Meeting Report: 17th September 2012

It was time for us to wrestle with yet another competition, the second in memory of long-standing member of the Group, Fleet Street journalist and St Leonard’s resident David Buchan, who sadly died last year. On Monday 17 September, we gathered to present our entries. Thirteen people had taken up the challenge of producing short pieces of journalism, mostly commentaries on current social or political issues, but also more general articles on wider themes of interest.Unusually for us, there will be a prize for the winner – a bottle of red wine – David’s favourite tipple!

As ever, we had an interesting evening listening to the entries, ranging from thoughts on the American Presidential elections through to reflections on the life of a Liverpudlian Christmas grotto designer, via the school uniform debate, recycling in Hastings, ‘think bike’, and a review of 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Stables Theatre'.  Not surprisingly, we also had two entries about the legacy of the Olympics/Paralympics.

We were also delighted to learn that Hastings Writers’ Group had performed very well in the annual competitions run by the National Association of Writers’ Groups (NAWG).  Jill Fricker  won second place in the Literary Consultancy Trophy for Open Poetry with 'Ghost' and third place in the Aine Chadwick Trophy for a Poem for Children with 'The Mangy Cat'. Roz Balp had been commended in the Jilly Cooper Trophy for a Crime Short Story with 'Synchronicity', and the Group as a whole had also been commended for our ‘Ghostwriters’ anthology, published in 2011.

      The Group meets fortnightly at the White Rock Hotel. If you are interested in joining (there is currently a waiting list), or in finding out more about our activities, please contact the Membership Secretary, Amanda Giles, on 01424 442707 or e-mail membership.hwg@gmail.com. You can also visit our website at www.hastingswriters.co.uk
Report by Steph Gaunt

Meeting Report: 3rd September 2012

On Monday 3 September we gathered to present our entries for the last of our five Writer of the Year competitive exercises for 2012.  The points awarded to the best entries for each of the competitions are added together, and the person with the highest score wins the accolade of ‘Writer of the Year’.  We gathered that the scores this year are close, and the ultimate result hinges on this last competition.  Our challenge was to write the opening chapter of a novel for children, and thirteen members submitted entries. 

 As ever with our group, it was fascinating to listen to the wide variety of creative ideas and approaches to the task. We had things that go bump in the string bean patch, a search for smugglers in Hastings, family life with the zombies, gritty realism with missing children, parents splitting up and scary school bullies, tales of magic and mystery, and science fiction.  We heard how Pedro the tortoise got a shell suit for his birthday, and about the seagull that wouldn’t fly.

 We will have to wait a few weeks for our results – until after our Annual General Meeting, which happens on 1 October. Members were reminded that this is our chance to elect new Committee members, and to put forward our suggestions for next year’s programme of meetings.

 The Group meets fortnightly at the White Rock Hotel. If you are interested in joining (there is currently a waiting list), or in finding out more about our activities, please contact the Membership Secretary, Amanda Giles, on 01424 442707 or e-mail membership.hwg@gmail.com. You can also visit our website at www.hastingswriters.co.uk.

Report compiled by Steph Gaunt

Meeting Report: 20th August 2012

On Monday 20 August it was competition results time once again. This time, our challenge had been to write a story all in dialogue.  Our guest judge was Dr Elizabeth Allen, a former lecturer in literature and cultural studies, who has judged competitions and run workshops for us previously.

     Elizabeth started by identifying some of the difficulties of writing dialogue for fiction.  For example, in a dialogue-only piece, there is the problem of differentiating between the characters – giving each a recognisable ‘voice’. Real-life dialogue is full of pauses, hesitations, and random digressions which are hard to portray convincingly.  Finally, effective dialogue has to make every word count, and keep the story moving without getting bogged down in too much detail and information.

     She felt the entries were of a very high standard, and singled out four for special mention:

     In fourth place was ‘The Voice of Reason’ by Stephen Martin.  This was a dark, intense piece about a young man with mental health difficulties.  In complete contrast, the third place entry, ‘Single to St. Leonard’s’ by Richard Holdsworth was a comic dialogue between two women on a bus – but making some telling cultural and political points. In second place was ‘The Second Tyranny’, by Mike Walsh. Set in the 1940s, this was another intense piece about a psychiatrist interviewing a multiple murderer.  The winner was the very unusual ‘Soldier’s Story’ by Jill Fricker.  Set in the Greek Antiquities Room of the British Museum, it described a conversation between a British soldier who had just returned from fighting in Iraq and a torso of the god Apollo.  The piece was both moving and chilling, and a worthy winner.

     We all expressed our thanks to Elizabeth for her hard work, and for her wise words of guidance and encouragement.

The Group meets fortnightly at the White Rock Hotel. If you are interested in joining (there is currently a waiting list), or in finding out more about our activities, please contact the Membership Secretary, Amanda Giles, on 01424 442707 or e-mail membership.hwg@gmail.com You can also visit our website at www.hastingswriters.co.uk

Report compiled by Steph Gaunt

Meeting Report: 6th August 2012

It was good to see so many members dragging themselves away from watching the Olympics to attend our meeting on Monday 6 August – or maybe people had just given up trying to understand the rules of the Women’s Omnium cycle event!  

The meeting was one of our regular Manuscript Evenings, where a small number of members read out extracts from their work in progress to gain helpful feedback from their colleagues. 

