Weekly blog round up ....

This week, I've been thinking about ...

* CLARITY - Cally Taylor's excellent new book, Heaven Can Wait has come out this week with a blog tour. This post on Fia Kenzie's blog is one of the best descriptions of how to write to an agent that I've seen.

* CONCENTRATION - Sonja Grussendorf's post about an interview Susan Hill did for Radio 4 chimed with how worried I've been about my writing practice now I do so much on the internet. To quote, Sonja, about Susan: She had previously become aware that her concentration was not what it used to be and suggested that “if you use the internet a lot you notice your concentration begins to become fragmented and you don’t have that complete concentration for two or three hours.”

* CREATIVITY - I follow Amanda Palmer on Twitter with a huge dollop of admiration, but this post by her assistant is just beautiful. Good to remember the whole creative process is never just up, up, up if it's to have any value. I can't remember the last time I felt so inspired just to create.

* CRAFT - Now I have lunchtimes, I like to wander round my bit of London. On Friday, I found The Origins craft show at Somerset House. It was completely uplifting. I particularly loved Alix Swan's book boxes, Annie Sherburne's rugs, and oh oh oh, I wish there was a way to show two-dimensionally just how fine Fenella Elms's ceramic pictures are.

* CENTENARIES - It was recently the Centenary of The Poetry Society, and this is the very best round up of what went on I could find - from Pamela Johnson's always well worth reading blog.

* CONNECTIONS - This letter from the poet Amy Clampitt to Mary Jo Salter made me think we all need to write more letters. Now. If only in the hope that we might one day get a reply like this one.

So who are you going to write to?