April '24
Another month in the rear-view mirror - but I don't think I'll be doing this any more going forward...
1st
First two reviews of 17 Alma Road have arrived on Instagram. Some really nice comments (which I’ll share in a separate post in a few days).
Work progressing well on the non-fiction project.
3rd
Transcribing the reviews of 17 Alma Road as they come in, first to a summary post here (let loose in about a week), and also to posts on both iangouge.com and the book’s page on coverstorybooks.com.
Put together my first Mailchimp mailing for April. It contained links to the Coverstory books poetry competition, the 17 Alma Road book page, promo for The Red Tie, plus links to various Substack posts. [If you would like to be added to my distribution list, please let me know.]
Still drafting my non-fiction idea (around 10k words now).
4th
Finalised readers for April’s Contextual; also had an idea for something different for May…
A couple of proposals out to produce second volumes of poetry with poets I’ve worked with before.
6th
Concluded the first draft of the opening section of my non-fiction book. Current thought is to refine this and then send it out (with a synopsis for the rest) to see if I can get anyone interested.
With the above, I also have 107 pages of short stories now sitting on my ‘to review/edit’ pile…
Wrote and posted a short article about how much writing is like moving into (or building) a new house. I think this is of a ‘readable length’.
7th
Started the edit of the first 11k words of my non-fiction ‘proposal’. I think I’ll call it that…
Also began work on the formatting of a second poetry collection I’m producing for a very old friend.
And - hold the front page! - drafted a poem.
8th
Started the process of final edits on those 107 pages of short stories - partly inspired by a potential new hero, John McGahern, whose stories I’ve just discovered.
Sent my non-fiction proposal out to nineteen agents… Will leave it a few days before I start drafting the next chapter(s).
Mentoring at a Writers’ Retreat on 11th-13th, so need to do some final prep over the next 3 days.
10th
All the reviews for the 17 Alma Road ‘book tour’ are in and posted here, on my website, and on Coverstory books. There are some crackers! Really grateful to the reviewers.
Still editing a few short stories. Entered one or two into competitions.
11th - 14th
Away mentoring at a writers’ retreat. (See my separate post.)
Also kicked-off a ‘Haiku Chain’ exercise with six poets who are going to produce a collaborative piece for our event at the end of May. Exciting!
15th
Woke up feeling good about short stories… So started drafting a new one. The trigger? Simply looking at my hands… Hopefully you’ll see what that will translate into one day; thus far, about 1k words in.
And I should give a shout-out to ‘Love Book Tours’ who facilitated the recent ‘tour’ (and reviews) for 17 Alma Road.
16th
The new short story ended up running it about 2.4k words. Now editing time!
Now working on two second poetry collections for others. Publication should be in the May-June timeframe.
Triggered by reading someone else’s work I was inspired to write a post trying to unpick the point of poetry. I must acknowledge that it is not a particularly positive or forgiving piece - maybe I’ll be in a better mood tomorrow..!
18th
Although it may appear otherwise, I confess I keep forgetting to update this post - which may be a message in itself of course. Might "April 2024" be the last of these..?
An aside. Went to the gym this morning (a frequent but irregular occurrence). My wife described it as an hour “pushing and pulling”. Well, there you go… Now time to “push and pull” at some words…
Posted a draft of a short poem - death of a gladiator - which is really an experiment in form - for me at least. (The idea came in sleep the other day.) Some people seem to like it which is. as always, encouraging. Thank you.
20th
Started work on another new short story. Not entirely sure where it’s going at the moment.
And started a new article about theft and sleight-of-hand in writing.
Tried posting my Okay, so you’ve written a poem article as a link from a Note as an experiment to see if that garners greater engagement. If it does, then I may ‘re-post’ some earlier writing-related articles in the same way.
I’ve also dug out some old readings of poems which are accompanied by an animated video and posted a couple of these on Instagram. Again this is an experiment to try and gauge what captures people’s attention.
22nd
I find myself embarked on another new short story - and a dystopian one too. Like The Red Tie, it is set in the near future; a touch of “Total Recall” meets “1984” (probably).
This morning I have a meeting to discuss my July ‘WordFest’ pop-up reading at the venue which will be hosting it. I’m assuming we’ll be covering logistics etc. July sounds a long way away, but it’s probably only 11 weeks - and we know how time flies.
23rd
Exciting news! At one of my slots at ‘WordFest’ in July I am going to perform Crash: or the last 30 minutes of a life. Having read it in a cinema’s cellar last year, this year I’ll be performing it in another cosy space: an old Magistrates’ Court. I may read it from the dock - or that may be where people want to put me afterwards! 45 minutes after Crash, I have my hour-long ‘pop-up’ reading in the Advocate Arms. Throat lozenges anyone..? To celebrate, I read the whole of Crash (performance-style) in the afternoon. It was like bumping into an old friend!
24th
Posted a short piece on ‘TL;DR’ and what it means.
Revamped my ‘About’ page - something that was long overdue!
Attended a Society of Authors ‘At Home’ event, an interview with the poet Kim Moore. If you haven’t read her work you should check out All the men I never married and The Art of Falling.
27th
Yesterday posted a short piece called ‘Living the life of a slave’, looking at the fine dividing line between addiction and slavery in terms of a writer’s life.
Finished the first draft of a new short story; another dystopian one, set in the not too distant future. The last 1,600 of 6,700 words this morning. My ‘pile’ of unpublished stories now sits at 52k words / c. 200 pages… Not that all of them are likely to make a final collection (but I’ve already got the title story)…
28th
Drafting something this morning and threw it into w-i-p here. I’ve no idea what it is, nor if it has a future. It started with me deciding I wanted to write about a copper kettle. That was all. [See; no such thing as writers’ block…]
29th
Two weeks today I’ll be heading off on a week-long retreat. It’s becoming an annual treat which, year after year, feels ever more important. I’ve some things to work on - which is great - but if history repeats itself I’ll also find something new there too!
Another “unfortunately…” email from a competition. I no longer take rejection as an insult, a sleight. In fact I don’t think such rebuttals mean very much at all. We can’t allow them to, can we? Appreciation is all so subjective. If we did, we’d put down our pens and take up something like mountaineering because we think it might be easier…
Started another short story. Out for a walk when an opening sentence or two came into my head. Simple as that.
30th
At the closing stages of a second collection I’m putting together for a friend (in addition to another that’s about a month ahead in terms of the process).
You been busy. Feel like I'm going slow motion compared to you. Hehe! I suppose I tend to work on one thing at a time, so it's the same bit every day for a while. Don't seem as much as lots of different projects. And it probably ain't, I do tend to work slow. I don't get bored, so I don't mind doing the same thing for a while. Anyway, looks like you got untold projects going on. Good gear. Well done. Hope they all work out well for you, Ian. Good luck and I hope May is just as interesting for you.