Monday, August 08, 2005
Poetry, Poetry
On a Monday morning, like no any other morning of the working week, my office desperately needs one of these:
If you're a regular to this blog, you'll know where I'm coming from.
'nuff said!
Despite the above image, work wasn't too unpleasant. My colleague, Ranking Roger (so named after the member of popular 80's British ska band, The Beat), was actually pleased to see me. Having spent the last few days on his own he had begun to complain of loneliness, but whether it was me versus anyone else who may have wandered in, remains unknown.
Roger told me he had been reading through my blog while I was off - always good to get feedback! He made a point as we talked about it - why don't I go part-time at work to free up time with which I could more time concentrating on my writing?
How I would love to be able to do this. Unfortunately simple economics stand in my way. In the future it may be a way forward as the transition to full-time writing progresses. Rather foolishly perhaps, I had always thought of walking into work and giving my notice in on the back of a few best-sellers and movie deal. Who knows - one can always dream - but the move is one I am determined to make so long as it's not to the detriment of my family's way of life. No matter how long it takes, I will get there. Where there's a will there's way!
Madness' new album, The Dangermen Sessions Volume 1, has gone into the UK charts at number 11. Not bad for week 1 with not a huge amount of publicity behind them. What stopped it getting to number 10, I hear you ask? That stinking little crazy frog. Death to the crazy frog.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/albums.shtml
On the back of purchasing Rick Lupert's chapbook, Stolen Mummies, I ordered another five of his books; I'm a Jew, Are You?, Brendan Constantine is My Kind of Town, Up Liberty's Skirt, Lizard King of the Laundromat and Mowing Fargo. These should be with me next week or so as they wing their way over from Los Angeles.
The first Rick Lupert book I bought greatly inspired me to go ahead with the Edinburgh Festival Ebook as well as the Brick by Brick chapbook earlier this year. I'm a big fan of his work now and I cannot wait to read these.
Come the evening and I got through a fair amount of work:
I did some more work on the Fronds of Thought journal. You may be wondering how I could "do work" on it. This is because my handwriting is so shit, I put everything into an MS Word document first before editing it and copying it by hand into the journal. I sent Devon a poem I wrote (which forms my first entry), and later possibly a scan or two of some photographs that I want to take tomorrow for the project.
I copied the 16 poems already written for the Edinburgh Festival Ebook into Word documents and placed them in a new folder on my PC. I spent time editing them and cutting them down to make sure they are what I want - some are very good, I have to admit. Others quite rubbish so probably won't make the final cut. I also went on to write several haiku poems solely on Leith. They came out quite interesting, but again a mixed bag.
I read through all the crits I have got back for War Generations again. I'll be ready to complete this story over the next few of days; I just want to let the comments absorb into my mind before I go back to work on it.
I downloaded 5 stories from a critique forum I joined last year. Never got time to read them tonight but I'll get to them. It's a good system at this place - the more you crit the more points you get, and can then submit work yourself. I use it only for certain pieces; other work I might submit to my writing group like I did with War Generations.
My writing group isn't really a critique forum as such anymore. It's more of a support mechanism and the people I have met through it are wonderful human beings. I would be a lot worse off without it, both personally and in my career.
If you're a regular to this blog, you'll know where I'm coming from.
'nuff said!
Despite the above image, work wasn't too unpleasant. My colleague, Ranking Roger (so named after the member of popular 80's British ska band, The Beat), was actually pleased to see me. Having spent the last few days on his own he had begun to complain of loneliness, but whether it was me versus anyone else who may have wandered in, remains unknown.
Roger told me he had been reading through my blog while I was off - always good to get feedback! He made a point as we talked about it - why don't I go part-time at work to free up time with which I could more time concentrating on my writing?
How I would love to be able to do this. Unfortunately simple economics stand in my way. In the future it may be a way forward as the transition to full-time writing progresses. Rather foolishly perhaps, I had always thought of walking into work and giving my notice in on the back of a few best-sellers and movie deal. Who knows - one can always dream - but the move is one I am determined to make so long as it's not to the detriment of my family's way of life. No matter how long it takes, I will get there. Where there's a will there's way!
Madness' new album, The Dangermen Sessions Volume 1, has gone into the UK charts at number 11. Not bad for week 1 with not a huge amount of publicity behind them. What stopped it getting to number 10, I hear you ask? That stinking little crazy frog. Death to the crazy frog.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/albums.shtml
On the back of purchasing Rick Lupert's chapbook, Stolen Mummies, I ordered another five of his books; I'm a Jew, Are You?, Brendan Constantine is My Kind of Town, Up Liberty's Skirt, Lizard King of the Laundromat and Mowing Fargo. These should be with me next week or so as they wing their way over from Los Angeles.
The first Rick Lupert book I bought greatly inspired me to go ahead with the Edinburgh Festival Ebook as well as the Brick by Brick chapbook earlier this year. I'm a big fan of his work now and I cannot wait to read these.
Come the evening and I got through a fair amount of work:
I did some more work on the Fronds of Thought journal. You may be wondering how I could "do work" on it. This is because my handwriting is so shit, I put everything into an MS Word document first before editing it and copying it by hand into the journal. I sent Devon a poem I wrote (which forms my first entry), and later possibly a scan or two of some photographs that I want to take tomorrow for the project.
I copied the 16 poems already written for the Edinburgh Festival Ebook into Word documents and placed them in a new folder on my PC. I spent time editing them and cutting them down to make sure they are what I want - some are very good, I have to admit. Others quite rubbish so probably won't make the final cut. I also went on to write several haiku poems solely on Leith. They came out quite interesting, but again a mixed bag.
I read through all the crits I have got back for War Generations again. I'll be ready to complete this story over the next few of days; I just want to let the comments absorb into my mind before I go back to work on it.
I downloaded 5 stories from a critique forum I joined last year. Never got time to read them tonight but I'll get to them. It's a good system at this place - the more you crit the more points you get, and can then submit work yourself. I use it only for certain pieces; other work I might submit to my writing group like I did with War Generations.
My writing group isn't really a critique forum as such anymore. It's more of a support mechanism and the people I have met through it are wonderful human beings. I would be a lot worse off without it, both personally and in my career.
Colin 11:11 am