The Maximus Miracle Virtual Book Tour has landed...

...at Arlene's Blog and boy has it landed with a whoosh and a bang and a whatever-you-are-having-yourself. It is 'Days of Wine and Roses' (Tom Waits...love that song and this first day of 'Maximus Miracle' has brought it to mind...see table-ful of drink at Arlene's place!)

We talk about g/God and war and protected valleys and unprotected rabbits and writing in the dark and 'settling' oneself and trumpets and bad and good habits while writing and Ireland and isolation and relationships to poetry ….all between sipfuls of drink and....then....to get the catch of the day for my next tour stop at Brenda's...we go.....fishing! Because we know Brenda is a fantastic cook and has a few very special fish (y) recipes up her sleeve for us....hello! Brenda ...looking forward to landing in Texas with you...: )


(Editing in a wee note to the Host Bloggers: Salt are in the process of moving all the Cyclone Virtual Book Tour information and Host Blogger information from their website to their Salt Blog ....they've told me that it should be up and running next week. Thanks. )

The Maximus Miracle Virtual Book Tour Is on Its Way

The Maximus Miracle Virtual Book Tour has crept up on me...thanks to Arlene for giving me a gentle poke about getting the answers to the interview questions to her....I am so bogged down in the Spanish Education system that neither poetry nor anything writing-like was getting a look-in. Must put a stop to that!

And Arlene has so kindly and creatively made a Sims version of me for the interview which starts on the 28th of October. Take a look at those legs and that pose...a writer raring to go if I ever saw one! Arlene, I can never repay you enough for the legs and the sexiness....a big kiss to you. x

Editing in a P.S. To the lovely folk who are getting the questions together for the Virtual Tour interviews, could you just form 3 Questions as have near 10 interviews to do and could end up repeating myself...and going on too much .....! ; ) x

Horizon Review 3 Online

(Heatwave Ireland Galway September 09)


(Part of Dublin Theatre Festival Poster Dublin 09)

HORIZON REVIEW 3is up. It's a true feast of an issue - interviews, articles, fiction, audio...and much, much more... and I am in there amongst all sorts of great folk...a happy camper, I am, with this fine distraction from the daily grind...

No Small Matter '...When someone said tantalise, she found she could gyrate her whole body like nobody’s business...' (Do you remember the New Year's Eve Abba show I blogged about here...this poem came from that night...absolutely god's honest truth ;))

A Monster Feeling '...while I took steps, my skirt slipped off. I fear a trouser-burst, my bottom bare...' (Whiskey night caps while waiting for the return of something/someone special...aw!)

A Note to Self '...Mum's the word. My lips swell beyond recognition. Christ alive. Swine flu snowballs...' ('I´m gonna do it, do it, do it...'- a sort of talking-to I gave myself... )

Change of Scene/Bits and Bobs

The Prufrocks Poets (L to R Mary, Nuala, Barbara, Jaki, Liz)


Madra (Irish for dog!)


Things are hotting up here for The Maximus Miracle Tour beginning at the end of October. I have been out of touch with everything book-ish due to my flu and a sort of over-saturation of The Wrong Miracle during my 6 weeks in Ireland - for the last 2 weeks I have not even looked sideways at anything wrong miracle-ish...I needed that break - one can definitely get fed up with one´s own poetry. Also it´s kind of like a 'done and dusted' feel and I am craving to move on....but for sure I will give The Wrong Miracle all the breaks it needs (Canary launch in the pipeline, visiting a book club, local library reading) but am paving the way for other things, poetry and non-poetry, just now.

In order to get better job security and salary (left that behind in Ireland so after 14 years have decided I need it again! ; ))I am going to be studying to get into the Public Education system here. It is a colossal task as you have to study a whole English degree program and do continuous learning courses and stuff like that to get academic merit and then sit exams and do oral presentations of programs etc. Believe me when I say that I will be having my head down between now and June and probably chewing my fingers to the bone in the process. This could also mean that I will hardly have time to write any poems, unless under pressure some things come bobbing or exploding to the surface....! ; )

In other news, the dog drawing above titled 'Madra' is the work of the very talented, in-more-ways-than-one, Mr TFE. Go check out his blog post on Concern to see how you too can get a Mr TFE personalised drawing.

Also why not pop along to Barbara Smith to see what she did to celebrate All Ireland Poetry Day.

So I´m signing off now, just off to while away the evening in the valley, dog-walking and bullet-dodging as it is hunting rabbit day here in the Canaries, God bless us!
ciao!