Isabelle Charlotte Kenyon's Blog, page 9
February 5, 2018
Book Review: Tear Stained Pages
I was privileged to be given an advanced reading copy of Katie Lewington's new poetry book, Tear Stained Pages.I am a big fan of Katie's work and so I eagerly read right through this chapbook! Katie is the author of many poetry books - an impressive writing feat - and it feels as though with each book, she evolves her style and her craft for the better.This is Katie's best work yet. It feels like it has been written in the midnight hours when the world is beginning and ending at the same time, changing and yet going nowhere. It has an aura of nostalgia, and magic about it and thematically, I think the collection is linked by atmosphere. At Katie's best here, she examines her own thoughts (it feels as though she questions her existenceand others' existence and the meaning of it all) and as personal fan of Katie's observational poetry of people, this collection has both for me and others to enjoy.The book is out on the 8th of February, but for now, add it on Goodreads hereConnect with Katie: https://www.facebook.com/KLpoetry/
Katie's new release is in great company because Please Hear What I'm Not Saying, my charity book for Mind, is also out on February 8th! Keep your eyes peeled - at 236 pages, it's deliciously big for you to sink your teeth into!
Katie's new release is in great company because Please Hear What I'm Not Saying, my charity book for Mind, is also out on February 8th! Keep your eyes peeled - at 236 pages, it's deliciously big for you to sink your teeth into!
January 31, 2018
Time To Talk Day: Mental Health Awareness
It's 'Time to Talk Day' which is a movement of mental health awareness run by Time To Change: https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/about-mental-healthI wanted to use the day to be open about my own mental health and talk about how the Mind Poetry Anthology, Please Hear What I'm Not Saying, will help charity Mind to help those suffering from mental health problems.In my teens, I went to CAMHS - 'a term for all services that work with children and young people who have difficulties with their emotional or behavioural wellbeing.' (NHS website) and went through a therapy called CBT.The aim of CBT is to challenge patterns of behaviour and thought processes that are negative, destructive or distressing and replace them with more positive thought patterns. CBT teaches lifelong skills and coping strategies and I find it much easier to rationalise my thought processes as a result.However, not everyone has a successful referral from their GP for this, and I was lucky.The Mind Anthology will allow more people to get the support they need and the respect they deserve.The book's price (released on the 8th of Feb) will reflect the money needed to offer a infoline team member answer a call from someone in desperate need of support.Buying two books will help Mind campaign for better access to talking therapies, crisis care and other essential mental health services.Three books will keep Elefriends, Mind's online support community, running for 1 hour.I'm looking forward to sharing the book with you and so are the 116 poets involved! 
January 29, 2018
'The Cult' of Modern Poetry: my take on Rebecca Watt's controversial article.
Rebecca Watt’s recent article ‘The Cult of the Noble Amateur’ has divided opinion.
Rebecca attacks ‘Instagram’ and ‘Spoken word’ poets who start off self publishing their work and then get picked up based on their sales – for example she lists Rupi Kaur and UK poet Hollie Mcnish.She argues that this unfiltered poetry, which goes through no editor and (she believes) is written by authors who have not even read much poetry themselves, results in a death of poetry as an art form.This is interesting to me, because although I am in favour of experimentation and all forms of poetry – and I love to read poems covering as many diverse subjects as I can – I find that in general, traditionally published work is richer in imagery and has a considered style. I find that I read poems with metaphors and oxymorons again and again, to find their different meanings.What Rebecca Watts is attacking then, is the idea that this poetry is celebrated for being ‘accessible’. Does poetry have to be accessible? To me, this seems an easy no, but with my marketing hat on, to reach a larger audience, sales of Rupi and Hollie’s ‘simple’ (according to Watts) books are a testimony to this being a yes…“Kaur’s publisher Kirsty Melville insisted that ‘the medium of poetry reflects our age, where short-form communication is something people find easier to digest or connect with’. The reader is dead: long live consumer-driven content and the ‘instant gratification’ this affords.”I think to say the reader is dead here is overstating the point – sales of poetry are rising more than ever before, but I know myself that when Amazon offers me 4 months free Kindle Unlimited reading, I take it and I end up glued to my phone…in between Facebook and Twitter.My own attention span for reading has decreased – my own attention span worries me. We shouldn’t veer away from ‘difficult’ poetry – some of the ‘hardest’ poetry is written by writers at the top of their craft and there is so much to learn if we just concentrate (and log out of social media for an hour)."The ability to draw a crowd, attract an audience or assemble a mob does not itself render a thing intrinsically good: witness Donald Trump."I have found this to be true. I am not a massive fan of Rupi’s poetry but of course, checked it out after I heard the hype surrounding it. There are some massively underrated poets who deserve the hype but aren’t as internet savvy!“As Paterson argued in 2004: ‘Poetry is a wonderfully therapeutic thing to do at amateur level; but amateur artists and musicians don’t think they should exhibit at the Tate, or play at the Wigmore. (Serious poets, I should say, don’t start off amateurs, but apprentices – just like any other vocation.)’”I think Watts is trying to make a point about exalting poets who are mere ‘apprentices’ in their craft – I don’t think this is as worrying as she makes out, however. Popularity is not synonymous with talent, in all areas, and I can celebrate a young poet as well as a developed author without much worry about the ‘apprentice’ taking over the world – because if they do, that’s great, and good for them. If people love their work, I can’t deny their right to their personal tastes and I wouldn’t want to. There is a place for both ‘types’ of poets I feel.If anything, the rise of the successful, young female poet is a welcome trend when I think of all the women writers in the past who had their work hidden from public glory injustly, or were denied the right to write.If you are intrigued and want to read more about the trends of contemporary poetry, you can read my blog post here: https://www.flyonthewallpoetry.co.uk/... Rebecca’s full article here: http://www.pnreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?item_id=10090
