I did manage to put in a little more effort yesterday - which was great. And having spent some more time thinking about my next fiction project, I had a really interesting idea which may well develop into something. I find myself increasingly frustrated by the 'trivial' in contemporary writing - including my own. Perhaps … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 6th January →

As planned, yesterday I was able to publish a new episode to my Walkingthrufire podcast. This time it was a short story called "Smoking in the Park" which is included in my new collection, An Irregular Piece of Sky, to be published later this year - one way or another! I learned two things from … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 5th January →

So, with "Crash" and a selection of my sonnets as of yesterday now in the hands of Carcanet, another log sits on the fire of anticipation. (Perhaps that's too fanciful, but then fires do burn to ash..!) I can't help but feel all I need is a break, a slice of luck...but then perhaps everyone … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 4th January →

I think sometimes at poetry reading groups we fall into the trap of preferring to talk about 'meaning' rather than explore and critique the craft on display. Most often we do this because it is an easy way for readers to make a contribution; occasionally it's an authorial necessity because a poem isn't working. Indeed, … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 3rd January →

I used to berate myself if I didn't do any writing-related work during a day, but things have moved on: I now feel unsettled if I haven't done enough. I keep a log of where I spend my creative time; perhaps this is a little sad, but it keeps me honest! My target is four … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 2nd January →

Hopefully it will be a common theme, but yesterday went pretty much as I had expected it would: revision work on "Tilt" and some more notes on what "C" might look like. One area where I did spend more time than anticipated was in working on draft courses / workshops for the writers' retreats at … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 1st January →

As with many days recently, some of yesterday was spent going through and validating my 2023 plan of writing and publishing activities. It will flex over time of course, but is pretty much there. In addition to some ongoing revision of the draft of a new novel - "Tilt" - I also managed to break … Continue reading Yesterday & Today: 31st December →