Archives for: 2008
Creative Writing CV
Sarah's extensive poetry and short story publications and competition successes.
Why read Sarah's blog?
This short piece should help people find their way round the various categories of my blog so they can get the most of the many posts on offer.
Choices, choices: Poetry or jewels?
I've been suffering a lot lately but it's not the knee problems, the coughing or the sickness bugs that has struck me worst.
Creativity Crunch!
You can tell it's winter and Christmas is fast approaching because my creativity's suffering a bigger slowdown than the global economy! Still...
Blogging Nothing!
I have been rather remiss lately (what a fantastically old-fashioned way of putting it!)when it comes to my blog. It's not that I haven't been busy, but that I've been too busy, and mostly with pretty mundane, uninteresting things. However...
Working on Poetry or Poetry of Working?
Happy National (UK) Poetry Day! And the theme this year being 'work', it seems appropriate that this week has been full of both work and poetry for me...
Size isn't everything!
I've had a reminder this week that size isn't everything - at least, not when it comes to poetry!
Preferences - and Poetry in Motion
Working on the design for some new pre-school posters has proved a useful reminder to me this week of some important things about writing poetry.
What a mistake to make!
I bought this book by mistake. But it has to be one of the best mistakes I've made in a long while.
All Salted!
The day of my Salt Day readings yesterday dawned well. Okay, so I wasn't actually up that early but it was a sunny start and got even better when the post thudded through the letter box and I found two of my poems in the new writer.
Not a Page 3 girl!
Apparently the story about Legend Press's new edition of Remarkable Everyday containing my short story Monday, has also made one of our free local papers. And they've not hidden it either.
Cumulus
A copy of my poem Cumulus, which won first prize in this year's writelink Spring Fever contest.
The Tree Surgeon
A copy of my poem which came third in this year's writelink Spring Fever poetry contest.
Reading the weather
I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had trouble reading the weather correctly this summer. But one thing that can be said about rainy days is they do seem to encourage people to turn to books.
Orbis - special submissions request
This is one that has got my brain buzzing. Carole Baldock at Orbis is looking for capital poems for Orbis 145, Special Issue on the themes of Culture or Liverpool.
And we have take off...
Yes, it is finally the day of Legend Press's official launch of the new edition of Remarkable Everyday also marking it with a personal launch...of not just one but two new websites.
Countdown Continues...
If there were any truth in the belief that the camera captures one's soul then I would probably have lost mine a long time ago. Certainly, if there was anything left, the last of it went to the Worcester Evening News yesterday.
Two days to go...
There are just two days to go until Legend Press's official launch of the new edition of Remarkable Everyday containing my short story Monday. And to prove I will do almost anything to get publicity for it, I have been doing just that...almost anything.
Three days to go...
It's countdown time: three days to go until the official launch of Legend Press's new edition of Remarkable Everyday, containing my story Monday.
Everyday's Remarkable
My copy of the new edition of Legend Press's Remarkable Everyday short story anthology, containing one of my own stories, arrived today and I have to say the new cover does look fantastic. I love coincidences and irony and this cover is a prime example.
Chaos, colds and Kate Clanchy
I have no objection to holiday mementoes. In fact, the boys often bring back all sorts of nonsense with them. But I do object to us ending up with a colds as our holiday memento of Burnham-on-Sea this year. Just as well then, that I had also some good news waiting when I arrived home...
Holidays, Haven and Hard Work
It's been a busy couple of weeks, not least because by the time this displays on my blog I will be on our third holiday, providing you count a very wet, half-day trip to Thomasland at Drayton Manor!
The three 'R's - reading, reading and more reading!
I'm not sure about the national year of reading but it's definitely been a family fortnight of reading in our household.
Return to Oxford
A selection of snaps I managed to get while returning to Oxford for a friend's wedding.
All Fired Up!
It's been a long school term so we've been fired up about the start of the summer holidays for weeks, but I didn't expect them to start literally with a fire...
Slivers
Slivers was selected for Matthew Francis's Guardian online poetry workshop and published on Guardian online in April 2008.
Housework
This poem was chosen for publication as writelink resources (paid for) monthly poem (on the theme of friends) in May 2008.
Grindstone
It's been such a busy and productive day that I've had to escape to blogland in the hope the break will revive my brain-dead mind.
Another One Bites the Dust
Regular readers may remember me blogging about the fact that West Midlands creative writing Raw Edge Magazine was under threat of losing its Art Council funding.
Picture This!
Some fellow bloggers may remember me mentioning a local photography contest to capture the essence of the town where I live. Well, I've had some good news and some bad news...
In Focus
Question: What do snails, press releases, decorating fairy wings and taking website photos have in common?
Jack of All Trades
It's been a busy couple of weeks and I feel a bit like I'm Jack of All Trades, mastering them one by one (hopefully!)!
Angles
It's been a week of new angles on life for me and I'm hoping they'll all turn out to be right angles.
Food for thought
If poetry were a food, what would it be and why? I've just posted this question as a new thread over in the writelink poetry forum. So if anyone feels like something light-hearted for this time of night, please pop over, have a look and share your culinary inspiration.
Leapfrog
This poem to mark my nephew Jack's first birthday on Sunday was partly inspired by the writelink write angles competition.
Loose Ends
I feel like I've mainly been tying up loose ends this week and I'm not sure whether that's good or bad.
Worse for wear!
Both my dress and I are suffering the after-effects of too much wine at last night's fantastic summer ball.
On Trial!
It's been a week of trials for me, starting with contacts and then trying out my outfit for Friday's ball...with dubious results!
One woman went to mow...
My husband's latest present has not exactly blown me away - though it's certainly moved me.
Schooled-out!
It may be half-term coming up but I'm still feeling all schooled-out - for various reasons!
Worth the weight!
