Submissions, Picnics (Poetry ones!), Missed Events and New Ventures

The Week Off

Mr G took last week off work so we could do some work on the house and garden together and spend some time enjoying ourselves, I don’t think we will be going away on a proper summer holiday, fortunately the weather has been amazing and I won’t moan when it turns overcast as I have a ton of things INSIDE to be getting on with over the summer break.

 

New Work

The good news this week is I have already secured 1 job for the new term, it doesn’t offer many hours but will cover my part of the mortgage payment at least, as far as bills, food shopping, car expenses and spending money go, I will have to pick up a few more days work every week. But having that 1st contract means I won’t end up with a month of no work. September is not a particularly busy month for us.

 

4 Day Run of Events – Picnics (Poetry ones)

At the tail end of the week before I went to Coventry for Antony Owen’s book launch, then Birmingham to promote Restless Bones Poetry Anthology (published and launching in 3 weeks!), then took a drive up to Shropshire to go to Poetry on The Farm – an event organised by Jean Atkin to celebrate the end of her 3 month residency at Acton Scott Farm. Then on the Sunday I had an EPIC day – I have not had time to blog post it yet and I cannot wait to do so. Jo Bell was poet in residence at Hall’s Croft for Stratford-Upon-Avon’s Literature Festival, she also started ’52’, you will remember me posting about it in the New Year, we all met up for a picnic – over 52 of us, she has over 500 members in 52 now. It was an amazing day that involved picnics, raffle prizes, poets, reading 52 poems at The Shakespeare Centre to a festival audience, flash mobbing outside Shakespeare’s Birthplace (a sonnet of course!) and then not getting drunk in The Dirty Duck pub, by the river.

 

Watch Out for the 52 Post

I WILL write about it in a separate post, the Acton Scott post has just taken a couple of hours to write and put together, it is now getting late (past midnight) and I have some ACTUAL writing to do. Look out for the 52 post.

During the next week mainly because I was exhausted from the adrenalin of a 4 day run and also because Mr G had booked time off to be together, I didn’t go to any poetry events.

 

Missed Events

On Monday I missed Shindig in Leicester, I was invited and originally began performance poetry in Leicester in the 90s. I will go another time when I haven’t already covered 100s of miles the previous few days.

Tuesday (and I am still gutted about this) I was very tired and had actually fallen asleep when I should have been hitting the road. I missed Poetry Bites in Birmingham, always a great night, organised and hosted by Jacqui Rowe. Anthony and Joseph were there headlining and promoting ‘The Year I Loved England’, (I had already seen them in Coventry), Matt Windle  was the other headliner, always a pleasure (I am seeing him in Kidderminster in a few weeks) and Sammy Joe, who I have seen before, but it would have been good to see her again, plus all the floor spots, it was a cracking night by all accounts and I missed it.

Friday there was a night write event hosted by Jo Bell as part of the Stratford festival that I would have loved to have parted money for, my concern was staying awake 10pm to 6 am – I have spent months attempting to regulate my sleep, to make sure I am awake during the day and the knock on situation after breaking this pattern would be equivalent to jet lag. The decision was made for me when we went up to the garden in the afternoon and enjoyed some cold, crisp wine. Another year maybe.

Saturday there was a performance in the Stratford that I wanted to see.

Sunday there was Sunday Xpress in Birmingham and Al Barz facilitated a one off Poetry in the Park in Walsall. There was also a showing of ‘Tales of the Tat Man’ David Calcutt’s latest venture in Birmingham at tea time.

Phew! A week of activities and I didn’t manage any of them.

A week of Work- Gardens – Sun – Gas Men, Shopping, Theatre, Reading & Writing

I was still working at the beginning of the week, we spent some time running errands and whilst I was at work Mr G bravely tackled the back garden, completely transformed by the time I came home. We had a fire that evening and the neighbour sat out with us in the garden, although he went in about 3 hours before we did.

On Tuesday after I had tutored we spent time sunbathing on our new sun loungers in the garden and then watched a box set that we haven’t seen for ages, we managed to get onto the next season.

Midweek, we had the excitement of a house full of Gas Men changing meters and discovering holes we shouldn’t have had! The oven works better and poor Mr G spent the whole time out in the baking sun tidying up the front garden – which now looks amazing! A warm welcome. Again once the house was empty we went to sit outside.

