Sunday, June 22, 2008

Camper Van Blues & Beyond

This week I'm putting the finishing touches to my final draft of Camper Van Blues, due out from Salt Publishing this autumn. It's a difficult and painstaking task, deciding for the last time - in this book, at least - how each poem will appear on the page, and indeed in what order they will appear.

To be honest, I'm prey to a little dread at times, wondering if I'm making the right choices. But there's also an excitement about the process, knowing that a brand-new book of poetry is about to emerge after nearly two years of writing and fiddling about with various drafts. And like a new baby, you always hope this one will turn out to be less trouble than the rest!

At the back of my mind, though, whilst carrying out this task, is the equally exciting knowledge that I have another piece of work on the burner. Still simmering away nicely, though very much in a proto-state, being written piecemeal whenever I get a few moments to myself, still poised to shift or swing in any direction as the weeks unfold. That's my Warwick Castle project, a long poem at the moment, and growing steadily longer as each new fragment takes it place in the whole.

First public reading of that poem will be at the Warwick Words Festival in October, so I'll have to get it finished by then. No pressure!

4 comments:

Coirí Filíochta said...
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Jane Holland said...
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Ms Baroque said...

Well done. Can't wait, as you know - and I love the baby remark - not many people would say that nowadays, they haven't had enough babies to think about it that way! LOL. And dig your new pic! It's great, you look so happy.

xx

Andrew Philip said...

Best wishes with that, Jane. It's a much smaller scale, I know, but working with Nell on the sampler recently reminded how much fun that process can be, especially when working with a good editor. I'm looking forward to the same process with The Ambulance Box.