Today's work and the progress of my collection.

I'm now adding my 'extra' poems to my collection. I have made a copy of the existing collection which numbers twenty. That has been saved for reference. To the copy I have inserted the new poems where I think they fit most appropriately. At this stage they are still moveable. I want to read through the whole collection next to see if they 'flow' well in that order. If they don't they can be re-arranged. When they do all fit and at times when things strike me, I shall be editing the new poems. Running concurrently with this I am still submitting poems to magazines. I sent four poems to Fleeting Magazine today. I have sent them stuff before but so far I haven't had anything accepted by them. I did read a few of the poems in their magazine archive to give me an idea of what they like. It always pays to do this when you can. Also, I have worked on another chapter of my crime novel. All in all, a good days writing.

Charting my new collection.

I haven't written much here for a while but I have decided from today to keep journal style entries here to show how my recently accepted collection is coming along. So far I have read and signed the contract and returned it.I also had to send in a photograph for promotional purposes.
The contract was a lot simpler than I thought it would be. I have used music business contracts in the past and the standard contracts used by the Musicians Union. This one was a lot easier to understand and for that I was grateful. I also needed to ask a few people who were credible in the world of poetry to read my work and write a bit of 'blurb' for the back cover . I am very pleased that two talented poets who I admire and respect have agreed to do this. Angela France and Alison Brackenbury will be reading my collection at a later date.The next step was to establish whether the amount of poems I had sent in was to be the total number in the collection or whether I could add to it. The way the collection was first viewed was via a six-poem selection, followed up a few months later by a further fourteen. It now transpires that I can (and will) add to this number. I have about six months to finalise the next set of poems which currently numbers ten or eleven. My next question to the publisher will be whether I should send the poems in as I feel each one is finished, or send them in en-masse at the end. This is quite an exciting time. My first collection was self-published. (If Robert Graves felt it was OK then it's fine by me). The next was via a publisher who rewarded me and other people who had appeared in many of their collections by printing a collection of our works. I hadn't realized there were so many ways to get work published when I first began to send my work out. This is all very interesting and I am enjoying the learning curve and the experience. As I work on the poems I shall put it down here. It will be nice to look back on when I am at the other end of the publishing process.

What a very good month.

This year has started very well indeed. I am just about back to normal after the bout of pneumonia and my writing head is firmly back in place. I have had eight poems accepted so far this year. Two by The Dawntreader magazine. One by The Pen in the USA, one by Aspire Magazine, one by United Press and three by Message In a Bottle Magazine. True, most of them were actually submitted last year, these things taking the time they do, but the actual acceptance letters came through recently so I can class them as this years. The best thing though is this: I found out yesterday that my collection of poems entitled 'Flying Through Houses' has been accepted for publication by Indigo Dreams Press. These lovely people have been using my individual poems for ages in their three magazines. I sent the collection last August. First the sample poems, then the full collection in September. The long wait has been worth it. I haven' told anyone yet, except Harry of course. I'm waiting until the contract is signed, then I can be really pleased. I don't think many people look at this blog so I'ms sure it will stay quiet until l I am ready. I'm pleased and nervous in equal measure. Silly really as I have had two previous collections out. They weren't as good as this one though and they weren't taken up by such a good company. Am I allowed to be pleased with myself? yes,Ithink I am.