I am now half the woman I was after squeezing into a size eight dress for my husband's work's summer ball...be warned, guys, you may not want to read any further!
Antiinflammatories!
I've finally got fed up and am resorting to trying antiinflammatories to kick the bursitis in my hip into touch once and for all. I only wish they did antinflammatories for one's mental spirits as well as the physical body, as I could certainly do with some after today...
Mother and babies doing fine!
We have cygnets! Walking down by the canal this morning I saw the two babies out for a swim with one of the swans. The other swan was still on her nest but it didn't look good for the last remaining egg.
Another small step!
It really has been a surprisingly good month for me on the writing front. Today, I found out my poem Slivers had been chosen by Matthew Francis in the latest Guardian online poetry workshop.
Net-working, not working!
I may not have been blogging much lately, but I haven't been doing much proper writing either. Facebooks, emails, phone calls and the like seem to have distracted me. It was nice though during one bout of procrastinating offline, to come across a name I recognised.
Picture Perfect
All my buses are definitely arriving at once. A beautiful sunny day for yesterday's town festival, the boys at their grandparents so we could enjoy our first cinema trip in months and the latest issue of Orbis, complete with one of my poems inside!
Keeping Poetry in the Frame
My latest non-writing project is a local photography contest, though as usual I have found a poetic angle to it.
On Cloud Nine!
It was like discovering my cloud's silver lining today when I learned my poem Cumulus had won first prize in the writelink Spring Fever photo poetry competition.
Swamped!
Thinking about blogging earlier today, I was swamped by possible titles but had nothing of real substance to post about. Unfortunately, that just about sums up the state of all my writing at the moment!
Compromise!
I do try, but compromise has never been my middle name (nor featured anywhere in my name, if it comes to that!) so I was pleasantly shocked by my reaction to the osetopath's advice this weekend.
Night Terrors
My poem Night Terrors was published in the Second Light Publications up-and-coming women poets' anthology My Mother Threw Knives in 2006.
Treehouse
My poem Treehouse was published in the Second Light Publications up-and-coming women poets' anthology My Mother Threw Knives in 2006.
Pain in the proverbial!
Apparently I am suffering from bursitis - otherwise accurately described as a pain in the arse!
Three years too late!
It's been busy for me lately, mostly celebrating my thirtieth birthday - three years too late.
Talking Flowers!
Yes, that's right, I am blogging about talking flowers: talking flowers and experimentation!
"Mermaids still swim in our dreams"
Late as I am discovering this collection, the fact that it won the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award probably says more than I can about its quality.
Booked!
I have been booked this week, so has the whole family - not just in the conventional busy sense but also in terms of being surrounded by books.
Inspired!
It's been a week of books and creativity. I have just started reading Michael Symmons Roberts' collection Corpus. It is fantastic and very humbling. (No surprise, I suppose, given it won the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award!)
Exhausted!
I am exhausted today: not so much from 90 lengths of the pool, more from the poetry collection I've been reading!
My Perfect Lover
His voice will leave millipede tracks up my spine, curl round my breasts, hang in a necklace of long vowels...
Sold on it!
I've been thinking recently about trying to sort through my poems and see what I have in the way of another pamphlet or a collection, so one particular book immediately caught my eye!
The downside to keeping fit!
I have discovered this week that losing weight and exercise are not always good. Over the past few days they have certainly not been good for our bank balance.
Back to the classroom
It was geography and maths for me today - helping out with year two at my son's school.
Rising in Rings
Walking the children through the park I managed to get a snap of the new carving outside our recently re-opened Lido - itself the inspiration for a commemorative style poem.
On fire!
Out 'torching' with the boys last night we manage to capture some pictures down by our nearby canal.
Alive - and surprisingly happy!
Yes, believe it or not, I survived today's early morning jog with my marathon running friend - and even enjoyed it too!
I must be mad - or masochistic!
THERE is no doubt that over-exercise has gone to my head. Why else would I be stupid enough to agree to an early morning jog with one of my best friends?
Salt of the Earth
Recently, I have been writing some poetry based on the town where I live. Some writelinkers may remember drafts of this poem in poetry arena some time back. It was one of the poems I read at Droitwich Spa's inaugural Salt Day in September 2006 and was published in a special booklet to commemorate the occasion.
My blogging big mouth!
Well, it serves me right for opening my mouth! No sooner have I blogged here about only posting twice a week than I've been invited to blog by Legend Press on the company's Legendary Authors Group website.
Twice a week girl
I am, I have decided, a twice a week girl. Twice what? I hear you ask, with eyebrows raised!
Well schooled
I don't know how much my son is learning in is first year at school but I'm certainly learning fast after my first morning as a classroom volunteer.
Bargain buying!
Since starting belly dancing I have become a second hand clothes fiend. Not only can I find more variety in colours and styles than on the high street, but it also makes good financial and environmental sense. However, beware anyone who gets between me and my latest bargain!
Sad?!
It must say something about my life at the moment that for the first time I've managed to score 100% on a Facebook quiz - it was about childhood toys!
Cough, cough, cough!
It's been hard to work for the sound in the house the last few days: cough, cough, cough, splutter, splutter, splutter. This time it's not us that are ill though.
Breaking the solar system!
My writing output may have been pants over the last few weeks but at least I have been putting my creative energy to good use - making the solar system. The only problem is I'm not particularly gifted with any artistic talent...
Distracted
Distracted is definitely the word for the start to my New Year as one thing after another has pulled me away from writing. In a funny way though, I have kind of enjoyed the break, no matter how enforced it has been!
Another Arts Council Funding Cut!
I was massively disappointed to receive an email yesterday about Art Council plans to stop funding the West Midlands arts magazine Raw Edge. Basically, if this goes ahead it's likely to mean an end to the magazine.