Poetry Wrap 2: April

April was busy, I plan to write the blog posts this Bank Holiday weekend and get the blog on track for May.

 A New Path of Poetry

Stanza

I started working on a very different style of poetry, sometimes this happens. What happened is I plotted the narrative, like a story and then free wrote the poem, next worked it back to bare bones. I was worried that such a brutal approach to editing would leave the reader searching around for meaning. Feedback was positive and resulted in me writing another small poem. Small poems (a little book of) is what I am working on right now, alongside other things of course.

Commissions

My attention was drawn to an Arts Council Commission. Beatfreeks were searching for 3 poets to participate in the Night at the Museum commission for the Pen Museum, Jewellery Quarter – Birmingham. I applied and kept fingers crossed as I felt I would love working with a museum filled with my favourite things. It stung a bit to not make it through. I want to be honest in the information on my blog, all creatives – in any field know, that for every success there was a lot of failure – people never see that part (usually).

Jess Davies & Sammy Jo are both part of the project and will enjoy it lots, I’m sure.

It looks exciting.

On the same day I applied for a festival commission (hoping to have more luck with that one).

Writing West Midlands – Network Meeting

We all met at the Custard Factory for another lively meeting, high points for me – apart from seeing everyone of course, included gathering more resources AND a free poetry book! WWM were having a clear out.

WILD WORDS – Restless Bones Fundraiser

Hosted by Tessa Kate Lowe
An evening of Poetry, Comedy & Music RESTLESS BONES readings, Comedy from Dave Rees-Jones & Music from Rachel Mayfield, Afro Mio & Joe Smith

The Restless Bones team performed poetry and listened to some invited guests storytell and play music too. It was a great night. I didn’t win the raffle, but we had a signature competition which Tessa Lowe and I won. Lots of prize goodies; Born Free T- shirt, DVD, book. We have now raised over £6oo to fight against the fur trade. It was lovely to see everyone again and share the night with a great audience.

The book costs £9.99 and all proceeds go to Born Free.

Elaine Catherine Christie

RESTLESS BONES £9.99 plus P&P £2.80

Check out Elaine’s website for more information.

Word Up – Bobby Parker, Jackie Smallridge & Sarah Dixon

It was a fantastic night at Word Up.

Bobby Parker’s poetry plays truth or dare, baring the soul of the small town blues: undaunted by subject matter and fearless of propriety or prettiness, he writes with dynamic clarity of frightening, lonely places within and without our selves. Publications include the critically acclaimed experimental books Ghost Town Music and Comberton, available @ The Knives Forks & Spoons Press. His debut full collection, Blue Movie, Parker holds back on nothing – both daringly up-front and utterly candid, Blue Movie veers between disaster, horror, comedy, sex, drugs, love and parenthood with dare-you-to-laugh brilliance. Along with their starkness and mucky-faced honesty, these poems are meticulously crafted, canny, an…d always one step ahead.

Sarah L Dixon, The Quiet Compere of Quiet, quiet, LOUD! in Chorlton, Manchester. She runs regular writing workshops. Sarah has been published in Stare’s Nest, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Loose Muse, BOMP 3, YorkMix, Rain Dog and many more.

“Sarah’s creative energy and enthusiasm are legendary. She encourages and gives a platform to fellow poets. Where would we be without her?-Carole Bromley

Jackie Smallridge’s infamous collection of poems SCRUBBERJACK published by Heaventree press is the kind a lot of ordinary people relate to as Jackie’s work is a real portrait of estate life. What she has to say in no uncertain terms is beyond the boundaries of political correctness & shoots straight from the observations of an honest mind. She doesn’t seek to make her audience feel safe, keeping her performances thrilling, raw & relentlessly entertaining.

Join us for a night of POETRY-MUSIC-SPOKEN WORD provided by the wonderfully talented inhabitants of Birmingham and beyond. We guarantee a night you’ll never forget.

Wenlock Poetry Festival

See the WENLOCK post here.

It was a fabulous day, shared with great poetry friends. I performed at the Open Mic ‘Poems & Pints’ and at the 52 event, I saw Jo Bell, Hollie McNish and Jonathan Edwards. I needed Sunday to recover (which was Cheltenham Poetry Festival) – I am hoping someone develops an energy supplement for poetry festival goers next year!  

 

Stratford Literary Festival – The Healing Power of Poetry

Power of Poetry to Heal < read a review of the event here.

