Do you like the photo? I’m not much of a photographer but I tided the whole kitchen just so I could take this photo with no clutter in the background. It’s not a big kitchen so tidying perhaps wasn’t the biggest chore, but I’m still quite chuffed with how the photo came out.
The only downside is that despite my renewed efforts to start drinking green tea, I still hate the stuff.
This week, once again, has been a pretty busy week. It’s not been as productive as I would have liked but I suppose the week isn’t over yet and I can pull more than a few positives from what I’ve achieved so far.
Monday through to Friday has seen the first five of my guest posters make an appearance here at Writing and Works. They’ve been chatting about why poetry is important to them, who inspires them and how they started writing poetry in the first place. I’m hoping to run this daily feature until the end of the month since April is NaPoWriMo and it seems an apt event. There are a lot of spaces in these last two weeks still to fill however, so if you are a poet, or perhaps you know one, I’d love to hear from you if you’re interested in joining the fun.
I managed to get some drawing done this week. Nothing spectacular but better than not drawing at all.
Unfortunately I’ve not done much writing besides poetry this week. I managed to write a short chapter for the novel, nothing fancy and not one I’m very happy with, but it’s progress. As you have probably gathered, poetry has taken up most of my free time recently. I had a poem featured over at Eyes Plus Words and Mukthi Raja invited me to guest post on her site Songs of the Forlorn. I’m also working on a poem for my work’s monthly newsletter and a piece of flash fiction for a writing competition. I also took some time to write a piece for the hash-tag #sharetheorange. It’s a campaign for Alzheimer’s UK to help spread awareness of what dementia actually does to the brain. This is a cause very close to my own heart and if you haven’t seen the video I would urge you to watch it. It’s not a guilt trip or anything like that, it just makes the mechanics of dementia a little clearer.
All in all my writing time has been pretty hectic this week. I’ve managed to keep up with a poem a day for NaPoWriMo and I’ve also collected all my poems from the last three years and printed them out in a single document ready for some serious critiquing in the hopes of pulling up the standard of my work.
Last night I managed to go out and enjoy another night of poetry. I know, two events in two weeks. Normally I’m lucky to get to one every three months.
This time I went to see Jim Clarkson reading from his new book ‘Talking Crow’. He’s a local poet and had the opportunity to publish a collection of his work after winning the Poetry Slam final in May 2015.
He spoke about the importance of re-writing work and how after each rejection he’d go back over the poem to improve it before sending it out again.This is why I’ve pulled out all my old poetry. I’ve not been having much luck with competitions so clearly there is quite a bit of room for improvement and as I’m supposed to be reading in Shrewsbury in July, I want a strong set to go on with.
Who knows, I might even end up with something publishable.
For all of you who commented about the fish last week, Danny, Thelma and Louise are doing well. Still swimming round their tanks and seemingly very happy with the arrangements. The fiancée and I have come to the discovery that we’ve run out of plug sockets and space for any more tanks so we’ll have to wait until we move house again before adding any more fish to the collection.
Right, that’s about all the news I have this week. I’m looking forward to reading the fellow Saturday Coffee Blogs Shares once I’ve got some more writing out of the way. Hope you all had a lovely week.
Carol J Forrester - Writing and Works 
Great photo and drawings 🙂
Thank you. 🙂
Hi Carol, love the picture :).
I’m not sure if publishing poetry is the same as publishing fiction, but I think both requires a great deal of determination and perseverance. You have both and I find that inspiring. I probably don’t need to say this, but keep writing and keep going!
Good luck to you.
Hey Desiree, good to see you back in the blogosphere. Thanks for the comment and it’s lovely to hear you think I have determination and perseverance.
Thanks! I’m amazed at how much poetry you can do. It never seems to work out for me, lol.
Aw, I’m not sure all of mine does either. I have noticed a big improvement in my poetry over the last three years though.
I see you’ve got some new projects on their way though?
Yep. I have a comic on the way, which is really exciting, and my sci-fi novel is creeping along behind it. I’m just happy I can finally get something out there.
That’s fantastic. Let me know if you want to do a guest post about the comic. It sounds like a brilliant project.
Thanks, I’ll keep it mind. I’m also offering guest posts on my blog. I think it would be great if you wanted to do a post about poetry.
Yeah if you want me to. Anything in particular about poetry?
You can talk about how you find inspiration, the techniques you use when writing poetry, or an inspiring story about not giving up. Those are just ideas, anyway.
Sure. When do you want it by?
If you can finish it during NaNoPoMo, that would be great. If not, I’ll still publish it so no pressure. You can send it through my contacts page when you’re ready.
I’ll have a go at drafting up something this week.
Can’t wait to read it 🙂
The photo? An inviting composition.
The writing is inviting, too!
Thank you. I must have looked a bit insane shuffling things round in my kitchen to get the photo how I wanted it but I think it was worth it.
Regarding Alzheimer’s (and other dementias or brain injuries), I so appreciate and respect Jolene Brack’s book “Creating Moments of Joy”.
I’ll have to check it out. Thank you for the recommendation.
Glad to hear that the fish are well. 🙂 And I do love that photo—and your drawings, especially the unicorn. 😀
Thank you. Well apparently last Saturday was National Unicorn Day so I thought it was an apt drawing to put up.
Love the unicorn. Right up my street. If you need models for further unicorn drawings, just let me know.
Well practice is always good so if you have a photo of a horse and you want me to have a go at drawing I will. I can’t promise it will be great but I’ll certainly try.
Like you I clean my table, I know how cropped a photo which I did with my cookies picture. Please that you enjoy writing poetry and your drawings are bettercthan muine would be.
Nice picture of your tea.
Thank you.
I love the photo, and I agree, I’m not a huge green tea fan either. I’ve tried, really. I’m more favorable to herbals and flavored black teas…maybe with a little honey and a touch of cream. 😉 I don’t know if I’d consider myself quite the poet, but I can find a verse from time to time. You’re welcome to check out my site, and let me know if you’d like me to send you one. There’s even a tab in my menu up top; however, I’ve written a few more recently which I haven’t listed there. Fancy meeting you here “for coffee,” and I look forward to visiting again. 🙂
I’d love to have you take part in one of our poetry guest posts if you’d like to. Have you had chance to check out the ones we’ve had up so far?
I’ve not. I only found your blog the day I posted there. Where do I find this?
https://caroljforrester.wordpress.com/category/guest-posts/
Thanks for all the poetry links, I normally like to write haiku but at the moment I’ve been really busy with editing my manuscript so sadly no time… hope to get back to it soon..
Best of luck with your manuscript. How far have you got?
On the second to final draft I think…. 84, 354 words!
That’s impressive. Second draft here, 53,000 words and counting.
Oh, yeah, I was at that kind of word count not too long ago but have had a real concentrated effort and now coming together to be a much longer piece of writing. What’s your novel about, if you don’t mind my asking?
It’s fantasy fiction. I’m still working on the synopsis.
Mine’s fantasy too, good luck with the synopsis. They’re so difficult! Hated doing mine. 😦
I’m going to try and get the draft finish first but thank you.
:))
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