Felixstowe Scribblers 2021: July 2015

Friday, 31 July 2015

Our Next Meeting

Hope you have all enjoyed some of the brilliant weather we have been blessed with recently.

Good news for Caz... she is a Nannie once again... Congratulations!

Things have been quiet on the Scribblers front since our last meeting. I've noticed that our weblog figures for this month are quite a bit down on recent figures but I think a lot may be to do with the weather and the start of the holiday season.

The main reason for this email is to remind you all that our next meeting is on Tuesday next 4th August at 7.30pm in The Room at the Top. The homework assignment is to write up to 1,000 words on 'Coach' which should be another interesting subject. Reminds me that Morag, one of our former members who is now unable to attend because of work commitments, has finished her new novel 'The Coach Trip' after, she tells me, seven years! Hopefully she will find a reliable publisher to help her on her way to success. Good luck Morag.

Hope to see you on Tuesday so, until then...

Keep Scribbling!!!

Dave

Details of a new competition are shown below.

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Chorley & District Writers’ Circle launch their annual short story competition with prizes totalling £180.   The theme this year is a little bit different: ‘Chaos in Lancashire’. We are looking for a setting in or strong connection to any part of Lancashire.

Maximum word count is 2,000.

Closing date: 4 Oct 2015

Judge: Shortlist will be judged by the competition’s sponsors: editorial consultancy Fiction Feedbackwww.fictionfeedback.co.uk

Prizes: £100, £50 and £3D Entry fee: £5 for one story, £9 for two or £13 for three.

The three winning stories will be published in the Circle’s annual collection of writing, . Shortlisted entrants’ names and story titles will be listed in , and on the Circle’s website and Facebook page as well as on sponsor Fiction Feedback’s website. All rights remain with the author. Aware Aware

Submissions: can be made by email or post. Email: Post: Chorley & District Writers’ Circle, The Writing House, 3 Dale View, Chorley, Lancashire PR7 3QJ. mail@chorleywriters.org.uk

Please submit a separate cover page with your name, contact details including email and phone, story title(s) and first line(s). Please ensure the story manuscript itself does not feature your name. If emailing, please send the cover sheet and your story as two separate files attached to the same email.

Payment is by cheque to the above address or by PayPal. Please ensure you provide details to enable us to marry up your payment, however you make it, with your story submission.

We reserve the right to cancel the competition and refund entry fees if entries are insufficient to cover the prize fund.

See our website for more details including the PayPal button:    www.chorleywriters.org.uk Any queries:dea@compedge.net

We hope you have fun writing a story with this intriguing theme.

People sometimes ask what criteria the stories are judged by. These are fairly equal considerations:

1)       Interpretation of theme

2)       Originality

3)       Quality of writing; narrative drive, pace and flow, characterisation, plot, technique

4)       Quality of prose; grammar, spelling and punctuation.

We hope that’s helpful and look forward to receiving your entry by October 4.

All the best,

Dea Parkin -  Chair

Chorley and District Writers' Circle

Saturday, 25 July 2015

Minutes of Scribblers meeting held on Tuesday 21 July 2015

Present: Dave, Dick, Richard, Liliane, Beryl, Jane, Mairead, Tony, Cathy

New members: Sally and Jeanette

Apologies: Caz.

General business:

1. A warm welcome was given by Dave to our two new members, Jeanette and Sally. Jeanette has recently won a national writing competition, (congratulations!), and Sally is now keen to to try her hand at prose, having always written poetry before.

2. Before the reading out of homework, Jane explained to the group that she’d held an event at her home over the weekend to raise funds for the victims of the Nepal earthquake. This is a cause dear to her heart, as her husband spent some time teaching in that country, and the area he was in has suffered enormous damage. Her weekend event netted about £350, with further funds generated during the meeting as she held a mini tombola for us.

Reading out of homework:

The topic/theme was ‘geographical’.

Jane: Flying the nest – no synopsis available

Mairead: By the Feale’s Wave Benighted‘- A tale of a tragic love affair in 15th Century Ireland

A story about the young Earl of Desmond, who gets separated from his hunting party. Losing his way along the Banks of the river Feale, he Finds shelter with one of his Cottiers and falls in love with his daughter. The story relates the tragic consequences of their love and marriage. The title of the story is from Thomas Moore’s famous song about the affair.

Richard: Where have you been?

Autobiographical, to show the mundane nature of the Merchant Seaman's life, travelling great distances and getting nowhere.

Sally: untitled piece about a frightening journey she undertook in 1975 – no synopsis available

Beryl: East End circa 1921- an excerpt from her novel- no synopsis available

Liliane: A tale of a trip to India with her husband – no synopsis available

Jeanette: an excerpt from the novel she is currently working on – no synopsis available

Tony: The semi-detached cave – no synopsis available

Dave: Brave souls All. The small picturesque, idyllic harbour of Mousehole in Cornwall will always be remembered by an unspeakable tragedy on 19^thDecember 1981. Eight brave lifeboat men died in the terrible storm when the Union Star cargo ship keeled over. The Solomon Browne lifeboat was lost with all souls from both vessels...

