Reading, writing and rearranging. It's great to have some time to read again. But the more I read, the more ideas I get for writing. How can I fit it all in?

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This week I have been enjoying my latest Poetry Review from the Poetry Society. In particular John F. Deane's The Jesus Bones, Tim Liardet's Ur-blue, Nick Laird's Terrain and Matthew Francis's Was (lots of end-stopping here but so effectively I didn't even register this fact until a fair way through the poem). Anne Stevenson's Before Eden is also great, and particularly interesting given the use of Adam and Eve in some entries on the writelink cinquain game, something I have been trying to develop further myself. I've also just started reading (in Poetry Review)Don Paterson's The Lyric Principle Part 1: The Sense of Sound, which from what I've taken in so far promises to be very interesting.

I've also received my Writing Competitions - the way to win by Iain Pattison and Alison Chisholm. Some great tips so far, including some things I'd already been doing without putting that much reasoning into them! One recommendation I have been pondering though is the advice not to convert from one genre to another. This has set me wondering, as it is something I do and I've been trying to think if I've ever done it and had success in both genres. To be honest, I don't think I have, but I do feel that sometimes I start offsomething in one genre and it is actually the wrong genre, so that when I try again in a different one, it does work better. Or maybe I'm just trying to kid myself...

Anyway, short story ideas have been flying thick and fast, fast and furious. My only problem now is that I'm supposed to be going out with the gals tonight, my elder son wants me to take him to his summer fair this evening and what I really want to do tonight is work on my short stories (I know, how sad!). Now I might manage two of these, but there's no way I can do all three. So what do I do? Rearrange something? Or maybe I can try and squeeze some of that writing in now...