The dark time of the year. The snow we had is melted and the sky has been without sun for ages. We have been full of sickness and lacking motivation for most things, especially Christmas.
I always find this time of year difficult, living away from what I consider home. The cold, the darkness, the forced jollity of Christmas. Even after 15 years, I don't feel at peace here and the holidays make it worse.
But this is what the kids know and look forward to, so I focus on our family traditions and we make a gingerbread house and decorate the house and tree. We get out the crafts the kids made when they were wee to hang on the tree, the tatty paper tonttu (Christmas elves) and the salt dough decorations that have survived over 15 years. The run-up to Christmas is stressful, but as we don't have family here the day is pretty laid back and then we have a quiet break until we all return to school. I'm looking forward to that most of all.
We got through Christmas and have fallen into the well of the Daft Days. I feel now the end-of-year urge to finish things off, tidy up and organise things. It probably won't happen in the house, but I can start with my poetry admin.
First of all, I'd like to thank all the publishers of journals and anthologies who have published me this year: The Banshee, From Glasgow to Saturn, Poetry Scotland, Causeway/Cabhsair, City of Poets, Dreich, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Aimsir, Dust Poetry, Hillfire Press and Helsinki Writers Group. Eleven publications which published 17 of my poems. It was a quieter year, but I still feel blessed to have my work shared by such interesting and innovative publishers.
That brings me to my end-of-year stats. In 2024:
I wrote 29 new poems.
I made 13 book submissions and 37 magazine subs. I still have about 15 submissions still out undecided.
I've had 11 acceptances from journals or anthologies, one as I've been writing this post.
But I had 16 book rejections and 31 magazine rejections.
In the end, I had 11 publications publish 17 poems.
I had a 22% acceptance rate which isn't bad, considering all my numbers are down from my best year of 2022 where I had 28 acceptances for a 32% acceptance rate. But still better than 10% when I started counting in 2017.
I have been submitting my books more to publishers, 13 times with 16 rejections. It's frustrating that I cannot find a publisher for them. And even more frustrating that the book that was accepted in 2019 is still not published. But I'm trying to focus on the slow writing I'm doing, each tweak on a poem, each new line scribbled.
Everything feels dark just now, but with the solstice past and the new year waiting, we know the sun will return.
