An Odd Schedule
I really can't keep away - This is why I must...
Last week was the first week in well over two years that I didn’t put out an online edition of Sixty Odd Poems. It felt strange. Even though I continued with Sixty Odd Poets (with an excellent collection from Andrew Stott), I felt as if I had missed the opportunity to make contact with an old friend. You! And everyone else who reads this substack - including those who have subscribed since my last post.
Needs must though. I shall not be putting post next week either. And this post will be a quickly prepared, un-researched and largely unedited piece. I did promise to keep subscribers in the loop about how things are going with what I am working on, what is keeping me away.
I have a plan and a schedule. I am the sort of writer who needs a schedule. That’s why I love writing on substack so much. It gives me a deadline, and a sense of an audience, who I am in some way beholden to. It is not just me who I am letting down if I staying bed for a few hours extra every morning and spend the rest of the day away from the keyboard.
The plan mainly concerns a number of publications which I aim to put out through the Sixty Odd Press this year, Some of which have dragged on far too long, and were in danger of never coming to fruition unless I changed my habits.
This month I am working on the first edition of Odd - The Journal of the Fellowship of the Sixty Odd Poets. A quarterly literary journal to replace the sixty Odd Poets collections of six poets that I have been putting out at a rate of approximately one every two months for the past couple of years. I couldn’t keep up that pace, and was developing a backlog of poets who I had featured online and not in print. Now I have a long term plan which will should see the substack page and the journal running in full tandem by May 2027 (yes I am that obsessive). Its a journey, But I am well into the next step and am on target to have Volume One Number One out by the end of this month. If you have had a page on sixty Odd Poets and have not had any of the poetry in it physically published in a Sixty Odd Collection, your time will come. I will be in touch at some point over the next six months.
The project is an exciting one as it allows me to include other features such as reviews, catch ups with old friends, information on events and some art. The forthcoming first edition will feature art by the excellent Sally Anne Wickenden on the cover, and I hope to feature more amazing artists in future editions. Illustration inside the book is a little more difficult as costs restrict me to black and white, and my personal taste restricts me to line drawings, but if anyone wishes to submit under those restrictions, I would be delighted to see their work.
By the end of March… I am to publish a collection from the excellent throwaway poet Roger Waldron “Tales from Various Settees” I am really proud to be able to do this, as Roger’s work is fascinating, full of humour, and wry observation on often little explored avenues of modern living. Also Roger is a fine fellow who deserves a wider readership.
By the end of April… I aim to complete a project that I have been working on sporadically for almost two years now. (Or is it three) A posthumous collection of the poetry and Illustration of my old friend Edward Smith. (Provisionally Titled Being Dead is Shit.) Eddie was an amazing, spontaneous, funny man, the lead singer of the fabulous Hull Band the Gargoyles, and prodigious producer of usually hilarious but often also thought provoking poetry and illustration. He can be compared to Vic Reeves, Spike Milligan and David Shrigley, but comparisons like those only put you in the rough area. Eddie had a style of his own. He produced so much that I have been quite overwhlelmed, and his wife, Ann tells me she has only sent a faction of what she found squirrelled away after his untimely death in 2014. I have been sitting on it for far too long. This year it will happen.
By the end of May… I aim to bring out Volume 1 Number 2 of Odd. With a second selection of twelve poets (I already have their names on a secret spreadsheet), and hopefully more features developed during the lessons of preparing volume one, (which I am learning now)
By The end of June… I aim to have my own publication, based on the first set of (Sixty Odd Poems) published. Like all the other publications I have mentioned so far. The lion’s share of the work is already done. It is just a case of tidying up the rough edges and editing to satisfaction.
By the end of July… I aim to have the second set of sixty Odd Poems ready for publication - but probably not published. I wouldn’t want to release it too quickly after the first set. I would just like to have it in a position where it is just about ready to go - maybe in time for the fabled Christmas Market, although I always have pipe dreams of creating a Christmas Miscellany - maybe that should wait for another year.
By the end of August… Odd Volume 1 Number 2 will be out. Featuring work from the poets that you may have read since last November on the sixty odd Poets page.
By the end of September I shall be Sixty Five years old! Also, The Substack of Sixty Odd Poems should be a regular Sunday morning feature again. I haven’t settled on the theme yet. My own poetry as in the first series? Analysis of classic poetry as in the second series? Or something different? Involving poetry, other classic writing, history, speculation? Who knows. Maybe you might like to make a suggestion to get me thinking.
There.
I feel better now. I always find that sharing something make it more likely to happen. Most of this stuff just needs a final push to get it over the finishing line. Its not as if I am starting each project from scratch. So I think that I should succeed with the bulk of it. The Eddie Smith is the one I fear the most, but I am determined to have at least something out, even if it is not the towering tribute that seems to be always just out of reach. The world needs more Eddie in it.
Thanks for reading. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with a progress report.
Mike
Wow!
You have the energy of the Twelve Labours in you Mike. Your mind is massed, launch sequence initiated. Please remember to breathe. 😌
You have a very well thought out set of plans. I like the spontaneous writing, too.
In my other career everything, every minute, was planned. The song playing ends in :47 seconds or whatever. You have to be ready. You'll need to promote something (often an event), and they don't like you to speak for more than :30 seconds, and in that :30 seconds you also need to tease the next set of songs. And personally, I liked to make it at least a little funny.
I retired in 2013 after 25 years. And now? I blunder through the day doing whatever I want. Today I watched some Olympics while waiting for the NBA game to start, and looked up how long until spring training for baseball begins. Later I read some history and some Rumi. I roughed out a new poem. I planned nothing, not even dinner. I just cooked what I found in the kitchen. Later, I started a Bad Bunny playlist.
I respect planners, truly. I even married to one, but not me, man. Today my Google Calendar tells me what games are on.