Meeting report

Minutes of Scribblers meeting held on Tuesday 19 July 2016

Present:  Dave, Mairead, Beryl, Jim, Dick, Mel, Richard, Liliane, Di, Barry, Jane, Cathy,
Apologies: Gerry, Ann, John, Steve

Business: 
No business element at all this time. Perhaps the stifling heat had something to with it, and none of us could think of anything businesslike to say!

Anyway, we moved straight on to hearing the competition entries read – all eleven of them. And the standard was even higher than usual for this competition.

Thanks must go to Beryl and Dick for, as usual, doing all of us writers proud, and reading out our stories superbly.

Readings over, we were faced with voting for our favourite three pieces of work – and it was an incredibly difficult task. The variety of styles and themes was tremendous. Once we’d voted, Dave calculated the results. He informed us that no less than seven of the stories had received at least one ‘first place’ vote – this must be something of a record, and certainly testifies to the quality of everyone’s work.

Results:
Jane came a well deserved first with her story ‘A packet of Durex and some pickled onions’ – a clever, laugh out loud piece that we all enjoyed

Cathy was second with ‘I believed’

Richard took third place with ‘Who was that?’

The remaining stories, in order of reading out, were
Mrs Kat, by Jim
I can’t sleep, by Mel
Code 1 Alert, by Dave
After the murders, by Liliane
Who said cheats never prosper, by Dick
The photograph, by Beryl
The Oyster Club, by Barry
Manoeuvres, by Di

Once photographs had been taken of the cup presentation, and congratulations given, the meeting drew to a close. Another excellent evening.

Next meeting
This will be on 2 August, when the theme for the 1000 word homework is ‘The barbecue’.
A reminder, too, that the following meeting, 16 August, will be the Jack Wilkinson trophy evening – details on the weblog for those unfamiliar with this competition.

The Bill Budner Trophy meeting

With an excellent attendance and even better stories, this evening's event produced a really keen competition in which seven stories each gained a first place nomination! Such was the quality of the stories that there was always the possibility of a tie for first place.

In the end three stories just pulled away from the pack. In third place was the previous winner, Richard with his story 'Who Was That?'

Runner-up with 'I Believed' was our secretary Cathy.

However, the winner once again (!) was our Jane with a really entertaining work entitled 'A Packet of Durex and Some Pickled Onions.' (Please note other brands are available) 

Congratulations on your success Jane!

Jane receiving The Bill Budner Trophy
from Richard, the previous holder

Our next meeting will be held on 2nd August in The Room at the Top when the homework assignment is to write up to 1,000 words on 'The Barbecue'.

Until then...

Keep Scribbling!!!

The Bill Budner Trophy meeting

First let me say that a number of emails have bounced back as undelivered. Most are the hotmail addresses but not all. I am not certain if this is a problem with my ISP or not but I will be keeping one of my two beady eyes on the situation!

In case you have somehow missed it, our next meeting is this coming Tuesday, 19th July, with a 7.30 start. It is our prestigious Bill Budner Trophy meeting when a silver cup is up for grabs again - but only on loan of course!

This is a competition for our attending members only to write up to 1,000 words on any subject you choose. The only stipulations are that the work must be typed but not contain any reference to the author of the work. It is hoped that Beryl and Dick will once again take turns in reading out the 'entries'. Don't forget to bring along a pen or pencil and a slip or two of paper to record your top stories of the evening. Once the votes have been counted the trophy will be awarded to the writer of the best story.

There is a little bio on Bill at the top of the weblog (http://scribblers2010.blogspot.co.uk/p/bill-budner-competition.html) which includes the competition rules.

Hope to see you there so until then...

Keep Scribbling!!!

Meeting report

Minutes of Scribblers meeting held on Tuesday 05 June 2016

Present:  Dave, Mairead, Beryl, Jim, Dick, Steve, Mel, Richard, Liliane, Cathy, and new member Di
Apologies: Carolyn, Caz, Jane, Gerry

Business: 
We welcomed new member Di to the meeting, each of us giving her a brief personal history of our writing interests and journeys. As the evening progressed she appeared to enjoy what she saw and heard – we look forward to welcoming her back.

