27th November 2017 - writing exercise

 

This evenings meeting was based around a hugely enjoyable writing exercise that tested our imaginations and our ability to play well with others. Each member arrived with a prepared character, described in no more than 250 words. These included an alien in human form, a shop worker with a pigeon phobia, a guardian angel and a talking snake who can only be understood by those he has bitten. Working in group of four or five, members wove these into wonderfully bizarre and fascinating story plots. Each group rose well to the additional challenge of skilfully incorporating, or crowbarring in, three props randomly selected by the throwing of picture dice.

13th Novemember 2017 - Poetry Workshop

This meeting took the form of a poetry workshop, led by prize winning poet Kim Lasky. Kim spoke to members about the benefit of entering competitions in order to get published. She also gave some very useful advice about the different types of competition and how to select the right one. Kim read a selection of her own superb poems and answered a broad selection of member’s questions. 

30 October 2017 - Catherine Cookson Compeititon Entries

During this meeting members read out their entries to the 2017 Catherine Cookson competition. There was a satisfying amount of murder, mayhem and mystery. We heard tales of long lost relatives, family breakdowns and a knitting circle whose members were not all as innocent as they seemed. The entries will be judged by Thorne Ryan, an editor, and the results announced at our presentation evening and 70th anniversary celebrations on 8th December, 2017.

16 October Winners from 'Crime from the Ciminal's Point of View'

The meeting on 16th Oct saw James Carol give the feedback and results for the wild card competition "Crime from the Criminal's Point of View". First place was  Sandra Daniels with 'Ray', second place went to Emma Boyd with 'Call Centre Charity', third place was given to Sam Davy with 'Pity Me' and fourth place went to three contestants -Godfrey Forder with 'In Two Criminal Minds', Maddie Blake with 'Missing Laura-Jane' and Diana Lock with 'A Nasty Case of the Jimmy Choos'.

October 2nd, 2017: Synopsis Writing

Our meeting this week focussed on writing a successful synopsis. Literary agent Jemima Forrester came to share her knowledge and experience with members. Jemima explained the function of the synopsis as part of the process for submitting books to agents. She gave a lot of clear and extremely useful guidance on how these should be written. Members who had sent their synopsis to Jemima prior to the meeting received constructive feedback.  

September 18th, 2017: Reading of Wild Card Competition

 

This meeting saw the reading of the submissions for our ‘wild card’ competition – Crime from the Criminal’s Point of View. This was a hugely successful competition and the standard of entries was exceptionally high. The competition will be judged by author James Carol and judging will take place on the 16^th October.

September 4th, 2017 : Planning Meeting and writing exercise

September 4^th, 2017 

 

This week we held the planning meeting to set the programme for 2018. Members reflected on the success of the 2017 programme and shared their individual views on the competitions that they had enjoyed the most, and those they had found more challenging. Those present cast their votes from the ideas suggested for each competition category and for the theme of the annual anthology. Members who were not at the meeting have the opportunity to vote via email. With the formalities completed, we took part in the ever popular ‘props’ writing game. Using the scenario of three characters trapped in a lift, we each created tales that took comical, unusual and sometimes disturbing turns as we wove in the ‘unusual’ objects brought in by our deputy chair, Kate.