Looking Forward to an Amazing 2023!
I think the idea of being a writer is that you have to keep going. I have been a late bloomer when it comes to publishing success and although I wish I had started in my twenties, I am now not daunted by creeping age and the fact that there is ageism in our society in every vocation. If you’re a cricketer or footballer over 40 you’re out of the game. Why is that? Some human beings have only reached their peak at that age. Writers, it seems, are also over-the-hill at a certain age. However, the best thing is to ignore the pundits, push beyond those restrictions, keep planning your goals and keep on applying for author opportunities.
2023 looks literarily amazing for me. I am off down south on 5th February on a self-funded writing retreat in Margaret River for 7 nights to work on my 4th book, The Tattooed City. After spending two weeks at the KSP in Fellowship this year, I realise how much more work I get done away from home. The concentration is there, the distractions are minimal and the quiet allows the brain to think clearly. At least it does for me. See pics for my accommodation, and of course the property has a pool!
In 2021, I visited the York Festival and met the Festival Art Director William Yeoman. I had followed him on Instagram and he posted a message to visit York and introduce one’s self. Naturally, I went and luckily also met up with fellow writer Rose Van Son who was a featured poet. At the same time, I reacquainted myself with John Kinsella. Not a close friend or buddy, but someone who I had met at ECU and also online on PoetryEtc. In those days, I was a cheeky student and had invited John to the uni café to have coffee with us students. He reciprocated. Anyway, to cut a long story short in 2021 when I attended his session at the York Festival with William on guitar, John reading his poetry, he remembered me and also the university café fun. Making this connection has been invaluable. I’m not one to self-promote in a sycophantic fashion, but prefer to be a quiet achiever. So having met Will (I shook his hand!, the next year in 2022 he invited me to the writer’s weekend, however unfortunately due to lack of funds it was cancelled. Will Yeoman kept in touch. He promised that a writers’ festival would happen in 2023 and so now recently it’s in the throes of promotion for 18-19 March 2023. I will have a 45 minute spot, hopefully with a self-published York author Karina McRoberts as previously planned. It will be great having this exposure & hopefully I can sell books!
There are also other writing opportunities available in 2023. I have applied for Westerly’s Mid-Career Fellowship. My friends & family think I’m applying for the $2000, but they don’t understand it’s for the kudos; getting your work published and seen by many. I have my fingers crossed but the odds are high. You just don’t know what the editors want. In 2021, I applied with poetry, this time with prose from my unpublished novel The Five Lives of Ms Bennett. If I don’t succeed I will post my entry as a new blog post, titled Grandma’s Chocolate Tin.