Today's little bit of blog.

this morning I read my friends re-edit of the opening chapter of the book I had looked at for her. Wow! the difference is amazing. She has really pulled it together. I hope she sends it out when it is complete. It's a great story.
Also today I have entered the National Poetry Competition run by The Poetry Society. I have sent off three poems that I am pleased with. They are quite new too. It's nice to have something fresh and sparkly to send. I also ruthlessly deleted a couple of poems that had been lurking for years and for which I just couldn't find that definitive change.I had a problem with the website for the National though. I wanted to submit on-line as it is so much easier. However, the website would not accept a change of amount and would only bill me for one poem. However I tried.(Four times.) It would't let me change the amount. I resorted to the post in the end. Good job I didn't leave it till right up to the deadline. I am looking forward to going to Poetry Cafe in Cheltenham tomorrow. Lovely venue. Very nice people. Gorgeous poetry. Hope you go too.

GWN event details.

I've put the details below of this years Gloucester Writers Network Event. It's where the winners of the competition read their stories and poems. There is usually an excellent quest poet too. Please support this event. There is often little space at Literary Festivals for local talent. This event is a good showcase for local poetic talent. I shall be there. I hope that you will too.

Sorry, couldn't copy the picture of the fabulous tent.

Some of the best writers in Gloucestershire will be presenting their work at the Cheltenham Literature Festival
7.30pm Tuesday 11 October 2011.
The Spiegeltent, Montpellier Gardens, Cheltenham.

Tickets (£6) are available through the Festival Box Office – 01242 505444
or via the website

New Graffiti Magazine Competition.

I have been busy. As well as the poems about Cornwall I have been working on I have started a couple of Autumnal pieces and two poems about the Painter Robert Lenkeiwicz who I knew in Plymouth and who I once modelled for. Today's blog though is to tell you about the latest writing competition from Graffiti magazine and Editor Rona Laycock. Graffiti is a great local mag. Filled with good poetry and prose by people you may well know if you live in Gloucestershire. I like to enter the competitions Rona sets. They are always stimulating, plus she doesn't charge a silly amount to enter. I've put the details below. Have a go. I am.


‘Urban Tales’ Short Story Competition Rules

This competition is all about towns and cities and the people who live and work in them. Dark and dangerous or shopper’s paradise, foreign or familiar, mean streets or boulevards, send us your short stories.
1. Closing date 30 October 2011
2. Entries must be in English and be the writer’s own unpublished work. They must not be on offer for publication or entered in any other current competition.
3. Maximum length 1,000 words.
4. Each piece of work, with its title, must be in clear type on one side of A4 sheet(s). Details of the writer must not appear on this sheet.
5. The name and address of the writer and the titles of all entries should be typed on a separate sheet of A4 paper.
6. The prize-winner will be notified by post, if SAE provided, or by email if email address is provided.
7. Entries are only accepted by post. Please keep a copy of your work, as entries will not be returned.
8. The fee is £2 per story. Cheques/Postal Orders in sterling only, should be made payable to:
Catchword Writing Group
9. All entries that arrive on time will be considered by the adjudicator, whose decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into concerning the result.
10. Competitors wishing to be informed of the results should enclose an SAE marked ‘Results’ or provide an email address.

Send entries to: Graffiti Magazine Writing Competition
C/o 33 Sandford Leaze
Avening
Glos
GL8 8PB

Prize: £25 The winning entry will also be published in Graffiti.

Editing.

I have just finished editing (to a point) and reading with a view to being a critical friend, a book written by a friend. it took a long time. I don't consider myself an editor. It's just that I have had more experience of writing than she has and I have taken about nine courses that have dealt with characterisation, plot, dialogue etc. so, I set to. I hope I did a good job. My friend is very pleased with my comments and found them constructive and practical. She is following the things I said and re-writing parts of the book. Her story, I felt, was well written and deserves publication. I wish her all good luck in pitching it. If she is successful with it I shall be proud to have had some input.Good luck Jay!. Since last writing I have worked on eight or nine new poems all sparked off by the workshop that preceded last Sundays buzzwords. I love it when the words flow. I have also submitted to two places today and written my journal. I only wish that my Arthritic hands did not make typing and writing so difficult. Never mind. the harder is to do something, the more we appreciate the result.Haven't worked on my book today. the plot is wriggling in my head like eels in a barrel. I shall carry on when my thoughts settle down. More next time.

