I have somewhat neglected to write here, as I have now got a regular spot writing a blog article each month for the Felixstowe magazine App https://thefelixstowemagazine.com This is a wonderful local app, which showcases local talent, event, venues – always an interesting read. I write PENspiration! (click to reveal my January article and click here for February Penspiration!) where every month I not only review my personal trials and triumphs, but I also spotlight some creatives I’ve engaged with and venues I have visited and hopefully inspire people that they too can unleash their own talents. I’ve heard on the grapevine that there is an Ipswich App coming soon too!
February for me has been jam-packed but I’m delighted that I helped 5 pf my students enter a young writers competition and every single one of them got chosen and are being published in a book! That is probably one of my finest achievements this month.
Things on the creative front for me personally are really hotting up though. First off the block (and writing off most of March in terms of creative energy) is the new play by Suzanne Hawkes to be performed at the end of March and Beginning of April. I will be taking on the Role of Patricia Highsmith, the author you may know through her creation The Talented Mr Ripley. Highsmith and I seem to have a few traits in common and It will be really interesting to take on the role. The play is Pat and Ron: Writers in Crime, and it’s all about the meeting of Patricia Highsmith and Ronald Blythe in Suffolk. Tickets are available here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/felixstowe/two-sisters-arts-centre/pat-ron-writers-in-crime/2024-03-25/19:30/t-zzjddrd
In the background, My second poetry book (but my third book) is awaiting a release date, and I am currently well over halfway through a gritty Punk Noir novel which charts the ‘adventures; of a group of punk friend (or some might say loveable scumbags) from 1976 to the present. It’s non-linear, so be prepared to dance through their dubious and morally questionable escapades… I’m hurrying to get it to the finish line as I can’t wait to get it out there to the public!
On March 7th, the HUNGER anthology by Urban Pigs Press is released, followed by the third in James Jenkins’ crime and urban brit series, The Swine, the Pig and the Porker on May 4th (be with you!)
Other news on the poetry front is that I’m to appear in a 3 poets’ show at Two Sisters in June and I am to be taking on a more prominent role in the Suffolk Poetry Society. I can reveal that I’m involved in their production for the Adleburgh Festival in November. As one of the 5 selected poets, I have the honour of performing, but also auditioning for 5 others and then running rehearsals to get a brilliant performance for the Society. And I’ll be able to perform with and meet some rather well-known poets! Very very excited about this! The theme is water, in any shape or form… (Ice, Steam??)
In May, the one-act play which grew from one week in the charts in august 1986 will go ahead. Playwright, Ryan Curtis is now casting. I’m co-director, and I have, alongside Ryan and two other writers, contributed 2 mini-plays/scenes. It is already creating a buzz. The INK forum I took part in, where Creative Ink paired up with University of Suffolk, helped me to shape the second piece in the right direction. (The Ink Festival tickets can be bought here.) We hope to take the play to the Colchester Fringe.
In October I am giving a talk to The WI, just like the Queen used to! And in January 2025 I’ll be a guest speaker to inspire those at U3a in Felixstowe.
And finally, in the background, I have accidentally started my third Poetry book!
I’m sure there’s more, but my head can’t keep up with it!
What I can also share, though, is that I’ve started a new Facebook group called WACOS – which is Writers and Creatives of Suffolk – to allow another friendly space to chat, post news and events and achievements. Brilliant writer Bam Barrow helped to get this group off the ground. Look us up! you are welcome – underground, edgy and quirky especially! I’m hoping to grow the group and perhaps arrange a few sharing meet ups, and writing workshops in the future, but at the moment it is a fun and non-judgemental safe space to be. I used to teach creative writing at Suffolk College, many years ago before the town had a University, and I have over 27 years of teaching experience, (which I can hardly believe!) so It would be good to be able to offer creative workshops again. I so loved the one I ran for the Suffolk Poetry Society. It’s a thought anyway…
23rd February was the anniversary of the poet, John Keats’ death. It inspired me to write a poem a couple of days beforehand. I read that he begged to have his drug and die because he was in so much pain. He died in 1821. Here it is:
Posthumous Existence
(Written for the anniversary of Keats’ death 23rd February)
How long can this posthumous existence go on?
Spending days, gazing on a Grecian urn;
longing to be inside it; trying to grow old.
All my Autumns disintegrating in Spring;
my brittle lungs dissolving;
unable to breathe again.
Black fermenting shards of me;
the dark, tormented heart of me;
always in a race with death;
at my back his spiny touch;
and on my neck I feel his breath;
I turn to cry, ‘enough!’
Pale, synthetic, bitter love!
you’re in my veins; you are my blood.
sometimes I think I’ll give you up,
my pale and bitter poison love.
But even though I know you steal,
You still appeal.
How strange it is to linger on
when life’s sweet shadow is a dream.
Eternity is out of reach;
all that remains is mortal pain,
and I am undone.
Virginia Betts (February 23rd 2024, all rights reserved.)
Virginia Betts 