This blog seems to have slipped my mind over the last few weeks. It's summer holidays here, so I've been busy with the kids, but no more than usual. We're following a much slower pace here. No travelling abroad, no visiting lots of public places. We've gone to the beach, the pool, the woods.
I'm taking it easy with writing as well. I'm not trying to write a poem a day, but working on something every day; submissions, editing, reading. I'm still not focussed on what I want to do next. I've looked at my novels and dropped them again. I can't see an idea for a new collection and with my to be published chapbook on hold because of the Corona situation and now word for any of the publishers I've sent my next collection to, it feels kind of futile to organise a new one.
To find a sense of direction, I've been applying for jobs. I'm not sure primary or middle school teaching is for me, so I applied for a creative writing university post back in the UK and as expected didn't even get a look in, but it made me think about what I want to do. So on a whim I applied for a publishing job and received a positive response, so hopefully will have an interview soonish. It's a short-term contract to begin with, so it's a good chance to see if I want to get back into publishing. I've been missing it over the past year or so, but I'm not sure if I'm wearing rose-coloured glasses of my time working as an editor for an established press and for my own small company.
Even the change of direction with just applying for jobs has given me a wee jolt of adrenaline and more focus. I love teaching, but I think I love teaching creative writing more than mainstream teaching. I'm still trying to do my course and am learning a lot about teaching children with SEND, which will help me with my own children even if I don't go into teaching. I know I want to work with words and encouraging people to write and share their work, so publishing hits those goals for me as well.
We'll see what the next few weeks hold. I'm miles away from where I was last year this time; newly separated, shell-shocked with no clear idea of what I wanted to do. I've been working as an editor and a substitute teacher, I've started a Uni course, I've had a chapbook accepted for publication. It's all forward motion, even if I've hit some rocks along the way. At this point, that's all I can ask.
