Not that I’m a fan of hot weather — which is ironic given I chose to go and live in Singapore for a while, and where the lowest ever recorded nighttime temperature is about 19 centigrade!
Regardless of that (both my dislike of hot weather and the Singapore adventure) this morning I’ve decided to extract myself from my study for a while and sit here — in shorts for goodness’ sake! — and ramble on. It’s not that I’m bereft of things to do, but a little ‘freewheeling’ feels called for.
And I was very structured yesterday. I spent a fair amount of time trying to ensure that my profile (especially the list of my works) was up-to-date on the ALCS website, on the Public Library Lending site, with the Society of Authors, and on the Human Authored site. (Only one left to check now: ‘Contact an Author’.) It’s amazing how quickly such reference material can get out-of-date especially if — like me — you produce books as if they’re going out of fashion. Which, thankfully, they don’t seem to be.
Although that ‘fact’ depends on what you read, of course. Substack’s full of opinion pieces about the future of books (almost inevitably linked to AI), the stresses and strains on the publishing industry, how it’s tough for writers / agents / publishers (delete as appropriate). I guess the choice we all face is whether or not we engage with such material — and, if we do, exactly how much.
In general I tend not to. ‘Control the controllable’, isn’t that what they say? On that basis, by and large I’m happy to continue to plough my own furrow. And I certainly don’t give too much credence to ‘How to’ type articles even if a) one I saw recently prompted me to try something new and which then gained me a little traction, and b) on occasion, I’m happy to dish out advice myself. The only saving grace with regard that latter hypocrisy is that at least I “eat my own dog food” — one of those horrid and vacuous business-related phrases that used to regularly punctuate my former life and which I may choose to write about one day. (In fact, this paragraph is peppered with clichés!)
And talking about ‘thinking outside of the box’ (see what I did there?!) I’m a little nervous as to what happens with the next stage of the long chain of poems I’m about 65% of the way through in terms of the first draft. I know I plan to go ‘off piste’ at that point (for me, at least), but I’m not yet entirely sure what that will entail or end up looking like. Which makes it exciting and terrifying in equal measure — especially as part of ‘phase 2’ may involve illustration.
I know; wacky, right?
I’ve been thinking a lot about authenticity recently too. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why, over the last few days, I’ve set up a second Substack site: New Contexts. Over the last few years I have curated eight New Contexts anthologies. By and large I enjoy doing so, and — from a process and production perspective — I think I’m quite good at it. Knowing what it feels like to be published, to be able to offer that experience to others gives me a real buzz. Those volumes contain around 860 pages of contemporary poetry and short prose.
Anyhow, it occurred to me that it would be great (and ‘authentic’) to see if I could promote the work of my wonderful contributors even further — hence the new site. Every day I intend to publish one piece, chosen at random, from the anthologies. Feedback thus far has been very positive. Why not take a look? Think of subscribing as getting a little pick-me-up literature pill in your email every day…
And on the back of all that anthology experience I’ve also pitched the idea for an article to the Society of Authors. Their quarterly publication, The Author, is great, and I wondered whether an editor’s view from ‘the inside’ might not fit the magazine quite well. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome…
Ramble over. Time for another coffee.
If you enjoyed this article, please ‘like’ or ‘share’ - your validation is really important to me. It’s writing’s lifeblood.