What I've been up to

 

 

Oh dear! It seems to be five years since I last blogged. Forgive me, reader.  I think I got too busy with my job. Lecturing isn't what it used to be in terms of thinking and writing time. Where I was, there was a heavy emphasis on teaching and admin. This emphasis got heavier and heavier until I started to suffocate. So about a year ago I left. I miss colleagues and students, but not the overall set-up.

However, leaving a permanent job is not the most practical approach to living. I know that. 'How brave,' said someone I was chatting to at the end of a book launch (not mine) last year. But it wasn't particularly brave. I hope it wasn't foolhardy either of course. After nearly ten years lecturing at that particular institution I felt strongly that it was time to move on. So I took a sort of leap. But also, I didn't really think I had much choice in the matter. I wasn't happy and the position - well, let's just say it was far from secure. In addition, one only has so much time and I really do want to do more writing. Have to, it feels like.

Ironically, I ended up taking on so much hourly-paid teaching at three (yes three!) different universities that I was just as run off my feet with lecture-writing, marking and admin as I had been before. Talk about replicating one's familiar prison. Not that I didn't enjoy all the work I did. I learned a lot, filling in the gaps in my knowledge in certain literary periods, and also revisiting texts and times with a fresh group of students. I'm hoping the coming year will be a little more in balance as I concentrate on online teaching with an emphasis on creative writing and poetry in particular (though not exclusively). Specialising at last...

Anyhow. It's that time of year where there's a sort of lull between academic semesters, and, for me,  really the first time in ten years that, not having a faculty post, I'm relatively free of urgent paperwork and rolling meetings. I have other commitments and concerns, but at least work-wise I'm resting and clearing my head a bit. The money's a bit of a worry -  but it's worth it just for once.

I'm taking stock a little bit. Last calendar year, strangely, was all about fiction. I actually have not one, but two novels on the go. Seriously. One's historically-based. A longish draft is finished but it needs much structural revision. You can read some associated work here at the wonderful Dappled Things magazine. The second's very different - a sort of satirical crime fiction. I was having enormous fun with it before I started all my various teaching contracts. I'm about a third through but know where it's going, I think. It's always easier to start these projects than finish them of course. But I plan to give them both a good push for the rest of the year.

I've also slipped back into poetry quite seriously this calendar year so far. It was partly because I didn't have a lot of time in January but wanted to commit to writing something every day (ish) so ended up writing a few lines of poetry every night before falling asleep. It got into a bit of a habit. And some poems seemed to write themselves, which is always a good sign. A new collection is out there waiting for a response - I won't say any more at present. I feel pleased to have got something 'shipped' as the terminology goes.

Finally I've been experimenting with book creation myself. My last poetry collection, Ink's Wish, sold out in its original Gatehouse edition - this is the collection inspired by Margery Kempe, who I was writing about here a few years ago! So (with Gatehouse's blessing) I've created my own ebook version. Then, rather enjoying myself, I made my out-of-print 2003 Stride collection The Lady Chapel available too. Out for a run the other day I thought I might even put the two together as a double collection - Lady Ink?

It was interesting typing up and formatting The Lady Chapel especially. I feel that I am a different person and a different poet now, definitely. But some threads of style and theme are the same. There were lots of poems I was itching to edit, but I stopped at a few punctuation changes. The poems are what they are, and I still think they breathe together as a project in their own way.

I'm not sure it's the done thing culturally for poets to re-publish their own past collections (legally I'm good -  I have the copyright for both and neither are published elsewhere any more). Not sure I care though. They're out there, and in a strange way dusting them down and re-launching them via Kindle makes them feel finished all over again, leaving me with a clean slate for further poetry - and that's a good feeling.