David Buchan Journalism Competition Results - Monday 28 October 2013

It was Results Night again for the group on Monday 28 0ctober, when we met to hear the results of the David Buchan journalism competition.
     Our judge was former member and professional journalist Angela Everitt.  Angela gave us some valuable hints and tips about how to make an article appealing and readable, and then announced the results.
     In fourth place was Rosemary Bartholomew, with 'Sorry For Any Inconvenience', an entertaining, and so true, piece about the frustrations of dealing with utility companies.  Third was Stephanie Gaunt with the topical 'Hastings to Bexhill Link Road', In second place was Marcia Woolf, with 'The Squeezed Middle Ages', an unusual piece about the plight of middle-aged people, trapped between the demands of elderly parents and their still-dependent adult children. The winner was Jill Fricker, with a passionate piece about a very topical issue: 'The Bedroom Tax'.
     Hastings Writers' Group meets fortnightly at the White Rock Hotel.  The group is currently fully subscribed, but if you would like to know more about our activities or to be put on our membership waiting list, please email membership.HWG@gmail.com or telephone Stephanie Gaunt on 01424 252888.
     Our current anthology 'Animal Writes', which benefits RSPCA Bluebell Ridge and also Dogs for the Disabled, is available, price £6.99, from Bookbusters in Queens Road, Hastings, or it can be purchased on-line from our website, www.hastingswriters.co.uk.  You can also find our page on Facebook.

AGM and Programme Planning - 14 October 2013

It was business time for the group on Monday October14 – our AGM and Annual Programme Planning meeting. At the AGM, our Chair, Jill Fricker, reported that it had been a very successful year for the group, with a new website, a new anthology, and a record number of new members joining. Attendances at meetings were also at record levels. In part, this was due to our recruitment of new, professional judges for our internal competitions.  She thanked the Committee for their hard work, giving a particular mention to Amanda Giles who was standing down. The Finance Report from our Treasurer, Pauline Piper was also favourable – the group has built up a good level of reserves and is now able to subsidise further professional judges and workshop facilitators.  The Committee for 2014 will be Jill Fricker: Chair, Kate O’Hearn: Deputy Chair, Pauline Piper: Treasurer, Stephanie Gaunt: Publicity and Membership Officer, Janet Kates: Minutes Secretary, and the newly-elected Mike Rayner as Programmes Officer.

    The group then turned its attention to planning its programme for 2014, including agreeing the nature and number of competitions we wanted, and also workshop topics.  It was agreed that as we now have nearly forty members, events involving small group work would be good to enable members to get to know each other. 2014 looks to be another exciting year for the group!

Hidden Gems results - 30 September 2013

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!

Flash Fiction Results: 23 September 2013

We had an extra meeting on Monday 23 September for the results of our Flash Fiction competition.  One of our star members, best-selling children’s author Kate O’Hearn had pulled some strings in the publishing world to get us two special judges. Paul Stark, from Orion publishers, and Nicola Crossley from Random House gave us the benefit of their expertise as well as judging a record number of entries to the competition. Needless to say, the room in the White Rock Hotel was absolutely packed with enthusiastic HWG members.

     The results of the competition were as follows. Highly Commended were Anne Hooker with ‘The Diet’, and Roz Balp with ‘Sea Washed’. Stephen Martin was in fourth place with ‘Love Expired’. Third was Diana Lock with ‘Delacroix and Dumas’, and second, Emma Boyd with a moving and poignant piece, ‘Baby Items for Sale’.  The popular winner was long-standing member John Vallender with the shortest piece entered for the competition, ‘Don’t Look Down’, about steeplejack Fred Dibnah.

     The judges commented on the difficulty of producing a high-quality flash fiction piece, where a story has to be produced in 250 words or less. They felt that many of the entries were of a high quality, but left the reader wanting more, whereas the winning pieces were complete in themselves.

     In addition to the competition results we were treated to cakes from Anne Hooker, who was celebrating a milestone birthday the next day!

Stage Struck.... 16 September 2013

Our meeting began with announcements from the Chair. The Love Cafe poetry event had been a great success and generated interest from several potential new members who had come along to meet us.

HWG will be at the Books Born in Hastings event on Saturday 12^thOctober. Our new anthology ‘Animal Writes’ will be available, along with previous publications including ‘Strandline’. Books written by members will also be available on the day and Anne Hooker will be there with her recently published anthology ‘Inspiration’.

The remainder of the evening was devoted to the entries of our Mini-Play competition. As always with HWG the scope of the plays was broad. We had comedy, tragedy, drama and science fiction: tales of engineering apprentices in the 1970s; small scary, hairy creatures using writers to escape their dying planet; a young man searching for his Comanche roots; dodgy dealings and a robbery in London; the unexpected result of a meditation and sequins; a thoughtful before, during and after life experience and a nineteenth century who-done-it.

David Buchan journalism entries - 2 September 2013

Having missed a meeting during August, it felt distinctly like the start of the new ‘term’ as we met on Monday 2 September. This time, we presented our entries for the David Buchan journalism competition. This is annually in memory of one of our most popular members, the late David Buchan, well-respected Fleet Street journalist.  As ever, there were entries on a wide variety of topics – starting with the Hastings to Bexhill Link Road, greeted by groans of despair by all present, via the ‘squeezed middle’ – aged, via cooking, privatizing the Post Office, nuclear tests in Australia, waiting rooms, complaints to the Bedroom Tax.  As ever, our judge will have a hard time!

We welcomed another three prospective members of the group – we have been delighted with current levels of interest in joining the group, particularly from younger people.

Congratulations to our Chair, Jill Fricker, who has just won a National Association of Writers’ Groups short story competition

'Hidden Gems' Competition entries - for new and under-valued writers, 29 July 2013

For the last of our July meetings, on Monday 29^th, we listened to some of the entries for yet another competition ‘Hidden Gems’. This is a new addition for our calendar, a competition specifically intended for members who have never won, or been placed, in a HWG competition since January 2012. The idea was to encourage some of our new members and less experienced writers, and also to give a ‘boost’ to some of our more experienced writers where, for whatever reason, their work had not caught the attention of the judges in recent months. Entrants read the first two hundred words of their story to the group, who then commented and made suggestions, if appropriate, as to how the piece might be yet further improved. As ever, we had a good range of entries and a wide range of topics – from the macabre, via the domestic, to comedy.

Once again we welcomed a new member – the fourth this month, which is pleasing, and a prospective member.

Finally, we also had a look at some artwork for the cover of our forthcoming ‘Animal Writes’ anthology