Rebecca attacks ‘Instagram’ and ‘Spoken word’ poets who start off self publishing their work and then get picked up based on their sales – for example she lists Rupi Kaur and UK poet Hollie Mcnish.She argues that this unfiltered poetry, which goes through no editor and (she believes) is written by authors who have not even read much poetry themselves, results in a death of poetry as an art form.This is interesting to me, because although I am in favour of experimentation and all forms of poetry – and I love to read poems covering as many diverse subjects as I can – I find that in general, traditionally published work is richer in imagery and has a considered style. I find that I read poems with metaphors and oxymorons again and again, to find their different meanings.What Rebecca Watts is attacking then, is the idea that this poetry is celebrated for being ‘accessible’. Does poetry have to be accessible? To me, this seems an easy no, but with my marketing hat on, to reach a larger audience, sales of Rupi and Hollie’s ‘simple’ (according to Watts) books are a testimony to this being a yes…“Kaur’s publisher Kirsty Melville insisted that ‘the medium of poetry reflects our age, where short-form communication is something people find easier to digest or connect with’. The reader is dead: long live consumer-driven content and the ‘instant gratification’ this affords.”I think to say the reader is dead here is overstating the point – sales of poetry are rising more than ever before, but I know myself that when Amazon offers me 4 months free Kindle Unlimited reading, I take it and I end up glued to my phone…in between Facebook and Twitter.My own attention span for reading has decreased – my own attention span worries me. We shouldn’t veer away from ‘difficult’ poetry – some of the ‘hardest’ poetry is written by writers at the top of their craft and there is so much to learn if we just concentrate (and log out of social media for an hour)."The ability to draw a crowd, attract an audience or assemble a mob does not itself render a thing intrinsically good: witness Donald Trump."I have found this to be true. I am not a massive fan of Rupi’s poetry but of course, checked it out after I heard the hype surrounding it. There are some massively underrated poets who deserve the hype but aren’t as internet savvy!“As Paterson argued in 2004: ‘Poetry is a wonderfully therapeutic thing to do at amateur level; but amateur artists and musicians don’t think they should exhibit at the Tate, or play at the Wigmore. (Serious poets, I should say, don’t start off amateurs, but apprentices – just like any other vocation.)’”I think Watts is trying to make a point about exalting poets who are mere ‘apprentices’ in their craft – I don’t think this is as worrying as she makes out, however. Popularity is not synonymous with talent, in all areas, and I can celebrate a young poet as well as a developed author without much worry about the ‘apprentice’ taking over the world – because if they do, that’s great, and good for them. If people love their work, I can’t deny their right to their personal tastes and I wouldn’t want to. There is a place for both ‘types’ of poets I feel.If anything, the rise of the successful, young female poet is a welcome trend when I think of all the women writers in the past who had their work hidden from public glory injustly, or were denied the right to write.If you are intrigued and want to read more about the trends of contemporary poetry, you can read my blog post here: https://www.flyonthewallpoetry.co.uk/... Rebecca’s full article here: http://www.pnreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/scribe?item_id=10090
January 22, 2018
Let's Talk About Alzheimer's Disease
As submissions for the Mind poetry anthology, 'Please Hear What I'm Not Saying' flooded in, a trend emerged - and one which, perhaps, is not as surprising as I first thought.A lot of submissions were written about Alzheimer's disease.In my experience, mental health used to be portrayed in the media as mainly associated with teenage years, but at the opposite end of the scale in terms of age range, currently the UK sees a massive strain due to the poor mental health of the elderly, whether through loneliness or through the strain of becoming a carer to loved ones, who may suffer from Alzheimer's or Dementia.There are 850,000 people with Dementia in the UK, with numbers set to rise to over 1 million by 2025. This will soar to 2 million by 2051. 225,000 will develop Dementia this year, that's one every three minutes. 1 in 6 people over the age of 80 have Dementia.It is not surprising, then, that people need to talk about how their mental health has been affected by the loss of their loved ones - I myself have experienced the deterioration of a loved one to this cruel disease. It is difficult to know what the solution is - whether this is funding to research charities, or government support for those affected. What is for sure, is that with numbers rising by the day, there will be more strain on our NHS and our mental health services.I hope that writing can preserve our memories of loved ones in a way which eases the pain of these diseases somewhat and if you need anymore information, please visit this website: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/
January 14, 2018
Books to start your 2018!