First up was Alex Willis, with the first part of a detective thriller novel, ‘Poetic Justice’, starring the gritty Inspector Jack Buchanan.  Alex hopes to produce a series of Jack Buchanan books, all set in Eastbourne. The Group felt that Alex had made a positive start with a gripping story line, and looked forward to hearing more in the future.

Next, to give our minds a rest, Janet Kates read us a short story, ‘Greek Music’.  In 2011, this story won third prize in the Group’s annual flagship competition, the Catherine Cookson Cup. We all agreed that this tightly written, atmospheric piece would set a high standard for our 2012 entries to measure up to.

Eileen Masters read us the closing pages of her autobiographical memoir, ‘Prayers for an Infidel’.  The work combines fascinating stories about Eileen’s work in war-ravaged Afghanistan with memories of her own childhood.  The Group made a number of suggestions to Eileen about how such a powerful piece of writing could best be finished off, and we look forward to reading the final version.

Lastly, Amanda Giles presented a further extract from her radio play, ‘Moondance’.  At our last Manuscript evening, Amanda had asked us to take different parts for a reading of the play, and on this occasion, we obliged again.  As the characters are mostly Welsh, with a London rock-star thrown in, our efforts were predictably hilarious.  Even so, Amanda felt that having real people read the play was a very helpful exercise for her.

The Group meets fortnightly at the White Rock Hotel. If you are interested in joining (there is currently a waiting list), or in finding out more about our activities, please contact the Membership Secretary, Amanda Giles, on 01424 442707 or e-mail membership.hwg@gmail.com. You can also visit our website at
www.hastingswriters.co.uk.

Report compiled by Steph Gaunt

Book Reviews

All these reviews are by member John Cornelius

 

Au Revoir Liverpool

Maureen Lee

Despite its tacky cover illustration which suggests a menopausal pulp romance, I found this a surprisingly good read. It concerns a woman with a rather convoluted family situation who finds herself in occupied Paris in the early days of WWII and addresses the plight of a woman who searches for happiness after a disastrous first marriage only to gain a reputation for fecklessness and promiscuity.

 

A Fairytale of New York

J P Donleavy

Ludicrously funny, razor-sharp wordplay combines with mad sexual antics and situations. one of Donleavy's best novels ever, describing the trials and tribulations of New York's most incompetent funeral director's assistant. (The hero happens to be named Cornelius Christian - no relation!)

 

A Question of Upbringing

Anthony Powell

This is the first volume of Powell's monumental Proustian epic novel. Enjoyable, accessible and readable in a very narrowly focused, almost microscopic way. Allow yourself plenty of time with no distractions.

 

What Zoos Can Do

Anthony Sheridan

Very much a personal taste issue: as a lifelong lover of zoos I found this survey of Europe's finest zoological gardens fascinating and it made me want to visit them all, to see such rarities as manatees and walruses which you are not likely to encounter in the UK.

Meeting Report: 23rd July 2012

It was time to submit Competition entries again on Monday 23 July, and on this occasion our task had been to write a story all in dialogue, with no narrative or description. Sixteen brave Group members had risen to the difficult challenge, and brought their stories to a packed meeting.

Time constraints meant that entries could only be read out in part, meaning we only got tantalising glimpses of each other’s stories. We were left with many cliff-hangers – literally, in one case, as the action took place on the very edge of Beachy Head.  But what happened on the bus to St Leonard’s?  What about the gorgeous red-head from the pub and Big Dave’s new convertible?  We didn’t like the sound of that murderous bogus doctor. Whatever were those children doing carrying a ping-pong table through a field in the middle of the night? 

It was agreed that we would make all the stories available so we could read the endings. The entries now go to a guest judge, and we will hear the results later in August.

We were pleased to learn that the latest ‘Strandline’, our biennial anthology of members’ work, is on target for the publication deadline.  It will be available early in the autumn, and promises to be an excellent read.

The Group meets fortnightly at the White Rock Hotel. If you are interested in joining (there is currently a waiting list), or in finding out more about our activities, please contact the Membership Secretary, Amanda Giles, on 01424 442707 or e-mail membership.hwg@gmail.com.

Write-up by Steph Gaunt

Report of meeting: 9 July 2012

We were treated to an inspiring evening on Monday 11 June – a Lifewriting workshop with Andrea Samuelson. A former Secretary of  Hastings Writers’ Group, Andrea now teaches Creative Writing at Bexhill College.

    Andrea started by defining Lifewriting for us. It covers autobiography, biography, memoirs, travel writing, journals and diaries – true stories of people’s lives. We explored why people engage in Lifewriting – it may be a desire for confession, the wish to inspire others, or commonly, a form of self-help or therapy – to explore and analyse life situations we may have found troubling. We also discussed a number of complex and interesting issues including the fallibility of memory, and how this can give rise to very different accounts of a situation, the nature of ‘truth’, and the ethics around revealing personal details of our own and others’ lives.

    We then tackled a practical task – a ‘free-writing’ exercise about our sense of smell, then each produced a short written piece about one particular smell that seemed particularly significant to us. Given the range of highly individual personalities in the Group, our efforts ranged widely from a poem about cow dung to a dramatic story about expensive after-shave!

    We all very much enjoyed our session with Andrea, and were grateful to her for sharing her time and expertise with us.

 The Group meets fortnightly at the White Rock Hotel. If you are interested in joining (there is currently a waiting list), or in finding out more about our activities, please contact the Membership Secretary, Amanda Giles, on 01424 442707 or e-mail membership.hwg@gmail.com. You can also visit our website at www.hastingswriters.co.uk.

Report by Steph Gaunt