Meeting Report and Newsheet

EMAIL ADDRESS
barry.darnell@ntlworld.com
scribblers@btinternet.com

For all your research and information
visit your local Felixstowe Library
and the Suffolk Record Office.

Meeting in The Room at the Top, Felixstowe Library.
21st September 2010.

In attendance: Stephen, Liliane, Dick, Martin, Beryl, Les, Peter, Tony, Trish, Gemma and Dave (Chair)

Apologies received from Ruth who was undergoing an eye operation.

A warm welcome went out to our new member Martin who has been writing for about two years. He has attended a writer’s course at Suffolk College but now wants to gain experience within the writing community. Word has it that he has already submitted a script to the BBC so fingers crossed he has some good news from them in the coming weeks.

Another piece of good news is that Ally received an email requesting her to send the first three chapters of ‘Drift’ following a successful submission of the first 10 pages. She spent the whole evening proofing those chapters looking for any mistakes she might have missed and ‘drove herself crazy’ until she was finally satisfied and sent them off after 11pm. Let’s cross all the other fingers and wish her success. Ally is also going to submit to Penguin and Dorchester although she is currently trying to up the word count to 60k from around 57k to meet the criteria. Don’t forget you can read Ally’s first chapter of ‘Drift’ on http://keeponscribbling.blogspot.com Ally has also posted details of submissions to Penguin and Dorchester on the same weblog. If you’re not already a member of this blog then please email Dave at scribblers@btinternet.com for an invitation to join.

The Jack Wilkinson Memorial Walk took place last Sunday and had a good turn-out of over thirty people although for a while three walkers including Mr.Cobbler (Scott) and his wife went missing but eventually emerged duly refreshed from MacDonald’s! The walk was in aid of Cancer Research and once sponsorship is collected there will be a nice cheque available for the charity.

Congratulations go to Jack’s mother Caz who very recently gave her fiftieth pint of blood, quite an achievement. Caz, along with Ruth and Barry have all been heard live on Radio Suffolk in the last few weeks.

Our next Scribblers Social is on Saturday 16th October at the Castle Lodge Hotel, Felixstowe. Guest speaker is Maureen Blundel. The evening is open to Scribblers and guests. Costing £15 per person for a 3 course meal you should arrive at 7.00pm for dinner at 7.30pm. Please book directly with the hotel (tel: 282149 or pop in). Bookings will be taken on a first come, first served basis. 20 places available.

On Saturday & Sunday Maureen will be running group workshops, and individual sessions and details of available places and bookings should be made direct to Maureen by email to liberato@talktalk.net.

Recently we have had wishes passed to us from Belinda in Queensland, Chris in Cairns and Rochelle who is currently recuperating from an operation. Ironically Belinda donated her cash winnings from the open Bill Budner competition that enabled us to purchase the Trophy which Scott engraves at Mr Cobblers in Felixstowe.

This leads us to the anonymous competition for the Bill Budner Trophy. This meeting was another fabulous evening of creativity with some really marvellous stories which were a real tribute to Bill’s memory.

Read by:
Stephen: 'Three’s a Crowd' written by Gemma
Liliane: 'Butterfly' by Martin
Dick: 'Drifting' by Dave
Martin: 'Just a Simple Cross' by Dick
Beryl: 'The Perfect Moment' by Stephen
Les: 'The Plane' by Liliane
Peter: 'The Minutes' by Les
Tony: 'Deputy Head' by Beryl
Trish: 'The Irrelevant Confession' by Peter
Gemma: 'Food' by Tony
Dave: 'Named from the Past' by Trish

It is nice to report that every single story received votes but the result was:

1st place Liliane with ‘The Plane’
2nd place Tony with Food
3rd place Les with The Minutes.

Congratulations to Liliane who became our tenth winner in eleven staging’s of the competition.

The format for these Trophy meetings has worked very successfully and produced many enthralling and exciting stories that it is a testament to the abilities of our members that so many have their names engraved on the Trophy. It is, of course, a fitting tribute to the memory of dear friend Bill that so many winners have shared the spotlight. What is also very gratifying is that all winners have been a mixture of both published and hobby writers. Believe it or not we still have some amazing writers who have yet to take this coveted prize...

Our next meeting is on Tuesday 5th October in The Room at the Top, when there will be a maximum of 1,000 words on the subject of ‘Advertising’. How you include this in your story is left to your own creative imagination.

Thank you all for coming and sharing another ‘Felixstowe Scribblers Experience’

Until next time when Barry will be back,

Keep Scribbling!

Dave