WoPoWriMo – World Poetry Writing Month 2013 (by sarah)

This year I find myself once more in charge of the WoPoWriMo website and it is also it's fifth year of existing as an event!

Set up for a group who met at Poetry Cafe in Cheltenham and who turned out to all be Screnzies (Script Frenzies is a script writing challenge run by the National Novel Writing NaNoWriMo people). They felt they couldn't do more than one writing challenge in a month and who therefore could not do National Poetry Writing Month, the website has grown into a place to inspire writers.

I am very pleased to be back in charge of it again as I haven't been for the last two years really - just been popping in here and there. We have participants from several continents and at least two languages other than English plus the constructed languages sneaking in there. I've organised guest bloggers and there will be web-badges to come 🙂

As always I am dragging the whole family into this madness with me!

Birthday Poem and Butterfly Cake and Dragon Mug! (by sarah)

My birthday was great in the end though as always there were last minute cancellation meaning that for the second time since I moved to Gloucestershire I'd organised a gaming birthday and had not a single person turn up. Everyone has organised to come and see me at other times. It is the horror of a January birthday people are tired, partied out and have no money or has work they forgot to do/didn't needed doing over the festive period. I am considering the suggestion to be a Queen and always do something in the summer that people can actually get too! (I have had to cancel two birthday outings due to snow).

But on the plus side my friend composed me a poem on Facebook and I had about 60 messages and a handful of cards 🙂

Happy Birthday to Sarah Snell-Pym,
The Purple Poet who's made of win,
She'll charm you with rhyme,
Of atoms, space and time,
So celebrate with cakepops and gin!

By Joy-Amy

Jean gave me herbal tea that is actually really nice unlike the stuff in the cupboard I've been making my way through! Mary had apparently selected lego men stickers for me 🙂 probably because they are shiny! They are already stuck in my diary. Al got me computer stuff to help with the RSI which is especially good as I am in the middle of a mild flare up. I also got the pens I needed from Ulrike and a few other bits 🙂

Over the weekend Al got me pizza and pfish food ice-cream and we made a butterfly cake out of cake pops 🙂 The butterflies arrived in the post from Al's cousins - I think they were a Christmas present but they arrived on my birthday and were edible butterflies 😀

Also knowing I was sad about my pocket dragon mug my friend Rachel turned up with a purple dragon mug which has been heavily used over the weekend. We watch Harry Potter Movies, Mysterious Cities of Gold and some classic scifi we had out on Lovefilm. I made things to sell on etsy, drew pictures and feel asleep on the setee lots. I decided against games in the end as I'm bored of a lot of the ones we can play with Jean and two people doesn't really cut it for some of the others. Sunday another friend called with fondant fancies and a wardrobe which is still sitting in the living room awaiting my dad to help Al get it up the stairs (maybe!). I also collected another two cloth badges on the Kinnect Adventures and had lots of snugs 🙂

DoomsDay 21/12/12 (by sarah)

Here is my DoomsDay Collection - an e-book (downloadable PDF) of stories and poems about worlds ending, changing and beginning. The collection does handle some dark topics and so is only for grown ups!

It is free at the moment especially for the Mayan prediction of a change of the ages 🙂 Just click the title below. It is dedicated to friends that left this world too soon.

I hope you enjoy it.

Cirencester’s First Christmas Slam (by sarah)

I had a great time on Friday at the first Poetry Slam to be held in Cirencester. It was organised by the fab Marcus Moore and Sara-Jane Arbury and was lots of fun. Of course I did not score very high but that is not why I go to them - this was my third Slam and I think I have drastically improved from my first one.

I performed Mummy's Socks from The Little Book of Festive Poetry and even sold a copy! Which means I have enough money to another book for the school library!

Here is a picture of me mid sock swing.

I had a great time catching up with old friends plus it was my first time out in not completely flat shoes since Mary's pregnancy. So it was win win and yes I had to use the walking stick to get back to the car but that was due a) it being cold, b) having stood around chatting to people and c) having parked far away from the venue as our sat nav doesn't understand Cirencester!

Once again I got to perform with Breda Reed Brown who is The Gloucestershire Poet Laureate, Joy-Amy, Cloe who I normally see telling stories rather than reading verse! and The Luchador Poet. Plus the lovely Tommie who I met at the qualifier for the Cheltenham Literature Festival Slam.

This time I also had Alaric with me which was lovely as we got to have a meal together as well 🙂 Just a shame he has a cold at the moment so wasn't feeling to hot on the night! (hence no video!).

However there is a video of me performing the poems at The Brewery in Cheltenham last year!

And you can go and listen to nice recordings of the poems and my christmas story at my Bandcamp.

Sarah’s Christmas Collection – audio book (by sarah)

I have spent the last week sorting out this audio book / album - it contains The Little Book of Festive Poetry, a story about a mouse and Jean and Christmas during the flood era and a song. You can listen to it free on my Salaric Bandcamp.

Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to embed it at the moment and also Bandcamp have decided to make the song the main thing so it always starts with it - this is what they've put into there home page and stuff but I can't currently unselect it. So to actually listen to the thing from the beginning you have to either download it for £3 (all profits are going to buy books for Jean's school library) or you click the back button to get to the first track. A bit annoying I know and I'm sorry about that but thought you would all like to hear it rather than me continue to faff ad infinitum.