Books, submissions and my WIP

Spring and new beginnings

 I'm drawn to any book with river in the title, or about rivers. They are a bit of an obsession, a bit like islands. I recently read If the River is Hidden by Cherry Smyth and Craig Jordan-Baker. Set in Ireland, two friends walk the length of the River Bann from source to sea. Part prose and part poetry, they re-live past experiences of living in Ireland, as they walk, The troubles, living away from Ireland, of feeling Irish or English, these are mixed in with descriptions of the river itself. A very different kind of book and obviously personal to the authors. This is one of the books I bought at the Alternative Book Fair a few weeks ago.

Currently I'm reading a book by Haruki Murakami. My youngest son is a fan of his, and although I read his book on writing, I'd never read any of his fiction. So, this is a bit of a punt, chosen at random. My son tells me he hasn't read this one, so I'll save it for him when I've finished. Different from books I normally read, it has taken a while to get into it, but I understand it has a surprise ending, so I'm interested to see how that goes. About five friends from school days, one day the other four tell the main character, Tsukura, this they never want to speak to him again. When he asks why, they just say 'You know.' But he doesn't. He is bereft, and it is only years later when he meets Sara that she suggests the experiences from that time are blocking him and he must see them again and find out why he was cast out from the group. I'm three quarters of the way through and he has met two of them and he knows now why he was cast out and it comes as a total shock. 

Away from books, I have been on a submission spree. I call submissions my bread and butter, though I rarely get paid! Should I have some acceptances, these are my morale booster to keep writing and it helps to get my name out there. The thing with writing just novels is that it all takes time and rejection sends you (or at least me) into a downward spiral. I started out as a poet, so mostly what I'm submitting is poetry. 

The online writing course has finished. Two things have emerged from doing this course. Firstly, I realise my WIP has been an outline story. Working with it during the course enabled me to take a hard look at it. While I was waiting for my laptop to be returned, I took pen to paper and drew up a map of the island along with family trees. Now I know how people are related and the tension the events would cause between them. Things are beginning to make sense. Whilst writing a new scene for the pacing section of the course, I added a new character called the storyteller. He is now being written in! I'm now re-writing The Island with lots of new scenes, though I have to keep referring to my family trees as I don't automatically remember who is who! Adjustments and new notes are being added all the time, so the details on the photos below are changing. This is part plotting, something I don't do. However, I've not plotted further in as I let my characters lead me. This is probably a haphazard way to write, as plotting avoids so much editing when going back, but I can't bring myself to do it any other way. I need the creative to flow as I write with no restrictions. What I've done here is to set up the background to people, their relationships with one another, and this helped so much with the story. It has more substance. I have to remember that this began as a short story some years ago and just grew! I don't always know when I write, where a piece of work may go. I've turned poems into stories and vice versa when they haven't worked or seem to need more space.

Family trees and maps still evolving!

The second thing that came out of the course, is that as this was such a good course (plus the one I took on my holiday), is that I have all the tools now. I've taken courses similar before, but usually shorter day courses. Years ago I also took a novel writing course, but for some reason it didn't work for me. Indie Novella's course was more detailed, had video's and didn't keep using the author's own book to use as examples. That first course was also more intense as it was to write 50,000 words so for a full novel. Indie Novella's course worked better in several ways. There were masterclasses included and we were encouraged to form peer groups outside of the course once it had finished. And this is what we have done. Someone from the group I was in set up a group on Slack, so we will continue to keep in touch and read each other's work. We even have a London support group started by one member, and this is an in person group. I have gained a great deal from this course, and the whole thing was amazingly free! I'd highly recommend it.

In future, the courses I take will be specific to other things I want to find out about. Occasionally I take online courses in a genre that interests me that I know little about writing. Later this month I'm taking one about websites. It has always been my intention to have a proper website and try to gather a bit more of a following, yet it has been shoved to the back burner, partly because it involves technology! I could pay someone to create a website for me, but I'd rather have complete control, which is probably good until things go wrong. 

