12 November 2018 - Wild Card Competition Results

Tonight members received the results of the wild card competition. In first place was
awarded to Vicky Armstrong for "Once Upon a Time in Africa". Sandra Daniels came
second with "Pause for Thought". Third place went to Sam Davey for "The
Lineaments of Desire", and fourth to Karina Evans for "All That Glitters’.

29 October 2018 - Catherine Cookson Entries Reading

Tonight members read their entries to the Catherine Cookson competition. As
always, the standard was extremely high and the range of subjects was vast. This
year members told tales featuring pirates, magicians and marmalade. Thought-
provoking issues, such as relationships, parenting and the privatisation of the post
office, were dealt sensitively.

15 October 2018 - Wild Card Entry Reading

This meeting saw the reading of the wild card competition entries. The competition
was to create a story in 10 tweets. It was generally agreed that members found this
to be one of the trickier competitions of the year. However, as always, they rose to
the challenge admirably.

1 October 2018 - Drama results

The results of the drama competition were announced tonight by our judge, actor
and writer, Christophe Philipps. First place was awarded to Maddie Blake for ‘To
Crown a King’, a clever piece about the burial of Richard III in a Leicester car park.
Second place when to Godfrey Forder for ‘Peterloo’. In third place was Roz Balp for
‘Ever Refused Admission’ and fourth place was taken by Vicky Armstrong with
‘Noblesse Oblige’.

17th September - Programme Planning

This evening members met to agree the programme planning for 2019. Voting took
place based on suggestions received from members. With the programme agreed,
members enjoyed a writing exercise organised by Kate O’Hearn. Using an opening
provided by Kate, members wove the props provided, including a hairdryer, fox,
smoke alarm and gas mask, into highly amusing, frequently hilarious, stories.

Crime Writing Workshop - 3 September 2018

 

Members enjoyed a very interesting talk from crime writer Robert Crouch this evening. Robert advised of the importance of being accurate when writing about, or relying on, police or legal procedures. He explained that, from his experience, the police are generally happy to provide information. We considered the almost endless ways to create our ‘investigator’ and how to exploit the special skills that their training, experience and profession offers. We concluded the meeting with a writing exercise, completing story ideas from an opening paragraph that Robert had created especially for the group. As always, members rose to the challenge, with an incredibly diverse range of weapons, sleuths, killers as well as alternative explanations for potentially incriminating evidence.

Meeting of 30th July - Literary Agent Louise Buckley

This evening we welcomed Louise Buckley, literary agent. Louise told us about her role and gave a lot of valuable advice based on her knowledge and experience. She explained that, in addition to promoting completed work, a literary agent will also act as a ‘manager’, offering mentoring and guidance to authors. Another important aspect of the role being ‘author expectation management’. Writers learnt about the importance of following presentation guidance when submitting work to agents and the potential benefits of having a strong social media presence. Louise answered our numerous questions and gave us a lot of extremely useful tips.