How sweet it is
How sweet it is to get paid for one’s writing!
I received the cheque in the mail today for the prize winning poem I entered in a recent competition. Nice to be acknowledged in a competition – and get paid for it. It has inspired me to write more poems and stories and send them off to publishers. It has also spurred me on to get the many manuscripts of books ready for sending off too. I have a nice little collection of texts for picture books and novels for children just waiting for a final edit and a cover letter.
In addition to the cheque I also received a lovely certificate as the winning poet. Nice.
Good writing.
Prize Winning Poetry
Yahoo – I’m doing the writer’s jig again and again and again.
I just received notification this morning that I have won first prize in a Literary Competition. It was for a suite of poems in sonnet form and was entered in the Traditional Rhyming Poetry section. The competition was conducted by Freexpression magazine here in Australia, though entries were received from a number of countries.
It was hard work – a labour of love I guess. But getting recognition like this is very encouraging, especially seeing some of the place getters are frequent competition winners.
And the cash prize is very nice.
Check out some of my poetry here.
Good writing.
Top 50 Aussie Writing Blogs
I am always on the lookout for good blogs – especially those that deal with writing. I was delighted a few days ago to find out that someone has compiled a list of Australian blogs about writing.
Jonathan Crossfield on CopyWrite has compiled a list of the Top 50 Aussie Writing Blogs. I am delighted that my blog sits at #25. It’s doing better than I thought, thanks to all of my readers who keep on coming back for more.
Go over there and have a look at the list. It’s based on various factors, including page rank and traffic. Each blog has a link to it, so it would be worth having a look at some of the blogs listed.
I’ll wait patiently here while you have a sneak look.
Good writing.
April is Poem a Day Month
No Comments »1st April, 2009; Category: Blogs, Group writing projects, Master of Arts course, Poetry
Over the years I have written about 500 poems – I haven’t done an accurate count. Most of these were written when the inspiration came to me, usually when I was particularly moved by a scene, an event or a special set of circumstances.
Over the last year I have written about 40 new poems, some of them quite long, the longest being about 140 lines. Almost all of these were written ‘on demand.’ I wrote them because they were expected of me as a part of my Master of Arts course. Most weeks I had to produce a poem in a set format as a part of the assessment process. It was tough going, but I managed it. I found the discipline of enforced writing actually worked in my favour: I had to produce something and that meant honing my skills as a poet.
With this in mind I endorse the idea behind April being the Poem a Day month (click here for details and rules). Each day a writing prompt by Robert Lee Brewer of Poetic Asides on the Writers’ Digest site will be given and poets are encouraged to write a poem a day for the entire month – or you may choose to only write one every few days. All poems submitted will appear on the blog site.
It’s a good challenge. Are you up to it?
Not sure where I’ll find the time. [sigh]
Good writing.