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The Blog Virgin: Me & Technology

admin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:25:14 +0000

Technology and me could never be seen as friends, computers are glorified word processors, my iPod had 27 songs on it for two years and I have just figured out how to record programme on my Sky Plus box. So I am a true blogging virgin if ever there was one. Be gentle with me and read very quickly lest this be littered with mistakes.
A little about myself – My name is Janett Plummer and I am a Birmingham-based writer of poetry and short stories mainly. Not to be confused with another London poet called – yep, ya guessed it Janet Plummer with one “T” instead of my two. Loooooooooooooooong story but we have spoken. I can confirm the other is real and does indeed also write poetry and live in the Capital City. Different styles of writing separate us luckily. Check her out and decide for yourself.
Currently I am reading The Help – love it, love it, love it: good ideas, authentic voice and it evokes the mood of the times. One of those can’t put that book down until you finish it. I’m also loving a gospel artist Onitsha recording with Living waters studios, funky, contemporary and yet packing a good punch. Non believers will love it in a “Take my Shackles off my feet so I can dance” kinda way that got you into Mary Mary back in the day. And, I am loving Luther the BBC drama; only just caught up with it, although the 100% success rate at catching criminals surely puts him at the top of the top techs league. Yes I know it was on ages ago but I had to go all the way to Holland to catch up on it, spending a precious day out of my holiday on catching up on this brilliant series (albeit four months later than everyone else!)
From the blog virgin
P.S I think I started this blog thinking that I was going to come out with something deep and meaningful about technology, Macs versus PC’s for writers but I guess that’s another topic for another day.
MWAH XXX

lifemarks

Janett Plummer is the author of lifemarks, a poetry pamphlet under our mouthmark series.

news for April

Aoife — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:38:12 +0000

Me and Janie have been having fun recording tracks for ‘Different Words For Snow’ in Goldsmiths recording studios. We’re hoping to have a CD ready in time for the Phrased & Confused tour in May. They’ve set up a facebook group for the tour – check it out here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63881632812#/group.php?gid=63881632812

I also had a very good time performing at the launch of London’s newest literary salon The Book Club Boutique. It was a packed house in an uber trendy Soho bar. It’s on every Monday night and it’s free. Find out more here -

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63881632812#/group.php?gid=55814894329&ref=ts

For any aspiring novelists out there, I’m hosting this novel pitching event for Spread The Word. Come down and see how it’s done! You can find out more about my novel ‘Heritage of Secrets’ here – http://tinyurl.com/c62wf3

Novel Pitch Live Final
Saturday 25 April
11am-4pm
Stratford Circus, Theatre Square, London E15 1BX
Tube: Stratford £7/£5 (concessions)
www.spreadtheword.org.uk

Come along to the live final if you’re interested in hearing top tips from the experts or would like to put your own key questions to the panel. You could also try your luck at the open-mic slot and pitch your writing for quickfire advice.

I’m also performing at another literary salon in a couple of weeks and then at the Southbank Centre on April 20th. Details below -

Polari Home & Abroad Night
Wednesday, April 15
6:30pm – 11:30pm
Freedom, 66 Wardour St, London W1
info@paulburston.com

Paul Burston’s gay literary salon returns to Freedom with authors Christopher Fowler (home boy), Nick Alexander (boy living abroad) and Aoife Mannix (Irish woman who’s lived all over the world). Plus DJs Dom Agius and Paul Burston playing tailored sounds, louche lounge and dirty disco.

Foreign Trade
Monday, April 20
8:00pm – 9:30pm
Level Five Function Room, Royal Festival Hall
Belvedere Road, London
www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Why do queer people from all over the world make their home in London? What do they find when they get here – and what do they leave behind? We’ll hear from Nigeria, Ireland, Singapore, Russia and Brazil and many other countries in an event of testimony and performance.

A Lesson Before Living

Truth — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:09:51 +0000

We are not grasshoppers, with legs tied in

this race, nor are our paths pinned down by rails,

reinforced with concrete, gravity’s slaves.

No metal womb delivers us howling

to chisel hands, isotropic etchings,

gladiator cogs, sprockets made for sale.

We are not one way streets in a cheese chase,

tape measured blocks for tape measured living.

