The Switch from Summer to Autumn

Summer's heat is lingering here in Finland, but autumn is coming up fast. Cooler mornings, the birch turning gold overnight, geese starting to move on in long, noisy threads. My favourite season, but it's always tinged here with the knowledge that winter won't be far behind and will last too long. I should probably get out and do something in the nice weather while it lasts, but there are never enough hours in the weekend.

Being back at work has meant I've fallen out of the habit of writing regularly. I don't have the time to write every day, so I end up spending a lot of the weekend catching up. I've sat down this weekend with no ideas and haven't produced anything, unsurprisingly. Ideas come to me easier when I spend a little time writing, if not daily, regularly. I've edited, submitted and generally sorted some things, but I miss having something new percolating in my head. I'm unfocused and tired from doing too many other things, including 4 parent-teacher conferences in one evening. Hopefully, I'll be back in the swing of writing next weekend.

This week, I've also dealt with the recording the Helsinki Writers Group is doing for Helsinki Open Waves, liaising with the technician and the 3 other poets. I can't wait to hear the final product, it sounded so cool even without embellishments, but the technician was going to try and add a soundscape behind our poems. 

We had a rough theme, Below the Surface, but we each went our own way with it. When we brought them together there were overlaps and echoes of each other's work that we hadn't planned or expected. It can be a repeated phrase or image or sound though all the poems' subjects are very different. We shared our work briefly in the writing and editing stage and I find those chats often bring a poem to fruition. What you can't quite reach alone is nurtured through sharing it with others. The group has a few poets now, after a long time of me being the only one and these collaborations are so much fun. 

I've also been recording a poem this weekend on my own for The Storms Journal. I have a poem in the first issue which is currently being launched. It's not easy to record at home when you have 3 kids around and cats who are either yowling, chasing things about or have decided mid-poem is an excellent time to purr on your lap. The free online launch is on 10 September. Join us. 

I'm getting used to recording myself, not as bothered by the sound of my own voice. Still not keen on it, but I don't cringe now unless I make a clanger of a mistake live. I haven't done a live reading or open mic in ages. Need to find one, maybe with my writing group. 

Back to Busy Catch-up

It was the first full week back to school for the students. My 6th graders learning the ropes for middle school has been a bit hectic. I still don't have a schedule, as a teaching assistant, so I'm left to my own devices mostly to decide where I should be. I'll hopefully get my schedule this week. 

The weather has been crazy hot this week, like much of Europe. Finland's not used to reaching 30C in August. Thunderstorms are promised for today, but it's still clear blue out there. Need to go water my allotment. 

I recorded three poems with Helsinki Open Waves recently as part of a project with Helsinki Writers Group.  This weekend I have been going through my takes, choosing how to put the poems together. I'm getting used to hearing myself read my work, but I'm not sure if I'm very good at it yet. I usually only need three takes to get a decent read-through, though we're lucky that the audio technician is happy to cut and paste bits together so I don't need a perfect take. What I'm still learning is how to emphasise the poem and read it with some expression that suits the words. It's strange to hear something that you put so much energy into that by the end your body was a tense mess and to realise it didn't come across the airwaves like it sounded in your head. Hopefully, he'll be able to make it sound better with a bit of tinkering. HOW still has an open call for recording slots for anyone in the Helsinki area. They've been brilliant to work with and so patient with our problems with getting 4 people times to record and a case of Covid. 

Book review: I'm still reading through my Scottish books and I picked up another Darkland Tales book, this time Rizzio by Denise Mina. I knew a bit about the story behind Mary Queen of Scotland and David Rizzio's death from a teenage obsession, but this fleshed out the tale in every way. While I didn't enjoy it as much as Hex, the previous Darkland Tale I read, I really enjoyed seeing this piece of history brought to life, hearing the layers behind the conspiracy. I look forward to the next Darkland Tale and will keep an eye out for more titles by Denise Mina. 

Still waiting for my copy of The Storms journal to cross the Baltic, but I've seen posts on Twitter that it's making its way to contributors. Can't wait to have a look. 

The Sealey Challenge isn't happening. I'm just too tired after school and dealing with my own kids. I have a pile of poetry books to get through, so will try after I finish the book I'm currently reading. 

Enjoy the late summer heat. It won't last. 

Scottish Book Tour Part 4

Already into August with a bump and I started work at the school with the kids last week and it was rough as though I have the same kids, the same room, the same role, we've moved up to middle school, so I know nothing. I don't feel part of the team yet, and no one knows what to do with me, so I'm drifting until we get settled in. It's great being back with the students, but school is much easier when it's just teachers. 

