A message from the Ipswich Writers' Cafe

Ahoy one ahoy all,

Thanks to those who came along to the Thomas Wolsey last week. Next event is set for Monday 21st May at the same venue.

Meantime, some info you may (or may not) find useful.

Events:

May 3 -- Words & Women, Norwich based literary agency at Suffolk Book League, Ipswich

https://suffolkbookleague.wordpress.com/events/

May 8 -- Poetry Plus at The Red Lion, Manningtree

http://www.poetryplus.org.uk/

May 11 -- Ian Griffiths reads Dylan Thomas at Arlingtons, Ipswich

http://arlingtonsbrasserie.co.uk/events/event/3841/

May 26 -- Festival of Suffolk Poetry at Stowmarket

https://suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk/taxonomy/term/123

Get published:

May  4 -- Ellipsis Zine, "three"

https://www.ellipsiszine.com/three/

May 11 -- Felixstowe Book Festival short story competition

https://felixstowebookfestival.co.uk/story-comp

Round-up of writing competitions for May 2018, both poetry and prose

https://writershq.co.uk/writing-competitions-opportunities-may-2018/

Local writing groups:

Creative writing -- Mai Black

https://suffolkwritersgroup.com/

Creative writing -- Katie Ward at the New Wolsey

https://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/wolsey-writers/

Be seeing you,

Ed

Quick message...

Hope you're all enjoying the beautiful weather out there. I'm just trying to do a quick catch-up in my coffee break before I have to continue decorating. 

I'm hoping to have the information soon to update the weblog properly - incidentally well done Derek for winning the trophy! Meanwhile I'll forward on the emails that might interest our members.

I see the Daily Mail are running their third 'First Novel Competition' - details are available at www.dailymail.co.uk/firstnovel. Looks like a good one to enter!

Take care and enjoy this bank holiday and remember...

Keep Scribbling!!!

Our Next Meeting - The Bill Budner Trophy

Our next meeting is almost upon us. It is this Tuesday, 1st May, when we hold our in-house competition for The Bill Budner Trophy in honour of our former member who died suddenly in 2006. and ever since then we have held this prestigious competition. The rules are simple, all entries must be no more than 1,000 words in length but can be on any subject. Each entry must be typed on one side of the paper only but must not contain your name or any identifying marks.

The meeting will start at 7.30 when the door will be locked so please try and arrive in good time.

A couple of questions: Is there any interest in updating the Facebook page otherwise it will soon be finalised and removed.

Has there been any further information and interest in providing poetry for the Dementia Week?

Tony's book launch will take place in the Library on Saturday 19th May - full details will be at Scribblers on Tuesday.

Until Tuesday:-

Keep Scribbling!!!

Scribblers Facebook presence.

Our good friend Barry who set up and organised our Facebook page for a considerable period of time, has decided to come off Facebook. We are therefore looking for a volunteer to take control of the page. 

If any Scribblers are interested in taking over and updating it as necessary, then please let me know either by email or at the next Scribblers meeting. Otherwise the Facebook page will be closed. Your comments are welcome. 

Our thanks go to Barry for his continued support of our writing community. 

Dave. 

Meeting report...

Minutes of Scribblers meeting held on 17 April 2018

Present: Liliane, Dave, Bridget, Cathy, Beryl, Di C, Tony, Anne, Kay, Mairead, Steve, Liz, Hazel

Apologies: Jim, Derek

Business:

Tony’s book launch to be held at Felixstowe Library on Saturday 19 May at 7pm – sure we’re all looking forward to celebrating this with him!

Dementia friendly week in Felixstowe 21 May – 26 May: further to recent contact from Helen Greengrass of SCC re Scribblers providing some poetry to share during this week, Cathy to let her know that we are interested, but need clarification of any deadlines, what exactly is happening, etc.

Ruth Dugdall’s new book, ‘The things you didn’t see’ is out now. Until 27 April there is the chance to win a copy – just check the details out on Ruth’s Facebook page.

