So glad you have signed up to receive the For Random Learning Comes Newsletter! This is the eighty-ninth edition. Previous editions can be found on the blog's Newsletter page. I send it out weekly, so if you don't get my email on Saturday morning, please let me know! (Check your junk and spam folders too.) *** Hello again. I'm sure I am not the only one, whose output has slacked during the warm months. I did do another travel post, which I hope you will enjoy. I certainly enjoyed traveling there! This week's post is about two stately homes which we visited on our tour of South England. The names of the houses are Parham and Petworth and they are both worth a gander. I only wish my website would bear the weight of all the photos I took (and in the case of Petworth, could have taken.) Instead, you get only a select few, to give you a taste of the two places. Either house could have been a full day's excursion, in my book, and we did both in one day. I'll try to pump some more of these photo-heavy posts out over the summer, to get the rest of this trip behind me. It's lovely thinking about it, but ohh! The technology! It's exhausting. Otherwise in my life, I've been wasting entirely too much time on Threads, FaceBook's new twitter (or should I say Meta's?) But I have to admit, that so far, it has been a positive experience. I approached it with the express intention, of connecting with more writers and readers. For that purpose, it has proved worth the time and effort. Of course, as with a garden, one has to be willing to do a healthy amount of pruning. I had the joy in the Spring, after we returned from England, to read one of my poems, published in the collection "Moss Gossamer" for a group in Jacksonville. I then heard that another poem had been selected by the Florida Writer's Association, for inclusion in their collection of only 60 pieces by members, of which I got fourth place. That collection, called "Secrets,' comes out in August, I think. I bought tickets to the FWA convention in October too, for the first time ever. Then, recently, I was notified, that another poem had been accepted into an Immigration-Themed collection called "Border Beats." Don't know exactly when that will come out. All this is very exciting news. Of course, what you don't see is the many kind rejections, and the long waiting and wondering. Oh, well, this is the life I've signed up for. Currently in the waiting and wondering category is: 1) 3 swamp-themed poems for a collection 2) 2 poems for the Florida State Poets Association Verse Competition 3)5 poems for a collection on food and soul 4)1 Jane Austen themed poem for a Jane Austen prize 5) A somewhat dystopian short story for a short story award for new writers 6) A chapbook submission of collected poems (38 of them) for a chapbook competition. Wow! I guess I have been busy. I am also attending a fair number of writerly events, such as Florida Writers Association meetings and a Story Slam at a local theater called Bab's Lab. Support local writers and artists!! Hope your summer is going well too! Stay cool! Andrea

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