Tuesday I went along to what is essentially a University of Gloucester (I think) event that has been opened up to the public. It is held at the Frog and Fiddle in Cheltenham in their 'barn'.
I really liked the evening though I had to leave early - but I did get up and read 🙂 I also put flyers out for WoPoWriMo 🙂
I was incredibly nervous about this night as it was full of people who like study poetry and things - again the only thing I could speak authoritively on was Interzone and their submitting process :/
I found about four hours before the deadline that there was a 100 stories for Haiti book project asking for submissions to help raise money for the earthquake victims.
So I hurriedly altered one of my stories and sent it too them last night - I was first stuck with a feeling that I wouldn't have anything to give them as they didn't want anything with Death, violence etc... it was the death one that stumped me - all the stories I have with the nice happy endings are ghost stories which were obviously out.
Anyway I found something and sent it off!
I had actually already mentioned something like this project as a possible money raiser after an argument about writing stories about the crisis itself.
Now I would encourage writing about suck heavy subjects as I feel they all to often get swept aside but I also feel you have to be careful and think before you fictionalise such a thing. Why? Becuase it would be easy to trivualise it.
How can you fictionalise a crisis why it is still going on? Unless you have actually been being there helping and are fictionalising your own experience - you need to research it or you will just get it all wrong. And I feel uneasy about writing about it whilst it is still a crisis - Apparently people felt helpless and wanted to show they cared - my reaction to this was simply - make an ebook of other stories and sell it to raise money then.
I'm not sure why I had such a strong reaction to this but Alaric thinks the same way too - he thinks you can't really fictionalise something like this until a yr or so afterwards.
Anyway they have now extended the deadline so if you have a story under 1000 words you might want to donate it 🙂
Last night at Poetry Cafe one of the main poetry thingys I have been attending we had a blinding headline poet called Adam Horovitz. During his reading I got the chill and the tingle and so actually parted with cash for a pamphlet containing a poem that made me want to cry.
The Great Unlearning.
Know if you know me - you also know that I basically don't buy poetry - unless there is a contributors copy where I don't have to pay postage and packaging I don't even have copies of my own poems - I don't buy the journals or anything. I am basically a culture thicky, the scientist ingressing and yes I don't read much poetry - this is because I will only bother reading something where I have heard some of the poems and have had the tingle.
Anyway I am digressing as I always do!
Basically I really liked this guys poems and I got to read too 🙂 In the open mic! I read Alphabet Soup and Summer Sale - though I felt very fatigued yesturday and had trouble not shaking which sucked big time and I felt it reflected in how well I read 🙁
I also got to announce WoPoWriMo (World Poetry Writing Month) which I need to do a whole post about but basically - February is the month of poetry and the month of poetry is February.
It's a writing challenge - if your intrested do click through to have a butchers 🙂
Also next month I am going to be doing a mini showcase at Poetry Cafe of my work. I am of course excited about this and hope that some peeps might actually want to come and see me 🙂
This year my birthday has been a bit of a flop again - most people I invited for a gaming weekend were still too tied up with xmas or had no money left to come up because of Christmas etc...
So I rearranged things and thought I'd get to see the new 'hot stuff' guy I've found who plays music that's a cross over of say Nick Cave and The White Strips with Claire and a few others but then the snow caused most other people to cancel and in the end I canceled as Claire had an opp on Monday that I couldn't let her risk missing.
So my birthday weekend was out of the window - then worse we had run out of fuel for the fire and the water wasn't working - some very nice and helpful people from the village came and rescued us and we had bottled water (for drinking melted snow for everything else!) and fuel!
And lo!
With heat down stairs our water came back - I wonder why!
Anyway so my actual birthday Monday I spent home schooling Jean (school is still closed due to snow) and tidying downstairs which due to being were food is but warmth wasn't had become a shambles!
Al had wanted to take me out to dinner with Jean but snow forbade it and due to work commitments and Barbara's washing machine in the stable deciding to jet water everywhere - the yummy home made dinner was very late indeed.
Jean stayed up to sing me Happy Birthday and have some cake - which was infact our Christmas cake remastered - ie I stuck some candles on it!
She'd bought me two lovely presents - an enamald butterfly in purple and turquoise and a purfum bottle in glass and silver metal enamald black with 'diamonds' on it - very art deco - Al said she went straight for those things in the shop! She knows my tastes well 🙂
She also gave me a purple box of purple glittery and lavander gauzy hair accessories 🙂
Most of Al's presents he had giving me when it started snowing as they were all things to help keep me warm - reusable lavander and wheatgerm heat pads and a heated blanket. The difference these have made to me is unbelievable and I'm very happy he didn't wait to give them too me!
He also got me a book on Secret Societies to help me with The Punk storyline 🙂
Recently I found this intresting guy on twitter called the Flying Trilobite who is an artist inspired by science - I really liked his drawings so followed him.
Anyway he then tweeted about submissions for palaeo-environment pictures and lo! I found Art Evolved and their time capsules full of palaeo-art!
Anyway it turned out the next time capsule was palaeo-environments and they wanted pictures along that theme. Unfortunatly it was very close to the deadline and I wasn't sure how to entire or if I could - even though on a later inspection of the site I saw all the instructions in plan sight!
Anyway I basically only manage to get a quick biro sketch done which wasn't composed properly or anything!
My topic was an Upper Ordovician benthonic community - yep you got it - basically it was another of my seascapes 🙂
Anyway its here if you want to see it 🙂 I'm in the middle bit of the time capsule.
Of course being me the first thing I did was sit down and read a few chapters of various palaeo books I just happen to have lurking about 🙂
Anyway I am really excited about this as I've been searching for art and science cross overs 🙂 The next time capsule is on the Therizinosaurs which I think are like beaked dinosaurs I think! I need to do a bit of reading up on these - at the moment the only book I have that mentions them is my Vertebrate Palaeontology book :/
Poems, Sarah | sarah | 
Wed 27th Jan 2010 10:12 am | 
Comments (0) 
Subscribe