Finished manuscript.

It's been almost a month since I last wrote. It's been for many reasons. I have been busily editing my poems for Flying Through Houses but yesterday I finally got it neatly placed into the template that the publisher uses and sent back to them. Getting the poems into the template was a further learning curve. It is one that they use, a particular size, shape and font size. Therefore there was a lot of cutting/copying and pasting to do. Then of course, on some of the longer pieces the line endings weren't the same as the original poems so everything had to be checked for that. As you know, where a sentence ends and what punctuation ends it, can be very important so I had a lot of checking to do. I admit there has been a fair bit of dithering on my part. How do you know where to end? It's the same question a painter has. Is this the last dab of paint or not? and a musician-should this be the last note of a composition? Well. I bit the bullet and ended the whole thing and as I say It's now in the hands of the publishers. I know there will be further edits on their part. They might find some of the pieces too long for their printing-run budget.The collection has run to 51 pages. they might choose to ditch a few of the poems, I don't know until they get back to me.So, what am I doing now? I'm working on a set for Buzzwords Cheltenham next Sunday where I am one of two guest poets. I like to time my material before reading it and to write out and time my in-between blurb that explains the poems. My view is keep it short. I think that if a poem needs a lengthy explanation then it needs simplifying. I feel that most audiences want to understand, not walk away puzzled. My work is certainly not over-intellectual and I like it that way.I am also taking the poetry workshop and have had to time that too and find an exercise that is both interesting and stimulating. Buzzwords has a lot of very intelligent and thoughtful poets who write wonderful stuff. I want to give them an exercise that they will enjoy. I've also been asked to take part in the final selection heat for Gloucestershire's Poet Laureate. I need to find at least three poems to read for that in August. Sending of the collection free's up some time to do these things. It's lovely to be asked to take part in the Poet Laureate selection. I don't know though whether I am well enough to be able to do everything that a poet laureate does. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find out what would be expected of the winner so I shall wait and see. I don't expect to win. I never expect to win anything. I do have hope though and for me that is enough. People either like my stuff or they don't and that's fair enough.