© National Theatre 2014

In the evening my mum and I went to the Arts Centre to see the National Theatre production of Skylight. I have never watched a theatrical performance on a screen before (wonders of the digital world) but with the cuts to Arts funding this allows people who don’t live in London to see the shows. It was more like watching it live on stage than a cinematic experience would be. I loved it. (And the Arts Centre has Air con.- most places, including our home, don’t – because it is rarely this hot or dry for this length of time in the UK. So that was a real treat!)

I also took a couple of shopping trips for summer clothes and caught up reading my writing magazine, I have been an issue behind pretty much the whole of 2014, one day I read the July issue and then over the weekend read the August issue, freeing my time up to write now for a couple of weeks before the next issue arrives!

I also had submissions to make – one for a project very close to me, I wrote three pieces for that in the end and the other was 3 poems, 1 written especially and the other 2 heavily rewritten to a publication I have previously been rejected from, fingers crossed – we will see.

We discovered a new garden centre and spent an afternoon choosing plants for the garden display. We will be going back there soon.

We have frogs in our pond and the plants are establishing themselves well around it.

We have eaten lovely home-grown salad potatoes and beans, we are waiting on the tomatoes – they won’t be long. We have had strawberries & pak choi already, the cucumbers are growing and we have decided we need to give the allotment up. We have done it for 5 years and it was good when we had no garden of our own, but now we have the house project and a garden that needs constant TLC and I am gallivanting off into the world of words all the time, we just cannot find regular time to go and tend the plot. We never had the right tools, as we were very ‘natural’ harvesters, this meant jobs done in no time with machinery were taking forever with tools not fit for purpose. It has been a big decision, but there is room to grow some stuff in the garden and at least this way there will be less waste.

I had a brilliant time with Mr G, lovely to have the company, much missed today when he went back to work… (although my mum popped in for a catch up), Mr G is off again soon, although the poetry schedule won’t be abandoned next time, we are hoping to make a start on the house.

 

Current Submissions

I am currently working on submissions that have a tight deadline (of a few days) – a one act play/ monologue and a short story. Fingers crossed I planned and mapped out plot/action and characters today. I am hoping to write them tomorrow, edit and redraft/ proof and submit on Wednesday! Not ideal, but having been so far behind on magazine issues, have only just discovered the opportunities.

This week I have a Poetry Party tomorrow, Drummonds 42 event on Wednesday (performing), a possible road-trip to Wales, hoping to finish the week off with a workshop.

If the road-trip works out – I will miss OXJAM Slam which is a charity fundraiser (OXFAM) and a night celebrating the life and words of Maya Angelou.

Hope you will understand now why my posts have been infrequent this month – will try harder to regularly post in August as my writing life will be getting very exciting!

 

Happy writing x

 

Faber Poetry Diary 2014 – Making my wishlist for next year already!

Faber Poetry Diary 2014 – Blue.

This year part of my organisation includes an A5 desk diary, in which I make a note of all writing world functions, book launches, open mics, events, competition deadlines etc. It has already got a bit scribbly, I tried the same idea last year but lost the diary when I packed to move house. (I only bought a pocket diary last year- already I am learning!)

I find this is a very simple way of organising writing deadlines and everything gets colour coded on top of that. Last year I used action plan sheets (on PC) and found that often I needed the information to hand on paper, without logging on and searching through files. The diary is doing the same job as an action plan but more efficiently.

Anyway I love this website – http://www.theliterarygiftcompany.com  where this fabulous diary is sold.

Poetry and appointments, what could be better?

Merry Christmas!

We are just 5 days away from CHRISTMAS!

And I am excited as a younger version of myself would have been! Despite being full of winter cold!)

Today Mr G & I are both booked off work to do our FINAL Christmas shop… starting locally in the shops, then later driving to the supermarket for the BIG Christmas Food Shop!

Then I am going to spend the rest of the day tucked up warm – in an attempt to get rid of the cold that has been with me most of the week.

I haven’t done much writing since making my submissions earlier in the week. I have to look at the action plan and catch up a bit. Monday has been allocated as a wrapping presents and writing day.

I will probably post again before Christmas – I am sure it is a busy time for all of us, but I will not be posting as much as usual over the next 5 days.

Have a Merry Time preparing for your festive celebrations!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOLC – Slice of Life Challenge – A Grand Day!

