It's now been a year since Tree Language was published though it feels much longer - I suppose the whole, long process of putting the manuscript together and drafting drafting drafting makes it feel so.
The last eighteen months has been, at times, a bit of a whirlwind. I'm certainly much more used to doing readings now and very happy to do them.
I was very fortunate in having the mentoring with Vicki Feaver which forced me to keep writing after Tree Language when I almost certainly would have had post-collection block. So this last year has been extremely productive for me and I'm now starting to think about putting together a second collection. I'm writing much more themed sequences now rather than jumping from poem to poem which gives me room to really explore a subject such as the birth series and the Mary Stuart poems.
And now I feel on the verge or something new and the need to order the masses of poems into a collection home to be able to move on - whether or not I submit them as a collection anytime soon I've no idea. But it feels good putting them together, I feel and hope it's a much stronger collection of poems than Tree Language and I have a working title which I'm excited by!
Also I have copies of Our Real Red Selves which will be launched in Glasgow next week!
