Friction Magazine

I will never get the hang of this. I write so that people will read what I write... it's easy with poetry... I want you to read my poetry... And I guess I want you to read this too but it seems too much like drawing attention to myself (as opposed to my work).

Anyway, if I can just accept that this blog is probably going to be no more than intermittent and I don't have to blow my own trumpet incessantly then I can probably limit my discomfort long enough to tell you stuff...

I submitted some pomes (yes, I know it should be poems but if I make light of it it's easier... same as doing a spot of poeting sounds less terrifying than performing) to Friction Magazine a new online journal published by Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts and edited by PhD and MA students at Newcastle University and they've only gone and published one. I am pleased. Yes...

But I'm also having to beat down the vicious bastard that's loitering at the back of my head who is trying to get me to believe a number of reasons that I've been included in the first issue other than the one that goes 'they think it's a good poem'. The vicious bastard is called Evil Degs, I've had to battle her before... and I'll probably have to keep battling her before she realises that I'm not going to listen... or I am going to listen but I'm going to do choose not to believe her... or I will believe her but I'll get a second opinion from someone who doesn't live inside my head.

The poets in this first issue and are all worth a read, and then a re-read and then a trawl around the internet, bookshops and libraries to find their other work.

The Whale Road by Bill Herbert
Island Girl by Cynthia Fuller
Household Waste Only by Jake Campbell
At Longsands by Me :-)

I'm going to take time off from my evening facebook addiction and spend some time reading the fiction, non-fiction and reviews over the next few days... now if only I had an ipad to read it on...

http://www.frictionmagazine.co.uk/2010/11/07/at-longsands/

Chapbooks and Comedowns

I appear to be experiencing a massive comedown... I’ve had a fantastic week and if my brain functioned in a normal way I would still be enjoying the fact that I’ve registered for university and will begin my Creative Writing MA at Newcastle University on Tuesday, the fact that I had a wonderful time catching up with loads of old friends in Nottingham last week, the fact that the launch of my chapbook at the Lit & Phil went really, really well along, the fact that my daughters, my husband, my family and my friends are all immensely proud of me... but it doesn’t, and I’m not. Hopefully when I wake up in the morning my mood will lift...

I guess the main problem is that as soon as anything good enters the past I’m already aware that I need to move on to the next thing. It’s not enough to get on to an MA, I have to work really bloody hard to make sure that I get the best out of it and I suppose that’s probably at the root of why I’m feeling so drained... I wonder if I have the energy...

On the other hand... maybe I should just remember that last year I really had cause to feel terrified about the future and that compared to spending the last weekend in May wondering if my husband would survive three emergency operations all this is a doddle.