Today has been a wonderfully inspiring mixture of events and coincidences! So much so that I have decided to post this general slice and link the other posts into it.
I have JUST realised it is TUESDAY still – so this qualifies as my SLICE OF LIFE post for this week – I would love to start the ritual of a weekly post again and get time to read other slicers – maybe in the NEW YEAR!

I worked today – I was booked for the morning only – which is a farce because it is always afternoon before you leave. I didn’t get a break and worked through what would have been dinner if I had worked all day – so I did 5.5 hours without food, water or breaks! Small wonder I felt a little aggrieved by the time I left. Not to mention the first lesson was a practical science class and I had no support! The kids were fabulous though and I shouldn’t complain because it is still worlds better than it used to be!

Next came the adventure of collecting my nephew’s birthday gift – which I ordered online on Sunday and was a Click and Collect – ready in store yesterday – but I spent the whole day writing and the evening out at Amy Rainbow’s Book Launch. It took an hour – because I had to go through the store with a basket 1st, there were a few small items I needed to buy including a snood to replace the one I lost last night at the book launch. I collected his gift and had planned to go home via shops in town, but after I had fought the great battle with the self serve tills I had had enough and came home.
I had an hour before another appointment. I spent it online and discovered that Joanna Skelt – the Poet Laureate was organising a Mellow Winter Evening Event at the REP Theatre which started at 5.30pm, I wasn’t sure I would make it in time – but I did.
It was great, a lovely way to break into the evening.

Joanna was fantastic and performed a lot of her jazz inspired/ jazz poetry, Jan Watts (former Laureate) performed her theatrical, funny, less mellow poetry, I had a chance to read a set of my own, Charlie Jordan shared one of hers and other people performed poetry and music, it was a great night.

Afterwards I made my way home via the Frankfurt Christmas Market – I may have some poetry dresses for next year – an inspirational device to make me lose weight! I sampled lots of tasty treats and bought a few gifts before coming home!

A great day and a grand adventure.

PLUS
The Moon tonight was massive and beautiful (I should describe it more poetically) I wanted to snap a picture but was driving on the motorway at the time and couldn’t!

I phoned Recon (venue last night) and THEY HAVE MY SNOOD – it is in lost property… they will keep it safe until I manage to travel over that way – guess I will take my new one back for a refund!

Hotdogs, Furniture and Poetry

A trip to a famous Swedish Furniture store, a mini adventure (Mr G can make anything fun!) – it began with hotdogs and then walking around the store in the opposite direction to the arrows. And the first thing I saw (we had gone there for furniture after careful online research for weeks) were some lovely notebooks, I need a new A4 one for 2014 and they had A5 too. Loved the fact they were the first things into the bag.

 

We managed to buy all the pieces we wanted – even got the last two shelves in the collection area. The local paper came complete with a £10 off voucher, which has helped pay for delivery, I doubt we could have fitted it all into my tiny car.

We now have some scrummy scented candles and jars of various sizes, air tight and ready for pickling our allotment produce next year. I bought more storage boxes for a unit I  bought new for my apartment years ago, some funky ice-cube trays, a delicately lace designed plant pot for my cactus (which is growing like a beauty in our garden but will appreciate the warmth of the house come the winter (which feels like it has already arrived) and a cushion for my garden chair.

 

We treated ourselves to take-away, which was lucky because I had no time to cook or wait for Mr G to cook tea. I was due out to my first Stanza meeting – Poetry Society Poets. It was a great night and I received useful feedback and was able to help with a few ideas too.

 

So once again – I am on a bit of a high after spending the evening with poets.

 

Blogtember Day 7 – Shopping!

Wednesday, September 11: Share links to your favorite online shops, preferably with a few photos of your favorite items in each shop.

This is a hard challenge as I have only recently started to shop online. Other than booking flights and travel I tend to use Amazon for most other things (by other things, I mean books!)

So I thought about my favourite stores and products, here’s a selection:

                        Featured Products

 Shabbychic Wood Blackboard £18.00

Beautiful wooden black board with a soft distressed finish.