No poetry collections so far for the Sealey Challenge. I'm beginning to doubt I'll manage much. I read fiction before bed. It's my wind-down activity before sleep. I can't read poetry then or not a whole collection as I can't focus well enough. Fiction keeps me engaged just enough to last a half hour until the melatonin kicks in. I think I'll maybe read a poem a night from a new/old collection I'm excited about. 

I'm still reading through my Scottish book haul pile. I just finished The Second Cut by Louise Welsh. I read and enjoyed her first novel The Cutting Room back when it first came out and actually read a chapter as I was in a writing group with Louise for a brief time before it was published. Even in draft, you could see that the book was going to be a success, rich details of character and place, an intriguing mystery plot. 

The Second Cut is a follow-on with the same main character Rilke, an art and antiques auctioneer in Glasgow after a 20-year break. The post-Covid world is different in many ways, but greed and crime are the same and Rilke becomes involved in mysterious events through his job and his social life when a friend mysteriously dies. Welsh captures a different side of Glasgow, Grindr hookups intermeshed with the antiques world while delving into its criminal side that hits both. As with many novels in the crime/mystery genre, the who done it isn't as important as the character's development and journey. I found myself caught up with Rilke as he unravelled the plot, his friendships and loyalties and those he could not bring himself to trust. I know authors often hate to get boxed in with a character in a series, but I wouldn't mind reading more with Rilke. A great piece of Tartan Noir writing. 

I also read Hex by Jenni Fagan this week. It's a short book, but I rattled through it in a few sessions as I was so caught up in the character of Gellis Duncan, a young girl tortured, examined, tried and executed as a witch in Scotland in 1591. The novel is part of Polygon's Darkland series which looks at events in Scottish history with a new eye. In Hex, Geillis is visited in her cell on the night before her death by a modern witch Iris who crosses the ether to find her. She brings Geillis small comforts, but also tells her women are still hurt and killed for their beliefs and for just being a woman in our time. It is a touching and beautifully written book that screams and cries for women throughout history. Scotland has apologised for the witch trials recently but has yet to pardon the women. Hopefully, books like this will raise awareness of this dark side of Scottish history. 

Scottish Book Tour Part 3

Last day of summer break before I go back to work, a week before my class comes back. It's been a strange summer, back to travelling, a bit of relaxing, a bit of personal stress. The kids are old enough to entertain among themselves, but not good at going out to find their friends due to Covid, so I think they'll be excited to go back to school.

Getting to go back to Scotland twice was amazing. Once on my own to Lewis and Harris with lots of writing and relaxing, once with some of the kids to Glasgow to see friends and family. Both were pretty perfect. After my big book haul in Ullapool, we also hit the bookshops in Glasgow. My younger son has gotten into manga, so Forbidden Planet became his Mecca and after he struggled for so long to get into reading with dyslexia, I was happy to oblige him. Luckily the airline didn't weigh our carryons as I think between the two of us they were a bit heavy with books.

With the travelling, I just managed to finish Ponies at the Edge of the World by Catherine Munro this week. I have to admit I'm not a real non-fiction reader, I struggle with being told what connections to make when reading, but I was a pony-crazy girl, so this seemed a natural draw to me, Scotland and ponies. 

The book's not really about Shetland ponies, though they are the hook that drew the author to Shetland as well as me to the book. Munro uses ponies and the relationship between man and animal in an environment to look at her own developing relationship with the Shetland Islands and how she found her own place within it. Filled with beautiful descriptions of the ponies and other native animals and landscapes, Munro draws us to the beauty of the islands. 

It's her descriptions of the local people I found more interesting. She doesn't shy from the Shetlandic language and shares some local traditions and customs, but she was also able to capture how the small population spread out over the islands manages to create a strong sense of community, between each other and the land. Her non-fiction asides on adaptation and connection to place which were part of the research that took her to Shetland were applied to the ponies and the people and herself, but didn't feel too heavy-handed. 

Ponies at the Edge of the World shares a unique view of the Shetland Islands and its people and animals, connected to each other and their landscape and how choosing to be a part of this place requires a sense of personal adaptation and acceptance. Worth a read. 

August is the Sealey Challenge month, to read a book of poetry a day for the entire month. It's already the second and with school starting for me tomorrow, I know it isn't going to happen. I did pick up some poetry books in Scotland, so my goal is to read them over this month. I post on Twitter first and then collect them here as I did last year.