It's been a Long time.

As the title says it's been a long time since I wrote this blog. This is because the spectre of ill-health and disability has dogged me for the longest time since childhood. Since my knee replacement last march I have been in a sort of 'three steps forward, two steps back' routine of becoming ill then picking up sufficiently to do minor things then falling ill again and having to recover. Unfortunately this has become almost normal. I've had pneumonia and pleurisy followed by numerous side effects from various drugs. My respiratory consultant says that I am 'beyond textbook' and is trying to come up with some preventative regime to ensure my lungs don't fail again this winter. Still, enough of the boring health stuff. This is meant to be primarily about writing. So, I have written during the lulls of illness but I have had to leave my novel until very recently. I left it for so long in fact that i had to read all the wok I had done in order to remind myself of the plot. Despite having a structure for it I couldn't remember all the names, places, nuances etc and had to refresh my memory. so far I am up to 108 pages and the pace is going quite well. Alongside this is my poetry. I've written a fair bit. More than I realized unit I gathered my notebooks in order to put the scribbled poems onto the PC. I was surprised by the amount. I've also entered a few competitions and submitted to magazines and to my publisher. Talking of that, it's been confirmed by the lovely people at Indigo Dreams that my new collection will be out in April 2013. Later than I had thought but as it's my birthday month I won't mind. Also, my publisher,Ii know is going through a terrible time personally with family illness so I would not expect things to be moving too quickly at their offices. I've had some rejections as usual and I've had some successes. Four poems accepted by Toasted Cheese Magazine, who I haven't submitted to before and another couple by United Press and another one I can't remember. I do keep records of what I've sent, to whom, and when but I'm too lazy to check for now. I wasn't placed in the Gloucester Writers comp this year nor in the Buzzwords comp. Still, you win some, you lose some and that's writing. If we took notice of rejections and failures we would all stop writing. I've developed a thicker skin for rejections over the years and feel that for every person who rejects my work, another one will accept it. It's often simply down to the editors personal taste. I'm going now before this gets tedious. I hope it won't be another five months before writing this again.