Summer Here and Back Again

Tomorrow I leave the big city and head off to a summer in the country, but I'll be back for a very exciting weekend in July that I want to tell you about. A new poetry festival called "Polyverse Poetry" will be held on the grounds of Loughborough University during the weekend of 24-26 July. You can read about it here. There will be readings,workshops,performances, book signings -- everything one could hope for from a summer literary festival. I've been looking forward to this all year. Not only will there be many poets there I already know such as Susan Richardson, Carol Thistlethwaite, Gerry Potter, Gail Ashton, Carole Baldock, Nick Carbo; but there will be many others I can't wait to learn more about. But if that isn't good enough...my own poetry play, "Dreams of May," will be performed on the Saturday night by the wonderful actress, Rosalind Cressy, who featured in its London premiere back in 2006. But if you need even more tempting than that...wait for it.....

Carol Ann Duffy, our new Poet Laureate, has also agreed to appear and will be reading and answering questions as the second half of the Saturday evening event!!! Undoubtedly, I'll be telling you more about the festival over the next few weeks, but I thought I'd give you the heads up. Tickets are on sale now. I hope to see some of my friends there.

But for now as I prepare to wave goodbye to England for a few weeks, here are a few photos I've been snapping with my trusty phone/camera, in case I get homesick:



Swans on Dorney Lake, near Eton





View of Regents Park



Tower Bridge from
the Thames Clipper







Shulbrede Priory, Surrey





And now one more thing. I just saw that Lauri, who writes a terrific blog here, has awarded me a "Let's Be Friends" Award. It says:
Blogs that receive the Let’s Be Friends Award are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers.

How wonderful is that? So now I pass it on to:
The Expat Writer
Lane's Write
Glyn Pope
Carrie Etter
Debi Alper
Daydreams in the Shed
Chez Aspie
Fiction is Stranger than Fact

These are all interesting and generous blogs. Do give them a look if you don't already know them.

See you on the other side of the pond!

Feeling Stuck in Limbo

A million years ago, back when my husband and I were young and "in transition," there was a little expression we would occasionally turn to each other and say with half smiles and raised eyebrows: "flux sucks." Well, this is certainly a good week to bring the old adage out of mothballs. After all the family celebrations of last week, these next few days are all about closing down one part of my life, opening up the next, shifting schedules and seasons, preparing for what lies ahead without giving up what has gotten me this far. A bit dramatic that. But it feels that way, not only because I'm preparing Number 2 Son for his life on the other side of the ocean, and because I'm soon heading off for a prolonged summer stay in the States, but also because my writing life is a bit on hold.

The first full draft of the new novel is complete and in the trusted hands of some friendly readers. I already know of some changes I want to make to the last chapter -- thanks to my marvellous writing group -- and I anticipate more suggestions coming soon. When I'll actually get to make any of these changes is any one's guess. No time soon, I fear. But in the past, when the writing of one novel was drawing to a close, I already had a pretty good idea what the next novel would be. But here I sit, nearly ready to close one book and open another, and the ideas just aren't there. Actually, the theme is there. A possible character or two. But no plot. No place. No springboard. Although it's not worrying (I do trust that in time the idea will come), it is annoying. I feel like I'm in limbo in so many parts of my life, and my impatience is showing, ie flux really does suck.

If I was reading this about a friend, I'm pretty sure I would know what advice I'd give. Let it go. Stop thinking about it. Get on with the necessities of life but just keep your eyes open and keep reading. Well, I'm tryin'. I'm tryin'. But if any of you wonderful people out there have any other ideas or thoughts for me at this time of limbo, I'd love to hear them.

In the meantime, maybe this will help.

East Almost Meets West

Something happened, or rather didn't happen, back during The London Book Fair that I have been waiting to write about. Well, the time has come...

