It's Out There... Somewhere

As all authors do, I eagerly look forward to seeing the release of my latest "baby".

"Where the Night Things Are", my latest anthology of poetry, was released earlier this month by Eternal Press, and it was great to see it up there with all the other new books.

There is one little disappointment, though. Poetry is still a poor cousin to novels and short stories when it comes to promotion and review opportunities.

There are no end of sites on the net for people to post their newly published novels and short stories for reviews and sales, but hardly any at all for poetry and poetry anthologies. Most of the sites that review poetry or poetry anthologies are only interested in unpublished work that they can potentially publish themselves. That's okay, but...

Where do we poets go for serious reviews of our published work?

It makes it just that little bit harder to promote a book of poems when there are no rave reviews to quote.

Public opinion is slowly changing. More people are now enjoying short stories. The internet has actually helped the short story industry a lot. Those who want a good weekend read, buy a few short stories from eBook Publishers for their portable eBook readers and laptop/notebook computers. The days of portable computing has opened up the industry to more and more opportunities for writers of short fiction of all genres. That's wonderful.

However, this great revolution still has not spread to poetry.

Even though there are more and more people out there in the world writing really high quality poetry, it is still seen as somewhat of a novelty by those who read and publish "real" fiction.

This, I believe, goes right back to early education levels.

Poetry is only marginally tapped into as a serious genre in schools. It's glossed over. Only the old classic poets are focussed on to any great degree. Don't get me wrong, this is a wonderful thing. However, there are so many poets in today's world whose work would be of great inspiration and benefit to students of the written word, but this work is not being presented to students.

This, in turn, filters right down the line to publishing houses. So few these days are willing to spend any money or time on the poetry market. Let's face it, the poetry market is nowhere near as big as the other literary genre markets. So, who can blame them?

I don't for one moment think that poetry will ever disappear. It keeps bubbling up from the depths of the emotions of one generation to the next. Poetry will always be an important part of many people's lives.

It is a pity that it still isn't seen as an important part of today's publishing world.

So... I'll raise a glass of bubbly to my two poetry anthologies as they join the millions of others out there... somewhere... waiting for someone to accidentally discover them... some day...

Happy reading, poetry buffs!

Getting Back to Business

It's good to be getting back to my science fiction writing again.

Over the past couple of months, my time has been consumed by poetry, GST and business, editing and gardening.

At last I can get back into what I love doing best - writing science fiction and paranormal short stories and novels.

The Shadow Runners has been neglected since the beginning of this year. I'm up to the most important part - the last, technical re-write - and I've not even had the time to get on with it.

I did enjoy putting together, "Where the Night Things Are". That was huge fun, but now that's out and under promotion, my thoughts are turning to more science fiction writing.

If only I could get rid of all the other distractions around here, then I'd have a whole day or two to myself to just write. Wouldn't that be great?

I'll have to just grab the odd moment here and there like I usually do. As frustrating as that is, it's the only way I can get any writing done at all.

Catch ya soon.

Charlton Heston

I am profoundly sad to hear of the death of Charlton Heston.

He was one of my all-time favorite actors. I adored his work and I adored the man. I feel like a light has gone out in the world.


And yet... his films will stand testament to the rich gift he gave to all of us from all over the world, of all ages, nationalities and beliefs. He has left us so many wonderful memories to cherish.

May your spirit soar, Charlton. May you go on to be all that you can be.

Love sincerely

Brittany Kingston
(Heather Williams)