Two Things
 

1. In a small victory for formal verse, my villanelle "Carpe, Carpe" has been selected for inclusion at the end of the June Good Reads Newsletter, which can be found at the following link:
http://www.goodreads.com/newsletter/show/june2010

2. My one-act play "Dig" is being produced at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London, and my wife and I will be going to see it next week.

A positive review is here:
http://www.extraextra.org/Review_The...urve_2010.html
There are a couple of negative reviews out there as well, but I believe those are accounted for by defects in the critics' sensibilities.

Hats off for both of these fine accomplishments. If I were anywhere close, I'd attend a performance of your play, but I can't swim that far. I hope it is a great success.

Congratulations!
 

I really enjoyed your villanelle (even though I'm sitting on a chair & not a branch). Plus...
Great news on your play! May all break a leg--and I'm glad you & Paula will get to see it in person!

I, too, like the villanelle and hope you enjoy seeing the play. Congratulations for your versatility and ubiquity.

Susan

Another vote for the villanelle, and congratulations.

Thank you very much Janice, Ned, Susan and Maryann. I hope my ubiquity doesn't become distressing. At any rate there are no signs I can quit my day job. The reviews of the play have started to come in (1 favorable, 2 not so much), but we'll see what happens.

Greatly enjoyed the villanelle, J.D., and congratulations on the play. Fingers crossed for a quick option from Spielberg or Cameron.

Hi J.D.

I'm planning to pop down to London (just an hour's journey for me) to see your play on either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday evening, if possible. I don't care about the reviews - I know what I like and prefer to make my own decisions!

It would be great to meet both the author and a fellow spherian; which night will you and your wife be there?

Enjoyed the poem, J.D. Have a great time in London, and please update us on the trip.

Frank

Thank you, Gregory, I'm very glad you enjoyed the villanelle. The play has been optioned by a young filmmaker who is working on the script about now.

Jayne, my wife Paula and I will be attending the performances on the evenings of June 23 and June 25, and the 5:30 p.m. performance on June 26. It would be lovely to meet you at any of those times.

Thank you, Frank. This should be a very good time. My first-ever visit to London was for my day job, with only limited tourism, so I'm looking forward to seeing quite a bit.

Hi John,

I've just bought two tickets online for the Saturday performance at 5.30pm.
It will be lovely to meet you and Paula (and see the play, of course). Shall we attempt to meet beforehand, rather than afterwards?
I have a friend who lives less than two miles away from the theatre and we haven't seen each other since Easter, so I'm getting to London by lunchtime. Two reasons for really looking forward to Saturday!

Well done, John. I must tell you that Faber sold the film option on 'The Faber Book of Blue Verse'. Haven't seen the film yet (must be a bit short of plot) but I have seen the £500 I got for it.

Thank you, John. Your option story is priceless.

I would like to thank Jayne and her friend Helen for braving the trip to London. They kindly bought me copies of The Oldie and The Spectator to show some of who publishes formal verse in the U.K.

It was lovely to meet John and his wife Paula, and we really enjoyed John's one-act play, Dig.

It was especially good to meet a Spherian from across the pond. John told me a bit about Westchester, so maybe next year...who knows?

Totally cool. If your play is running through July, I might be able to see it.