‘New’ website

What a great response to my poem. Thanks, folks. Also, now I have updated my website, http://www.juliecround.co.uk I have more people looking at it. I do need to email some of my readers to tell them about it but , most of all, I hope it will bring in more invitations to speak as I don’t have any for 2018 and I know most groups organise their speakers a year in advance.

The poetry book is under discussion but until I am sure of the layout I can’t ask Joan for more cartoons. I wish I had kept a list of everyone who bought “Honey and Humbug” but I didn’t. That’s a lesson, folks, keep a list of all your readers. It seems cheeky but it helps when you write the next book!

Hubby has made a database so I can track all the stories I send out for competitions. That will be my next task, when this hot weather breaks. At present I don’t feel like doing anything!

Poem – WAR

“What did you do in the war, Daddy?””It all depends which war you mean.”

“They said there was mud and tanks, Daddy.Did you hear the wounded scream?

“Was it terrible in the trenches, Daddy. Did your friends and comrades die?”

“I wasn’t alive for that, son, but it made your Grandma cry.”

“So, what was the war you were in, Daddy? Did you march, or fly a plane?

“Did you struggle home on a boat, Daddy, and who was it to blame?”

“I was only a baby, then, son. I was far too young to fight,

But the enemy sent some planes and bombs that gave us an awful fright.

The battle then was won, son. The wars are different now.

There’s still folk who want to harm us and I’ll try to warn you how.

If people tend to disagree they no longer compromise

Instead they use weapons of hate to distribute their lies

On internet across the world  -so, they are with us, here.

We all have to be vigilant, our enemies are near.

We want to trust the folk we meet, but even those who care

Find ignorance and greed combine to bring destruction there.

For many weeks the news has led with terror and with pain

It makes one wonder if our wars will ever end again.”

 

Marking time

The pantomime has been put on hold as I realised that, although when I wrote it the references were topical, things change so quickly that the world could seem a very different place by Christmas. No matter, I have had a great response from folk who want to participate and I have noted their contact numbers for when I have updated the script.

The poetry anthology is nearly ready. I don’t know how many pages it will be until we get the layout right but there is a fine mix of thoughtful and funny verses.

I am about to revamp my website to emphasise the fact that I am happy to give talks. At the moment the books take centre stage but only the most recent one seems to be selling and the others deserve a look, especially “Never Run Away.” Every time we go to Morrisons I think of the action on the railway line in the story. Morrisons have changed the road layout and a lot of people are getting confused by the new one way system. Time will tell if it is an improvement.

Titles

Poems chosen, I now find that I need a new title for the anthology. It was going to be “Birds, Blues and Bygones” which gave an idea of the verses about nature and nostalgia that we started with. Now some of the more simple poems have been replaced by darker ones about loss and change and I need to check the balance of moods to ensure the whole thing is not too depressing.

I also need to look up ways of designing the pages myself to avoid having to pay extra for the printing. It is a good job there is no specific date for completion.

As for the pantomime, I think I have found my two main characters. These two activities mean I am not writing but I am reading and ,I hope, learning!

Poetry anthology

Being an editor/publisher as well as a novelist means I get the opportunity to select and revise as well as create. At the moment I am choosing poems for the second anthology by four local writers and they have come up with some very good work that is more serious than the rest of the verses I had selected.

I think, maybe , that this book will turn out very different from ‘Honey and Humbug’ our first anthology, which made people chuckle and is now out of print as all 100 copies were snapped up in a few months. I did not ISBN it as I was warned that not many people bought poetry books and, actually, a lot of them were given away as presents. It did prove that our efforts were appreciated and hence the new book.I do sometimes include a poem or two in my talks to the WI so my copy is very precious.

I am now researching local printers to find the most reasonable way of producing the anthology as I do not want to use Print on Demand.

Magazines

When I go on holiday I usually take a novel to read but this time I took a short story magazine. Once I had finished reading them I looked for something else to do. I didn’t feel inspired to write anything so I bought a “Take a Break” magazine – full of different puzzles. I don’t usually like crossword puzzles. I find them difficult – but there were variations on the theme from simple wordsearch puzzles to’guess the meaning’ type puzzles. My favourite turned out to be one where they give you three words and you have to find the word that connects them. We took the dog for walks but I am getting very out of breath on hills so we can’t go as far as we used to.Still, it has been a break – back to sorting out the poetry anthology on return.

Anthology

In the middle of editing the poetry anthology. Poems from four very different writers and I am wondering whether to keep the two different set ups. Some are written from the left margin and some centred. I quite like the variety but I’ll have to talk with my designer. I’d also like a border of some sort. I looked at some on line and I think I have found one I like but should it be the same on every page? Also, I have changed some of the punctuation and am tempted to restore the originals as they are how the author intended. I only found one spelling error in twenty poems. Now to get it all in order for October, when I am hoping we can make some sales.