An unexpected success.

I’m very, very chuffed. For the first time ever I submitted a poem to a magazine and it was accepted almost return of email.  The Dawntreader is a magazine that comes out in print - doesn’t just appear online. (I’m too old to think of appearing in on-line poetry sites as ‘getting published’.) The very best thing is that it and the other magazines put out by the same publishers, IndigoDreams, has accepted poems from my daughter; there’s one of hers in the latest edition. 

The writer’s group here has taken over my life, or rather the writing it generates has. The members are very supportive and the standard good. There’s a lot of energy for achievement, no messing. Maybe that has something to do with the considerable male presence. Whatever. It works for me. 

The last meeting, which was timetabled to include a discussion of ‘activities,‘ did highlight the one downside, that is the danger of filling precious free time producing something for the group to raise money for workshops or jaunts rather than getting on with individual projects. Opinion was divided. It probably always will be. 

Other than that life has jogged along rather pleasantly. There was lunch with a friend last week in a cosily posh local hotel promoting the whisky festival in these parts. We got a free signed copy of the proprietor’s new book about the distilleries hereabouts. It’s a neat small format with good photos, a nice change from the swanky coffee table glossies with lots of sophisticated white space and b*!!*r all actual information.