A mind sadly deranged ...

Was delighted to see my poem, Beyond the Stars, published in this month's Writing Magazine as the third prize winner of the space travel poetry competition. Hurrah! And even more delighted to see the adorable Alison Chisholm (who really is very adorable and just the sort of person you want to cuddle and have a lovely cup of tea and a long chat with) describe the poem as the product of a "sadly deranged mind", but one laced with the essential "glow of wry humour". Lord H almost choked over his porridge this morning when he read that - and actually thought it summed me up fairly accurately. He claims he's been trying to tell Spouse Line this for years. Hmm, I must check the phone bills more often ...

And talking of sadly deranged minds, A Dangerous Man is one of the nominations in the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll 2007, so if you do feel able to vote for sadly deranged but essentially larger-than-life Michael, he and I would be most grateful indeed! Many thanks.

Lord H and I have spend a truly wonderful day in Farlington Marshes and Hayling Island watching all sorts of glorious birds, including curlews, oyster catchers, dunlin, Brent geese, redshanks, little egrets, godwits of both types and a kestrel, amongst others. New birds for today were the ringed plover and the incredible black-necked grebe. Marvellous! And it was such a gloriously crisp day - well, I had my thermals on, so I couldn't feel the cold quite as much, ho ho. I do so love walking around salt marshes too - something about the combination of salt on your tongue, the smell of the sea and the cry of the birds. Magic really. Oh hell, I feel a poem coming on, but don't panic - I shall have to work on it first. If I'm really lazy, I can just stuff it all into tomorrow's haiku - we'll see.

And I've just finished reading Philip Gross's amazing poetry collection, The Egg of Zero. At last! - I've found a poet I can really connect to and his stuff is just the kind that I love, so I can thoroughly recommend it. The collection included so many stinglingly good poems that a list of those which hit home would take way too long. But if you want a poet who's a master of emotional dissection, grace and humanity, go for Gross. I'm certainly going to be getting his backlist. Pretty damn quickly too.

Oh, and there's news on the ongoing painful saga of the website. I had an email last night from a company bizarrely known as TuCows (or perhaps that's a name they've made up just for me as I'm kicking up so much of a stink about this?) with yet another transfer acceptance form. This time, it appears to have worked so that both Zen and UK Hosts admit something is at last going through their systems. Possibly. Apparently TuCows (or whatever the damn thing is called) have some kind of higher power over the mysteries of IT and can step in if things get difficult. Much like God really. Still, I have gone back to UK Hosts and asked how long it will take from this point, so I'm not letting them off the hook yet. No answer from them though. Surprise, surprise, eh.

Tonight, I'm hoping to get more editing done for Goldenford, and we have a Chinese takeaway and ice cream (Ben & Jerry - who else, m'dears?...) to look forward to. So, bloody hell and pass the smelling salts, but I might actually have had an enjoyable day. Who'd have thought it?

Today's nice things:

1. Farlington Marshes & Hayling Island
2. Philip Gross's poetry
3. My sadly deranged yet wryly humoured mind (ho ho)!

Anne Brooke
Anne's Deux ex Machina website - ah, the plot thickens, Carruthers ...
Goldenford Publishers