Friday, February 22, 2019

A gift

I'm feeling a bit ditsy this morning. I was sick of the same old breakfast of Dave's oatcakes and my home-made lemon curd, and had pancakes instead. Oh, we live on the edge at Hepworth Towers.

Secondly, I got an email from TOAST  telling me I can have 15% off till Sunday, so now I am going to buy the garment I have been lusting over for two months, but resisting because it was too expensive. It's still too expensive even with the discount but this is my seventieth birthday year and I'm going to treat myself. I might be dead next February.

Also, it's a beautiful clear sunny day and I'm going for a walk through the woods and by the river and then for lunch with my friend, Liz. We had it booked for a week ago but had to cancel because of a hospital emergency. It was a sunny day and I missed it, so to have another chance today feels like a magical gift.

This week I've been seeking permissions from agents and publishers to include four specific poems in my novel. For several of them I had to answer reams of questions about my book, such as the price, what kind of rights I need (e.g. worldwide?) where the poem will appear in the novel and in what format, and more and more. I'm not complaining. It has to be done. I hope the permissions aren't too expensive, though. I got one under my belt last year. It cost 50 Euros.

The joy on Wednesday was when I rang an agent in Ireland to ask for permission to include one of my favourite poems of all time and he immediately said 'Yes.'  And there would be no charge. It made me happy out of all proportion. I'm still puzzling over why this cheered me up so much. Was it because it was so nice to have an immediate 'Yes' for whatever reason from a literary agent? Was it because it related to one of my favourite poems? Was it because the agent was so charming and had a delicious Irish accent? Was it because it was the first day of getting ready for publication and it felt like an omen?

Answers in the comments section below. 

In the meantime here is a Lenten Rose in my garden:



Happy Friday!

2 comments:

di mcdougall said...

I do know what a YES like that feels like! It is a gift of simplicity in an often too complex world. Re your possible demise by next year at least we can count on your Dave to be quick off the mark with a nice well made coffin??!

Sue Hepworth said...

Absolutely! There’s a man not perplexed by the thought of dealing with a cadaver!

Oh I do like my blog readers. Your comment and Jenetta’s last one made me laugh a lot.
😍😍