Low Blogging Energy, High Writing Energy!

Is this a thing?  I think I’m experiencing it!  I’m ploughing through my unfinished poems and despatching them to magazines at rates previously unknown to me.  I have eight poems out with four different magazines.  As most magazines take between 4 – 8 months to respond to submissions, I’ve decided to send them in twos and threes in a bid to try to improve my publication record.  As each batch whizzes forth,  I can hardly wait to return to my writing bag (as explained in a previous post) and select the next few poems to work on.  What’s got into me?!

I don’t feel as motivated to blog here but I think this will change as the year progresses.  For one thing, my part-time job with The Reader Organisation is nearing its end.  This is an intense period for me as I’m setting up two new groups and handing over to a team of fantastic, newly recruited volunteers who will enable the projects to keep going in Wiltshire.  I’m  in the process of writing a post about my experience of recruiting volunteers.  I think this will be useful for people working on similar, community-based projects, charities and arts organisations looking to employ volunteers.  Watch this space.

You might also be aware that I’ve returned to posting poems at And Other Poems.  I haven’t opened submissions entirely – I hope to do that later this year – but I’m working my way through poems which have been submitted recently.  I’d forgotten how time-consuming this is!  Makes me feel grateful and sympathetic to poetry editors, and understand the long delays in replying to submissions.

In other news, I’m looking forward to reading at Uncut Poets in Exeter on Thursday 26th March.  I’ll do a proper post about that a bit nearer the time.  Other than Exeter I have no more readings booked.  This is something else that I’d like to work on and I’ll have more time to concentrate on trying to arrange readings from May onwards (when my contract with The Reader will have finished).

The weather hasn’t been up to much but I’ve managed a few lovely walks in the Wiltshire countryside (as I wrote here, it was my intention this year to get outside every day and I’ve more or less managed it).  I saw this rather alluring pathway of snowdrops on my travels.  The daffodils aren’t quite out yet so I cheated by buying a couple of bunches and plonking them in a stripey vase.  Daffodils are so uplifting and I’ve managed to make a cheerful new header for the blog at the same time.

Whether you’re blogging, writing poems, walking or just enjoying the spring flowers, hope you have a great week.