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.

It’s Christmas Time! (by sarah)

Well ok not quiet yet but with two weddings to attend and the presents only half knitted I need to think Christmassy. Also I wanted to try and get all the hard graft for The Little Book of Festive Poetry sorted. I was going to leave the audio version until next year but I've built momentum on the project now and Jean loves it so much... and with the weekend disappointment I need to keep it going or I think I would just give it up.

So this morning I composed a song whilst baby snuggling and recorded whilst she napped. Here it is 🙂

The Little Books are going out there into the void of the internet and as physical objects to share but the reason they exist at all is for Jean and latter Mary once she appeared. I need to finish recording the poems, edit the story and record that and add some slay bells and then the album will be ready 🙂 I may even have a little looky at producing some merchandise for it via the bandcamp site (I think they do a POD type thing and my Cafe Press Shop).

The Little Books are covered more on Orange Monster which is my Childrens books and Illustrations blog.