FBF feedback.
Several complaints about the complexity of getting tickets for festival events. Dave will contact Meg on the group’s behalf, to see if the system could be simplified next year.
Poor attendance for our events. We weren’t alone in having low attendance numbers – some published authors did too. For next year, we agreed that we need to actively promote the events ourselves.
Mairead and Cathy were able to give positive feedback for the Scribblers events at the festival. The ‘Start the day with a story’ was fun, and the flash fiction event in the afternoon went extremely well – lots of strong writing. By that point in the festival (4.30 on Sunday), everyone was a bit weary – had the flash fiction been held in the morning, there would probably have been more attendees, and livelier discussion. That said, those who did attend thoroughly enjoyed it, and comments about the event were very favourable. Thanks must go to Dave for providing the ‘prompt’ words for flash fiction – though not all writers appreciated their selection!

Dave thanked Cathy for all the work she’d put into the festival on Scribblers’ behalf, and presented her with two bouquets of flowers. This rendered her momentarily speechless, (actually, overcome), but as she said, those members of the group who supported Scribblers at the festival deserved thanks too – she couldn’t have done it without them.

An employee of Red Rose Chain theatre company (who’d attended the flash fiction), contacted Cathy after the festival to say that writing groups who make group bookings to attend the production of The Tempest at Jimmy’s Farm between 26 July and 28 August will be entitled to a discount. Please liaise with either Dave or Cathy if you are interested in planning this.

Thanks as ever to Mairead for our chocolate biscuit fix – and the Maltesers!

Readings of homework, themed ‘It makes a change’

Beryl – part of her novel. A section called The Club, based in 1906

Mairead – Mighty Landguard Fort

Dick – A watery discussion

Liliane – an excerpt from her fictional family tale. Excerpt entitled Seashells and endless summer

Mel – Brief encounter

Steve – A positive interaction

Jim – First impressions
5 year old Gavin tells us about his first day at school. His teacher Mrs Wilson who has purple hair is beautiful, his new 'bestest' friend is Monty who is prepared to swap his Monster Munch, and not all girls are stupid!

Dave – Families, one out all out
It makes a change getting my own way. The football, drinks in the local afterwards, then late home. Mother-in-law arranged a date for my wife Carol with a wealthy banker and they went off canoodling on the cliffs. I’d had a good time doing my thing, so why shouldn’t she?

Richard – Maggie and Roger

Next meeting is on 19 July, when we will be competing for the Bill Budner Trophy. This is always an excellent evening, with Scribblers rising to the challenge and coming up with some stunning work. Link to information about the competition can be found at the top of this weblog/

It made a change...

Tonight's meeting was fairly well attended with a new lady joining the group. After a few deliberations over the Felixstowe Book Festival which seems to have been quite a success once again, there was disappointment about some attendances at the lesser known celebrities whilst we, perhaps, would have loved a few more folk at the morning reading session which went very well. The Flash Fiction event was very popular and hopefully all those who participated thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

General comments were about ticketing issues and also the need for more advertising for both the Scribblers and also OWL (the Orwell Writers' League) and both groups will eventually formulate their own plans of action before the next Festival.

Tonight was another inspiring evening of stories that brought applause and laughter from some and awe inspiring creativity from others. Those who missed the meeting were lost the chance to savour some really brilliant work!

Next time will be the Bill Budner Trophy once more. 1,000 words on any subject but with no identifying marks on the paper. The competition is for attending members only and the winner will hold the trophy for a minimum of four months. Full details can be found at the top of this weblog. The meeting takes place on Tuesday 19th July with a prompt start time of 7.30.

Until then,

Keep Scribbling!!!

Our next meeting

By all accounts the Book Festival was another success... unfortunately I couldn't make it as you know... so it should be a great big thankyou to Cathy who took on a shoulder full of work for our two Scribblers events as well as the one for Orwell Writers. Well done Cathy and thankyou!

Our next meeting is coming up rather quickly with a 1,000 word homework assignment to include the phrase "It makes a change" somewhere in the story. The meeting is on Tuesday 5th July in the Room at the Top, Felixstowe Library with a start time of 7.30pm.

Hope to see you there so I have to start scribbling now! 

There are some web addresses below that might be of interest to you, especially the Felixstowe Book Festival one.

Until Tuesday,

Keep Scribbling,

Dave

http://felixstowebookfestival.co.uk/3694/2016roundup

http://www.writersbureau.com/writing/association-of-freelance-writers.htm

http://festivaloffirsts.com/