We had Seymour’s birthday supper last night, even though his birthday was Monday. It was pretty good, even if I did mess up the chicken a little bit.
My candle placement skills are improving; last year’s design wasn’t nearly so impressive.
And the kids thought I’d run out of candles. Ha! 😀
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It’s been a heck of a long week already, and I’m really feeling it mentally. So on that note, here’s another baby picture from this past weekend:
Here’s hoping I’m feeling a little more with it tomorrow. Have a great Tuesday, everybody! 🙂
(c) 2015. All rights reserved.
With me today is Callum McLaughlin, author of The Vessel, False Awakening, and Seeking Solace. He’s graciously agreed to talk poetry with me, and I hope you’ll have as much fun reading about his work as I did. 🙂
KK: So, how long have you been writing poetry?
CM: I’ve been writing in virtually every capacity since childhood. My earliest memory specifically associated with poetry is when I won a school competition aged 10 and I’ve been interested in the art form ever since. The poems included in Seeking Solace were written throughout the last couple of years, which is when I’d say I started really taking it seriously and falling more and more in love with it.
KK: We have something in common there – I wrote my first poem at age ten for a summer homework assignment. 🙂 What got you interested in poetry?
We had company this weekend in the form of an adorable baby. Seymour’s cousin and her family came for Miss Tadpole’s piano recital and stayed for the day. I got my baby fix, we played cards, there was good food and lots of fun – it was a perfect day.
The only thing that could have made it better is if Seymour hadn’t had such a nasty cold.
Meanwhile, Cricket is completely enamored of his new little godbrother, and was tickled pink at getting the chance to hold him. Very carefully. Under the watchful eyes of all parents in the house and a big sister to boot. 🙂
How did you spend your weekend?
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Last October, I was fortunate to host Callum McLaughlin, a wonderful writer who was publishing a new novel. Well, today he’s back, this time with a poetry book called Seeking Solace:
Seeking Solace is a collection of sixty poems that span a variety of topics and touch on universal aspects of modern life, from nature and war to friendship, love and grief, with many others in between.
From the very air we breathe to the wholly make-believe, regardless of whether inspiration has come from the world around us or the most whimsical of dreams, the one common thread that unites them all is a desire to create poetry that is both approachable and relatable.
Seeking Solace released earlier this week, and it looks fantastic. I love reading poetry as much as I love writing it, and this book makes me want to hold on and not let go. And I haven’t even read it yet! But how could you not love a book with such a beautiful cover?
Besides, I’ve got an amazing excerpt:
I could stare at this image all day (and indeed, I just might). But where can you get your copy? So glad you asked! Seeking Solace is available from Amazon and Amazon UK, and you can also find it on Goodreads. And stay tuned, because I’ll be interviewing the author himself in a future post!
Have a great weekend, and enjoy Seeking Solace! 🙂
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I love how moisture brings out the color in an otherwise dreary landscape:
I took this a couple of weeks ago, back before our newest round of snow made this beautiful apple tree even more beautiful. Sadly, I never managed to get a picture of it dusted with snow. 😦
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Revisions continue, and I’m happy to report that I think I’ve crossed that hump I was stuck on.
I scan my handwritten pages so that I can type them up later, and as I was trying to open the scanner app on my phone, I accidentally activated my camera instead. When it opened, it showed the image above. For whatever reason, it spoke to me, and I wanted to share. I really hope the rest of this revision goes as swimmingly as today’s writing session; I’d love to be done with this revision so that I can polish it up and send it out!
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The Sun vs. Snow Contest just ended, and now the ever-lovely Michelle Hauck is running a Sun vs. Snow critique workshop ahead of upcoming contests! Isn’t she just the best?
Since I’m still revising, I didn’t enter Sun vs. Snow, or any of the other contests that have come and gone over the last few months, even though I reeeally wanted to enter a couple. But I’m two-thirds of the way through the revision (I think), so I thought, why not? It’ll soon be time to start polishing, so why not get a little feedback on the beginning?
You can find Michelle’s post and all the details on the workshop here. It’s open till the 21st, so there’s still time to enter if you’ve got something you’d like feedback on. In the meantime, here’s my entry:
Once upon a time, I was quite adept at climbing trees. This tree was at my grandparents’ house and did a fantastic job of shading their driveway. I remember, quite vividly, perching in one of its many crotches and writing my first poem (a copy of which I still have somewhere in my office).
When Bubbles was born, I was disappointed that we didn’t have any good climbing trees in our yard. Then I moved to town, and each new place also lacked good climbing trees. At last we have a place with lots of trees for the kids to climb, and they’ve taken to it like ducks to water (the older ones, anyway). To me, there’s nothing quite like climbing a tree for fun and adventure.
Don’t forget to stop by Charnele’s blog and take a gander at her throwback post!
Did you climb trees when you were a kid? Do you let your kids climb them?
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There was another gorgeous sunset last night, and it made for a lovely silhouette:
I just love sunset silhouettes, don’t you?
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Suddenly they all died. The end. 