You can turn around on this track, cross lanes

of order, cross the bitch of clicks. You can,

if you wish, sabotage the reindeer games

of men, “prefer not to” live other’s plans,

defy office gangs and doors wearing names.

What one size fits all called to tongue-tie shoes?

Once the gun sounds, the course is up to you.

Blog 2 Blog

Truth — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 03:50:03 +0000

Santa brought me an additional blog–that and an ocean of calories.

Filling my plate with roti, curry and dreams. For more life notes,

follow the yellow brick road…

http://truththomas.wordpress.com/

Forwards

Niall — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:37:25 +0000

It was quite a surprise to find that I had been highly commended by this year’s Forward Prize, and that my poem “The Father in Law” had made it into the Forward Book of Poetry 2009. I can’t say that I write with the expectation, or the goal, of prizes and wider recognition but I’m not complaining. By the time a new book has done the rounds and won a smattering of attention, I’m onto the next thing, watching the next volume slowly emerge as I finally shake off my “edit” head. Like some rare breed of turtle that lays its eggs every few years, I’m entering my active season. Poems and scraps of ideas fill pages, images flood my mind and spill out into the empirical world in the form of scribbles and mutterings. I have no idea what is good and what isn’t, in the same way that the turtle has no ideas which of her offspring will flourish as she buries her eggs into the sand and slopes back into the uncertain depths of the ocean. Now is not a good time to ask me for submissions. Try again in 18 months, when my critical eye will refocus. For now my head is down and the words are flooding out, Commended, eh? Very good! I’m chuffed, anyway, must be getting on…

Since January I’ve been pounding the track around Brockwell Park. Distance running has come quite naturally to me, must be some kind of underlying mentality. I’ve always been good at getting my head down and setting a steady pace. I did it as a gardener, never exhausting myself over a well measured day of hard work. Some guys went out of their way to look like faster workers, getting the job done in half the time, but I always got the job done. I used to love the slow, analytical jobs that the others hated, such as pruning roses. You had to keep a bare attention on what you were doing, not too intense though. You couldn’t daydream too much either as you sloped the cut downwards from the outer facing bud.

As I run, I get over taken by spunky young types, lots of snap and swing in their step. I never see them again over the next lap, usually I see them exit the gate a little while ahead. Middle distancers. Each to their own. This is how I set my goals and get things done. Five laps and out the gate. Two days on the park’s rose beds and the job’s a good’un. Twelve years, two books and a commendation. I tend not to look either side, at the middle distancers overtaking; the agency workers running a quick hedge cutter over the rose bush; the bright young thing with a feature in the broadsheet. That isn’t the pace I’m running nor the goal that I’ve set.

You guys go on ahead now.

Stacking responsibilities

niiayikwei — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:47:24 +0000

My friend, the editor of The Liberal, Ben Ramm, reminded me of the saying ‘if you want something done, ask a busy person. Sounds funny, but I relate to it. See how I often complain of having too much to do? Well, now I have agreed to be on the Council of Management for The Arvon Foundation (whose work I really, really believe in) and – stunningly – I have offered to be a guest blogger (as an Arvon rep) for Poetry International at the Southbank Centre. Now, you can tell by the frequency of my blogging on here that blogging is not easy, but… I guess we’ll just have to wait and see »»

getting paid

niiayikwei — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:24:02 +0000

This week we’ve had two calls from people wanting to use poems from our authors books in class and asking us about copyright. Now, this is one of the basic and most interesting things about copyright – it belongs to the author. You talk to the publisher if you want to publish something from the book, in which case we STILL have to get the author’s agreement. The way in which authors make money from the use of their work in schools and from library loans, is by registering with the bodies that monitor such use. In the UK we have PLR (Public Lending Rights) for libraries and ALCS for things like photocopies in schools as well as use in other countries (mainly Europe); PLR pay a fixed amount to the author every time their book is taken out of the library, while ALCS use a sampling system to work out how much an author’s work is photocopied etc. Last year, in my writer guise I made over £40 from ALCS and PLR – it may not sound like a lot, but when you consider – for example – that most poets get an advance in the low hundreds of pounds (if at all), it’s an absolute fortune. That’s why my advice to most authors as soon as we release a book is, go and register with PLR and ALCS – otherwise you never know what you’re missing »»