It was great to meet Rachel Kelly in person and the sessions was moving and worthwhile.

42 Super Heroes

I always enjoy 42 and I missed it last month, it is like being reunited with a big family and this particular theme was a winner. Everyone performed fantastic Super Hero themed work, I had struggled for ages to write a super hero poem and ended up taking a prose poem (we have been working on these in the MOOC), then as I watched other performers I suddenly had a flashback to being 5 and wanting to be Wonder Woman. I wrote a poem minutes before I took my turn on stage, it wasn’t bad either. Positive reactions to the wit and wording.

Webinar on blogging

On Friday I found a link to a webinar on blogging – it was really aimed at people who generate an income through their blogs and those who blog a business. I decided to give it a go. I looked up the international time difference and was an hour late! Oppps. The end was good though and have had an email since saying I can link to a repeat for the next 24 hours.

I have been back to webinar  since and written 3 pages of notes which I can implement, some of which I have already started. More on this another soon.

MOOC course 3 weeks in

In 2013 when I first stepped back up to writing, I signed up to some online courses, none of which were a patch on this one. How Writer’s Write – I have discovered new poets and poems and styles through the weekly Master classes, I have created 6 new works, have been inspired by other things in the community to produce more. It is great to focus on the weekly assignments. The course was delayed and we are just about half way through now, it would have worked better in March as April and May are busy festival seasons, but it was worth the wait.

A Poetry Wrap

I am incredibly busy at the moment and don’t have the hours needed to blog spare, so for a while I am going to follow suit and do what other busy bloggers do – reduce my week into a wrap post. The absolutely amazing writing life happenings will still get a individual post though.

This week I have been working full-time as well as organising sets, writing new poetry and working on several projects. My MOOC course with the University of Iowa finally started! Postponed since March. It has been a worthwhile move so far and has created several pages of poetry. I continue to write poetry for NaPoWriMo – although I realise I have not blogged any extracts of these yet. Caldmore Garden Poets are working on a collaborative piece for the Carnival (and later in the summer, a festival). Unfortunately, I can’t make the Performance as I have my final WWM writers group on the 13th before the summer break. I am also sending David Calcutt workshop poetry to be published on his Natural Histories website.

This week two opportunities suddenly arose and I  submitted a commission proposal for a summer festival and made a bid/application for another event.

I am looking to Wenlock Poetry Festival this weekend. Before that I am reading at a Book event for Restless Bones Poetry Anthology in Birmingham tonight, attending a meeting with Writing West Midlands, hoping to catch ‘Men In General’ tomorrow night on their Worcester leg of the tour, back to Birmingham Friday night for Ddotti Bluebell and Jasmine Gardosi’s Word Up event where Sarah Dixon (Quiet Compere) is headlining alongside Bobby Parker and Jackie Smallbridge (Scrubber Jack). On Sunday I am tempted to get over to Cheltenham Poetry Festival to see Sarah James & Angela Topping and also Math Jones. I am not sure I will have enough energy for that though – especially as I have full time work at the beginning of next week in an incredibly challenging environment.

Motherʼs Milk – Teika Bellamy, Sarah James, Angela Topping
11am-12 midday, Playhouse Theatre Lounge, £6/4
Two prize-winning poets – Sarah James and Angela Topping- have joined forces in the first of a new
series of poetry duets being published by Mother’s Milk Books. Sarah and Angela will be joined by
Dr Teika Bellamyof Mother’s Milk for a Q&A session, where the focus of the discussion will be how,
as mothers, we can best meet the demands of family life whilst still pursuing our own creative projects.

Math Jones – The Other Side of Sleep Reading at Cheltenham Poetry Festival

Saturday at 2:30pm Arachne Press Event

Oxfam Bookshop 31 Cambray Place GL50 1JP

I would highly recommend this events if you can get to the Cheltenham Poetry Festival. There is a wealth of great events in the festival programme this year. It is just a shame it clashes with Wenlock Poetry Festival too.

Next week I am going to the  to see Rachel Kelly, Susanna Howard and Jill Fraser. I am going with mum, who switched me onto Rachel Kelly’s book to begin with.

Wednesday I am performing at an Open Mic, Thursday sees some writing deadlines. I will also be completed Napowrimo, writing assignments for my MOOC and preparing my  next Headline set and planning for the next WWM group which I have the delight of leading for the 2nd time this year.

