Autumn was in the air when we met on Monday 30
September, for the results of our ‘Hidden Gems’ competition. This, new in our
programme for 2013, is specifically for new writers, and people who for whatever
reason, have not been placed in a HWG competition during the last two years. As
ever, a good variety of stories were entered. Our judge, former English
Literature lecturer Dr. Elizabeth Allen, is a long-standing favourite with the
group. She is very knowledgeable, very well-read, and has a real love of the
English language. After talking us through the entries, she announced the
results. In fourth place was Alex Willis, with ‘George’, which he told us was
the first chapter of his forthcoming novel. Third was Janet Kates, with her
story, ‘The Class’, about murder and mayhem in a creative writing class. Second
was Mike Rayner, with the introspective, beautifully written ‘Happy Birthday’.
The winner was Marcia Woolf, a relatively new member. Her story, ‘Like Father,
Like Son’ was picked out by our judge for its excellent use of language,
combined with a tightly-structured plot about a death and a family
funeral.
As well as the competition results, the group had
its first sight of our new anthology, Animal Writes, which will be available for
sale at the Books Born in Hastings event in the Town Hall on 12 October. The
book features a new Pegasus story by Kate O’Hearn. We also looked at, and
enjoyed the new book smell of another new publication – ‘The Alphabet King’, by
Kate Errington. Well done Kate!
No comments:
Post a Comment