I haven't reviewed any books for you in a while, how awful of me! Let me remedy that for you now...FIRST UP an unconventional book about Drugs and Shakespeare. A true story, which I discovered in New Zealand, and I can't rave about it enough.NEXT UP: A mixed bag but ultimately rewarding:FOR A CHALLENGE, emotionally that is, because this is a gruelling read at times, I have:AN ACTUAL CHALLENGE not to like this book:AN UP AND COMING RELEASE looking ahead to February:And remember the MIND Anthology 'Please Hear What I'm Not Saying' will also be released at the start of feb, so keep an eye out for that one. Psst I'm a link!
Psst I'm a link!
January 11, 2018
How To...Write a Book, Publish and Market It...
...A whistle stop tour!How to Create Your First Collection:
Write every other day for a month. What is the theme emerging?At the end of the month/2 months, find the overarching theme and eliminate the poems that don’t fit – brutally. If it’s about love, does your poem about friendship really fit? Sometimes it does, sometimes it won’t be specific enough.Now do some editing with a view to the whole collection – do you use any words too much? Edit each poem to make it stand out.Is there a journey? Even in a chapbook is there a start or an end? Is the ending open or ambiguous? Just like fiction books, I analyse my chapbooks like this.Now you have a manuscript and you want to self publish it. Great. How do you do that?First do not step foot onto Amazon Createspace until you have edited it – preferably with a proper editor but if not, your mum, your sister, your friend AND your dog. There are so many errors in self published work (grammatically, usually) and your book deserves the special treatment!A Brief Look at Marketing:Don’t do what I first did: publish the book THEN find your audience. It’s a very slow process to generating excitement and finding your readers that way. Instead, get your social media sites ready BEFORE you hit publish and every other day post an update on your book.After publishing, statistics say your social media sites should be 80% content and 20% calls to action (i.e buy my book) or you will actually lose interest and engagement. So be clever, make sure you are creating or saying things that people want to get involved with, OUTSIDE of your creation. Build your name up first.So that’s my whistle-stop tour, any more tips leave them in the comments!
Write every other day for a month. What is the theme emerging?At the end of the month/2 months, find the overarching theme and eliminate the poems that don’t fit – brutally. If it’s about love, does your poem about friendship really fit? Sometimes it does, sometimes it won’t be specific enough.Now do some editing with a view to the whole collection – do you use any words too much? Edit each poem to make it stand out.Is there a journey? Even in a chapbook is there a start or an end? Is the ending open or ambiguous? Just like fiction books, I analyse my chapbooks like this.Now you have a manuscript and you want to self publish it. Great. How do you do that?First do not step foot onto Amazon Createspace until you have edited it – preferably with a proper editor but if not, your mum, your sister, your friend AND your dog. There are so many errors in self published work (grammatically, usually) and your book deserves the special treatment!A Brief Look at Marketing:Don’t do what I first did: publish the book THEN find your audience. It’s a very slow process to generating excitement and finding your readers that way. Instead, get your social media sites ready BEFORE you hit publish and every other day post an update on your book.After publishing, statistics say your social media sites should be 80% content and 20% calls to action (i.e buy my book) or you will actually lose interest and engagement. So be clever, make sure you are creating or saying things that people want to get involved with, OUTSIDE of your creation. Build your name up first.So that’s my whistle-stop tour, any more tips leave them in the comments!
January 6, 2018
Exciting Launch of my Editing Services!
A new feature for 2018, Fly on the Wall Poetry now offers both proof reading and editing packages for fiction and poetry manuscripts. My early bird deals are outlined here.Why choose me?
I have experience in editing and writing for different genres, a keen eye for detail and the enthusiasm for your writing project. I am the editor of MIND Poetry Anthology, ‘Please Hear What I’m Not Saying’ and additionally, I have gone through the editing and self publishing process for my book ‘This is not a Spectacle’ for both Kindle and Paperback and again for my Extended Edition. I have a BA in Writing from The University of York.And did I mention my early bird prices are incredibly low?For further details or to explain the nature of your book or project, please contact me at isabellekenyon@hotmail.co.ukLooking forward to working with you!
