Coastalblog

For those so inclined I shall be reading this evening at the Edge Hill launch of this .I know, I know, a poetry reading scheduled against an England game, what could possibly go wrong? Naturally 'll read the pieces I have in the antholgy (having been told I have to), but what else is proving problematic.You see, the thing with both my books is that the poems have been in my life for a long time, some of them are teenagers, but it took me a long while to get round to getting them published. So whilst I should, in theory, still be hammering the books at readings to rattle a few sales along I can't help but feel a bit guilty, like what, really? This one again? Still, as dilemmas go, this one is fairly trifling in the grand cheme of things. Best not to worry, eh?

This morning yours truly, along with another three hundred or so souls will be charging off round the course of the Ormskirk 10k .Not an overly momentous occasion, every weekend tens of thousands involve themselves in a competitive race of some ilk. But I'm up early due to a youngest son's determination to play with lego, and he has no interest in me joining in, so as is often the case on these occasions my mind begins to wander, and what with the impending race I've started thinking about running, about what it means to me. Now, as a young boy I wasn't particularly sporty, I had a passing interest in it but no more, I was, however, fond of cake. And books. And being left alone in a quiet corner to eat and read same. The end result of which doesn't really need spelling out, suffice to say that by the time I had begun to notice that there were creatures called "girls" I wasn't really in much of a condition for them to notice me, other than,perhaps, to...