New Year was extremely quiet - very much like Christmas. I'm still recovering from (minor) knee surgery and 'cycling' on my static bike every most days. At the moment, I'm listening to The Leopard described on BBC iPlayer as "Giuseppe Di Lampedusa's gorgeous masterpiece of European political fiction, translated by Archibald Colquhoun, abridged by Sara … Continue reading A very quiet start to the year
This Christmas has mostly been about recovering from minor arthroscopic surgery to correct a torn meniscus in my left knee. My stitches came out on 19 December and I had hoped to do a lot of writing because, coincidentally, my husband and two grown-up children have been visiting a close family friend in Australia for … Continue reading Christmas Retreat
Rattling off a post before March ends. I've worked hard on my poetry manuscript since I last mentioned it on this blog. Now for the final stages of editing, tweaking, rearranging lines, titles, and order with my editor, Jane Commane at Nine Arches Press. What have I learned from writing a full collection of poetry? Mostly, … Continue reading End of the month blog
This weekend I managed to send off a poem to the Verve Poetry Festival Competition a couple of hours ahead of the deadline - deadline now closed but you can find out more about the festival here - and I'm still working on one I'd like to send to The Cafe Writers competition - deadline … Continue reading A few last minute submissions
I think it was Melvyn Bragg who said that he used to write between the hours of 5am and 8am before leaving his house to travel to his job in arts broadcasting. Every day. And there are many others, whose names I cannot remember, who've written about the benefits of writing early in the morning, … Continue reading On not being good at mornings
All of my family, husband, daughter, son, son's girlfriend, and me, are off to Greenbelt this weekend for the first time, and we're all taking wellies and waterproofs and layers and a torch, as we've been advised by more experienced festival-goers than us. I'm looking forward to reading with Nancy Campbell, Sasha Dugdale and … Continue reading In which I’m packing for Greenbelt
There are a few things I'd like to tell you but I can hardly keep my eyes open, even at just gone nine in the evening. I did a three hour walk this morning with my husband and daughter and I can still feel all of my muscles tingling. It was meant to take "about … Continue reading Too tired to blog
If we were having coffee, I'd tell you I've been in London for a few days, with my teenage children (hardly children any more but that's for another post) seeing family (lots of family) and two very good, longtime friends. I'd tell you the weather was warm, sunny even, actually hot, and I wore dresses … Continue reading #WeekendCoffeeShare: In which I’m not going on holiday
My children's exams are over. For my son, a season of campouts and festivals has already begun. My daughter also has exciting, if slightly less grungy, plans. Four years worth of scrawled-on paper, deep piles of exercise books, text books, files, revision cards, notebooks, stationery, bottles of Rescue Remedy, school uniforms, pots of lunch money … Continue reading At the year’s halfway point
I'm not really taking part in #NaPoWriMo this year although I do feel steeped in poetry. I have attempted to write (or at least start) a poem a day in the past and found it fun and exhilarating. I promised to review some poetry books for a magazine so I've been reading those and making slow … Continue reading A quick update during National Poetry Month
