spotty poems and Murphy's Law

It was bound to happen, and some may even suggest I should have expected it to happen during one of the busiest page seventeen weeks I have throughout the cycle. Yes, a child is sick.

The good news is that it is a minor ailment that will have no lasting impact on his health. The not so good news, other than the obvious incovenience, is that it involves spots and is highly contagious, so he must be temporarily banished from society.

That means I lose the entire twelve hours for this week I have to write and/or do magazine stuff. Yes, I have only twelve hours weekly, less if I have apointments or other errands, and almost none during school holidays. And what a week for it to happen, with the selection meeting this Sunday.

Of course I have not finished reading the submissions I need to before then, let alone begun determining how many pages each piece might take so we fill the correct amount of space. And if I check my list, I'm sure there are a few other things that need doing by then too. But I trust they will all happen in time, somehow. The writing however, will have to wait.

A while back I mentioned something new and exciting for this year's page seventeen without saying what it was. Well, now I'm ready to share. This year we selected two poems before submissions even closed. One is a piece by Bec Graham that Vicki Thornton (from our editorial committee) selected at a heat of the Melbourne Believer Slam. The second is a piece by Jonathan Hadwen that he performed at SpeedPoets (Brisbane), selected by Graham Nunn on our behalf. Huge thanks to both Vicki and Graham.

From the feedback I've had so far, choosing a poem at each of these events has been well received, although I am always interested in more feedback. At this stage, I suspect I will look to do it again next year, although will hopefully organise pieces from other states too. Let me know what you think.

Meanwhile, I might go and count some pages while the baby sleeps his spots away.