didn’t make the cut, or at least my poem didn’t. It was very hard having an OPEN theme – it could be anything…. I look forward to finding out at the end of April.

In the meantime it is a blessing, the Wenlock Poetry Festival and promotion of this competition takes place on the same day we are all having a family meal to celebrate my Uncle’s marriage to his long time girlfriend, they are travelling up from London.

My plan is to concentrate on one off submissions alongside some anthology work and still build my own reputation, possibly broaden the tech, get out there on You Tube, keep up the public performances and give my writing some time. I feel I am pushing the writing at the moment.

It is nice to know my poem will appear on the Wenlock Poetry Trail as part of the Festival.