Two weeks ago after much sightseeing whilst rediscovering my home country, I was unfortunate enough to acquire a fractured metatarsal. It seems that my mind can wander for hours, but alas, not my feet!
A broken bone is no bane for a writer!
After a day of dwelling in self-pity and pondering the nature of my fragile body, I decided that it was a perfect time to get stuck into editing my novel. I am six months away from polished perfection with the final draft of my second novel Continue reading
One of my writer hubby’s stories is published in The Flash Fiction Press today. You can read Life Inside David Cameron’s Head in this US based magazine online. With the UK in the throes of the will-we-won’t-we Brexit saga following the dramatic exit of our former PM here in the UK, this story is a good piece of escapism…or realism, depending on your outlook. Happy reading, folks!
A new publication by fellow poet and friend, Don MacIver. Links to buy it are through his website:
“Heartlands, a diverse range of highly responsive poetic works, takes the reader through a deeply personal engagement of life experiences and our natural surroundings…”
via New Publication Release; Introducing ‘Heartlands’ — Don MacIver; poetry & prose
It has been nearly two weeks since I wrote my last post and there has been a very good reason for this – moving to a different country. After 4 years in Japan, 3 in Cambridge and 6 in London, my poet/writer hubby Joseph Robert and I have relocated to Belfast.
Crossing the Irish Sea by ferry from Cairnryan
Hopefully the smaller place away from big city life will inspire some new poetry and fiction. Continue reading
This month my interview as Editor-in-Chief of Bindweed Magazine is published in Six Questions For by Jim Harrington, as a promotional spotlight for my newly bloomed literary zine.
If you’re interested in more information about a day in the life of an editor/publisher, or how Bindweed got started, feel free to have a read. It also highlights my editorial process and how I choose certain submissions.
Enjoy!
Three of my poet hubby’s poems are published in 13 Myna Birds this month. His poems appear alongside poetry by Jocelyn Mosman, A. S. Coomer, Kristen Williamson, Lorraine Cipriano and John Thomas Allen.
The Magazine is run by editor Juliet Cook, for any of my poet readers out there looking to submit. As an editor myself (of Bindweed Magazine) publishers always like it if you address us by name instead of getting a ‘Dear editor’.
Enjoy!
Today I am a happy publisher as my copy of Bindweed Magazine Issue 1: Morning Glory arrived in the post. It’s now available to buy for £5.00 from Lulu and will soon be distributed on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Check out these photos I took yesterday evening after I opened the post:
The anthology is 125 pages and A5-sized. I chose a smaller size to make it easy for my contributors to fit it into a bag, or coat pocket, and take it along to open-mic evenings. It’s also easy for readers to bring it along on their commute to work and hold it in one hand to read on a packed bus or train.
I’m currently reading submissions for Issue 3 to be published in October, November and December, so if there are any writers out there looking for a home for their poems and stories, take a look at my Bindweed Submission Guidelines.
Please do feel free to like Bindweed Magazine on Facebook at: http://fb.me/BindweedMagazine
This month my poem, Dandelion Fluff, is published in The Fat Damsel Issue 9.
I wrote this one a couple of years back, and it had been abandoned in my journal, not even typed up, until I rediscovered it recently. Perhaps this was a subconscious move on my part, for it’s reflective of my state of mind at the moment: away with the fairies, to be precise! I have been floating through the weeks of late and functioning on a basic level: eating, going to work, eating, sleeping and in between – zoning out. Is this life? I’d call it existence.
When the rudimentary needs are being met and not much more, then maybe an empty head is nothing other than a dandelion spore.
Life in London during these last couple of weeks has been interesting to say the least. As small as the British Isles may be, we sure have caused ripples all the way across the pond.
Twasn’t myne fault good sir!
Where is the democracy that we keep hearing about? Regardless of whether people voted leave or remain, nobody is happy as the politicians pass the turd sandwich around the table and starve us of a decision. Meanwhile us little people are worried about our jobs, homes and even whether our fellow EU friends can even stay in the country. The atmosphere on the streets is tense. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried.
What can a poet do at a time like this? Well, I did my part as a British citizen by voting and can say that I have a clear conscience. And, as a true believer in democracy I respect that others in this country may feel differently to me. Ordinary folk fight and the country turns a blind eye. Yet the bigwigs that run a country fight about money and power and – lo and behold – war is declared. And who loses out? The peasants, of course. But we peasants can do our part to make a difference in the (anxiety) society that we have chosen to live in. We have the power to protest!
What would Socrates do?
Hemlock anyone?
It’s coming up to the end of term now and as a Creative Writing Mentor and as a poet myself, it would be remiss of me not to promote a couple of last minute poetry competitions for students. So here we go – pens at the starting line:
Best of luck to all you budding young poets in the world!
Leilanie Stewart 