Photo by Caio on Pexels.com Why are Book Launches like buses? Because two come along at once! My submission schedule has been side-lined due to full time work and some current projects, but I have managed to keep a hand in (or two typing at least), so this summer there will be Book Launches! Yipee! Both are in August (a day after each other), one in Scotland and one in USA. Having just experienced a drive down to Reading – for a wonderful time at Poets’ Cafe Reading – I feel a trip up to Glasgow or out to Cincinnati are a little beyond me both physically and financially. I will be promoting th ..read more

Photo by Bich Tran on Pexels.com Book Launch A Caparisoned Elephant by Brian Comber (Black Pear Press) The month started with Brian Comber & Ade Couper’s joint Book Launch, a lovely event for which I was honoured to be Brian’s Guest Poet. I was delighted (and nervous) to be able to chose some of Brian’s poems to read alongside my own. I adore this collection. I reviewed it and it was a manuscript I read and re-read… sometimes I wasn’t even working on my endorsement. It was a joy and a pleasure and a really sunny afternoon (after UK’s exceptionally wet March). Lots of people turned out and ..read more

Photo by Mike B on Pexels.com You hear Shakespeare 400 – and think, hang on – we celebrated the 400th anniversary of his death back in 2016… and yes, we did. This year’s celebrations are to mark the First Folio, a collection of Shakespeare’s works and 400 years since the death of Anne Shakespeare. Stratford-upon-Avon was even on the news today as the start of a weekend of celebrations has begun. Today saw The Shakespeare Birthday Lecture and One Day Conference: 400 Years of the First Folio; 400 Years of Anne Shakespeare. The end of the day long birthday conference saw the Book Launch of Ann ..read more

Photo by Ali Karimiboroujeni on Pexels.com Hello waters… it has been a long while! Lots has happened since the Autumn post. I am here to start 2023’s NaPoWriMo on AWF but realise that there are huge gaps of blogging and news to share. I will write on some of this in detail in May, after NaPo. Until then here are the highlights: Blasts from the Past At the end of 2022 I was busy working on a major project, a book endorsement and planning for 2023 WLFF Festival. My ATOTC (A Tale of Two Cities -2017/18) project was reinstated in the summer of 2022. This was call & response poetry between poet ..read more

I have been overjoyed to play a part in The Well/ Mindful Poetry events over the past few years, (since Lockdown 2020/21). For the 2nd year running I am delighted to have poetry included in the anthology. The Book Launch happens today at The Mercantile Library, which is incredibly beautiful and in Cincinnati… however, if you are not you can still watch the event on Crowdcast, to register: book tickets for the Live Launch or reserve your spot virtually check here. I am really looking forward to spending some of my Birthday celebrating with these poets and can’t wait to hear everyone’s words ..read more

Photo by Toni Ferreira on Pexels.com APRIL As anyone who follows the blog will know, April is mainly a space for NaPoWriMo, half of which falls during Easter break, the other 15 days are snatched between work and life. This April we also had lots of family needs and it was necessary to step back from work as much as possible to support and survive. I realise it is now almost the end of June and I have not posted, so here is a little flashback beyond NaPoWriMo. I had two wonderful events in April, Peter Sutton’s Book Launch, where I was a Guest Reader and Country Voices in Ironbridge, where I ..read more

Published by Black Pear Press Since 2016 I have been fortunate enough to have written endorsements for new collections. It is always an honour to be asked and to be trusted with the m/s, to read it before it’s published and to ultimately string words together which will encourage other’s to buy it from the blurb. When Peter Sutton approached me in 2021 I was delighted to be one of the poets writing an endorsement for his latest collection. I have known Peter for many years and know what an expert he is on Elgar, I knew this collection would be a m/s I would enjoy. I wasn’t wrong! I read it man ..read more

During the 1st UK Lockdown, (which for me lasted 6 months before I was back to face to face work), I signed up to many workshops and writing classes. It was not just a way of navigating the pandemic, coping with mental health or a way to travel when grounded, it helped me find community. The pandemic came after 15 months of ill health, in which I barely worked or lived and was, aside from hospital appointments and the occasional tea out with friends, pretty much locked down. I had been back at work for a few weeks and was trying to find my writing mojo again. I managed to edit my collection on ..read more

Photo by Polina Kovaleva on Pexels.com Summer’s late to the UK this year and so is my May review. I didn’t manage to finish the content in time before getting swept up with festival programming. Rather than leave people out I decided to delay the post. Better late, than never… May. May and June are always Festival busy and life online is no different. I also had a few exciting projects I was working on, so it has been another packed month. FESTIVALS OVERVIEW: SAHLF 2021 26th April – 9th May The Stay at Home! Literary Festival celebrated a 2nd year of stunning, FREE events and brought us a fort ..read more

Last year I tried not to write about Coronavirus, it crept into a lot of the work and in the end I fell into the school of thought that part of the job of a poet is to comment on our experiences and the times and 2020 was certainly packed with events that found way to many pens for those of us who could still write. As far as submissions go, I haven’t actively been working on that as I have been busy with writer/editor/reader head on for a while and have seen many collections pass my way. I did have a couple of other poems published in another anthology too, Geography is Irrelevant but most o ..read more