Only Words

But first, a brief update: Since my last post: daughter number 2 finally won a handful of medals (her dancing had inproved greatly, but she never won any competitions, so we were beginning to wonder if the adjudicators were blind); we visited an old LJ-friend in Munich (who has moved on to entirely different hobbies, but it was great to meet again); we drove to Italy for a week (we went to the Gardaland fun park twice!); watched Germany win against Argentina and lose against Spain (who, btw played lousy soccer, yesterday)... busy, busy, busy....

Can't say I like this heat. In Italy the heat was brutal, here it's not much better. Okay, okay, t's better than rain and cold, but it still makes me drowsy and stupid...

Now comes the whining:
In Munich I went to a poetry reading. I had submitted poems to a poetry competition and I was curious to hear the poems that had beaten mine. The Literaturbüro held a public reading of the 6 poets who had been found worthy to fight for a place in the finals (to be held at the end of this year). Some of the texts were better than the ones I had submitted, or at least okay, but some of the poetry was rubbish. *sigh*

I am beginning to think that my kind of poetry will never be successful. My poems are too short. They are snapshots, mostly descriptive, and supposed to be just a tiny weeny bit witty in the English sense, understated. But it seems that agonized navel gazing or long long boring poems that repeatedly tread over the same ground please juries more. *sigh* I can't do long - not in poetry. In fanfiction? No problem, all stories automatically end up longer than planned. But poetry? I can't inflate a poem, I can't just pump more words into it. The whole point is to condense thoughts and impressions into the shortest form possible.

Another disappointment: I submitted my first crime story to a competition. Didn't make it into the top 30. *sigh* I had been pleased with the story, hadn't expected to win, but had enjoyed writing it and had vaguely hoped against all hope that it might make it into the anthology... *sigh*

Final disappointment: I am currently reading the winning novel of a fantasy novel competition that I took part in last year (and never expected to win). It has a gay hero, interesting ideas and characters, and I desperately want it to blow me away, but in truth I have to say that I find it pretty dull. *sigh* I checked out the Amazon reviews. Most of the reviewers are positive but not enthusiastic; they are reluctant to dole out harsh criticism, but they agree that the book should have been a lot shorter. Honestly? I would have liked to be beaten by something really fantastic. :-)

I know that some of you guys on my flist are published authors. You submit manuscripts on a regular basis, or you take part in competitions. When you look at the winners or at published stories or novels, do you sometimes ask yourself: Who the hell made that decision?

Shite! I feel crippled. The phone is broken, so far so bad. That will get fixed on July 6th. I still have my cell phone, thank god, but the way things are going I'm gonna get a frigging high bill for it. Also, for the past few days I was unable to send out emails. My client keeps telling me: error connecting to SMTP Sever. Whatever that means. Eeek.

Must remember to make doctor's appointments tomorrow. Must not use expensive cell phone rates as excuse not to call.

Wrote a poem today while watching Tina's Irish Dance class. Not fabulous, but I think it captures the whole thing well:( Read more... )