Yesterday, the day went to the Wantage (not just) Betjeman Festival. After giving the dog his customary walk, and failing to do my daily yoga, leaving at nine to drive to Portsmouth and pick up a big fan of The Marlowe Papers who I’ve got to know a little over the last few months via Facebook and Twitter. She’ s disabled and the public transport between Portsmouth and Wantage isn’t the easiest to negotiate even for the most sprightly of us – and I thought, what the heck, spare seat in the car, only a small diversion off an alternative route, maybe half an hour longer in total. We got there an hour early so we could have lunch which was on her as a thank you (she also gave me a very lovely planted flower arrangement). The disabled badge was handy parking-wise.
I ran a creative writing workshop for seven people from 1-3pm; they were a good bunch, willing and good-humoured, and Dorothy, chief organiser there at the Vale & Downland museum, commented on the laughter coming through the walls. Between 3.15 and 5.30 I wrote just over 400 words of the next novel at a table in the cafe. From 6 until 7 I did my scheduled reading and talk on The Marlowe Papers. A fabulously lively and interested audience asked some great questions after the reading and – as usual – we could easily have gone on, but there was another event slated. Then back to Brighton via Portsmouth, roof down all the way (the chief benefit of travelling by car, in my view) and pretty much straight to bed. Read more
I returned to my old home town of Colchester recently to give a talk at one of my old schools, and was asked by a young poet there how to get published. Specifically,