So the pre-order page for Madame Ecosse is now up on the Eyewear Publishing website here with very kind and generous blurbs for it from Vicki Feaver, Harry Giles and Jane Clarke, which I'm delighted by and very grateful for!
I've finished full-time work for now which means time in my life for some much needed Poetry - reading and writing. I feel like my subconscious is bursting with poems - just need to find the right expression for it all. I want to do something all encompassing, challenging, bigger, something I can really throw myself into, beyond what I've done before. I've carved out a study corner in the house and finally have my own laptop to be able to work on poems without interruption which is wonderful!!
However the first priority is going through the proofs for Madame Ecosse - it goes to the printers on January 15th which is very exciting! Thankfully I'm sure I made the right choice in changing the order of poems and by scrapping the sections - it feels much more like a cohesive whole.
After a dearth of poetry this year I'm very much looking forward to being fully immersed in poetry in 2017!
4 comments:
I've mixed feelings about not working, Marion. When I first quit I imagined it would be the best thing for my writing and yet I've not been nearly as productive as I'd imagined I would be. I wrote nothing new this year at all and that's two years now with zilch which is okay as long as it is only a dry spell. I went three years in the nineties and then dashed off two novels back to back so who knows! I've never produced anything of worth by sitting down and forcing myself to write. I'm just not that kind of writer besides if you've nothing to say you've nothing to say and there's really not a lot that's important to me that I haven't commented on. We'll see.
2016 didn't go as planned for me. I'd intended to edit my novel Left but it took the best part of the year to get the feedback from my beta readers for The More Things Change and I've literally just finished reading the proof copy two days ago. Taking time on this monster was worth it though and I'm not displeased with the result. Mostly I read this year, another eighty-odd books, but other than that I kept a low profile; the Internet doesn't do much for me these days and the news was something I really didn't want to talk about.
Your new book looks good. Lovely red cover. See you and red. I can't imagine not having my own computer. When Carrie first moved in we shared a PC for about a week and that was too long. We had to wait a while for our own work spaces, however, and I made that a condition when we were looking to buy: we each must have our own office. Of course you've got a family and have to cut your cloth; I know what that's like. The daft thing now is that since I finished working I do all my writing in the living room with Carrie ten feet away tapping away on her her laptop. But the room's still there. My oasis.
I do hope you get your all encompassing project for 2017 but even if you don't I'm sure you'll find things write about or they'll find you. This year I've been posting poems from the late-eighties on my blog and I've been reminded of just what it felt like to think poetry 24/7. It was a miserable time in so many other ways but the constant outflux of writing made everything somehow bearable.
Have a nice Xmas when it comes.
Hi Jim :) I noticed you had been missing from facebook for quite a while! I'm delighted with the red cover - and see my shiny new red laptop? :) sounds like you've had a productive year and a huge amount of reading done! I've not written a poem since March or April - though I agree, I had nothing to write - I had used up all my resources. The last 8 months have been a hard slog at the fish farm - more like a work camp these days - anyway the enforced absence from poetry has been good for me, I feel literally bursting to write and can't wait for the calm of January to come and lose myself in it. Hope you and Carrie have a lovely Christmas and all the best for 2017 to you both!
Congrats, Marion!
My life and publication record are different from yours so far, but I'm glad you acknowledge that there are times when we write more, or less, or not at all, or step away from poetry by choice or necessity...etc. I think writers can sometimes be really pressured by the "you should be writing every day, and you really shouldn't have a full time job..." etc etc, when in fact everyone's life and approach is different (as also seen by some of the greatest writers and poets we've ever known and their varied lives.)
Thanks Clarissa! The sad fact is poetry rarely pays and we all need money! However like Jim said, sometimes being faced with nothing to do but write can be completely unproductive and can be mentally destructive too. It's finding that balance - I'm getting to the point that not finding time to write is equally destructive, a relief to see the writing time coming!
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