The high, high, highs!

Happy chappies....just how I feel!

Hello writers and readers. Don't you just love it when one of your dreams comes true? I'm still pinching myself after I received an email from Popshot advising me that my flash fiction had been chosen to appear in the 'Haunting' issue, due for publication next month. You could say there was much excitement! I cannot wait to see the illustration to my story. Popshot is a great magazine publishing poetry, flash and short stories. I've been a subscriber for a few years now and always enjoy the contrast of content. 

While I'm still reeling from that success, Seaborne Magazine has finally been published. There had been difficulties with printing, but it was worth the wait. It is a beautiful magazine. I have two poems in this issue and lovely art work alongside them. This is the first time a print version has been on offer. You can also purchase a digital version.

I have been slow this month to submit other work, and then had a mad time trying to catch up before I went away on holiday. I sent out three submissions before leaving and this morning I have sent another two, which means I have reached my goal of five submissions this month. It was touch and go there this time!

I completed the poetry course on Writing the Personal with Julia Webb and thoroughly enjoyed it. Feedback was, as usual, extremely helpful and positive. I am now trying to focus on what comes next. I've been toying with the idea of publishing a book of flash and short stories, while I have an idea for a follow-up novella for something as yet unpublished. Of course, that might all change, but at least the creative writing juices are gradually swimming around again.

Meanwhile, I have been reading The Ghost in the Garden by Jude Piesse. The author has gone in search of Charles Darwin's garden at The Mount in Shrewsbury where he grew up. The house is currently used by the Council as offices, but the lease was due to expire last year and all sorts of speculation was running rife about what would happen next. I've just searched online and it looks as though it will be turned into a museum and cafe! Read about it here.

The book has made me want to return to Shrewsbury, a place I visited a few years ago. I walked in the footsteps of Darwin (a trail you can follow). Maybe I will wait until the house is ready!

Until then I am waiting for Popshot to drop through my door!