July 2017
Submitting to Visual Verse has become something of a monthly compulsion; I think it's to do with the challenge. It's never an easy image to write about, but that's what makes it such great fun. I really flexed my writing muscles at the beginning of July where I wrote a play(let) for the writing prompt. The competition runs every month, is free to enter, and all accepted submissions share the glory of being published on the website - and there is some really good stuff there! All published work is also shared on Twitter, usually with a complimentary tweet.
Although I mainly write poetry for adult readers, I also dabble in children's poetry. In fact, I self-published a little collection and have had several children's poems traditionally published. There is a forthcoming anthology in the pipeline which is to be published by Bloomsbury (big name!) and Joshua Seigal (National Poetry Ambassador 2017) has been invited to be its editor. He is currently seeking submissions of unpublished children's poetry. Here is the link to his blog, with all the details.
I sent off three, one of which was almost picked up recently by Maverick Books... almost!
Have you heard about Alfie Dog Publishers? A few years ago, I had some poetry and flash fiction published by them as part of an anthology put together by my online writing group.
Alfie Dog is quite unusual in that it sells single stories to readers. Rosemary Kind, the editor, states, 'The site has two aims, firstly to be the best place on the web to download quality short stories and secondly to return as much of the royalty as possible to the authors.' One of my stories, 'Occupational Therapy' will go live on the website on August 6th and will be available for the bargain price of 39p!
No one can have failed to have been touched by the recent news of the Grenfell Disaster. I happened to come across a call for submissions for an anthology called Dark Bones which is to be published at the end of the year by Eyewear Publishing, the profits from which will go towards helping the victims in some way. I submitted a poem.
Outcome: The poem was accepted for publication.