AND BREATHE …

Review of October

The end of last month was so crazy busy I am only just tying up loose blog ends now, nearly midway through November!

October was a true turning point month, goals I have been working towards for a while came together and opportunities flowed one after another. It was a fab month I thoroughly enjoyed being busy. Half term was filled with writing events and I also managed (or was possibly forced by exhaustion) a couple of days off. Think I have had about a week so far this year because I love what I do – it doesn’t feel like work.

I started reviewing my writing life in weekly chunks as it was becoming too much to blog in real time about my schedule.

OCTOBER highlights include;

National Poetry Day – I loved finding out how other people had marked this special day, some of the things people got up to were incredible.

I hosted the opening event of Arts All Over the Place – Poetry, Performance and Everything Else as the Poetry Princess, followed by a writing workshop with Jan Watts and Cathy Crossley, next I  performed at Roy McFarlane’s Soulful Poetry Event – all part of the AAOTP Festival. Then I hotfooted to the library in Birmingham to watch the new Poet Laureate being announced. Adrian Blackledge became the new Birmingham Poet Laureate for 2014-2015

This day also marked ONE YEAR since returning to the OPEN MIC circuit!

RELATED LINKS:

National Poetry Day

Literature Festivals including Birmingham Literature Festival, Poetry, Performance & Everything Else Festival and Book to the Future Festival.

I went to see the recording of Radio 4 Poetry Please with Roger McGough, followed by With Great Pleasure, also recorded for BBC Radio 4. Rich McMahon was playing guitar and singing in the foyer  before the evening show at the Rep Theatre of Tell Me on a Sunday, which was a storytelling event set up by Writing West Midlands and Cat Weatherill to share real life stories. Marking the end of 3 years on this project she had selected some of the top stories and tellers to perform and treated us a little to her own stories in between.

I then returned to the festival the following weekend to perform my own commissioned poetry about Urban Nature for Naked Lungs.

A spoken-word exploration of the intersection of urban and natural.

Our lives in the city are played out amongst the products of human endeavour, the frantic pace of the metropolis tending to obscure our innate intimacy with the natural environment. Yet nestled within the concrete and mirrors are jungles brimming with other lives. Birmingham has recently been declared a Biophillic city and is praised for its biodiversity. How does the city structure our experiences of the non-human? Is it valuable that we facilitate such experiences? A group of writers will be producing and performing work dealing with these questions.

It felt amazing to be part of the festival just one year after discovering it! My first commissioned performance project, I hope there are more opportunities in the future.

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/birmingham-literature-festival-naked-lungs-urban-nature/

Full Story

I performed a set for Phenomenal Women organised by Jan Watts for the Book to the Future Festival at Birmingham University and Arts All Over the Place celebrated the end of the PPAEE Festival with a huge party, I was delighted to perform an amusing set for the them and have Swingerella share the stage with me.

SpeakEasy also celebrated the 1st Anniversary, I was happy when they asked me to perform a set at this special event. More

I also completed my biggest poetry project to date and organised INKSPILL for the 2nd Year – an online writing retreat hosted right here on this blog. There is a pinned post on the front page of this blog (homepage) with links to the main articles from our INKSPILL weekend, go check it out. This year I was joined by Writer William Gallagher and Poets Charlie Jordan and Heather Wastie who wrote and filmed some wonderful guest posts full of knowledge, advice and experience.

My brother’s Wedding at the beginning of the month was a non-writing highlight. I read a poem by Roy Croft during the service to the tear stained faces of the bride and groom – toughest of audiences. It was a truly magical day!

That is a lot of highlights for just over 4 weeks!

 

Blogs & Projects

I continue with 52, although I am behind in week 40 something. I regret not being able to take full advantage of the community of this group, my own writing schedule has taken off this year and I am busy working when I am not writing and some weeks cannot find the time I promised to carve out for 52. We are all getting reflective as the year draws to a close.

Naked Lungs – My 1st commission – 2 other poets and myself performed at Birmingham Literature Festival in a piece called Urban Nature, it was an amazing experience.

Hanbury Hall Art Exhibition – an opportunity through the Poetry Society Stanza group to write poetry inspired by art in the gallery. I enjoyed the exhibition and still need time to create, write and edit my submission.

INKSPILL – kept me busy over the last week of October, writing and researching articles, communicating with Guest writers and organising the schedule of events. It was great fun and lots of people have accessed the posts.

