Clarendon House Publications

07/10/2026

NEW RELEASE FROM CLARENDON HOUSE PUBLICATIONS!
Poetica # 32: An Inner Circle Writers' Group Poetry Anthology
https://www.clarendonhousebooks.com/anthologies

There is a common assumption among poets and readers generally that ‘There is no market for poetry.’ I hear this regularly.
This idea arises because, in the big world of publishing, poetry is seen to be a private, highly subjective affair which correspondingly does not sell well. Personal tastes, obscurity of form, and lack of poetic craft all add up to poetry being ‘shoved into the corner’ and usually only self-published or produced as a vanity piece.
This is a shame. There are a great many good poets out there: thousands of voices whose passionate visions of reality are not finding a proper outlet. Without channels to transmit these visions to readers, they can eventually fall silent.
The effort of this series of Poetica anthologies is to contribute to the creation of a market for poetry throughout the calendar year. The idea is that, by providing a regular, published venue for poetry from all over the world, poems as media for the communication of important and heartfelt ideas and reflections will gain in respect and become more widely acknowledged. Voices will be heard; channels will be opened.
Poetica # 32 features the work of Craig Richard Tickner, Kelli J Gavin, Tony Fyler, Kerri Jesmer, Sultana Raza, Aishwariya Laxmi, David Painter, Jacek Wilkos, Ger White, Afshan Aqil, Michal Reiben, Valerie Fuqua, A. Cyr, Peter Kenny, Tim Law, Linda Sparks, Vanessa Caraveo, Theresa C. Gaynord, Debby Hackbarth, Lisa H. Owens, Justin Wiggins, Jim Bates, Gabriella Balcom, the Birch Twins, Suranjit Gain, Anahit Arustamyan, Mike Turner, Linda M. Crate, Philip Dodd, Gareth Macready, Mark Scheel, Catherine A. MacKenzie, María J. Estrada and Trish Parkinson.
Grab your paperback or Kindle version here:
https://www.clarendonhousebooks.com/anthologies

07/10/2026

Lots of telling, rather than showing, pushes the reader out of the story and slows things right down; showing, rather than telling, pulls the reader into the story - in fact, right into the characters’ heads - and speeds things up. That’s one way to control the pace of the story. Both ways are means to ends…

Lots of telling, rather than showing, pushes the reader out of the story and slows things right down; showing, rather than telling, pulls the reader into the story - in fact, right into the characters’ heads - and speeds things up. That’s one way to control the pace of the story. Both ways are m...

06/10/2026

You have probably heard the maxim ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ when it comes to writing fiction. I’m reading a book at the moment (which shall remain nameless) that tends to violate that piece of advice. I’m about a third of the way in, and by far the largest part of the narrative so far has been describing events almost like a historical chronicle, with very little dialogue or character interaction. It gets away with it to some extent because the ideas are intriguing, and also because the author has split the voice of the piece into two narrators, whose viewpoints the reader gets to see via alternating chapters. This structural device gives the impression that some kind of interaction is occurring, as the characters send long distance messages to each other, and it avoids what would become prolonged ‘telling’ were we to stick with one voice for more than one chapter…

You have probably heard the maxim ‘Show, Don’t Tell’ when it comes to writing fiction. I’m reading a book at the moment (which shall remain nameless) that tends to violate that piece of advice. I’m about a third of the way in, and by far the largest part of the narrative so far has been de...

05/10/2026

There was once an ad, a social media group, an online magazine and a book…

There was once an ad, a social media group, an online magazine and a book. The ad’s main advantage was that it travelled far and wide, but its disadvantage was that, as it moved very quickly, and didn’t stay in one place for more than a second or two, not many people noticed it and it didn’t g...

03/10/2026

What does a marketing campaign need in order to accomplish its goals?

Well, the first thing it needs is goals. These have to be defined and realistic. Many writers, setting out to market their books, have only the vaguest notion of how they would define ‘success’ in marketing. Do they want overnight stardom? Or a slowly building fanbase? Or notoriety? Or prize-winning recognition? But sitting down and working out what goals one wants to achieve brings to the fore several factors that are in play in any marketing campaign, whether they have been thought about consciously or not. More often than not, these are not consciously considered, which is why so many writers feel so desperate and confused when it comes to marketing.

