Just heard that my poem “The Muse and the Mojo” has made it into the second Every Day Poets anthology. Apart from the fact that it only seems yesterday when I heard about the first EDP anthology (has another year gone by already?!), I’m really chuffed about this. Here’s the poem in case anyone’s interested […]
You’ve got to admire Myrmidon’s sense of timing. With the Middle East kicking off left, right and centre, there could hardly be a better time to bring out a novel set in Saudi Arabia, currently sitting nervously at the far end of a long line of wobbling dominos. I’ve long had a soft spot for […]
I’m guessing this one won’t need much explanation. “New Sun Rising – Stories for Japan” is looking for submissions. The indefatigable Greg McQueen, who was behind the Haiti and Pakistan books is once again the driving force. So what are you waiting for? Stop reading this and get writing, chaps and chapesses. Guidelines here.
If Saturday’s fiction offering was all about flies, today’s subject is elephants. The excellent Metazen are playing host to my piece “Advice re Elephants” which made it to the shortlist of the Seán Ó Faoláin award last year. Out of everything I’ve ever written, I think this is one of my favourite stories. And I love […]
As regular readers of this blog will no doubt be aware, I take myself very seriously as a writer. I eschew the base delights of genre fiction and I stubbornly resist any attempts to introduce any notion of humour into my work, preferring to focus my efforts towards the production of high literature. However, I […]
I like The New Writer. Specifically I like their poetry prizes. Their fiction prize is a closed book to me, but last year I managed to be a finalist in both their poetry collection and single poetry competitions. This year I went one better and I was highly commended in the single poem category for […]
… from no less a person than Scott Pack. I’m really pleased about this, because it’s a great little story by Ian Cundell (although I think his other one in the anthology, “Woolgathering”, is even better) and he needs to pull his finger out and write a few more like it. And if Mr Pack’s […]
For no particular reason, the day job has gone a bit bonkers at the moment, which means that most of the carefully crafted posts that I had planned have been elbowed out in favour of this general ramble about stuff. First of all, I really had planned to say something about the splendid “Get Writing” […]
So the STIRRED POeT competition over at The Write Idea is over for another year. After a complete failure to chart in any of the six rounds last year, I actually managed to come 3rd in one this year and win another – which means that two of my poems are going to make it […]
I’d forgotten all about this one. Depending on your point of view, you can see this poem as either a piece of trenchant political allegory or a straightforward little piece of rhyme about a fat cat. Take your pick. I’m happy either way, because I got paid $5 for it 🙂 Which, in poetry terms, probably […]