Dreamworks

Image: Dreamworks

Dream Resolve
It was a weekend of squeezing; squeezing all that I could out of the time available and trying to get through as much as possible. There’s a lot going on, both on the writing front and the home front, so much so in fact it’s starting to get a touch hot.

One of my “dreams” for the year (from my Annual GDR Plan) is close to becoming reality and this is the main reason why things have suddenly got so tight. It needs a certain amount of preparation for it to happen and I’ve been throwing myself into it, sacrificing much of my writing time to enabling it to happen.

If it happens the possibilities are boundless, because although things are tight and hard going just now as I sacrifice writing time to make it happen, the positive effect that this will have on my entire life – writing included – is unfathomable.

It’s not a pipe dream. This is something that is a real reality and one way or another if I put my hands to the mill and work a good solid plan through to its end, it will happen. I’ll reveal what it is later so apologies for keeping you in the dark, but it’s the way it has to be just now.

Reading
I read a lot of Konrath’s Origin as well as a large chunk of Simon Van Booy’s short story collection, The Secret Lives of People In Love way too late into the night on both Friday and Saturday. With my daughter at a sleepover (both nights) and my wife out for the night on Friday, I took the opportunity to get a lot of work done over the weekend before settling down to read.

Workshop
My third assignment came back from the workshop with one minor typo and a load of questions. They’re the kind of questions I would want my reader to be asking as they’re all to do with the way I’ve constructed my assignments. I’m still pondering whether to answer some of the questions in a revised submission, though. Maybe…

Ranfurly
I’ve been procrastinating on the latest issue of the Ranfurly Review and finally made a move to getting it ready for publication. Most of the work was done a couple of months back so it doesn’t need a lot done to complete it. As usual, the front cover is proving to be the most problematic.

Trees for Life
I was asked to re-print my haiku for the my Trees for Life charity exhibition. They needed to be a bigger size, which of course isn’t a problem, but getting hold of dedicated time on the right colour printer was. I finally got it printed, and once it’s signed I’ll drop it off at the artist’s studio for framing.

I know the poems have gone down well but I’ve no idea if anyone will actually buy this physical version of them. It’s a first for me and was enjoyable to do so I’m looking forward to seeing the exhibition open.

Charity
Speaking of charity work, I’m in talks with The Sky Project (the charity I’m a patron of) to visit them and give a talk to some of the kids. I sent them an idea that involved going a bit further and developing it into a kind of mini-workshop, and it’s now under discussion.

I think it’s great the way the kids are enabled into making the decisions for themselves; they’re in control of what they do and want to happen, and from what I can tell they run their own committee into the bargain. Hopefully they will have me – I think I’ll get as much out of it as hopefully they will.

iTunes
I began the mammoth process of importing all my CDs into my new Mac over the weekend. Much of my music was already imported, say from around 2009 onwards when I bought my first iPod, but pre-2009 none of my CDs were available on my iTunes. That means I have CDs going back to 1985 to scan in and then after that, I’ll move onto my vinyl. So far, I’ve imported over 4,000 individual tracks!

That’s all for today. Tonight I’m attending an event organised by the Edinburgh Bookshop: Alistair Darling in conversation with Eleanor Updale, which should be very interesting.

Peace and out!

OKTOBERFEST EBOOK OFFER
Enter coupon code OKTOBERFESTUK305 at checkout (OKTOBERFEST305 if outside the UK) and receive 15% off your order of my poetry ebooks: FRINGE FANTASTIC, POOLSIDE POETRY and SILLY POEMS FOR WEE PEOPLE VOL.2. Offer cannot be applied to previous orders and only applies to books or eBooks ordered through the Lulu option. Offer expires at 11:59 PM on September 23rd, 2011.