Plodding on, Morris & Yorkshire Dales

Well, first the bad news - I didn't get anywhere in the Calderdale Short Stories competition but, as you probably know, you just have to keep plodding on writing and submitting work. At least I have more faith in my own writing now and that seems really important.

So, good news. Though not really writing news. One of my favourite pastimes is playing melodeon for a women's Morris side (team) - you can find us at www.persephonemorris.co.uk I'm one of the musicians and we wear top hats as part of our kit. You may know that there is now a film about Morris dancing. There's a good clip on this site and you can find out more if you're interested: http://www.morrismovie.com/ It looks to be a really good laugh and has even gone down well on its USA tour!

A few of Persephone went walking over the Ribblehead railway viaduct in the Yorkshire Dales last Sunday. The rain even kept off for a lot of the time in the afternoon even if the cloud didn't. It was hard work walking on the gravel besides the line but a great little experience. And if you've never been to the Yorkshire Dales in the UK then in my considered opinion you haven't lived! It is a big county with all kinds of scenery, villages, towns and cities. I could go on and on ... but for now you can see the photo of Ribblehead viaduct at the top of this post.

Lancaster's online writing course is now well under way and after a lot of blood and sweat (well, lots of thinking anyway) I have posted most of a short story for feedback. For the first time I'm including more than one point of view in a short story. It's so rewarding getting feedback from a good group of writers - everyone has something to contribute but everyone has something to gain too.

poetry busking

They're right you know, there's always something new to learn! I had never come across this idea till last Saturday at the Kirkstall Festival in Leeds. You could 'buy' a poem for a £1, that is you could have a poem written for just £1. Well, I thought that as I had asked for a sonnet that £2 would be more like it (big spender!). The stall was run by Leeds Combined Arts - www.leedscombinedarts.org.uk - an organisation I hadn't heard of before either and the poet was a young man called Ted Hockin.

You could go back in half an hour and get your poem. In fact a friend had pointed me in the direction of the stall and I was there when she collected her poem, and it was a cracker! However as I don't write that fast I thought it unreasonable to ask him, so he is going to email the poem to me.

I wonder if this is a new thing and I'm just slow to get in the swing of things, or maybe it's even been going a while. Might be a way of bringing in some cash mightn't it? Would be pennies in my case as I am not what would be called a fast writer. At least I need a lot of thinking time before I get pen to paper, or in my case finger to keyboard.

Things are hotting up on the Lancaster online course though and I'm feeling rather behind - you can't just wait for inspiration when you have deadlines. And that was one of the reasons I enrolled for it so I have no excuse there ...

At leat I have a short story plotted out before I even began it and I haven't always done it that way. Just started and then see what would happen usually.