Our own approach at flipped eye (and also with the African Writers’ Evening, which I also coordinate) is to remove the notion of funding from our planning in times of uncertaintly and try to think of how we might be able to sustain ourselves without funding. In line with that, we didn’t apply for funding; instead, we have begun to convert our existing titles to digital formats (something we should have started a while ago), further streamlined our production process to cut costs, and all our fine editors (including me) are working for free while we develop the next generation of extraordinary writers. It’s a huge cut, but we did it ourselves, we expected it and therefore we can live with it. Later, when the dust has settled, we can go back to the Arts Council and perhaps other funders and show them the very real progress we’ve made and how much more just a little investment in our projects can yield. If they say no, we will continue to work in our small way; we will not be in danger of closure because our whole future is based on the hope that funding will come.

Funding’s discontents, or rather non-RFO’s discontents have largely come to see funding as their right and that is no way to run an organisation. You have to work for funding; if you are funded and wish to remain so, you have to be at the very least more dynamic than non-funded organisations, and in truth you should be pushing the boundaries continually to seek more ways in which to enrich the public’s experience of the arts. I can’t say that for many of the RFOs – both those that survived (some organisations survived in spite of being ‘static’ simply because they have become to big to cut. What sweet irony!) and those that were cut – from the Arts Council’s portfolio, so I fully understand and sympathise with the position the Arts Council is in.

So, what am I saying? Nobody deserves funding; it’s something you have to prove yourself/ your organisation worthy of. As PBS board member, I believe that dialogue is the right direction as the PBS can not fulfil its potential with no funding; as a new board member, I intend to play my part by working from within to make the PBS the impactful, dynamic, indeed revolutionary body that it can be. Speaking from the flipped eye headquarters (which is now my living room) I say to all the organisations that fell on the knife, don’t just moan about being cut, start a revolution in your organisation and apply for funding annually or per-project like us – the normal folk.

lifemarks

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

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.

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.

I’m hoping I can hold out until later in the year before the next upgrade.  I’ve got a feeling that the MBP line may well be refreshed by September or February, since that’s the way these things tend go.  And yes, I fully intend to supersize it – I’m heading straight for the 17″, baby.  Until then, the MBP is staying at home, and PB2 may have to be re-drafted back into active service.  No more lugging the 15″ around when I need to manage email, write or edit remotely…

(Note: Powerbook 1 is grew up to become my mum’s second mac, after I installed a new hard drive.  Powerbook 2 went on to become the digital hub in my flat, after similar DIY hard drive surgery.  No Macs were harmed in the making of this journal entry.)