Enter September...

So how's your year going?

I know we haven't spoken in a while, but if you've been following my socials, you'll be fairly up to date. The last few months have seen me performing at zoom readings and even live on stage!

What a whirlwind releasing a book can be!

9 Months in and she still feels brand new in my hands, and yet I cannot deny that the ink has been flowing behind the scenes...

This year has already seen 5 new poems released to audiences through the pages of Punk Noir and Sledgehammer, and yet more to come in the next few months along with an exciting announcement I am not yet able to make - shhhhh!

Sledgehammer Lit - New Poetry!

I can however confirm that I am working on a new collection, alongside the novel, which is beginning to take a very interesting shape. Much like With Love, it takes a journey through some interesting spaces, looks back with yearning and moves forward with shaking knees. I am very excited about this project and am considering sending out a few poems on submission before presenting the completed collection to publishers. So keep your ears to the ground and I may be able to tell you more soon!

Punk Noir Magazine - 4 Poems by Oak Ayling

In all honesty it has felt somewhat difficult to balance promoting With Love and tending to budding submissions and invitations to read at events, I suppose that is the paradox of writing at work, the lone writer, whose habitat is the solitude of their thoughts and their keyboad, is forced into the helter-skelter world of book promotion and guest readings and people! Argh!

But I will bear this gladly and gratefully, I am very blessed to be a writer with a growing audience and I shall not take you forgranted! Just know that every time you see that awkward side-grin steal over my face on screen or on stage, I am doing this for you!

I'll check in with you again soon, friends! Feel free to drop by my Insta for more regular updates.