20th March 2017 - Quiz Night

        On 20^th March we held a hugely enjoyable literary quiz, expertly put together by members Sam Davey and Vicky Armstrong. The four teams were challenged to identify books from a single line of text and to complete the names of authors given their initials. There was also a round showing the covers of popular children’s books which was clearly much harder than it looked - as our most commercially successful author, Kate O’Hearn, found when faced with her own book!!! First Place (and a box of chocolates each) went to ‘The Heebeesheehees’, consisting of Chris King, Godfrey Forder, Kate O’Hearn and Liz Caluori (147.5points). In second place were ‘Bill’s Stickers’; Marcia Woolf, Dick Kempson, Bill Petsing, Kelly Williams, Sarah Harris (138 points). Third place went to ‘The Bright Young Things’; Eileen Masters, Emma Boyde, Maddie Blake, Sam Turner and Diana Locke (125.5 points) and winners of the much coveted  wooden spoons were ‘Clueless’, made up of Kerry Mintern,  Amanda Giles, Anne Hooker and Rosemary Bartholomew (a very respectable 103 points).

6 March 2017 - Songwriting Competition

        Our meeting of 6^th March was a musical affair lead by Hastings Writers Group member, singer/songwriter, Anna Page. Members showcased their entries for the song writing competition. Several members chose to perform live, some acapella and some with guitars, and the rest played recordings of their songs performed by themselves, or their friends and family members. Most entries were set to original tunes but a small number of members had skillfully written new lyrics to familiar songs, including a very moving reworking of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’. The subjects were diverse and interesting, including an 80s-style reflection of the impact of social media, a humorous look at life after 65, a ‘whodunit’, romantic love and Brexit. There was just enough time at the end of the meeting for Anna to show us all how it was done by performing a couple of her own songs. 

Meeting Report: 20th February 2017. Writers' Exchange

On 20^th February our meeting started with an exciting account from our vice chairperson, Kate O’Hearn, of her recent very successful American book tour. Continuing with the focus on current writing projects, a number of members brought in extracts from books they are writing for constructive critiques, support and ideas. As a group we considered a broad range of issues, such as the behaviours of a range of sea creatures, the trajectory of bullets and the best way to describe a pool of urine on a carpet. Those with experience also gave very useful advice and guidance on how to edit a synopsis to an appropriate length ready for submission to potential editors.