Wednesday 30 January 2013

Resolutions and Bits of Poems

I am doing well with my new year's resolutions. I have sent some work out - not much - but some. I have been doing my morning pages most days and I have started a visual diary too. I started the visual diary for two reasons: 1) I miss making art, and 2) I want to see if it enhances my writing. More creative stuff has got to be good right? I have also been trying to put whole days aside to work on my poetry, although I think it would be useful if someone confiscated my broadband modem on those days!

Today I had the bright idea of writing a small poem about writing every day and posting it on my blog - well realistically it won't be every day, but a girl can try...

Here is today's effort:


Memory fragments -
the way smells can take you back
and fill your head with words.

Thursday 24 January 2013

Creative Block

I once read an article that claimed that there was no such thing as creative block. At the time I wasn't sure how I felt about what the author was saying - I certainly experience times where I am less creative. Often these times correlate with other stuff that is going on in my life - I might be stressed, busy with work or preoccupied with something with that take up all my creative energy. I also have times of extended procrastination - sometimes I think that during these times my brain is working silently away on something. Before Christmas for instance I was thinking a lot about the order of my collection, it took up a large amount of my creative energy until I came up with a new order. Now I know that I need to re-order it again, and what is more I also need to produce some new work - but since I was ill over Christmas my creative juices seem to have dried up.  I have experienced these creative deserts before - sometimes even reading favourite or new authors isn't enough to inspire me. I know it will pass - the worrying thing is that I have a deadline to work to. I find myself longing for another writing retreat in Wells...