While I was at the Alternative Book Fair, I met a lady who was trying to find an agent for her travel book, creative non-fiction. She showed me all the work she'd done. She had a website and was out there promoting herself. Is this what I should be doing? I suppose I should. She said I should be sharing snippets of my work. I've always been a bit unsure of that. 

So, taking her at her word, here's a bit of blurb about my WIP:

Fifteen-year-old Ralph lives on a remote island, ruled by elders and council with Old Testament hell-fire teaching. When Ralph's cousin, Lester, is drowned on an ill thought out adventure, his friend Aaron is accused of murder. Judgment lies with the elders. Will they send Aaron to Exile or will his punishment require more....his life? Tensions run high in this close community where everyone is related to someone else and knows their business. Life on Home Island begins to unravel as rumours abound and the truth of the tragic accident slowly emerge. What can Ralph do to help his friend, and where will help, if any, come from? Will the secrets of the elders finally be exposed and rid the island of its fear and find freedom? This is a tense and dark story of friendship and what you would do to save a friend. 

I never set out for this to be a YA novella, but I think this might be. Until I get beta readers and feedback I won't know for certain. It feels like one, but I'd love adults to enjoy this. Right now I'm writing a lot of new scenes. I'm taking my time and kind of editing as I go. I learned a lot from the book coach I used for Tinsel Street, about slowing the pace (I write extremely fast when I'm on a roll, meaning there's more action than description!). I finally feel I might have a handle on all the aspects of writing. I know my strengths and weaknesses, so I can play on the strengths, and watch for those weaknesses. I feel as if I've really pushed forward in the last year and especially pressed through my comfort zone a few times in trying to network. I'm still happier behind the keyboard, but I need other writers, especially in face-to-face meets. It's what encourages me because we understand one another and the agony and ecstasy of writing. It spurs me on to write because it can be lonely out there.

Until next time, happy writing and happy reading.

Indie Novella Alternative Book Fair

 

The four books I purchased at the Fair

I confess my writing room is a complete mess, but my beloved laptop is back home and I am overjoyed. Finally, I can to send out submissions (all poetry so far) and access everything easily and quickly. Despite its quirk of black screen now and then (not done it once so far), it is intermittent and will recover from any crash. It's now up to me to keep everything saved elsewhere as backup.

In other news I attended the Indie Novella Alternative Book Fair a couple of Saturday's ago. Held in Islington Central Library, there was a lovely hall for talks (a theatre with staged seating) and a room upstairs where indie publishers were around to chat to and where they had books for sale. I came back with four!

The first talk was by Andrew Hayward from Penguin (retired). His talk on the History of Publishing from 1399 to the present day was fascinating. He was full of facts and figures as well as anecdotes. He said that we had lost 20% of libraries by 2010/11 and 85% of buying loss. I made copious notes during the talk, if I can understand them!  

By 1399, people spoke English as we would recognise it today, but it wasn't standardised until 1490 and was known as Chancery Standard. The Caxton Press was the beginning of book printing in 1477. Nine thousand copies of the Bible were printed by Thomas Cromwell and these were chained in churches so they wouldn't be stolen. Other important books that came early were The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer, The Iliad by Homer and Revelations of Love & Devine by Mother Julian.

Back in the day, Paternoster Square (by St Paul's) had booths selling books and pamphlets. The Cambridge University Press is the oldest publisher, followed by Oxford University Press. Shakespeare added 1500 new words to the English Language. The emergence of the English novel was around about 1675-1750 with Robinson Cruso and Gulliver's Travels. Samuel Johnson's English Dictionary was published in 1755, but I can't think of that without remembering Blackadder when Baldrick threw the pages of the dictionary on the fire!

Publishers in those days were John Murray (Shelley, Bryon & Jane Austen), Collins, Thomas Nelson, A & Black, Constable (Sir Walter Scott) and Lutterworth. The best seller in 1806 was a cook book by Maria Blundel - A New System of Cooking. In the 1800's popular reading came in the form of Harper's and Ladies Treasury, as well as Penny Dreadfuls. 