 

Submission

I completed a poetry project and missed lots of end of month submissions.

Wrote poetry for my commissioned performance and received rejection from publications I submitted to over the summer.

 

Performing Poetry (which I attempted to cut back on to maximise writing time)

Events I performed at include;

Mouth & Music, Kidderminster, hosted by Heather Wastie, headlined by Jasmine Gardosi. Where I first performed my Halloween Set – to the theme of Ghosts and Ancestors, including two new poems written especially for the event.

 

SpeakEasy, Worcester Hosted by Fergus McGonigal – Worcester Poet Laureate, headlined by Antony Owen and Spoz, I was lucky enough to be asked to perform and was delighted as this was the 1st Anniversary Special! There was CAKE!

 

Poetry For Lunch, The Library of Birmingham, hosted by Jan Watts.

Restless Bones Birmingham Promo with Born Free Film at The Ort.

42 Halloween Special

Mostly Halloween at the Ort – a 10 minute set.

 

Word Up, in Halloween Fancy Dress Birmingham, hosted by Ddotti Bluebell – a night of amazing poetry. Headlined by Daisy Edwards & Swingerella.

 

Workshops & Events

Writing Workshop David Calcutt Community  Garden Walsall, WILD FIRE

Poetry Workshop Angela France in Stratford-Upon-Avon

AAOTP Award Evening – where I received a HERO AWARD for stepping in last minute to open the festival.

Alan Durham’s Hen Race Book Launch

 

Meetings and Projects

We had the annual meeting of writers with Writing West Midlands.

My 1 to 1 Mentoring Role for WWM was made official and planning started for these sessions.

I also managed to get to Stanza this month again, hosted by Sarah Kemp.

 

Writing West Midlands – Network Meeting for Writers

Copyright © 2014 Lee Allen

Last week WWM (Writing West Midlands) had a launch event, to showcase Lee Allen’s new design, featuring many poets and writers I know or at least have met, at other events.

 

What a week it has been! Last week went REALLY slowly, this week has shot by. This evening saw the first of 2 meetings for all the writers who work for Writing West Midlands in creative writing groups for young people. It was an inspiring meeting and great to chat to everyone – I would say network – but happily I knew most of the writers there!

I have been at work all day and by the end of that I felt like I should /could just go to bed and sleep. I also had to forego SpeakEasy for the second time this year! The set list this month looked good, including the Headliner, Ash Dickinson. No doubt May will roll around before I have time to blink!

The meeting was a great experience, spending a few hours with so many writers in one room. I hadn’t realised Hayley Frances had starting working for it was lovely to see her again this evening and she told us about a project ‘Page Talk’ I may be getting my teeth into next month (May), of course I will be blogging about it.

And as always I didn’t have much of a chance to talk to everyone I wanted to – in fact I turned around and half the people had left!

I have several pages of scribbled notes, a ton of inspiring ideas and a few emails to fire off as a result of this meeting at the

It was a great way to start my Easter Holidays – 18 days in my writing skin 🙂

AND I got to test drive my SATNAV gifted last night (thanks again Mike!) – and even learnt how to make the volume work. Happy with today’s achievements.

My New Opportunity! Writing Work

I am so excited I can barely write this post! I HAVE A WRITING JOB!

Back in my past (the 1st time I attempted life as a writer in my early 20’s, a few years before I ran out of money to buy bread) I worked as a writer.

• I wrote for performance (having graduated from a Performing Arts Degree),
• I worked as (a mostly unpaid) performance poet
• I already had a decades worth of YOUNG WRITER publishing credentials from the age of 15, in print form (as the internet and e-publishing were still things of the future…) Well the internet existed (I’m not that old!) but people wouldn’t catch on and start using it personally in the way we do nowadays for some time.
• I spent my spare time training the writer in me and attended a fabulous creative writing course in Leicester, in a place I now believe is Creative Writing college.

This is where I met real writers who all told me I had what it takes and to keep going! (1998)

(This is the point I should had started sofa hopping or squatting (soon to be made illegal at the time) as gone were the days artists could sign on in between jobs) the money I achieved through royalties and the odd gig wouldn’t cover rent and before long I took a serious last look at my dream and started moving towards being financially independent!

This is the point I ran out of food money. The irony was writing press releases and doing some free PR for other performers (who were big at the time and now are MUCH bigger!) was my last freelance gig before I jacked it in and drowned my sorrows in applying for a 2nd degree in an area that would PAY the other end of university with a job.

