I introduced Rory Motion to blogging, I hope he takes to it.

I had a few bound at York Bookbinding. They look nice, like some student's thesis, with a nice blank cover.

I gave the first copy to Sophie and she read them on the bus home. Sophie has some very different approaches to writing which sort of surprised me. I think in many ways she is trying to get at deeper things than me, whilst I'm just working things out.. like splinters. She mulls ideas over for a long time, sort of gestating them. If I do that they're gone. I tried it for a week or so after meeting her and I forgot more than I remembered, so back to pen and paper for me.

Yesterday, I'd gone to see Guy, who is a wizard with Word, to try and get my poems into shape and get the fonts and alignment right. I felt so embarrassed by my poetry, seeing swear words fly by as he scrolled up and down the document. I nearly gave up then and there.

After printing them out, I popped into York to a bloke who does bookbinding and I'm getting a few done to send to publishers... another moment of excruciating embarrassment... am I doing the right thing? Or should I just forget about the past and bury them?

We'll see. They'll hopefully be ready by next Tuesday in time to give Sophie one.

It was a year in which I sold my home, separated from my wife and family, spent some months in New Zealand where I learned the ukulele, fractured my spine in three places mountain biking and in September came close to dying of heart problems.

During that year, unable to make sense of things, making things rhyme seemed the next best thing, I started writing poetry.

This is a blog to promote that book and tell the story of getting it made (or not... who knows...).