Penguin Books were established in 1935, and they were the first people to see the mass market. These days most books shops have disappeared. Waterstones is owned by Daunt Books, but in turn have a Germany media company behind them. Everything has been swallowed by Amazon. 21% of all books are e-books, non-fiction represents 43.5% of books sold, 23% is fiction and 22% is children's books. Penguin is still top publisher and tops £3.8 billion.

So, there is a very brief history which I hope you find interesting. It was a mesmerising talk.

I didn't attend every talk, but I did attend the next one with three debut novel writers. They talked about their journey into writing and how they found publishing. Most had been on writing courses and found their way in through that. They talked about their books and then answered questions from the audience. Much as I would have liked to buy at least one of their books, I'd already spent my quota.

The final talk I attended was the publishing panel. Reps from Weatherglass Books, Dead Ink Books and Renard Press spoke about their companies. Whereas the Big Five publishing companies won't take any risk with publishing, this makes room for Indie Presses, who will. There was a discussion about what people are prepared to pay for a book. The correct price, said one on the panel, should be £15 for a paperback because that is what it is worth. He compared it with what people are prepared to pay for two hours sitting in a cinema. I guess he had a point there when you think how many hours an author spends writing their book. It's a tricky one because we all want to buy as many books as we can (well, I do). 

The different Indie Presses are getting together to showcase their books and they often work together. It was said that they need to sell 1500 copies of a book for people to talk about it. Life is difficult in the world of Indie Presses. Since Brexit it has become costly to send books to Europe and this hasn't helped. Sales for Indie Presses is critical. That's how they survive. On a more positive note, they do not have to sell big numbers of your book to publish another by you, like the Big Five do. 

There feels to be a much more personal relationship here between Indie publishers and writers and we should do our bit to support them. Yes, the big publishers flood the market with books they feel we should be reading, but there's a lot of good books published independently and I would urge you to seek them out. Start by visiting their websites (links above for those I mentioned) and looking at the books they publish and purchase one. 

Upstairs, I spoke briefly to the man from Weatherglass Books. He was due to talk on the panel, so it was all a little hurried. I also spoke to a couple of other publishers. I came away from the fair fired up. It was a brilliant day and thanks to Indie Novella for organising and running the event.

Writing and walking holiday and more

Up and running in my hotel room!

 I am writing this blog post on my very old laptop which still runs on Windows 7, is painfully slow and some of the letters have rubbed off on the keyboard. The other day it spent ages updating. The touchpad no longer works, but thankfully my hubby had a spare mouse. I'm only using this laptop to update my blogs because I can load up my photos on it. I've been without my 'proper' laptop for two weeks now, and guess what? They can't find the fault! Having spoken to a couple of people, it seems they too have had similar problems with their screens and they just switch off and on again. Oh, well, time will tell, I guess.

So, I've been back from my writing and walking holiday for a week now. Our group consisted of eight women and one man. One of the ladies was also our walk leader. We met every morning at 9.30am and worked until 11am. Each day we covered a different subject - Ideas & Inspiration, Character Building Structure & Plot, Setting and Dialogue. Our tutor, Lizzie Enfield, explained each section and set us timed exercises. We would then read out what we'd written and she'd feedback on it. Lizzie offered great encouragement and advice. Some in the group had never written creatively before, but you wouldn't know it from what they wrote.

All of us had one-to-ones to either talk about our writing or for Lizzie to give feedback on a piece of work we had submitted before the holiday. My one-to-one went well and the feedback was positive on the opening of a short story I had written. She made several suggestions and I will be looking at those again.

In my free time I found inspiration for writing a poem and brainstorming other things. I was in the zone!

Brainstorming session which led to the piece I read out.

