Thinking of our friends in Queensland

The terrible flooding in Queensland has caused so many losses, of life, of property, of homes.

Like so many other people we have friends in Queensland, Belinda and Geoff in Morayfield close to Caboolture and their relatives in Toowoomba. Personal friends, Ross and Steve (many years ago a Toowoomba speedway rider), and further north, hopefully away from the dreadful floods, our friends Chris and Rebecca.

Praying for their safety.

The Anonymous Competition for the Bill Budner Trophy

A reminder that our next meeting takes place on Tuesday 18th January at 7.30 pm in the Room at the Top at Felixstowe Library. It will be another special meeting - the Anonymous competition for attending writers only.

The prestigious Bill Budner Trophy will be awarded to the winner and held for four months until the next staging.

This is an open themed competition with a maximum of 1,000 words on any subject you choose! Your entry should be typed if possible but must not contain your name or any clue to your identity. On arrival please place your work face down on the table provided. A little later all attendees will be asked to select a story, have a few minutes to acquaint themselves with the content before being asked to read it out.

Everyone present will select their top three choices and nominated members will count the marks and declare the winner. The cup will be awarded and then engraved by Scott at Mr Cobbler .

It should be another great evening's entertainment.

Until Tuesday,

Keep Scribbling!

The Evolution Continues with WritingRaw.com becoming a Weekly!

The January 10 issue of WritingRaw.com marks a major turning point for us and our readers/contributors. Once again we have reformatted the site, making it more streamlined with a cleaner look – which allows for readers to print each page if they so desire. Also, we are now a weekly online magazine. Every Monday there will be a new issue, with new material. Over the next couple of issues we will be tweaking the site, so check back often!

For everyone who hated getting these updates… well, after this one, we will not be sending out announcements unless requested to do so. If you would like to get a weekly update, just drop a note to weeb@writingraw.com and I will make sure you get an announcement email every Monday alerting you of the new material on the site.

We will end this email with some of our basics…

Writing Raw is a FREE literary magazine dedicated to new and emerging writers. Our goal at Writing Raw is simple - to serve the literary community with the opportunity to have their work online and out in the world. In this world of disappearing literary magazines, Writing Raw is providing the blank pages for writers to fill.

WritingRaw also supports other sites that help writers: http://www.writingraw.com/ believes in reaching out to other sites, writing groups, forums, and organizations. Contact us on how you can place a FREE banner, announcement or link on our site! Or, perhaps you would like to partner in some way with WritingRaw (column, monthly essay, writing tips, etc.). We are open to ideas…

Or, use the Writing Raw Book Store to promote your novel or poetry collection: If you have a novel or collection that you would like to place in our store, we would be more than happy to do so – for FREE. Just send us a copy of the cover of the book (jpeg, bmp, etc. – please don’t send pdf), a brief synopsis, and a link as to where the material can be purchased.

We are also looking for people to write weekly columns, such as – book and publishing news, exercise and tips, or… well, we are always open to suggestions to help make the site one of the most informative and innovative out there. Let us know if you would like to help in this aspect. All columns will have your byline, your bio information (with hot links to your site), and you will retain all copyright.

The Wall now contains one Shout-Out box so you can self-promote your material or whatever you would like others to know about, cartoons, and various fun applications ranging from daily horoscopes to playing with a Magic 8 Ball!

The archive has been somewhat purged (after 2 years of material, we needed to clean up some) but, if your material was on WritingRaw.com before the purge and is no longer listed in the archive, we will be more than happy to place it back. Just contact me at weeb@writingraw.com and let me know.

Also, be sure to check out the NEW announcements on WritingRaw.com’s Home page from writer’s group and organizations worldwide. Discover meeting places, organizations offering fellowships, contests, and a variety of other useful websites all dedicated to writers of every level.

So, what are you waiting for? Stop in and discover a new and emerging voice today.

Thank you.

Weeb
http://www.writingraw.com/

Join us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/WritingRaw
Join us on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/writingraw

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Read Shame: A Novelette, by R. E. Heinrich: http://writingraw.com/shame%20Novelette.pdf

Write Now competition

A representative of the Bury writers group, Write Now, was on local radio talking about the group and their latest competition. You'll find details on their website here

Spilling Ink Review Newsletter

Read it here

Felixstowe Scribblers Annual General Meeting Report

Held at the Room at the top, at Felixstowe Library, on 4th January 2011.

Apologies from Dave, Ruth and Deborah.
Those attending: Tony,Dick,Liliane,Rhani,Peter,Gemma,Angela P,Beryl,Jane,Jack and Barry.
The secretary’s report is posted on the weblog.

The Committee members will be Dave,Dick and Barry as from 2010 with the addition of Beryl who has agreed to take over as Treasurer and Liliane who will be working as Social Secretary alongside Ruth. The first event to be organised will be a meal at the Brook Hotel around the 22nd February. Dave will continue as our esteemed Web Scribe.

The list of meeting dates and a provisional schedule of meeting agenda is available on the weblog.

Following the meeting we had a short Creative writing exercise using our four word format. Twenty minutes of writing produced the usual brilliant short pieces incorporating the four words we had each picked out of the hat.

Jane’s words; Pilch???Toe-rag,magpie and subsequent.
Jack; Cheese,rainbow,bathroom and perfidy.
Rhani; Posh,vulture,inebriated and lunar.
Liliane; Captive, cosh,redemption and food.
Dick; Fishing,silver,monitor and Jerusalem.
Peter; Fatality,mandible,equable and problem.
Tony; Aviator,intoxicated,stars and strangled.
Barry; Alchemy,distribution,legless and outrage.
Martin; Baby,blonde,starling and Avocado.
Les; Impregnable,splutter, bohemian and pis-ed.
Beryl; Rollmop,unholy,detective and kindling.
Gemma; Perfume,crow,hope and masticate.
Angela; Personal,mulch,forever and assize.

As I said, the results of twenty minutes writing involving these words and forming a cohesive short piece was nothing short of amazing. You had to be there!!!

So ended our first meeting of 2011 and a warm thank you to all for coming and an even warmer thank you to Beryl for taking the reins of Treasurer and Liliane as Social Secretary.

Regards
Barry, Your Secretary.

Eileen Keane on radio

Here is a message that came from Eileen via our friend Geraldine:

"Heres a link to the radio show I did with Niamh Bagnall for Liffey sound. Its her blog with info etc. The show is available as a podcast after that. Fingers crossed that it will sound ok. I had plenty of time to prepare but when it came down to it I just said the first thing that came in to my head.... and i SO wanted to sound profound!!!
http://variouscushions.blogspot.com/2010/12/eileen-keane-on-radio.htm

I hope that 2011 is filled with inspiritaton and joy for all of you. I have a feeling its going to be a really good one. Eileen"