Meeting summary

Last night was another 'down on numbers' meeting but not to worry, we turned it into a great evening of stories; more than the numbers attending the meeting was a social success.

Members attending were Dave, Tony, Les, Beryl, Carolyn, Ray, Suzie and yours truly.

Apologies were from Martin, Dick and Caz.

The subject for todays renditions was 'Chickens'

Ray read first with London Bridge 15 miles that concerned his youth in the fifties when he and his family arrived in Orpington to find fields and farmyards plus an ancient roadside sign declaring it to be 15 miles to London Bridge. He told of his house and subsequent investigation years later when Orpington had come of age. The sign still was there. 15 miles to London Bridge.

Next was Beryl with Ginger Rogers Lays an Egg, a tale about how a young girl walks up the garden path with food for the chickens who seem not to be laying then finding the first under a bird her father had named Ginger Rogers.

Carolyn attended and we were glad she did but after her recent travels had not been able to raise any chickens for homework but treated us to a few anecdotes.

Suzie gave us a story of a young reporter trying to elicit the scoop of the year The chickens that saved my life and failing miserably as the old lady recounting this tale constantly interrupted the tale and eventually left, promising to tell all at a later date.

Les has not written a story but gave a masterful example of total recall, not easy at our age, of a time he and Joan house sat for a family in Essex and on arrival found it was a beautiful old house but populated by three dogs many farmyard animals and a crowd of chickens with a particularly nasty minded bantam that attacked at every opportunity. He was sure this bird gave instructions to the hens to only lay their eggs in stinging nettles.

My contribution was a story (fictitious) was It's Dinner Time about a young DC who had been terrorised by chickens on his fathers farm and on an investigation found that chickens must have an inner sense and know the people that dislike them.

Dave gave us For the Love of Jodie, a story of a young lad who courted a girl from the other side of the railway, and the story, based on truth told of the dangers of trying to cross a busy railway line by means of anything but the recommended bridges or crossings.

Tony gave us Awakening, a part of his first chapter of an intriguing sequel he is writing.

Our next meeting is in One Weeks Time. There is no homework but you should all bring in your four little words on separate slips of paper...

Keep Scribbling.

Barry

Competition....

So, what, if anything, links the black queen with the ten pound note and the flowers? We have a number of ideas but want more. Our judges, Michael Dobbs and Adele Geras are waiting to see what different approaches have been made to the 3 into 1 stories. Closing date is 31st July, so there is still time to put together a novel story in less than 3,000 words. Check our website for the details of how to enter at http://www.3into1storycompetition.co.uk/


Please remember the £1,000 first prize, but most important we are supporting The Arthrogryposis Group charity, and look forward to making a sustantial donation to them.

Chicken...

Our 'Chickens' homework brought a variety of stories from those present and even an orated story by Les who had been unable to write his tale up.

Good meeting but now a reminder that our next one is in a week's time, Tuesday 3rd July - a four word creative writing exercise. Simply bring along four words, each on a separate slip of paper, place them in a hat, then draw four other words out and include them in your writing exercise.

Always good fun...!

The Scribe

Our Next Meeting

From Barry
'Here's hoping all your chickens have been brought home to roost.

See you Tuesday 26th June.'

Yes our next meeting falls on the last Tuesday of the month this time. After this our meetings will revert to their regular first and third Tuesdays of each month. It may have been confusing but we can all blame Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee for the upset in our rhythmetic flow... bless her.

So the final meeting of June we run up against the 'chickens' assignment when we hope you will have managed a poultry 1,000 words...

Keep clucking away...

See you in the Room at the Top at 7.30pm Tuesday.

The Scribe.

Flash Fiction Award

The 2012 Unbound Press Flash Fiction Award
Closing Date: June 30, 2012
1st Prize – £500, publication in 2012 print anthology, 1 free copy
2nd Prize – £250, publication in 2012 print anthology, 1 free copy
3rd Prize – £125, publication in 2012 print anthology, 1 free copy
Shortlisted – publication in 2012 print anthology, 1 free copy