Afternoons were either a guided walk or free time. We had a complete day off on the Wednesday. The walks were a chance to get to know each other better and to talk about writing or other things. Lizzie came out with us too. In fact, she is a qualified walk leader, but decided that running the class was enough, as walks have to be checked and there wouldn't be enough time. This was even more important last week as the rain had made everywhere wet and muddy. Some fields were waterlogged. Gill, our walk leader, went to check how bad things were, and there was one day when we were clinging to a fence in order to walk round the worst of the mud. You could feel the mud sucking at your walking shoes/boots. There were some hairy moments, but no one slipped. We all helped one another. Very bonding! 

Mud! Lizzie (right)

More mud - three formed a chain to get me across

Boat race

I opted out of the first walk, due to the weather, but a later walk covered some of that ground (but less muddy), so I didn't feel I'd missed out at all. There were three walks planned, but our leader slipped another in. We always set off from the hotel in Bourton-on-the-Water and walked locally. If you want to know more about the walks I have been slowly writing about them on my travel (blog https://pieceoftheattraction.blogspot.com/2024/03/birdland-model-village-and-other-views.html)

Two evenings we met after dinner when Lizzie read from articles and short stories she had written, or from her books. These sessions was opened up to others staying at the hotel. HF Holidays own most of their properties in the UK, so other residents are on guided walks, self-guided walks, special interest holidays or walking & sightseeing. On our last evening we were all invited to read something we had written during our week there. I was using my old Android Tablet and I had saved my piece twice, yet when I came to look at it again and to edit, I couldn't find it. The other copy told me that part of it was locked. How had I locked it, and how did I unlock it? I had no idea. So, I wrote it all by hand (500 words) and tried to remember the last edits I'd done on the missing copy. But then I began editing the written version until it was a complete mess. When I had some spare time, I typed it up again. This time I also saved it my portable external hard drive and took a photo of it on my mobile! When I went back to it later, I found it! Joy! 

Everyone was nervous reading, but it was only our group. We didn't have to read it to others in the hotel (which we all thought we did!). It was a lovely evening and afterwards Lizzie gave us all inspirational sticks with different sayings on them (see photo). No one wanted to leave. The group had gelled well and we now have an email group so we can all keep in touch.

Inspirational sticks

I'm the winner at skittles!

Other evening entertainment included a skittles night, which I won (bottle of plonk). I was amazed! There was also a quiz night. Good fun, but my group came joint last. The questions were very random and hard. They seem to get harder each year (I've done quite a few over the years). The house in Bourton always runs a boat race too. Many people made boats out of paper, sticks, plastic and all sorts of stuff. I didn't make one, but a lady in our group won best presented boat and another from our group won the race and had to wear the Commodore's hat during dinner! I went down to the river to watch the boats launch (from one of the little bridges) and followed them down to the end. Walk leaders fished them out with nets, though a few got away and they had to race to the next bridge! 

I came home exhausted, but it was a lovely holiday with such contrasting things going on. I even bought a sketch pad and coloured pencils and drew (very badly). 

Writing in bed!

Away from the holiday, I've been trying to cope with the online writing course. I missed week 5 because there was just too much to cope with and also the lesson was to write in the style of another writer. It's taken me long enough to find my own voice. I couldn't see the point. I've just submitted my piece for week 7 with just two more weeks to go.

A few weeks ago I met up with some of the people doing the same online course in order to form a London support group. We met in a cafe in Tottenham Court Road and discussed the course, what we were writing etc. I think there was about eight of us. Tomorrow Indie Novella is running a writers and book fair in Islington Library which I and some others from the group will be attending. There are some free talks on offer, plus agents and books. I'll tell you about that next time.

Finally, last night I attended a poetry talk and readings at Southwark Cathedral. Padriag O Tuama read a few poems from the book Poetry Unbound His talk was interesting and he spoke also with the Dean of Southwark, Mark Oakley, who does a bit of writing himself. Of course I bought the book.

Southwark Cathedral

Is there ever a good time for your laptop to go away for repairs?

Tablet & Bluetooth keyboard.

 In answer to my own question in the title of this post. NO! But particualrly now when I am mid-way through a writing course and about to go on a writing and walking holiday. 

