The first chapter of my novel (in progress) will be in the new edition of New Writing Scotland.
The novel, with the working title Geraldine (it will!! change), is marching along as we speak.
More to follow…
Articles by Charlie
Scottish Book Trust mentoring scheme 2014
I have been offered a place on this Scottish Book Trust scheme. I will be working with Zoe Strachan over the next nine months or so.
Zoe will give me support over the period to work on a novel I am writing (more to follow on that). This is a great chance to link with an excellent writer who has been widely praised for her work over a number of years.
Gutter 10
Very pleased to have my poem On Benbulben in the latest edition of Gutter.
Two new outlets for my poetry collection, “Good Morning”
If you have not managed to link in with tell it slant, Ellen McAteer’s poetry bookshop, check out the fb page.
You can also now buy the book in Aye Aye Books, based in the wonderful Centre for Contemporary Arts at the top of Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow and run by Martin Vincent.
Poem of the month December 2013: a nod to New Men
The Da
Â
Dinner was cooked by my (fair) hand
then dishes, cutlery, pots, other various bits’n’bobs, left
youthfully expressed as
‘if you end up leaving them, we’ll do them when we get back.â€
Â
Almost gratefully
my hands are immersed in suds
Da
cook, washer-upper, New Man
the father of daughters, unleashed
equal.
Poem of the Month for November
The Poem of the Month for November is wedding, a poem written some years ago when the idea of gay marriage was less fashionable and any ceremonies were not legal and generally hidden.
The poem features in my 2010 collection Good Morning. You can buy the book on-line (PayPal accepted) or at several retailers – ideal Christmas present!!
Callander Poetry Weekend 2013
I will be reading at the Callander Poetry Weekend on Saturday 7 September in the late morning session.
Follow the link for the full programme.
To Live With What You Are
For any writer, the search for an agent is a hard one. I have recently started and have three rejections to my name to date. I feel confident that the novel To Live With What You Are will fire an agent’s imagination. Till then, I am in good company with the best of novelists facing a similar journey.
So, a positive message taken in the rejection message from Rogers, Coleridge & White of London whose submissions team described the novel thus: “To Live With What You Are is intriguing and original”. Let’s hope the next time it is original, intriguing and spot on for us.
More to follow, folks
The Song of Wandering Aengus
The poem of the month for May is a tiny taste of the work of W B Yeats.
From the expansive poetry on Irishness to the yearning of the love poems to Maud Gonne, Yeats, like all great poets, captures the enormity and the insignificance of the human condition.
The Song of Wandering Aengus was sung beautifully by The Waterboys and equally wonderfully by Christy Moore.
Northwords Now
I have a poem published in the current edition of Northwords Now.
Page eight (In Blanchland again).
Northwords Now is edited by Chris Powici and available on-line as well as in many outlets. The magazine is excellent and well-produced. And free to all. It is always worth a read.