Next meeting: 4 August, when the topic is ‘The coach’, as chosen by Jane

REPOSITORY

The Jack Wilkinson Competition for stories about children for an adult reader, is open for entries until 1st June. Stories should be emailed in the usual way to Georgina, making clear that it is a competition entry. Your entries can be in any genre of writing and should be no more than a maximum of 1,500words. Once all entries have been received, they will all be posted on the Repository. Members will have a week to read and choose their favourite three stories. Please do not vote for your own story. Your top three choices should be emailed to Georgina stating 1st, 2nd, 3rd and the corresponding story titles. Please don’t make any comments below the stories until the outcome has been announced. All stories will be published anonymously, with only a story title and a corresponding letter of the alphabet. Once all votes are in (and scores have been double checked) the winning entries will be announced. As we are unable to present the trophy due to the existing situation, an e-certificate will be awarded to the winner. The more entries, the better, so get those scribbling sticks out! Please email all contributions to Georgina Dave

CORONAVIRUS

Due to the outbreak of Coronavirus, Felixstowe Scribblers have sadly cancelled all future meetings until such time as Government advice and restrictions are lifted.

This means a great upheaval to many of our writers, but we will do our best to keep you updated both on this weblog and by email.

We intend to maintain our writing with 500-750 word assignments that may be posted on here for a short period of time whilst our WhatsApp group will have regular 100-200 word exercises to help keep our creative minds working.

Further information will be released as soon as possible.

30 March 2020

Gipping Press

Felixstowe Scribblers chose Gipping Press to publish their 2014, 2017 and 2019 anthologies. Our reasoning was based on their enthusiastic help, great track record and, more than anything else, the quality and high standard of their work. Our anthologies are testament to their expertise.

We anticipate another anthology in 2021 and will be seeking the help once again, of Gipping Press.

We can honestly recommend Gipping Press to anyone seeking advice in publication and for their very competitive prices.

Thank you Gipping Press.

http://www.gippingpress.co.uk/GPselfpublshing.html

Where we meet

Felixstowe Scribblers meet on the first and third Tuesday of each month in The Room at the Top in Felixstowe Library, Crescent Road. Meetings start at 7.30pm and end at 10.00pm.

Details of the library are on their website at https://www.suffolklibraries.co.uk/libraries/felixstowe-library/.

Felixstowe Scribblers are indebted to the Library and its helpful staff for all their valuable assistance.

Due to the current Coronavirus pandemic, our annual membership fees have been reduced from £30 to £15 for the coming year until November 2021.

Meetings, when they are able to be organised again will allow people preferring to pay at each meeting a charge of £5.

Our writing programmes are available via our two avenues, The Repository and our WhatsApp group.

Membership is open to both published and hobby writers and whilst there are no age limits it is wise to be aware that there may be adult content included in some work.

For more information about Felixstowe Scribblers simply email our Secretary catherine.stafford1@ntlworld.com or our Chairman, Dave, at scribblers.1@btinternet.com.

Committee Members:

Hon President: Ruth Dugdall.

Chairman: Dave Feakes.

Secretary: Cathy Stafford.

Treasurer: Beryl Sabel.

Scribblers Repository Editor: Georgina Salmon.

Weblog Co-ordinator: to be arranged.

Anthology sub committee:

Beryl Sabel,

Georgina Salmon,

Dave Feakes.

WhatsApp administrator:

Justin Keogh

In Memory

Martin Enticknap One time member of the Scribblers who stayed in touch from his home on Sanday in the Orklands. 2003.

Nobby Clarke A keen sailor, he relayed many amusing tales from his past life. Died tragically in a road traffic accident in 2004.

Bill Budner A lay preacher who joined the Scribblers and provided so many prolific words in his short stories. 2006.

Jack Wilkinson Our youngest member for four years, he provided so much laughter and talented creativity before losing his life to cancer at the tender age of twelve. 2006.

Allen Williams Our Welsh wizard had a wonderful wit that kept the group in fits of laughter. 2007.

John Crowson At 97, our most senior member. He passed just a week before he was published for the very first time in the 2010 Felixstowe Scribblers Anthology. 2009.

Doreen Rayner Published and very knowledgeable Felixstowe historian and former member of the Scribblers. 2012

Les Smith Such a welcoming and endearing character, his laughter, matched with his personality and his humorous writing leaves the Scribblers much poorer for his loss. 2015

Mairead Reidy Such a warm hearted and generous person who was both extremely talented and knowledgeable. Liked and loved by all. Another very sad loss to our creative group. 2018

Dick Bradshaw A warm and friendly long term member. A wonderful and published writer with a wealth of knowledge and so many humorous tales. A very sad loss of a good friend. 2018

It is fitting that we also remember Liam Fairhurst of Soham who died of cancer in 2009. He raised enormous sums of money for charity all beginning in memory of his friend and ours, Jack Wilkinson.

Maurice James, the creator of the Coast to Coast competitions and a great friend to the Scribblers. 2010