The screen on my laptop has, over a period of time, been blanking out intermittently for a few seconds. Sometimes it will goes days without this happening, and other times it will happen twice in one day. This doesn't affect what I am doing. I continue typing and the words are there when the screen returns, and my playlists keep playing. But last week when I switched on my laptop, nothing. The lights on the keyboard lit up, the fan started, but nothing on the screen. I then was unable to switch it off because I couldn't see what was happening. I did try several times to sort it, leaving it alone for a while and then trying to take it by surprise! My default mode is to panic. My son knows this so when I texted him, he said 'Don't panic!' He also told me that 100% my files could be saved.

My son looked at it in the evening and at first he couldn't get any joy. He then linked my laptop to a TV screen, though it was a fiddle trying to find the right HDMI slot. Suddenly my laptop sprang into life, only to die again. Eventually, the screen worked! I transferred the files I felt I needed to an external hard drive, but what was I going to transfer them to while my laptop was sent away for repairs? My hubby has Chrome Book, but it doesn't have Word. My son has a very old laptop, also without Word. I am still using Windows 10, and if my son put Windows on the old laptop it would come with Windows 11. I didn't want to have to get to grips with a new application on my holiday. Ah! what about my old Tablet? That has Word, albeit a basic version.

So I spent the evening charging the Tablet and having to upgrade various applications. Of course it wasn't as simple as that. The Tablet is a bit dodgy. It often re-boots itself a few times when I turn it on, and it's slow. I also soon realised that the external hard drive wouldn't plug in. We were now in the second day of this. So, while my screen was working (it's been fine since that day, but it could go at any time) I transferred the same files directly to the Tablet. That evening my son found a convertor and adaptor so the external hard drive works with the Tablet. I also found the mini Bluetooth Keyboard I used to use with it and had to re-learn how to 'pair it' to the Tablet.

It is now the weekend, I've been laid low with a cold and not able to tackle the packing up of my laptop. And then I thought about the things I might still need off it. I've no idea how long the repair will take. I've run off something new I'm writing which I may share with the group on holiday. I also needed a printed copy of an email for tickets to a concert I'm going to with a friend. I've been unable to access the O2 Arena App even though I've set up a password. 'Don't match' it says. Tried to change the password, but no luck. I had to email them direct and they've suggested uninstalling the App and reinstalling it. If that fails I can take my proof to the booking office on the day of the concert and they print out the tickets. As it is the tickets aren't issued until a week before. Am I panicking?  So, I've found the email and printed off the proof with my seat numbers etc. I'm not sure if my Tablet with work with my printer. I've never tried it and the concert is next month. 

I've had my laptop over four years now. The warranty has run out, but the company who built it (it's not an off-the-shelf laptop) have said they will look at it for me. Today is the day when I box it up, so I am madly doing things I feel I might not be able to do on the Tablet. I have access to most stuff on my mobile, but will need the Tablet for my course (which I will still be doing on my holiday) and for the holiday itself. However, for the holiday I am taking various notebooks and am happy to write by hand if necessary. It sounds quite laid back, just what I need right now!

That's been my week. Despite my cold, I managed to get to Southwark Cathedral on Thursday night in the heavy rain and wind to an author talk about London Bridge and Southwark. It was very interesting and happened to coincide with the chapter I was currently reading in a book called Watling Street. I bought myself a copy of the book, but I didn't hang around to get it signed. I just wanted to get home. Thankfully, it had stopped raining by then. Friday was my worst day, and I gave in and stayed on the sofa in my PJ's, a fleece and hot water bottle. I was often joined by Rue, our dog.

New book, left. What I'm currently reading, right.

A lady on my writing course had arranged a meet-up for those in London on Saturday. I wasn't sure I would make it as I felt so rough on Friday. God must have looked down on me and decided enough is enough. I'll give that girl a break. I felt so much better in the morning and even walked Rue. After an early lunch, I headed to Tottenham Court Road and Caffe Nero where we were meeting. It was a lovely afternoon. There were eight of us (a few couldn't make it), all ladies. Of the three groups on the course, all but two were from group two and me and one other from group one. We talked about the course, what we were writing, jobs, writing events and what we wanted to do in our meet-ups in the future. We think we will stick to a once a month meet. We were a diverse group. I was the oldest! It was so nice to talk to other writers with all those dreams of being published.