BOOKS READ IN 2012




111) Maybe This Time - Alois Hotschning (fiction)
110) Search Procedures - Erin Moure (poetry)
109) Carrying My Wife - Moniza Alvi (poetry, re-read)
108) The Storm House - Tim Liardet (poetry, re-read)
107) The Bridle _ Meryl Pugh (poetry)
106) Stag's Leap - Sharon Olds (poetry)
105) Swimming Home - Deborah Levy (fiction)
104) Open Door - Oscar Guardiola-Rivera (fiction)
103) Portrait of My Lover as a Horse - Selima Hill (poetry)
102) The BBC International Short Story Competition 2012 (fiction, short stories)
101) Cosmic Ordering for Beginners - Barbel Mohr and Clemens Maria Mohr (non fiction)
100) Unleash Your Creativity - : Secrets of Creative Genius (52 Brilliant Ideas) - Rob Bevan and Tim Wright (non fiction)
99) Spider Bones - Kathy Reichs (fiction)
98) Little Gods - Jacob Polley (poetry)
97) Burying the Wren - Deryn Rees-Jones (poetry)
96) Stone in a Landslide - Maria Barbel (fiction)
95) Beside the Sea - Veronique Olmi (fiction)
94) The Beautiful Indifference - Sarah Hall (fiction, short stories)
93) Pelt - Sarah Jackson (poetry)
92) Nameless Earth - Robert Gray (poetry)
91) Swift - Jennie Feldman (poetry)
90) The Book of Blood - Vicki Feaver (poetry)
89) A Little Book of Meat - Selima Hil (poetry)
88) Lunar Moths - Jo Haslam (poetry)
87) 81 Austerities - Sam Riviere (poetry)
86) The Polish Boxer - Eduardo Halfon (fiction)
85) Recyclopedia: Trimmings, S*PeRM**K*T, and Muse & Drudge - Harryette Mullen (poetry)
84) These Days - Leontia Flynn (poetry)
83) Tender Buttons - Gertrude Stein (prose/poetry)
82) Cobweb Walking - Sara Banerji (fiction)
81) Arguing with Malarchy - Carola Luther (poetry)
80) Clueless Dogs - Rhian Edwards (poetry)
79) Grace - Esther Morgan (poetry)
78) The Underground Man - Mick Jackson (fiction)
77) Wild Abandon - Joe Dunthorne (fiction)
76) Profit and Loss - Leontia Flynn (poetry)
75) Fall - Amy Newman (poetry)
74) For the Good of the Earth and Sun Teaching Poetry - Georgia Heard (non fiction)
73) Misadventure - Richard Meier (poetry)
72) That Awkward Age - Roger McGough (poetry)
71) A Light Song of Light - Kei Miller (poetry)
70) The Keys of Babylon - Robert Minhinnick (fiction, short stories)
69) 26a - Diana Evans (fiction)
68) Maggot - Paul Muldoon (poetry)
67) The Wasteland and Other Poems - T.S. Eliot (poetry - re-read)
66) Ramshackle - Elizabeth Reeder (fiction)
65) The Opposite of Falling - Jennie Rooney (fiction)
64) Occupation - Angela France (poetry)
63) Down the Rabbit Hole -Juan Pablo Villalobos (fiction)
62) Jack Straw's Castle - Thom Gunn (poetry)
61) Salt Rain - Sarah Armstrong (fiction)
60) Jo Shapcott - Tender Taxes (poetry)
59) Jo Shapcott - Phrase Book (poetry)
58) Jo Shapcott - Electroplating the Baby (poetry)
57) Best American Poetry 1997 - edited by James Tate (poetry)
56) Broken Things - Padrika Tarrant (Fiction - short stories)
55) Of Mutability - Jo Shapcott (poetry - re-read)
54) Best American Poetry 1992 - edited by Charles Simic (poetry)
53) The Water Babies - Charles Kingsley (fiction)
52) The Last Falcon and Small Ordinance - Paul Perry (poetry)
51) It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be - Paul Arden (non fiction)
50) London Bridge - Simon Smith (poetry)
49) Anvil New Poets 2 (poetry)
48) Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie (fiction)
47) Waffles - Matthew Welton (poetry)
46) Before I go to Sleep - S.J. Watson (fiction)
45) Legato the Ju-Ju's Cure - Simon Parsons (poetry)
44) The Departure - Chris Hamilton Emery (poetry)
43) All That I Am - Anna Funder (fiction)
42) Glad of These Times - Helen Dunmore (poetry)
41) A Bowl of Warm Air - Moniza Alvi (poetry)
40) Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe (fiction)
39) Carrying Rain - Karen Dennison (poetry)
38) Carrying My Wife - Moniza Alvi (poetry)
37) Sidereal - Rachael Boast (poetry)
36) Mangoes and Bullets - John Agard (poetry)
35) Selected Poems - Elizabeth Jennings (poetry)
34) The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins (fiction)
33) Devil Bones - Kathy Reichs (fiction)
32) 206 Bones - Kathy Reichs (fiction)
31) A Smell of Fish - Matthew Sweeny (poetry)
30) Remember - Agnes Lehoczky (poetry)
29) The Dark Film - Paul Farley (poetry)
28) Flatlands - Victor Tapner (poetry)
27) This Line is not for Turning: An Anthology of Contemporary British Prose Poetry - edited by Jane Monson (poetry)
26) Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson (fiction)
25) The Book of Matthew - Matthew Welton (poetry)
24) Intimates - Helen Farish (poetry)
23) Domestic Violence - Eavan Boland (poetry, re-read)
22) Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen (fiction)
21) Stonepicker - Frieda Hughes (poetry)
20) Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson (fiction)
19) Spilt Milk - Sarah Maguire (poetry)
18) Homesick for the Earth: Selected Poems - Jules Superviele with versions by Moniza Alvi (poetry)
17) Ariel - Sylvia Plath (poetry - re-read)
16) We needed coffee but... - Matthew Welton (poetry)
15) The Knife Drawer - Padrika Tarrant (fiction)
14) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (fiction)
13) Wordsmithery: The Writer's Craft and Practice - Edited by Jayne Steel (non-fiction)
12) The Range-Finder's Field Glasses - Graham High (poetry)
11) Collected Poems 1968 - Roy Fisher (poetry)
10) Fiere - Jackie Kay (poetry)
9) Glad not to be the Corpse - Lydia Harris (poetry)
8) Appearances at the Bentinck Hotel - Tim Cockburn (poetry)
7) Divining for Starters - Carrie Etter (poetry)
6) Black Juice - Margo Lanagan (fiction - short stories)
5) Public Dream - Frances Leviston (poetry)
4) Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes (poetry - re-read)
3) Birmingham River - Roy Fisher (poetry)
2) Standard Midland - Roy Fisher (poetry)
1) Salt - Jeremy Page (fiction