Tag Archives: poetry acceptance

Inside My Head

7 Replies

Today, as part of my poetic revival, I have two great ideas for poems. I’m hoping that I will remember them soon because as soon as I thought of them, I became diverted. One was forgotten as I came downstairs, the other was forgotten as I looked for a pad to write it down. They may come back. Meanwhile I am going to make sure that I carry a notebook everywhere. I am also going to write in block capitals.

On a brighter note, I had an acceptance from one of the July submissions. That cheered me up.

Pigeon in the Park

I am also going to write the story of how Number Two Son started a rugby team at school. If I write irt properly it may be picked up as a film script like the Bad News Bears or The Mighty Ducks. It would be nice to bolster my pension with some film revenues. I would move the location to somewhere warm and specify that I get played by Russell Crowe.

I know, after suffering through Robin Hood, that he can’t do a Nottingham accent, but he is sound on his rugby  I once wrote to his agent offering Nottingham Outlaws as a possible promotional partner for the film but despite his love of rugby and links to Nottingham via the Burgess brothers (who played for his team – Sydney Rabbitohs) Their dad used to play for Nottingham City RLFC. Despite the obvious synergy, his agents declined to take us up on the offer. Well, to be accurate, they didn’t even bother to reply.

Moon Landing Medal by Vincze

Finally, the big news is that I have taken a significant step in taking charge of my retirement. I have applied to do a part-time Masters Degree in First World War History. They wouldn’t give a me a direst answer on the question of my qualifications and suggested I should just apply and see how it went. So I have done. I In 1988 I handled a 12 month post-graduate course which was full of wannabe high fliers and I managed to hold my own. My brain has probably slowed down a bit, but I have crammed it with a lot more knowledge so I’m not worried about that aspect. It’s going to take one Saturday a month for two years, which is hardly a killer schedule, though I suppose they will want some essays and a dissertation. I probably should have checked that before applying. On the other hand, if I thought about it, I probably wouldn’t do it.

Shakespeare Medallion by Paul Vincze

Photos are just a miscellaneous grouping selected from August 2019, though I’m not sure they were all taken then.

Senior Moment – forgot the Title!

15 Replies

I’m sitting at my work computer, it’s 9.26. I have read my emails, done something for Julia online, replied to a couple of emails and am now going to use 10 minutes to do the initial work on tonight’s blog post. It’s amazing what you can do when you are fresh.

One of the emails I had to reply to was one from an editor who normally accepts my work. This time he didn’t. Not sure how I feel about that. Everyone needs a wake-up call from time to time but I can’t completely escape the feeling that it’s part of a worldwide plot to stop accepting my work. It’s a tricky one to reply to. I’ve never fully grasped the etiquette of writing to editors as they are busy (and unpaid) people and don’t necessarily want me burbling on. On the other hand, it seems rude not to reply when somebody writes to you.

So I waited a few days to compose a suitable message. Later that day I was sent the results of a competition and found that I had failed to get into the top ten. To not get a prize is expected – competition is tough. I’m always ambivalent about competitions but every so often I have a go, generally unsuccessfully. However, they count as a submission towards my target, even if nothing good happens, and count as a rejection if I don’t get a mention.

So, misery piles on misery.

Then I got another email telling me about two acceptances. I already knew about one because I’d been asked to accept an alteration to it. I had assumed at the time that they only wanted one. It seems they want two. I’d mentally categorised the remainder as “available” and thought of sending them out again.  It’s a good thing I didn’t, as it’s embarrassing to make multiple submissions.

This all shows the advantage of waiting a few days – I was in a much sunnier mood when I eventually replied than I would have been if I’d replied right away.

I now note that I have a note from WordPress – You are currently using PHP 7.4.30 which will no longer receive security updates as of November 28, 2022. Please update to PHP 8.0.0 or higher by changing your hosting configuration. In other words “You are doomed. Change something, make your WP experience worse and keep paying through the nose.”

Or am I wrong? Will an update finally improve my life? There has to be a first time for everything.

Tonight, Julia went to visit a neighbour. She took plums and came back with figs.

Meanwhile my WP spellchecker keeps trying to make me spell like an American. I’m hoping this is just a phase it’s going through as I start on the new computer.