The Things to Come…. Marvellous May

The Hay House Summit has finished, missed most of the final sessions as I was busy with workshops and performances. My MOOC course ‘How Writers Write Poetry’ – University of Iowa is in its final few days, I am mainly saving resources and completing some of the internal projects which I encountered during the 7 weeks. I take a lot away from this course including 10 decently edited and possibly ready (although currently resting in that metaphoric drawer) poems.

Both elements of April/May have been great fun and have served me well. I have a whole notebook from Hay House and several print outs and saved websites and resources to refer back to and explore more when I have the time.

I have also 48hours off from performing – in which time I will be catching up, blogging and possibly working on more writing.

It is an exciting time and you have these posts to look forward to (some may appear in Poetry Wraps);

• The WLF Programme – Worcester LitFest 2015
• Ledbury Poetry Festival 2015
• Longlisted for WPL – Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2015-16
• SpeakEasy with Angela Topping and Sarah James
• Published by Paper Swans
• Stanza
• Tickets for John Hegley
• 42, Fairies & Pixies
• Writing a poem inspired by Jonathan Edwards (Costa Award winning poet)
• Workshop with Angela France
• Word Up
• Opus Club with Hannah Silva

and of course the monthly review.

So I had best get writing, keep reading!

x

The Story so Far – July

It has always been a crazy few days. I have written new work for submission and performance, sent a poem into the Gladstone’s Library Competition and planned events to attend and perform at this weekend.

After the WLF Festival I needed some time to rest, I have been sleeping a lot, crashing out in the evening after work, sleeping through the alarm…. roll on the freedom of the summer holidays. And of course by now you know, I like to do a lot, all the time. So just added an extra element into the mix.

Last year I did a lot of re-training having been away from the world of writing for so long, I saw it as a worthwhile investment and it was. One of the courses I did online was Rhetorical Writing and I wished back then that I would find a MOOC that was more my cup of tea. I was delighted when I saw it advertised through the Writing University at the end of last month and have signed up. Just like last year, I am back pedalling as the course started on the 28th June. 

Ledbury Poetry Festival started today – I am hoping to make it to some events this weekend. I also hope to get back across to Cheltenham as I haven’t made it to Buzzwords since the beginning of the year.

Next week in addition to work I am going to break myself back in with Mouth & Music on Tuesday, I have written my Summer Poem already and SpeakEasy on Thursday – only a fortnight since the last one, but it doesn’t seem that long ago! I also hope to continue being productive with writing and to get stuck into my MOOC, as well as catching up with 52 poems and writing my poems for the farm in time to send them to Jean Atkin.

On a sad note – I was supposed to be performing with the Poetry Army next weekend at the Artrix and the show has been cancelled – postponed  for next year. I am gutted as I was really looking forward to this, however it does mean that Mr G & I can attend an event together.

 

Have a good week, happy writing!