Here are the four factors which need to be taken into account when putting together a marketing campaign for anything, not just books…

What does a marketing campaign need in order to accomplish its goals? Well, the first thing it needs is goals. These have to be defined and realistic. Many writers, setting out to market their books, have only the vaguest notion of how they would define ‘success’ in marketing. Do they want overn...

02/10/2026

COMING SOON

The Great Clarendon House Poetry Challenge!

It’s just like the Great Clarendon House Writing Challenge - except it’s for POETS!

The idea is to find TEN CONTESTANTS who then undertake a series of specialised tasks, month by month, in each issue of the Inner Circle Writers’ Magazine. There is NO FEE to enter the Poetry Challenge. As each month goes by, the number of contestants reduces, based on votes from the magazine’s readers who judge how each of them accomplishes each task.

Go here to subscribe to the magazine: https://www.clarendonhousebooks.com/magazine

By the end of the competition, ONE CONTESTANT will be crowned the WINNER of the Great Clarendon House Poetry Challenge.

The winner will be entitled to:

* the offer of a book publishing contract with Clarendon House Publications (this can be for a poetry collection or any other work - a novel, a short story collection, etc.)
* a free webpage on the Clarendon House website through which to feature their works (whether published by Clarendon House or not)
* a free full-page ad in the Inner Circle Writers’ Magazine for a whole year
* free marketing advice, including cover design, blurb, author platform tips and so on
* a free Lifestyle Consultancy to address any issues that might be getting in the way of their success as a writer.

Do you have what it takes?

Here’s your first challenge:

Write a 500 word poem in ANY style, on ANY theme

and send it to

[email protected]

Submission will appear in an upcoming issue of the magazine. If readers judge it worthy, you will then progress through to the second round!

DUE DATE: October 31st, 2026

Any questions? Email me
[email protected]

https://www.clarendonhousebooks.com/magazine

02/10/2026

Your weekly newsletter is here!
https://www.clarendonhousebooks.com/single-post/your-weekly-newsletter-is-here-206

02/10/2026

In the course of this series, we have looked at Attention as a kind of commodity, and examined ways in which it can be directed. We have also come to see that Attention and Meaning are directly related and hopefully realised that Meaning of one kind or another is the thing that we are all seeking…

01/10/2026

When I first began reading Carmen Baca’s new book Cuentos del Cañón, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I have spent some time in the States - eight months in Los Angeles many years ago, plus visits to Florida and New York - but the only visions that I have had of the Mid West are from old Westerns. My father relished those films, usually featuring burning hot deserts, barren mountains and dusty old settlements. Unless one visits places first-hand, one tends to be stuck with the stereotypes presented to one by the culture into which one is born. Thus, if someone had said ‘New Mexico’ to me, the first images would have been of emptiness, heat and struggle.

Carmen’s book quickly corrected all that by presenting an entirely different vista…

When I first began reading Carmen Baca’s new book Cuentos del Cañón, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I have spent some time in the States - eight months in Los Angeles many years ago, plus visits to Florida and New York - but the only visions that I have had of the Mid West are from old Westerns...

30/09/2026

Astute readers of this series may note that the ‘trick’ - if it can be called a ‘trick’ - of mastering attention has, in the end, not much to do with going out there into the world seeking it.

Billions of units of currency, millions of hours of time, hundreds of thousands of people are engaged in the practice of attention-seeking as you read this. By ‘attention-seeking’ I mean literally that they are using all their energies and the latest technologies of the internet to scour the landscape, near and far, in search of this strange thing called ‘attention’. Most of them are hoping that they can latch onto it with such force that it will convert to money. They want, like the ancient alchemists, to be able to transmute the lead of ignorance into the gold of cash. Like those alchemists, though, they keep missing the point…

Astute readers of this series may note that the ‘trick’ - if it can be called a ‘trick’ - of mastering attention has, in the end, not much to do with going out there into the world seeking it. Billions of units of currency, millions of hours of time, hundreds of thousands of people are engag...