This year, in a bid for cultural exchange and global understanding within the publishing industry, the British Council arranged to have a group of Indian writers come over to London and hold panel discussions, lectures and readings during the Book Fair. In anticipation, the Council asked for London-based writers to volunteer to "buddy' one of the Indian writers. So, I did. I was buddied with Bhalchandra Nemade. Here's his biography, according to the British Council:

Bhalchandra Nemade's first novel, Kosala, is considered a modern classic in Marathi literature. His works depict the indigenous lifestyle of the Maharashtra region in India and Marathi culture. Tikasvayavara, a work of literary criticism, won him the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990. His works have been translated into other Indian languages and English. Nemade is from the village of Sangavi, Maharashtra. With a Ph.D. and D.Litt. from the North Maharashtra University, he taught in many places retiring as Gurudev Tagore Chair of Comparative Literature at the University of Mumbai. He has been a member of the Sahitya Akademi, serving on its Executive Board and General Council from 1998-2002.

Can you guess what my reaction was when I read this? Obviously, I was astonished, petrified and couldn't, for the life of me, understand why "after careful consideration" they had chosen to pair me with him. Other than buy him lunch, what could I possibly have to offer this incredibly accomplished artist/scholar? But then, I never heard from him. We never made contact. We never met, and when I asked the Council representative about this, she apologized and simply whispered "Actually, this does happen quite often." To be honest, I was disappointed and a bit put out.

But then, I received an email. Professor Nemade wrote to say that he never received his visa and so never made the trip at all, and that one of the great disappointments was that he and I never had the chance to meet. I was incredibly touched, and now even more disappointed than before.

So I went online and tracked down a copy of one of his novels that had been translated from the Marathi into English. It is called "Kosla" (in English, "Cocoon") and I finished reading it last night. Although a sometimes awkward translation made it at first frustrating to read, it didn't take long for me to realize that Nemade had created a character that transcends cultural boundaries and generations of years. It was written in India in 1963, but the struggles that the central character has as he tries to find a meaning for his life within his surrounding economic and familial pressures are quite universal. A young man is sent off to university burdened with the expectations and demands of his family. The novel steers him through a litany of failures and frustrations, only to find him in the end coming to an understanding of himself and his place in the universe.

And so, ultimately, Mr. Nemade and I have had our cultural exchange. Despite the bureaucracy of our two heavily bureaucratic and often suspicious governments, we have managed to come together via a work of literature first written 45 years ago. I call that one small step for mankind.

Bluechrome Back on Line

I'm still in the midst of what we have started to affectionately call "The Long Goodbye," nearly a week's-worth of events, official and un-, surrounding the graduation of Number 2 son.  It's been wonderful.

I have had the occasional moment, though, to check on blogs, and there was one that I have to draw to your attention.  After my post about small presses and the phoenix-like rise of bluechrome here, many of you went to that site looking to buy books, only to find it unloadable.  Happily, I can now say that the site is back on line and boldly point you all once again in its direction here.  There are hundreds of wonderful books on offer, everything from poetry collections to novels to short story collections.  Summer's here and the time is right not only for dancin' in the streets, but also for readin' on the beach. Do yourselves a favour - hey, do all of us a favour - and take a look.

More soon.  In the meantime, hope there's sunshine where you are.

One Step Towards Success

Today marks the beginning of a rather momentous week in our family. Number 2 Son has just, three minutes ago, finished his last paper for his secondary school education, and on Friday morning, he graduates from High School. Americans make a big deal of this, and since he's gone to an American School, we are now in the thralls of a week's worth of celebration. Every day there's a new event, assembly, concert, party. For any eighteen year old, this is the ultimate rite of passage, the moment that they recognize the reality that their education, from here on in, really will be in their own hands. They make the decisions, they do the work (or not) without us standing over the shoulders and reminding them. They begin to choose who they want to be.

