Blinking back a tear
The Blinking Eye Publishing launch at Newcastle’s Lit & Phil on Wednesday was an emotional occasion. Every book launch is a celebration, and Blinking Eye were launching four books, so that’s quadruply the case; and the books were the work of competition winners (the winner’s collection and runners-up anthology for both poetry and short story competitions), so there was a real excitement, the sense of something special and festive. The tiny mince pies with stars on them helped, too!
But the event was also Jeanne Macdonald‘s farewell performance. Blinking Eye was Jeanne’s baby, and Cornwell Internet was there almost from the start. We saw the organisation grow from a project to a reality, from a single competition to two – and we were delighted to see a short story competition alongside the poetry competition, because why should poetry have all the fun? Of course we were sorry when Blinking Eye decided, as part of a business review, to move their web site to a new supplier, but it’s all part of the process of growing up and moving on.
So we were happy to be there to mark the end of an era, and to wish both Blinking Eye and Jeanne herself every success in whatever comes next. Here’s hoping that the Blinking Eye competitions will resume in all their glory in 2009 after their hiatus!