Guest Judge: Zoë Strachan is the author of Negative Space (won a Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the Saltire First Book of the Year Award) and Spin Cycle (both published by Picador). Her most recent novel, Ever Fallen in Love, is published by Sandstone Press and has been shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize and longlisted for London Book Award. Zoë also writes short stories, essays, journalism and drama. Her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and Radio 3. She has received two writer’s bursaries from the Scottish Arts Council, a Hawthornden Fellowship and was UNESCO City of Literature writer-in-residence at the National Museum of Scotland. In 2008 she was awarded a Hermann Kesten Stipendium and spent time in Nuremberg, and in 2009 she received a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship which took her to France to write. She lives in Glasgow where she teaches part time on the prestigious Creative Writing programme at the University of Glasgow. Her play Old Girls opened the 2009/10 season of A Play, a Pie and a Pint at Oran Mor in Glasgow, and her short opera Sublimation (with composer Nick Fells) toured in May 2010 with Scottish Opera and will be performed in South Africa by Cape Town Opera in November 2010. For more information about Zoë: http://www.zoestrachan.com/.

Full details and guidelines can be found here

Report on meeting 12th June 2012

Those present: Dave, Tony, Martin, Carolyn, Suzie, Liliane, Rani, Becky, Beryl, Ray, Dick, Barry, Lyndsay and Sandy.

Apologies from Les.

Well folks, another good meeting. Good attendance this week. The homework had been set from a different postcard of places, throughout the world.

We started with Liliane who went to Paris and the story was called Last day in Paris. As the title implies this was a tale of a family having enjoyed a holiday seeing the sights of Paris want to get as much in the last day as possible.

Next was Rani who selected Florence. Entitled Meet me in Florence this was a tale of a young woman waiting for Ed who was late from his dig in Tuscany. She walks through the Palazzo and is transported to Roman times and a feast involving a handsome young man and his giraffe.

Lyndsay gave us a short tale of a couple and their wedding day and the journey from the church in the new Ford Fairlane.

Becky, our new recruit gave us a short impression of a young girl leaving the dock and wanting to expand her horizons.

Beryl was next with her story of the Colosseum entitled A letter to my sons. This concerned what appeared to be a human and humane Roman, Emporer Vespasian and his deathbed letter to his two sons.

Ray went to Blackpool and One Blackpool Night. This told of a dinner party held by publishers and how different clients and authors got together and especially about Sean Macallister and Leah and how they really saw a future together.

Dick went to The Great Barrier Reef. His story was entitled The Sea Fret Problem. This told us how three letters arrive with one from Australia telling of an inheritance. Thast of a schooner called Sea Fret. The man of the house decides he has to investigate and travels to Australia to visit the solicitors and find the schooner is damaged and on a reef. He accepts an offer for the vessel and returns to England.

My offering was called Niagara and involved a stuntman who decided to travel to the Falls to float over in a barrel. This ends up as his last stunt and he unhappily left a wife and eleven children.

Dave read next an account of a terrible air disaster that occurred on the Island of Tenerife. Entitled the 27th March 1977 it told of a Dutch and an American plane that collided on the only runway of Tenerife's airport.

Tony went to Barcelona. His story was entitled Barthalona and was about Barth, one of the local rogues who sets out one morning to steal enough food or money for breakfast. He is apprehended and then offered a way out of his predicament by becoming an informer on his vagabond friends.

Martin had Melbourne as a subject and no amount of my recounting would do justice to what was a brilliant piece of prose.

Carolyn had a picture of the Gozo Ferry to take inspiration from and concocted a tale called Hatties day out. This was of Hatty and her trip to Malta after losing her husband Henry. On the ferry she met what she considered an undesirable and the a suave gentleman called Tom Jones. On the return trip the undesirable introduced himself as a Maltese policeman who described Tom Jones as the undesirable who had disappeared from Gozo and escaped the clutches of the law.

Suzie was the last to read and read a very short but poignant poem called Just a memory. This was a poem of someones memory of waffles on a trip to Bruge, in Belgium.

Our next meeting is on 26th June when the subject is 'Chickens'.

Short story competition

A reminder everyone of our short story competition.
Closing date is fast approaching but only up to 1200 words needed.


Closing Date = 9th July 2012.
Maximum word count = 1200 words
Prizes: 1st = £150, 2nd = £70, 3rd = £40.
Entry Fee= £3 for 1 story, £5 for two stories, £8 for 3 stories, £10 for 4 stories)

Follow the link for more details.
https://sites.google.com/site/wrekinwriters/Home/competitions-1/2012-doris-gooderson-short-story-competition