I much prefer to engaging with people face to face. Some of us are hoping to meet up next month at a Writers/Book festival in Islington, especially as Indie Author (who are running the course we are all on) will be there offering talks on one of the days.

This could be what I've been looking for. In the back end of last year, I'd thought I might form my own local group for budding writers, as I was missing the contact with other writers. But I'm not really a leader. I'm more a follower. I'm happy to suggest things, but leading a group is a responsibility, and I don't feel that at the moment I have the time.

So this week has been a bag of mixed blessings. I'm hoping I can still blog using the Tablet. I've done in the far distant past, though I had to google 'how to block text to copy when you don't have a mouse or touch pad.' I'm going old school! A re-learning curve. I've not got my head round uploading photos to it yet. But if you don't hear from me for a while you'll know just what I'm doing....panicking!

Writing Course

Notebooks and prompts

 I am a third of the way through the writing course I signed up to through Indie Novella. Maybe you want to know how it's going?

Apart from the overwhelming notifications I get in my Inbox, the course has made me re-think the novella I am currently editing. It seems everyone is submitting work already written or in the process of being written, so I'm not alone. The first week we submitted the opening of our work. This made me look at mine again after the tutorial to make sure I had covered the basics - introducing the main character, their setting, voice, while jumping into the action/conflict. I re-worked my opening and posted it to the forum. There are thirty people in my group, and I can't possibly read and comment on everything, but I do try to do as many as I feel able. I had good feedback on my opening, which pleased me. Every week (this is a nine week course), a tutor picks two people from each group (there are three), and gives feedback on their work. I think this way she hopes to cover everyone once over the nine weeks. 

Week two was the hard one for me as we had to write a III Act plot/structure. I'm a pantser, not a plotter, but at least this was something I had already written (except I am writing a new ending), so I kept the whole thing brief, whereas some others wrote a lot! Again I had a good response, though someone pointed out that I should maybe move one bit to the next. However, it's in the right order, and that is the main thing. It has made me think more about structure in the future. I could certainly do with help in that regard!

This week we are looking at viewpoint. We have to take our WIP and write the opening from a different viewpoint. Mine is in first person, so I've switched it to third. I don't like it because the impact isn't as great. I feel first person is right for this so the reader feels what the character feels as everything goes on around him. I've also written in the present tense. Third person took me away from the character and what he felt. I know third person sees more, but I couldn't go with it. My heart wasn't in it,  maybe because I'm set on first person now. I won't be changing.

I use different viewpoints in my writing. Sometimes I write third person, sometimes first. Often I write multiple characters in third person. Second person is unusual, and not often used because it is hard to sustain and can get repetitively boring. It's used more for short stories. Iain Banks used second person for one character in one of his books. This person had small sections spread out throughout the novel. This worked really well. I once submitted a flash in second person as an experiment, but the feedback I got was negative towards that viewpoint. I still thought it worked, but I changed it and am still waiting to get that flash published. Once you believe in something it's worth pursuing it, and I've submitted it quite a few times now.

The course thankfully doesn't take up too much time. The link arrives every Tuesday by email, and then there is an article with videos before the writing exercise of the week which has to be submitted by Sunday.

Then yesterday I had a panic as I received an email from the holiday company I'm taking my writing and walking holiday with. If I want feedback from the tutor, I had to submit no more than 1000 words for feedback. I vaguely remember something about this when I booked (way back last year), and now suddenly the holiday is two and half weeks away and the deadline for submission is Monday. So, I dealt with that last night and have sent off just over 800 words for my one-to-one during my holiday.

