On with the 'SHOW'....

I hope you all had a nice Christmas and enjoyed the festivities with friends and relations. 

We are in the final hours of this year, 2017. It has seemed such a short year with time slipping by so very quickly. Now is the time to look back at our own achievements and favourite moments of the past twelve months be it creatively or otherwise.

For me, I think stepping up to the challenge of the homework topics was something of an achievement at Scribblers. My personal writing highlight has to be winning the Orwell Writers' competition but this doesn't even come close to seeing my wife overcome two operations and improving by the day since her knee replacement.

As a group, I think we achieved much at the Felixstowe Book Festival where the bulk of the organisation has to go to the dedication shown by Ruth. I am also pleased that our Anthology has more or less sold out though I believe a few copies remain at Stillwater Books.

In a few hours all these memories can be consigned to the past as we look forward to a bright and successful 2018. At out last meeting everyone present gave their aspirations for their writing in the coming months - I hope we all achieve those goals we set ourselves.

Our first meeting of the year 2018, is on 2nd January at the Room at the Top in the Library. The homework theme is to write up to 1,000 words on "SHOW." I wonder if we have managed to find the time to write those words, if not, please bring along something else that you can read out.

One request is to provide three possible subjects for future homework themes, each written on a separate piece of paper. Once received they will go into the 'kitty' of subjects to replace the older ones.

Until then,

Keep Scribbling!!!

Please have a Happy, safe and successful NEW YEAR!

Dave

It's that time of year

From Dave 

and the 

Scribblers...

MERRY 

CHRISTMAS

To you all !!!

It's over! Well the 2017 programme is!

Minutes of Scribblers' meeting held on 19 December 2017.

Present: Beryl, Anne, Mairead, Tony, Kay, Liliane, Steve, Gerry, Jane and Dave.

Apologies: Cathy and Bridget.

Business:

Good wishes for a speedy recovery to Cathy who is a little under the weather at present.

What a lovely surprise we had when Jane arrived for the meeting, her first for some considerable time. She has had quite a traumatic year but is looking forward to writing again and coming along to Scribblers whenever she is able.

For the second time in as many meetings Steve brought along a newly published book – Ethnographic Research and Analysis in which he has a chapter published.

Gerry also had some good news – he has been shortlisted on the English Heritage ghost story competition. The story has to be based at an English Heritage site. Gerry’s story, “Bone” is set at Grimes Graves. All short listed stories can be read at

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/members-area/competitions/ghost-stories/ You can vote of the site as well. Voting closes on 1^st January 2018. We can’t suggest you vote for Gerry but who better? We wish him every success. I know where my vote goes!

Mairead also has produced two articles for publication – one about her aunt whose story she has researched and gave a lecture about her in Ireland recently.

Dave also had a bit of luck! He won the Orwell Writers’ League competition for the second time with his story “A Midwinter’s Nightmare” which he was asked to read it out at the end of the meeting.

The Homework: “Bicycle.” (A shorter than normal homework of up to about 500 words.)

Dave: The Bike.

Beryl: The Bicycle Ride.

Anne: The Bicycle.

Mairead: A Bicycle Ride.

Tony: The Pedals of Power.

Jane: The Pantomime.

Kay: Echoes.

Liliane: Xmas Recipe for Disaster.

Steve: Under Pitsea Flyover.

And what a superb collection of stories these were. They made one proud to be part of such a talented and versatile group of writers.

The Party.

To end the 2017 programme we had our usual little party. Nothing extreme except for a table full of goodies that gradually disappeared from sight!

We have to say thank you as always to Mairead for all the ‘naughties’ she supplies and also to everyone else for bringing along nibbles, savouries and chocolates etc.

A really nice ending to a rather good year!

Our Next Meeting.

The first meeting of the New Year takes place on Tuesday 2^nd January 2018. The homework theme is to write up to 1,000 words on “SHOW.” If this is not a suitable subject for you then you are welcome to bring along a story of your own.

Will you each please bring in three possible homework subjects that will allow us to start the New Year with fresh topics. You can supply single words, or very short phrases etc. Thank you!

May you all have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year – A prosperous one of course!

What a lovely end to the year.

What a lovely way to end the 2017 Scribblers programme with a short written exercise of up to 500 words on "Bicycle" before getting down to the serious side of the meeting - a Christmas party!

It was sad that neither Cathy nor Bridget could attend but it was more than made up by Jane who attended for the fist time in ages.

Every story was so different yet very compelling and showed, once again, the versatility and skill of our writers. It was a privilege being there!

It was time to tuck into the mouth watering spread before us meaning everyone went home feeling a little fuller as we all said:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

TONIGHT

Its our last meeting of the year tonight.  Just a 500 word story on  or about "Bicycle".

After this we will have our little Xmas party to close the book on our Scribblers 2017 exploits. 

