…say hello to my Poet and Author friend, Kevin Cowdall…

…writing, and writers, come in many guises, and one discipline which I admire greatly is that of excellent Poets… one such bard steps up now with a Guest Blog for yeez to enjoy… for other Authors, note the same route most of us have experienced— Rejection Slip Highway, the road to ultimate perseverance and success!…

…here’s Kevin to tell yeez all about it :

KEVIN COWDALL

I started writing my first novel, a children’s story set in Canada, The Dinsdale Fox, when I was about 16 or 17 – I must have the nicest set of rejection slips; I even had publishers pass the manuscript on to other publishers they thought might be more responsive, but I was getting nowhere fast and grew quite disillusioned, so I decided to concentrate on writing poetry.

Like most early efforts, much of what I wrote to begin with was fairly appalling “Moon In June” stuff, but I gradually started to get things into print – my first published poem (The Photograph) actually appeared, appropriately, in the influential UK journal, First Time. Over the years I had about 150 poems published in magazines, journals and anthologies in the UK and abroad, broadcast on local and regional BBC Radio and featured in several local and national competitions. I also brought out threesmall press collections; The Reflective Image, Monochrome Leaves and A Walk in the Park.

In my late twenties / early thirties I concentrated on writing short stories and had a number published in magazines and anthologies, then I moved back to full-length works (including my first stage play, Sometimes). I published a novella, Paper Gods and Iron Men on Kindle, and its had quite excellent reviews. I finished a full-length novel, Cosgrove’s Sketches, the story of an Edwardian Liverpool artist, a while ago and have been working on editing / revising it.

Most recently, I collated a selection of poems from the three previous booklets, along with some newer poems, in to a collection, Assorted Bric-a-brac, which I released on Kindle and it has been very well received; actually reaching number 13 in the Poetry chart on Amazon.UK! It went back in to the Top 30 a few days ago and I’d love to see it in the Top 10 (or even Number 1!)..available thus:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Assorted-Bric—brac-Selected-Poems-ebook/dp/B01BKT8DPI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454964223&sr=8-1&keywords=assorted+bric-a-brac

https://www.amazon.com/Assorted-Bric—brac-Selected-Poems-ebook/dp/B01BKT8DPI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456779185&sr=8-1&keywords=assorted+bricabrac

The first poem in the collection, Memory, has always been a personal favourite.

MEMORY

Memory

Is a shoe box

Full of old photographs.

Occasionally,

We rummage through it

And a forgotten image

Is brought to life –

A single moment,