Finally, last Saturday I spent lunchtime and afternoon at a friend's house and we had writing sessions. This friend writes poetry much different to mine, but she wanted to have a go at some of the word prompts I use for writing. So we ended up writing one minute timed sessions with word prompts, poetry using five random words, one short story and a flash. Some things had no prompts! Wild, eh? I loved my friend's short story. It was full of wonderful description, and I felt I was there with this man she was writing about. I think she surprised herself, and now she is keen to do it all over again.

I am looking forward to my holiday and meeting others who write or want to have a go for the first time. There will be plenty of free time, and I'm looking forward to that too. Time to wander and see things, or if the weather isn't great, I can write or read.

I have added a new link to the side of this blog for all you poets. Robin Houghton has a sign-up for her spreadsheet of publications waiting for your work. She lists when windows are open (if known), links to their websites and any other information that might be available. She also sends a monthly email with windows about to close and those opening. It's well worth signing up to. I use it a lot, and have had successes using it too! Best thing I ever signed up for.

Out-Spoken at Purcell Room, Southbank, London

 The first Out-Spoken of the year took place on Thursday, an evening of poetry and music. I had no idea who would be performing, but there is always something to like, and there are books available to buy during the internal and afterwards.

Compare for the evening was Toby Campion, as award-winning poet, playwright and facilitator. He also read some of his own poetry after the interval, and I'd love to read more of it, but I'd already maxed out on two poetry books on the night!

Tony Campion

First up was Amy Acre, who runs Bad Betty Press. She read from her book Mothersong about growing up and being a mother and being a woman. She was followed by William Letford, whose reading from his dystopian book of poetry and diary entries was both funny and thoughtful. His humour caught me and made me want to know more, so I bought his book. The first music came from Amethyst, a soul/jazz trio, though one member couldn't make the show. While it's not my kind of music, Amethyst herself had a very good voice.

Amy Acre

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William (Billy) Letford

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Amethyst

After the interval, and Toby's poems, he introduced Karim Karmal. I'm not sure I have the spelling right as his name wasn't on the sheet we were given when we arrived. He is a composer and I'm sure I've seen him play in a past Out-Spoken event. The piece he played was lovely, very calming and beautiful.

Karim

Then it was the turn of Nick Laird, and Irish writer who read a personal poem about the death of his father during covid, and all the trauma of not being able to visit the hospital and saying goodbye via video His other poem was about he and his sister clearing the house.

The final performance was from Yaw Evans, a composer, electronic musician and DJ from South London. He played synthesizer. I tried to get a photo, but he was hidden behind his equipment and all I could see was the top of his head. Even at the end, he exited too quickly for me to take a photo.

It was a good evening with a lot of laughter. These events are a good way to keep up to date with what is being written in the poetry world and to hear it read. It's a place to come across poets that are new to me. Very inspiring.

My purchases

January update

 

Belated Happy New Year. I cannot believe we are already on the 19th day of January. Christmas seems a long time ago. I'm already reading my fourth book of year, and I've had some good news too. After submitting a piece six months ago to Aayo magazine I received an email on New Year's Day to say they were going to publish it. You can read The Tomorrow Box here.

I have also had another piece of work published with Streetcake ezine. This caused me some problems in formatting and is different to my usual work. Issue 88 can be downloaded for free. My piece, Poetry Sudoku can be read near the end of the magazine.

I had a rejection of a short story with TSS, but I received some very helpful feedback and some lovely comments. They are going to be running some feedback and close reading sessions and I have signed up. I'm sure this will prove helpful.

At the end of the month I will starting a nine week online course with Indie Novella, and speaking of novellas, I've discovered a plot hole in the novella I've currently been editing. Hopefully, I can work that out. I have to say I'm a little stuck on my ending which I am changing from the original. There's still a bit of work to do on this.

I hope to send out more submissions this year as I rather missed doing so much of that last year. Meanwhile, I'm still waiting on replies to my novella submissions last year. I wonder how long one should wait before either querying or trying somewhere else?

My new writing diary is getting some use. and I will try to keep that up.

Until next time, happy reading and writing.