One step closer.

You may remember that a few weeks ago I sent a pitch and a sample of six poems to a publisher. I heard yesterday that they liked the sample six and they have asked to see the full collection. I have carefully proof-read the poems (again) checked spacing etc. etc. and sent them off. Now I have to wait. the Editors are off on holiday for a couple of weeks so I don't expect them to read my work until they get back and into their work heads. I shall try to put it out of my mind and not think about it. Also, H and I go away just as they return so there will be a static three weeks with no information. In the scheme of publishing things this isn't long but when you're waiting...well...you know how it goes. It is one step closer. Even if the collection is rejected it is still a good thing to get so close. Wish me luck?

A Poem that raised goose-pimples.

Yesterday, Sunday 4th sept '11 I went to the event Artournament Gloucester-Big chill. It was held in the New Inns and what a fabulous old building that is. Full of nooks and crannies, beautiful Moroccan lanterns and nifty little architectural details. It made it all very atmospheric. I did a slot early in the afternoon. I felt it went well. Three separate groups of people complimented me on my work which was so gratifying and the lovely Kim Fordwoh (who I had never met before and is an organizer of the event) came up to me, thrust a goose-pimpled arm at me and told me that my poem had done that. What a reaction! The poem was about waiting for test results in the fear that AIDS might result. I have included the poem below.
I didn't stay too long. As you may or may not know I am registered disabled and due to my health problems I have to pace myself. Even then I pay for my enjoyment the next day in pain and fatigue. So, I digress. In the evening Harry and I went to Buzzwords at the Exmouth Arms. Cheltenham. It was a particularly good night. The Buzzwords poetry competition, which I had raised advertising for, had gained many entries. They were of a very high standard. I so enjoyed hearing the winners poems and seeing so many new faces there. I hope they will continue to come along and enjoy this great evening of poetry. I was also in need of the poetry workshop. The guest poet, Angela Topping gave us some very good exercises. It was just what I needed to stimulate a brain gone soggy with working on a novel plot and proofreading a story for a friend. The end of the night was special. Angela France, our Buzzwords Organizer and excellent poet herself asked me to share a guest poet spot in July. I am delighted to do this as I really respect the Buzzwords poets and the way we have stuck with it for so long, improving and moving forward all the time. The poem that caused goose-pimples is below.



While I was waiting I thought of You. By Miki Byrne.



I sat in this place forty-eight hours ago. It has been the longest
two days of my life. I still have the little round plaster in the crook
of my arm where the nurse took blood. It bled a lot for such a little
prick. I thought of you. I gazed at the garish posters. Syphilis,
Chlamydia, Gonorrhoea. They sounded like Greek goddesses
wrapped in floating robes. Robes...Sheets…shrouds…corpses. My
mind made connections, screaming inside my head. Billowing until

I felt that they would pour like sludge from my ears, swoop up from
my gut and whoosh out of my mouth in a hot fountain. My eyes were
Already leaking. A blue–clad nurse trotted by, paused and said kindly,
“It won’t be long dear”. That small gesture nearly killed me. I gasped
for breath. Was chilled, yet sweating. Nausea slithered inside me like
a reptile. I thought of you-the one who craved excitement. Who secretly
slept around. Who eventually told me that he was bi. Had been for years.

Enjoyed both, the more the merrier-no orifice spared. No condoms
either. Like wearing wellies you said. I imagined all those fluids mixing.
Yours. Mine. Theirs. I thought of what you took from me. What you might
have given back. My imagination became a microscope. Showed me
time-lapse swimming sperm. Cells mutating, viruses swarming and tainted blood coursing through every organ in my body. I remembered scary documentaries from the times when I would watch TV in the false safety

of our long deluded marriage. I thought of you. I waited on a blue plastic chair. The man beside me was unkempt. His arms scarred from needle tracks. He gripped the arm of a girl and said he was desperate. I almost laughed. A reflex bubble of hysteria that rose unbidden and hiccupped painfully into my throat. My own desperation crushed me. Turned me to jelly. Robbed me of dignity.
I remember promising God that He could have everything I possessed, heart soul and body. If only I did not have AIDS.