I have experience in editing and writing for different genres, a keen eye for detail and the enthusiasm for your writing project. I am the editor of MIND Poetry Anthology, ‘Please Hear What I’m Not Saying’ and additionally, I have gone through the editing and self publishing process for my book ‘This is not a Spectacle’ for both Kindle and Paperback and again for my Extended Edition. I have a BA in Writing from The University of York.And did I mention my early bird prices are incredibly low?For further details or to explain the nature of your book or project, please contact me at isabellekenyon@hotmail.co.ukLooking forward to working with you!
January 2, 2018
HOW TO... Get more engagement and reviews of your book!
When I asked my Twitter followers what they most struggle with, it was how to get more engagement and more reviews of their work. Here's what I have come up with in response!
1. Talk to other writers. If you are genuine, read their work and review it, they will most likely return the favour. If your book is new, then it makes sense to ask more established writers to review or blog about your book (of course you give your book away for free here, so this is a long term investment to getting reviews and engagement!)2. No one wants to buy your book just because you’ve asked them to on Twitter and Facebook. It’s a sad fact – if they want it, they will go to the link in your bio/description. How do you get them to do something? Seek a genuine connection with your followers. Ask questions via polls, post about what you are doing that day and support others in their writing endeavours. You can create engagement about your work, by being actively involved in promoting others! (And this makes you a generous person, brownie points).3. Ask friends and family to add your book to their ‘Want to Read’ list on Goodreads (unfortunately I don’t have family with the app, but you can benefit from this one!) People will see this engagement on their newsfeeds and take an interest.4. Thank people personally when they do leave a review. These people are worth their weight in gold.Do you have any further tips for generating engagement and reviews for your book? Let me know in the comments!Enter the Giveaway of my debut collection This is not a Spectacle: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/272569-this-is-not-a-spectacle
1. Talk to other writers. If you are genuine, read their work and review it, they will most likely return the favour. If your book is new, then it makes sense to ask more established writers to review or blog about your book (of course you give your book away for free here, so this is a long term investment to getting reviews and engagement!)2. No one wants to buy your book just because you’ve asked them to on Twitter and Facebook. It’s a sad fact – if they want it, they will go to the link in your bio/description. How do you get them to do something? Seek a genuine connection with your followers. Ask questions via polls, post about what you are doing that day and support others in their writing endeavours. You can create engagement about your work, by being actively involved in promoting others! (And this makes you a generous person, brownie points).3. Ask friends and family to add your book to their ‘Want to Read’ list on Goodreads (unfortunately I don’t have family with the app, but you can benefit from this one!) People will see this engagement on their newsfeeds and take an interest.4. Thank people personally when they do leave a review. These people are worth their weight in gold.Do you have any further tips for generating engagement and reviews for your book? Let me know in the comments!Enter the Giveaway of my debut collection This is not a Spectacle: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/272569-this-is-not-a-spectacle
December 31, 2017
A Dangerous Trend in Contemporary Poetry
There seems to be a trend emerging in poetry, which you might be familiar with, particularly in self published work. It goes something like this:Let me write youa poemin a certain formatthat breaks upmy sentenceinto severallines- the end.(And here there will be a drawing of a heart with roots around it or flowers.)There will be a few words in italics to add emotion to the poem and the title of the poem will usually go at the end.This trend makes for easy reading which no doubt adds to its popularity – no meanings are lost or too obscure for the reader because the important parts of the poem have been segmented. I would also argue, however, that this trend, following other poets popularity and book sales off the back of this format before, lacks originality.This is not to say that books which follow this format and style have no substance and there are some exceptions, of course, to my complaint of originality. However, it seems to me that poetry is about individual style and that it is a more interesting read if a writer ‘thinks outside of the box’ or is unaware of ‘where they fit within the wider poetry scene’. Writing for yourself, in a style which you have developed, creates complex and exciting compositions which are unique.I understand that styles of writing are developed from influences (and so you may find yourself mimicking your writing idols), but perhaps now this should become part of the editing process: What is MY voice and am I portraying myself as a unique, individual writer?Do you agree? Leave your comments below!A good book to end 2017:US Kindle Sale going on here: https://www.amazon.com/This-not-Spectacle-Extended-ebook/dp/B0777JWXYF/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1513930565&sr=8-1Goodreads Giveaway here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/272569-this-is-not-a-spectacle
December 30, 2017
GoodReads Giveaway!
This Is Not a Spectacle
My extended edition is on Giveaway!
Don't miss out, I can't wait for you to read it.
https://shoutout.wix.com/so/6M2W63vL#...
My extended edition is on Giveaway!
Don't miss out, I can't wait for you to read it.
https://shoutout.wix.com/so/6M2W63vL#...
