Thanks to family activities - illness, a death, a party - and responsibilities on behalf of our local community council, work has almost come to an end for the year.
I'm making plans for next year, however, and hope to be back with poems and short stories in January.
Happy Christmas everybody.
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
family stuff
Work seems to be grinding slowly to a halt. I get distracted by Christmas shenanigans (our village Christmas lunch and carols, catching up with friends before we get too busy, shopping, cooking, cleaning ---)and also by family stuff. We have one daughter at home, and her erstwhile flat-mate staying for a while, and a grand-daughter not far away who wants to play a lot. Plus a vast extended family who are moving into Facebook along with the poets I like to keep up with.
So there's not much new work going on. About four poems started, another three in prospect, and a short story called Lithic Flake. But mostly I'm reading, and I've come across some excellent new fiction - Sue Gee, John Banville, Stevie Davies. They have given me a lot of ideas for Recusant, which is going to be a more multi-layered and multi-centred novel than Saracen Woman ever was, and is going to let me put in some more of the things I've learned from poetry.
Poetry is strugglng. I seem to be reading more rhetoric about it than poems, which can't be right.Hugh Macdiarmid is a discovery though. His Lallans poetry (despite the neologisms and obscurity) is so much better than the English. It is more direct, more simple, and so can carry so much more than more writerly stuff. This seems counter-intuitive. Perhaps it suits his mind-set better, or perhaps using a familiar culture he is able to imply more without stridency.
So there's not much new work going on. About four poems started, another three in prospect, and a short story called Lithic Flake. But mostly I'm reading, and I've come across some excellent new fiction - Sue Gee, John Banville, Stevie Davies. They have given me a lot of ideas for Recusant, which is going to be a more multi-layered and multi-centred novel than Saracen Woman ever was, and is going to let me put in some more of the things I've learned from poetry.
Poetry is strugglng. I seem to be reading more rhetoric about it than poems, which can't be right.Hugh Macdiarmid is a discovery though. His Lallans poetry (despite the neologisms and obscurity) is so much better than the English. It is more direct, more simple, and so can carry so much more than more writerly stuff. This seems counter-intuitive. Perhaps it suits his mind-set better, or perhaps using a familiar culture he is able to imply more without stridency.
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Northwords Now
The new edition finally got here, and I have copies for my mother and my mother-in-law. Sally Evans and I share a page, which makes me feel very honoured, and we feature on the front cover, which impresses me! It's a very well-produced magazine, and has been one of my favourites for the last couple of years. At this moment,when it has just reached its tenth number, the editor, Rhoda Michael, has just stepped down, and I'd like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to her.
A voice for the creative work going on in the Highlands was always going to be a desirable thing, but making it a free news-sheet available through libraries and bookshops was a stroke of genius. It makes good poetry and fiction an accessible community activity without the temptation to dumb down.
Plus Rhoda was always lovely to work for. I am sure I will miss her, but her successor, Jon Miller, seems fine too, and I wish him every success.
A voice for the creative work going on in the Highlands was always going to be a desirable thing, but making it a free news-sheet available through libraries and bookshops was a stroke of genius. It makes good poetry and fiction an accessible community activity without the temptation to dumb down.
Plus Rhoda was always lovely to work for. I am sure I will miss her, but her successor, Jon Miller, seems fine too, and I wish him every success.
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