In the meantime I spent some of my free time volunteering in schools and working as a Workshop Poet in schools with Key Stage 2. It was here that I decided training in Nursery Education was costly and would take time, I could be a teacher, earn more and have fun like this (workshops) everyday! (DELUDED!)

The rest is history and although I have done lots besides teaching (including running a fabulous community website that was no. 1 in the rankings for most of the time it existed, a site this blog is named after) the rest has mainly being steps away from where I truly want to be.

My true self, the writer, the poet.

I stepped back into myself in January 2013 and started making a go at realising my dreams before it is too late and all my hair turns grey!

(Not that that is too late, if you are reading this with a head full of grey hair, GO FOR IT!) It is never too late apparently.

So with heart on my sleeve and dreams in a backpack I set off along the yellow brick road determined to make this work – inspired by London Olympics I hatched a vague 16 year plan – and jumped!

Many successful (and it has to be said also stupid) people have taken RISKS – you have to be in it to win it and all that… my career hung on 60- 80 hour weeks, 50 weeks a year. I couldn’t write around that, there was barely time to sleep as it was. I actually pushed too hard for too long and my struggle became illness in 2012. It was from this dark place that I had time to listen to myself and start taking leaps of faith (on the medication I really wasn’t thinking about negative consequences) I was jumping because I had no choice – there was no longer a bridge there. The sign said NO OTHER WAY —->

Work went part-time towards the end of 2012. Although I didn’t realise it at the time this allowed me a step towards doing what I now do, my income already slashed by 50% and here I am still, and I can afford bread! By the end of the summer 2013 I decided to drop off the career ladder (I had become stuck anyway as I am scared of heights! I would be great on top of a ladder but you will never get me up there to prove it to you!) I jumped off. I know writing pays peanuts and poetry not even nuts, kernels if you’re lucky! So I needed a financial plan and this is where flexibility in my career (which was a factor for qualifying for teaching to begin with!) came into play. I signed with 2 agencies. 1 of which not only gives me plenty of work, but also (within 7days of signing up) found me a regular cover job, 1 day a week and just before Christmas I signed for another school too, so I now have 2 days a week confirmed and the rest of the week I am either the writer or the teacher depending on my last minute bookings. It is great because I have 100% flexibility 3 days a week and generally manage to be involved in all sorts of things in the writing world that I simply used to miss because I was at work.

The extra salary loss means I can’t just go around buying  3 pairs of shoes at a time anymore, but my wardrobe and shoe racks were bulging anyway. And actually I don’t miss shopping (well okay, I do, just a little bit) now I write and perform again after 15 years away and that makes me happier than any heel or skirt ever did!

WHAT’S THE BIG NEWS????

In 2013 I spent the year training, workshops, classes, network events, I met lots of people and hoped to build up contacts, I did and better than that I made friends (awwwwww)!

By September I had been published again and decided that Poetry IS my thing. It has claimed me. I can write across genres but poetry is where my writing heart is. I haven’t looked back since. (As you know from all my posts about Open Mic night’s which started back in October with Julie Boden.) In September I also spoke to Jonathan Davidson, Chief Executive, Writing West Midlands  about the possibility of paid work as a writer. Having already taken classes they ran and gone to a few events I wondered if I could be involved somehow. To be honest I was thinking in a few years once I have up to date writing credentials. Jonathan’s response was, why wait? What about now? How about working with some of our young writers?

I knew my teaching career wasn’t a complete waste of time 😉

In November it was confirmed that I could work as an Assistant Writer (with the View of becoming a Lead Writer in the future) on what used to be called Writing Squads but are now called  By the end of the year I wasn’t sure this opportunity had been confirmed as I had to go through an official application, systems had changed and I worried that this opportunity was about to fall out of my grasp.

Today I had a meeting  in the City and I am DELIGHTED to confirm I have the job of Assistant Writer, for the 12– 16 group which is new for 2014 and is led by Ian MacLeod.  I start in February!

WRITING JOB (2013) REALITY (2014)

An Amazing Day – Writers’ Toolkit 2013

This is an amazing annual writer networking day, now in its 5th year, I found out about it earlier this year and many writers I have met since have recommended it as a DEFINITE event to attend. I wasn’t sure I was ready, thanks to supportive writing friends with a little encouragement I booked a place.