“Happiness… a way of life” – Wall Art Sign

Price: £32.88

Rosie Patchwork Vintage Style Photo Frame£13.80

Coat Hanger Style Photo Holder£5.40

White Heart Name Holder£0.80

“Bathroom” Metal Sign£1.95

Vintage French style 2 Drawer Wood Chest £11.00

Ivory Hanging Heart T-light Holder£4.80

Metal Heart Decoration£2.40

 Copyright © 2012 – This is Pretty

   

 

The Birthday Celebrations Begin!

The heaven’s opened this morning and treated us to a monsoon, which I appreciate as it means the allotment crops have been well and truly watered and I may not have to go and tend to them over my birthday weekend. My other waking thought was that Mr G would get soaked on his way to work – so an un-presidented event occurred and I got up and out of bed before 7:30 a.m

By 9 a.m I was back home having done the supermarket / birthday treat food shop and narrowly avoided a flood – thank goodness I am living in my hometown again after 18 years away, I know it well. The main by-pass was flooded and I had to go through the end of the waters at the height of my car headlights… I made it as it was about 8 metres until the road was clear but the traffic behind me was at stand still and a mini opposite had attempted it and got stuck. Scary stuff.

We FINALLY built the bed last night it was too tempting so after unpacking the shopping and a breakfast of birthday treat cereal (my inner 7 year old made me buy it! Chocolate pillows filled with hazelnut and chocolate mmmmm mmmmmm, a bowl of diabetes right there!) I went back to bed with my book. Of course it wasn’t long before I had to put it down and catch 40 winks. But now I am up again and plan to use the next 3 hours before Mr G is due home from work wisely!

I have been very tired recently and have been attempting to conserve energy for this birthday weekend.

Tonight I am meeting friends at my dad’s Jazz gig – that was another concern this morning in the rain… it is in a marquee outside the pub/hotel. Mr G assured me the weather was meant to pick up and be sunny for the rest of the afternoon.

The rest of the afternoon I am spending dividing my time between blogland, my inbox, chores and more unpacking. I am about to make lunch – my favourite cuisine is Chinese food so I have bought myself a sweet and sour chicken take-away from the supermarket!

The rain has stopped and the skies have brightened up, there’s hope yet for later on!

Sitting in bed with my Notebooks

Today started too early and I never really caught up. I managed several errands and tried to read some articles on writing. I had several mugs of coffee, surprise,surprise, that didn’t help my wandering attention. By 4pm I gave up and gave in. I was level exhausted tired. I had been up until 3 a.m researching. I woke up an hour ago hauled myself out of bed and read half a poetry book whilst chomping on carrots. I won one battle!

I am now scouring notebooks for inspiration and writing will happen…. The carrots are back in the fridge and I am halfway through a bar of white chocolate!

Apologies for spelling I am on the phone and can’t see what is being typed.

Amazingly I discovered this publication earlier today whilst researching. Then I discovered this post on Kristen Lamb’s blog. i love how the universe sends crystal clear messages to us sometimes. This post is a great read, you can order the book on Amazon.

Kristen Lamb's Blog

Happy Friday! We have a real treat. Becca Puglisi is here to give tips to take your writing to a whole new level. All writers struggle, especially when trying to convey emotion. It’s easy to beat the same words until they bleed and WE cry. This is one of the reasons that The Emotion Thesaurus is a must-have reference for writers. Becca and Angela took the time to put together one of the most innovative and valuable writing tools I’ve ever seen. We are thrilled to have Becca here today!

Take it away, Becca!

***

I considered writing today about that one thing you need to write a truly great story that the reader can’t put down. But we all know that there isn’t just one thing. Voice? Plot? Characterization? Motivation? Sure. All of the above. But since I’ve seen roughly a gajillion blog posts that cover these topics, I’d…

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Funding Dreams

Another day withhout a writing slot. I spent 4hrs on the laptop reading blogs & deleting emails. Checking the junk filter had nothing important in it. I also spent 2hrs taking action on my future February plans.
I woke up this morning and found out about a trip some friends of mine had booked, it is a place I have had on wishlist! I knew seeing Patrick (family visiting from USA) would fuel my wanderlust! I have to ease my twitchy, itchy feet… well I haven’t used my passport since 2010 & it expires soon!

I have little surplus money, especially as I am currently paying out lots on making this the best year ever! I will just have to sell some writing.

I was at work until 5pm, this is just my evening, glued to the laptop. I have been writing in my head though. Do you do that? The ideas just play over, like dreaming at the same time as being active!