Hope you will be there complete with a small offering and/or non alcoholic drink.

Keep Scribbling!!!

Meeting report

Minutes of Scribblers' meeting held on 5 December 2017

Present: Dave, Steve, Liliane, Kay, Mairead, Anne, Gerry, Bridget, Cathy

Apologies: Beryl

Business:

Best wishes to Beryl, who is unwell.

Dave thanked Cathy for the AGM minutes.

Mairead confirmed that she is prepared to remain on the committee. She shared with us some of the highlights of her recent time in Ireland where she had been invited to give a talk - sounded as if she had a great time.

Steve brought along a copy of the book he has just had published, and we were all impressed by it - lovely content, and excellently produced by Gipping Press.

Thanks as ever given to Mairead for the selection of tasty treats she brought along for us to share.

Readings of homework: theme 'good intentions'

Liliane - Yesterday and tomorrow

Mairead - New Year's resolution

Steve - The wedding

Dave - Early morning call

Bridget - God's banker/First date

Gerry - Knock down Ginger - the piece he had written for a previous homework theme, 'third house along'

Kay read a short piece of work from the creative writing course she's doing

Next meeting will be on 19 December. Homework theme is 'bicycle', and after the readings we'll be having our Christmas party - just a few snacks/nibbles/drinks - if everyone can bring a little something in the food and drink line to share that would be great.

Good Intentions.

Tonight's meeting was quite a lively affair once again proving what great quality writers we have. Some of the stories may have been a little on the black side... but we loved them all!

It was an interesting evening with feedback and lively discussions that added to the enjoyment.

Steve has now released his book, 'Harry's son goes diving.' Printed by Gipping Press it is on sale at Stillwater Books at £9.99. 

Mairead, just back from her Irish trip proudly showed us an excellent and expensive book 'The Investigators of Arkham Horror - tales of adventure and madness.' It features a number of stories by her niece.

Our next meeting, the final one of the year takes place in two weeks time on 19 December when we are asked to write between 350 and 500 words on 'Bicycle' before our Christmas party begins.

Until then,

Keep Scribbling! 

AGM Minutes.

Minutes of Scribblers AGM, held on 21 November 2017
Present:  Liliane, Beryl, Dave, Bridget, Tony, Steve, Gerry, Dick, Kay, Di, Anne, Cathy
Apologies:  Mairead
Business:
Dave told us that the brother of Scribbler Jane Bailey has recently died; the group sends condolences to Jane.
Beryl had received a Christmas card from Caz, and read out for us the warm message Caz had sent to the group. Perhaps at some point in the future, Caz’s busy life will allow her to return occasionally!
Belinda, and ex-Scribbler, has been in touch with Caz – nice to know she still thinks of us.
AGM proper
It was good to have such an excellent turn out for the meeting.
Secretary’s report: Cathy gave a brief report, looking  back at a year which has, overall, been a good one for the group, and thanking Dave for always being the perfect ‘public face’ of Scribblers.
Treasurer’s report: Beryl’s report showed that the group remains solvent – we thank her for her work in keeping the books and providing us with her annual report.
Chairman’s report: Dave as ever gave a comprehensive report on the year – its ups and downs, successes and aspirations. A copy of this is included with these minutes as an attachment.
Weblog: Dave reported that there have been 25,000 hits since November last year – a number which increases year on year.
Cheque signatory: Cathy to replace Caz as signatory now that Caz is no longer able to attend meetings.
Election of committee members: since all committee members present were willing to stand again, the group voted unanimously to maintain the status quo, and to confirm with Mairead at a later date whether or not she is prepared to remain on the committee.
Increasing our membership: Should we advertise for new members? Consensus was that we will wait for six months, then decide whether or not to do so. During the discussion, several ideas were put forward for publicising the group, including

• Using the library’s £5 per week display space to show programme/work/anthology etc
• Giving regular short readings in the library of our work/anthology stories, to develop public interest in what we do – perhaps get Felixstowe TV to be involved with filming it?
• Enquiring with local magazines like Spotlight, Flyer and Living in Felixstowe to see if they’d run an article about the group, maybe having a regular story spot for us

Structure of meetings: all present were happy to maintain current meeting structure. Agreed that at the final meeting of the year we will discard the current ‘theme’ selection, and each bring in two new themes to be used in 2018.
Programme of meetings: Dave had provided a provisional programme – all agreed it.
Planning:

• Felixstowe Book Festival (FBF). We can do another microfiction session if required by the organiser
• Anthology – not this year
• Any other events that the group might become involved with – if anybody has any ideas, please speak up
• Press release to EADT and Evening Star re anthology evoked no response at all

Social events: only the annual meal that we have in January. Agreed that we will try The Alex this time – Dave to ask Mairead if she would be happy to organise this
Any other business: None
Meeting closed at 9.10pm.