For the cost of a workshop you get 2 keynote speakers and 4 panel talks (each one consisting of 3 people and a chair) – so that’s 18 experts in a day and a FREE lunch! (Plus pastries and coffee – which I missed as I barely made it in time to register.)
I wrote notes all day (and have a slightly aching wrist and lots of admiration for all long hand writers!) My 2013 notebook is nearly full, it will be by the New Year.

The main dilemma was choosing which talks to attend – and many that I wanted were in the same strand and you could only choose one. I am going to do my best to find people who went to the other groups or contact the facilitators for more information. There was one on publishing that I completely missed and another one which may have been more relevant for where I am about how writers and libraries can work together. (Although I have a librarian contact who I could maybe get such information from.)

This is what I did manage to attend;

Opening Key Note Address:        Kate Pullinger – Writing for Digital Platforms                       

Novelist and writer for print and digital platforms, Kate Pullinger, considers how writing on a digital platform can inspire creativity.

Strand 1                             

Planning Successful Writing Projects

Jo Bell – Poet, Canal Laureate 2013 Ian Billings – Children’s Writer, Actor/Director Jean Atkin – Poet, Writer, Writer in Residence

Thanks to Birmingham Literature Festival and other Writers’ Network meetings I had already met many of the people on the panels.

Strand 2

Writing in Collaboration

Nick Walker – Writer, Performer, Producer Hannah Barker – Writer, Theatre Maker Mez Packer- Writer Rochi Rampal – Writer, Performer Helen Cross (Chair) – Novelist

I wish I had networked during lunch – but by the time all delegates had managed to be served the vegetarian buffet they already had to extend the lunch hour, there were several people I had hoped to catch up with and wouldn’t have minded talking to other writers – as I have at other events this year, there just wasn’t time though, and at the end everyone was tired, I spoke to Jo Bell and by the time I made it downstairs everyone had gone practically!

Strand 3

Managing a Writing Career

Jo Bell, William Gallagher (Writer, Publisher, Writing Tutor), David Edgar (Playwright) & Philip Monks (Chair/ Writer)

Strand 4

Funding for Writers

James Urquhart (Relationship Manager (Literature) Arts council England), Heather Wastie (Writer), Chris Taylor (New Writing South), Jonathan Davidson (Chair/ Director Writing West Midlands)

Closing Keynote address Stephen May – Writing and Quality

It was a fantastic day and I cannot wait to delve into my notes, I am however, exhausted and on tonight’s TO DO list should be;

1. NaNoWriMo writing (1000’s of words owed)
2. Preparing Poetry for tomorrow’s open mic,
3. Extending flash writes for an event I am attending next week,
4. Scheduling more events in the diary,
5. and sleep.

If I am lucky I will do the 1st and the last and soon!

 

 

An Amazing Journey & An Amazing Day – Writers’ Toolkit 2013

My Amazing Adventure

(The journeys deserve a post!)  The only thing missing was shark infested water and I am sure that is because we are the furthest point inland and have no waters around the city, except the canal.

I had an adventure getting to the Writers’ Toolkit today.  I got up before 7 to have plenty of time to catch the 8:43 train into the city. I had looked at 3 different routes/ lines and decided the shortest journey to a station was to go to my home town station, also other people I know were going and they were on the train.

It was icy, car needed a defrost, some drivers seemed to have mickey mouse licenses and I got stuck behind them all! I got to the station in time, there were lots of people on platform waiting. If I had parked there and then I would have made the train, (the true irony here is I was trying to save £3 parking…) To save myself the parking fare I turned around and pulled up on the street, all the street parking has been restricted since I last lived here. So I parked a few streets away and ran back DOWNHILL, along icy pavements to the station and the EMPTY platform. I had missed it by 1 minute I think.

Then I used the machine to buy my ticket.

It rejected all my coins (this was my cue to check the timetable, but I didn’t!) I loaded the coins back in and spent the fare. THEN I checked the timetable… an HOURS wait for the next train! That would mean getting into the city with 20 minutes to spare and most of that would be spent  walking across the city to the Academy!

I spent 40 minutes on the platform with (by now) FREEZING feet deciding on what to do. I should have just driven in! I decided to drive in (the train was due in 20 minutes) and I believed I could be there in the same time in a car?! I didn’t consider weather, traffic or the weekend!