Readings of homework

With so many of us present, and all of us with something to read, the evening promised to be interesting, and it certainly was.

Some members had written new ‘tales of the past’, while others had brought along earlier appropriate stories, or stories relating to previous homework topics.

Liliane – Telling the children

Di – untitled

Dave – It came from the heavens

Hazel – Tamina

Anne – The out of date shopping list

Kay – The shop

Beryl – An evening in the life of Mau the divine

Liz – Best laid plans

Cathy – Musings of a Romano-British maid

Tony – It’s about time

Mairead – Tales from the past/Best laid plans

Steve – The war

Bridget – Dearest Papa

Next meeting: This will be on 1 May, and is the Bill Budner trophy competition. Usual rules apply – up to 1000 words on topic of the writer’s choice. Work to be printed out (anonymised – no names etc on it), and placed face down on the table at start of the meeting. Two readers, hopefully Beryl and Dick, will read out all work for listeners to judge. The winner will be presented with the Bill Budner trophy, which our last winner must remember to bring with them!

Another good night at Scribblers...

A very healthy attendance tonight brought a whole mixture of work on the homework theme of "Tales from the past." The work provided tales from a monkey's point of view and from a cat's viewpoint, a wartime tale from Germany coupled with a whole host of different stories that whetted our appetites.

The meeting managed to finish just on time although it was a bit of a rush in the end. 

The door bell was tested again and it works despite being quite faint in The Room at the Top. Just make sure should you need to use it, that you press the button firmly in the centre. The door will always be locked at 7.30pm.

Tony's book will be launched on Saturday 19th May at 7.00pm in the Library so hopefully he will get the support he richly deserves.

Talking of new books, Ruth's "The Things you Didn't See" will be available from Amazon this coming week. Another one not to miss!

Our next meeting is on May 1st when we hold The Bill Budner Trophy meeting. This is for attending members only - a maximum of 1,000 words on any subject. The entries must be typed but show no indication of the author's name.

Until next time...

Keep Scribbling!!!

Our next meeting

Our next meeting is rapidly approaching and will take place on Tuesday 17th April when the homework assignment is to write up to 1,000 words on "Tales from the past." As always the choice or period and whether your story is fact or fiction is entirely up to you. Of course if the theme doesn't appeal to you then please bring along a piece of your work on any subject but remembering not to exceed the maximum word count.

I must remind you that the door will be locked at 7.35 pm so if you are running late you will have to knock on the door and perhaps shout until the bell is fixed.

Here is an interesting email received from Felixstowe Forward: I know we are not a poetry group but perhaps you would like to consider providing a poem for the National Dementia Action Week? We can discuss it at our meeting on Tuesday.

Dear Catherine and Dave,

May 21-27 is National Dementia Action Week and the Felixstowe dementia Action Alliance will be working in the town to raise awareness of dementia. 

The week is focused around memory and poems … there will be a display in the coop Window, shops and dementia friendly businesses we hope will be wearing blue and helping decorate their windows in blue and feature poetry,.

I wondered if there was any way that Scribblers might also be involved ie perhaps your May meeting focus on writing poems around memory / poetry readings?

Please do let me know so that we can include you. 

(Its not about raising money but more about raising awareness).

Kind regards,

Helen Greengrass                                                                                              

Felixstowe Forward Change Director

Felixstowe Forward

Suffolk Coastal and Waveney District Councils

Here's another message, this one from the Ipswich Writers' Cafe.

Ahoy,

Next meet-up for the Writers' Cafe will be slightly later in the month:

* on Monday 23rd April

* starting 7:30pm

* upstairs at the Thomas Wolsey pub at 9-13 St Peters St, postcode IP1 1XF

Bring along that 500 word story or 40 line poem or whatever else you can cram into your 5 minute slot. And in the meantime, here's a handy list of places crying our for your writing talent:

http://www.literarylightbox.com/writing-apr2018/  

Bye for now,

Ed

@ipswriterscafe

Until Tuesday,

Keep Scribbling!!!