Update, September 2022

Ladies and gentlemen. Curious readers and regional poetry supporters. Will I ever summon up the confidence to open an online shop? I know I should get myself into gear for this momentous step, and join the thousands of other people who are able to do that one thing which I still can’t. What on earth is taking me so long, you may ask. Well, I was busy dealing with ‘life events’ for a while, and – essentially – I am reluctant to have a bigger online footprint. And I question my effectiveness at getting the goods in the post within 24 hours of ordering, as people expect this level of service from suppliers, even when it’s a very small retailer. There are good templates from the shop-building websites, so I can have a lovely-looking storefront with the right connectivity; and I’m more than happy to include those personal touches which people enjoy when buying direct from artists’ sites. But still, I hesitate to do it even though there’s fewer opportunities for attending readings and events now that I’m 4 months into a fulltime job.

At the time of writing (I prepare my blogposts in advance) there is a brand new Kirby Lonsdale Poetry Festival. If only I’d known this earlier, I could have gone there and enjoyed a weekend of workshops and open-mic-ing. Instead, I was being rained on in a field at Helmsley, having chosen as my Big Week Off the only 5 days in July when it was guaranteed to chuck it down virtually all the time. I have a great tent which stood up to the rainfall, and the ground was dry from the previous days’ heat, so it wasn’t a problem in the grand scheme of things. I had long wanted to visit Rievaulx Abbey and I finally accomplished that task, using an easy waymarked route from the centre of Helmsley. I got soaked on the way back though. Grrr.

Better news awaited in August when I found I’d been longlisted for the East Midlands-managed Aurora Prize. You’ll know if you’ve read earlier blogs that I don’t enter many competitions or other schemes because I either haven’t got the right kind of work available, or I can’t see where the entry fees are being used. For instance, any org. can set up a poetry competition and they could be taking over 2K in fees, using preliminary judges who are not paid. In contrast, the people behind Writing East Midlands have been putting events and opportunities out there to the region’s writers for years, so I know my entry fees will go into that, and maybe new writers will benefit from subsidised places in future just as I benefited when I was starting my career. It’s a pleasure to be a longlister, and my poem ‘the desperate life of Monica Jones’ will be released on the Writing East Midlands site later in the autumn. Yes, it’s about Philip Larkin’s girlfriend, about the precariousness of her life as an embattled English lecturer and poetic consort/muse. I didn’t know that this year was the Larkin centenary, so I’d written something unexpectedly topical….this has got to be a first for me.

The steampunk outfit finally came out of the cupboard, and I went to the Lincoln Asylum over the August bank holiday. This is one of the biggest and most open/inclusive events, so all you need is a passable effort at the clothing and a day wristband for a whole lotta fun. There are hundreds of costume photos on the relevant sites and pages, so have a look under Lincoln Steampunk Festival or Ministry of Steampunk for some super contraptions and wild wearables. My outfit was conservative by comparison, just a long dress and a suitable Edwardian hat, but I was reliably informed that I looked like a lady fern-collector, so I must have got the right vibe even with a pair of Tesco trainers underneath. Take care, everyone! And keep a grip on your artistic ideas, even if you are undergoing a long writers’ fallow period, like I am.