All good to the motorway, then the low level foggy mist hit and I couldn’t see very well. Reached the city and then had to follow brown tourist signs as I had no idea where I was going, having never been to this place before. I then had to find parking, there were closed roads and one way streets.  I eventually found a car park with a day charge (more than the station of course!) as I entered there was a terrible noise, and as I reversed the bottom of the car got scraped horribly. I got out, the entrance had those metal plates that are supposed to go down when you drive over them and they hadn’t! I went in the exit which didn’t have the same barrier. Then ticket machine didn’t work – fortunately I found one that did (as the inspector was making his rounds when I returned in the  evening.)

I then had to run back to the Academy (I had 5 minutes, by train I probably would have just arrived at my destination). I went across country (literally) over the wet, soggy, muddy grassland! (My now warmed feet, now cold again.)

I made it in time for registration and signing up – but missed the pastries (my breakfast), coffee and networking. I did manage to spot my other poet friends, which was a relief! I loved the fact that today I had friends to be with – I am so used to attending these events alone, on the other hand it did mean that I didn’t really network or meet anybody new. Was lovely to be one of a row of writers’ though, reminded me of long lost days of university.  And I am happy that I have already found such a supportive group of people in just the past few months.

I made it time for the Introduction and first Key Note Speaker, so that was great! And I had a fabulous day!

The return journey consisted on a round trip around 2 roads that took nearly half an hour in traffic and jams and jams with Christmas Shoppers and pedestrians crossing roads VERY slowly when the lights were on GREEN for the cars! It took a long time to get home and I am now exhausted!

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/an-amazing-day-writers-toolkit-2013/

An Amazing Journey & An Amazing Day – Writers’ Toolkit 2013

Follow your dreams

Speak them

Believe in them

and they will become you.

 

Surround yourself with the magic

Exude the feelings you have

when you soar

As you walk about your daily living.

 

Harness the power of like-minded souls

Collaborate, share, aid

Talk your dreams out

Let them free to sail in open skies.

 

Find the edge and jump

Thoughts are for after

Action is for now

This is your time.

 

A free written poem, just now – based on the lessons, teachings and confirmations of today.

MORE POSTS ON THE WRITERS’ TOOLKIT

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2013/11/23/an-amazing-journey-an-amazing-day-writers-toolkit-2013-2/

Writers’ Toolkit

Back in February I found out about this Writers’ Network Event and I have thought about going all year. However, last minute insecurities had me question whether I was ready for such an event, my writing friends assure me that I am, so today I booked my place.

I have found the programme and many of the people on the list are names I recognise from a year of workshops. I now have some big decisions to make as to which events I book.

And it will be a very early start and I am glad that work was cancelled today so I had time to catch up on sleep and re-energise.

 Copyright Sparklebox 2013

A New Writing Opportunity

Nine months in this writing skin and we are getting there… ‘cooking on gas’ now. I have learnt the art of self-promotion, or at least I am learning. It is bringing back memories of my time as a Performance Poet and my previous attempt at being a freelance writer. I am more secure in my words than I was before but funnily enough often feel less confident than the dynamic young 20 year old me ever did.

September has seen that ‘gas’ go up a notch and I am convinced that it all relates to the thoughts I had back in August. When after seven months of dabbling cross genre I decided it was time to buckle down with a serious focus. As poetry has always been ‘my bag’ and is the genre that holds the longest list of publishing credentials from back in the day when I used to be a writer, this is where I decided to plant my feet and start,

Since then I have found opportunity after opportunity. Site after site. Event after event and met some truly lovely people – all poet’s are – apart from the cantankerous, drunk ones! 😉 When I took my four hour round trip to Oswestry for the Writers’ Network Meeting, I sat there listening to Ian Billings and Simon Thirsk and felt inspired. I scribbled notes in my trusty writing notebook and had a billion conversations with myself in my head.

I nearly advertised INKSPILL and I wish I had been brave enough as people mentioned open mic nights and Stanza meetings, I was on the cusp of putting my hand up and then bottled it. I did mention it to everyone I mingled with afterwards.

One thing I did do was pluck up enough courage (I had plenty in reserve from not advertising Inkspill to everyone in the room!) to talk about my future plans and how I might be able to offer my experience of writing to others. (All a bit cryptic I know, but I don’t want to announce it until it is a signed deal and all official.) I have just received an email of acceptance and about to start the induction process on this new writing opportunity and I couldn’t be more excited!

Ask and you will receive.

Be brave.

Go for it.

You never know where it will lead!