Local happenings

Yesterday evening Buzzwords got off to a good start for 2016 with a workshop and reading by Josephine Corcoran. I had met Josephine before at Poetry Swindon events but this was my first opportunity to hear her read her work and I thoroughly enjoyed it. She read several poems from her pamphlet "The Misplaced House". Many of them are about memory and forgetting; I found the one that really stood out was "Stephen Lawrence Isn't On The National Curriculum" - an extremely moving poem that will certainly stay with me.

Josephine Corcoran

Buzzwords is run by Angela France, who is now Cheltenham's Poet in Residence. She has a monthly column in the Gloucestershire Echo, our local newspaper, on the third Tuesday of every month and in it she is featuring various Cheltenham poets. Do look out for the column if you have the chance - so far it has featured Alison Brackenbury and Robin Taylor Gilbert, both excellent writers, and Angela has a wealth of talent in the area to choose from - we are blessed with an abundance of interesting, creative poets here.

Happy New Year!

Dreary, damp weather here to welcome the New Year but there's so much to look forward to in 2016 it's difficult to feel down with it. This morning my friend Anna Saunders sent me a poem that really encapsulates the feeling of a fresh start and, although it's entitled Poem For A New Day, it seems ideal as a poem for a New Year -

Poem For A New Day

Something's moving in,
I hear weather in the wind,
sense the tension of the sheep-field
and the pilgrimage of fins.

Something's not the same.
I taste the sap and feel the grain,
hear the rolling of the rowan
ringing, singing for a change.

Something's set to start,
there's meadow-music in the dark
and the clouds that shroud the mountain
slowly, softly start to part.

Matt Goodfellow

And another friend, Richard Hensley, sent me greetings that I pass on to all my writing friends and colleagues everywhere - "May your keyboards always be active, your prose deathless; may publishers worship at your feet and may you never lose your grip on reality (unless you want it that way!)". Here's to a happy, healthy and productive year for us all.

Waiting for Christmas

Perhaps my favourite part of Christmas is Christmas Eve - there is something quite special about the preparations, something quite magical about the waiting.

In our family we don't put up and decorate the tree until Christmas Eve and as I was doing so today I was aware of what a "memory tree" ours is. I can remember exactly where each of the decorations came from (shopping with my mother forty years ago, watching an excited child running out of school with an outsize plaster of Paris model of a bell they'd made, a tiny Father Christmas who fell out of a cracker ....). I remember all the Christmas Eves when the children were small, sitting by the tree taking it in turns to read verses from the Christmas story, all the feeling and shaking of parcels beneath it as they guessed at the possible contents.

And laying the table in readiness too - memories of Christmas meals of the past, the occasional disasters (the year the turkey didn't defrost, the time smoke from a burning duck billowed out of the kitchen ..), the family stories that came out year after year, the people who have sat with us to celebrate. No wonder Christmas features so large in many literary works - such a rich seam of memory and anecdotes!

Wherever and whenever you are reading this - I hope you have a really happy time celebrating whatever festival you celebrate at this time of year - and may it be a peaceful time for us all.

Plants and Pledges

Well, my Christmas cactus, which is always ablaze with blooms by now, is sporting one solitary flower; I don't think it appreciated the trim I gave it back in the summer. But my outdoor azalea, which is usually glorious for Easter, is in full flower now! And my neighbour's garden is full of daffodils ...

Lovely - but will it flower again at Easter?!

But one thing that is running true to form is Catchword, my writing group. A year or so ago I was at a talk one evening when the speaker, a popular author, said that she had never had any writing success whilst with a writing group and she saw little value in them. I beg to differ in a big way on that one. For me, a supportive group where people give constructive feedback on my writing, introduce me through their writing to new ideas and approaches, share in my successes and commiserate when things don't go so well - that is immensely helpful to me. At our Catchword meeting yesterday we were looking at the individual goals we had set ourselves a couple of months ago, evaluating how far we had got with them and planning for the next few months. I find that committing to something in a group situation certainly improves my subsequent motivation!

A social season ...

... and yes, it was a very good evening! Our Christmas Crackers party last Friday celebrated both a year of New Bohemian activity and the launch of "Poetry Among The Paintings" with mulled wine and mince pies, hauntingly beautiful cello music played by Geoff March and a seasonal open mic. We had a very appreciative audience for our Picaresque readings and we do hope those who bought pamphlets enjoy our other poems in them too.

And tomorrow evening (Wednesday Dec. 16th) sees yet another poetry party, this time at Smokey Joes in Bennington Street here in Cheltenham - a winter solstice one, complete with a poetry quiz and prizes for the best winter solstice costume! Who / what would you come as? I think we might have a glut of Father Christmases - think outside the box, as they say ...

See you there?

A great walk with our  dog yesterday in the Wye Valley, where we shall shortly be spending a lot more time. We were blessed with a mild day and beautiful winter sunshine; no wonder the area was a great favourite of Wordsworth's - and so many other poets - you can't fail to be inspired by the wonderful scenery. My mother always loved the valley with all the autumn tints, but for me every season there has its own attractions.

Tomorrow evening sees the launch of our Picaresque pamphlet "Poetry Among The Paintings" at the New Bohemians Christmas Crackers evening at Deepspace Artworks here in Charlton Kings. Do come if you are free (7.30pm in Hamilton Street, tickets £6.50 on the door, including drinks and nibbles). Perhaps bring a seasonal poem for the open mic, enjoy some pleasant company and hear some great poetry -  it promises to be a really good evening.

I know where I'm going ...

How many writers pressed "word count" at midnight last night and breathed a sigh of relief that they'd actually achieved their NaNoWriMo objective?! Well done to everyone who did - I certainly stand in awe of anyone who can put in such tremendous effort over that period of time to come up with a first draft of a novel. The hard work of  rewriting, editing, polishing, etc. etc still to come, I know, but actually getting those words down and the story on paper in the first place is a great achievement in itself.

For me it proved a useful month, "getting my house in order" and prioritising my writing projects. I've now got a much clearer picture in my mind of what I am aiming to do with "Digging Up The Family". It really is proving a far more extensive project than I had first envisaged, encompassing not only the story of my predecessors over a two hundred year period but also putting their lives into the appropriate social and political context and telling the tale of my "quest" to research and write it. I've now set myself the goal of completing the first draft within twelve months, so a concentrated period of work ahead!

Nineteenth century Ebbw Vale miners - my current area of research