But this process of finding a university place and making this transition is a very difficult one. Some people have more success with it than others. I can't help but think about that. I have often lashed out against the pressures education places on our kids and I often wonder why some kids fall and others don't. There are many, many reasons. But one recent TED lecture has at least addressed the idea with humour. And so, I wanted to share it with you. It shows the results of one study done and so it, of course, is narrow. But it does present one interesting notion, and it did make me laugh.

My parents fly in from New York tomorrow and then the festivities begin in earnest. You may not hear from me for a week or so. But I'll be back when I can. And in the meantime, take a look at these four year olds....

Refusing To Give In To The Blues

It's been a tough year all around. You don't need me to tell you that. And among those who have felt this economic downturn the most acutely have been the already beleaguered though valiant band of Independent Presses. You don't need me to tell you that, either.

As a writer published by one of these presses I have watched the struggles of Salt and others with my hand on my heart and my heart in my mouth. I have bought my books and commiserated with my good friends who's presses have been struggling for their survival. But the question has been hanging out there...what about bluechrome?

Bluechrome has not been immune from difficulties, some economic, some not. But I am thrilled to say that bluechrome is not giving into the blues, is still out there kicking with the best of them, fist shaking at the wind. Today, Anthony Delgrado has posted his own comment on the situation in his own inimitable way on his blueblog, but I wanted to share it with you here as well:

Bluechrome's got some special authors, but then so have another hundred small independent publishers that all spend their time and energy doing something just a bit special, that maybe wouldn't get seen if they were concentrating exclusively on the mass market and the bottom line. And whether they have Arts funding or not, unless you make the effort to support them here and there with a book, they will gradually disappear. And so will the choice they offer, and the opportunities they provide for authors to write something other than Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter clones. So if you are an author, why not buy a book from the publisher before you submit your next manuscript. I'll give you a clue - bluechrome would have made a profit every year since 2002, if everybody that submitted had checked out the books we publish and bought a single copy of any one of them first. This would have meant that we would have published a lot more books, and seen more of the authors that we had to turn down, end up in print. Go figure. And if you are a reader and like something a bit more challenging, give an indie a chance, you could be in for a nice surprise. I read a review recently, where the writer said that he liked indie publisher books as you got 'the writer's real stuff'. After I stopped feeling a bit queasy, I really liked that as it summed up what we have always wanted bluechrome to offer. Whether it is poetry or short stories, experiments or just plain crazy, indie publishing does that and I hope we have too. And if it matters even a wee bit, we'll be doing our best to hang in here just as long as we can, hope you'll be nosing around too.

This all makes great sense to me. Please, check out the offerings at bluechrome and all these wonderful and important indie presses. Whether you're a writer or a reader or both, you'll be glad you did! Now, why is this music playing in my head?

Procrastinating

I'm home and sitting at my desk wondering what to do first. Clearly, what I should do first is finish rereading the new novel before I send it out to my three "trusted readers." I'm especially lucky this time around because not only do I have three readers eager to have a nice, long sit with the book and then give me honest comments, but I also have already worked through 95% of it with the three fantastic members of my writing group. Working with them, doing rewrites all along based on their wisdom, style and taste means that, to be honest, the draft I just finished at Anam Cara is not really a first draft. It's more like a third or fourth one. So I feel, at least, like I'm even further along in the process than I had let on. But I don't want to jinx it so.........

But anyway, I was going to say that rereading the book was what I should have been doing, but since I'm the sort of person who tries to avoid "shoulds" at all costs, instead I've been catching up on all the blogs I've missed over the past few days. And oops! There is one that I really should have pointed out to all of you since it was about me. Watching 9987 ran a very clever competition around Tangled Roots and the winner is now posted over on the site. But you'll have to go there to see who it is. Thank you Nik! And thanks everyone who took part.

And while I'm at it, let me lure you over to Lane's blog where she has posted the most hysterical little movie (which I think she wrote herself) about the writer's dreaded procrastination gene.

Okay. Now I can get back to work. Right after I check in on facebook.