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Monday, 2 May 2011

Kukaw!

A story of mine titled Kukaw! has been featured on the excellent lit blog Cherrypicked Hands. Read it by clicking here. There are lots of other amazing literary things over there, mostly poems, and also an amusing email exchange.



It's the first Shaftesbury Arts Centre Creative Writing Group* meeting today. I am a co-organiser of the group along with awesome fantasy/ sci fi writer Jennifer K Oliver who initiated everything. We've got an amazing programme lined up for the group, there will be biscuits, and we will learn things. I'll link you to our website when it's in operation.


*working name. It'll be shorter and punchier when we think of a shorter and punchier name.

Thursday, 21 April 2011

workshop poem

I went to a writing workshop in Shaftesbury a few weeks back. We did a lot of freeflow stuff, which is when my writing is at its best. I have a fear about poetry. I don’t understand it at all. But we had to write a poem based on the theme of spring. The leader of the workshop really liked my poem. I’m unable to judge it, since I don’t understand poetry. I think I’d like to edit it and give it a better structure.

+++

(I've taken the poem down for now because I want to work on it and send it out someplace)



Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Holiday on the Moon

It’s all hectic around here at the moment. The garden and allotment are very demanding of my time. My writing is taking a holiday on the moon.

It's raining, so perhaps I might have some time to sit at the computer and tap out some words?

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Article in Living Woods Magazine

Living Woods magazine published an article of mine back in January. Mr Kite lent my copy out to his friend and I have only just got it back now. So here's a scanned copy of the article. Enjoy!



I recommend Chantry Cottage courses. They've all been excellent so far.

Now I'm off to sow more seeds. Yin/ Yang beans, Cardoon, Clove Pinks, Mallow, Sage and Dianthus; all beautiful and edible!

Friday, 1 April 2011

Overbearing / long skate

I entered the Terry Pratchett first novel prize ages ago. I didn’t win it. They haven’t announced who’s been short listed yet, though they should have done yesterday. I didn’t expect to win; my novel didn’t quite match the criteria for a start. It was well worth doing. I got a 126000 word novel written in four months. Since I submitted it I’ve been editing and doing some retrospective research, checking that what I’ve written is accurate, or at least knowing it’s inaccurate. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but this novel is probably the nearest to being in a decent enough shape to consider sending somewhere.

Aside from novel research and edits I’ve been writing a short story featuring longboarding. The spark point for this story is with this blog post

wherein a longboard dancer pulls slick moves to the beat of an inferior version of Prodigy’s Omen (love that song!)

More on that later.

Wednesday, 30 March 2011

spring

I've been putting seeds into pots with compost and watching them grow.

Blonde maraicheri lettuce just coming up.


The same lettuce a week or so later.



Red Orache. I've never tried it. I look forward to tasting it in a few months time.

Crocus

snakeshead fritillary

An apple seedling. Mr Kite and I just planted 82 fruit trees down at Mountain Cottage in corfe mullen, Dorset. It's mostly apples, but cherries, plums, pears, quince and medlars too. They're all a lot bigger than this seedling.
So if you want to see our lovely fruit orchard why not book a yurt and stay down there for a night or two. It's an amazing place. http://www.mountaincottageyurts.co.uk/Welcome.html


Friday, 11 March 2011

Recipe

Here's a recipe I made up yesterday.



The LAG funding group I'm a part of has just put a 'temporary freeze' on funding all new projects. The government are abolishing RDAs and centralising everything with DEFRA.
The Big Society is fast becoming an oxymoron.