Thursday 24 September 2015

Catching Up!

Life at Writing Buddies has been a bit busy recently, and consequently, we are a little late in updating this blog.  So, what has been going on? 

We welcomed Brittany Poulin from IPR License to our May meeting.  Brittany gave an enlightening talk about the many and varied rights authors have and how they can be sold for best advantage to the author.  Needless to say, this was a popular talk!

In June, Claire Fuller came to visit us.  Claire's first novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, won the 2015 Desmond Elliot Prize.  She told us about her writing journey and answered questions about her life and work.

July saw the Writing Buddies meeting crime novelist Tracy Gorman.  Tracy also told us about her writing journey, first as a child author, then an adult journalist and finally as a novelist. 

In August, Janine Pulford came to Writing Buddies and talked about the two magazines she edits and her inspiration as a novelist.

September saw publisher, Ian Bayley, of Sabrestorm Publishing come to give a different perspective on the writing world.  In an eye-opening talk, he described how he got into publishing and the rewards and pitfalls of the business. 

Discussion around the table has centred on the new Southampton literary festival: SO:To Speak, Southampton's Festival of Words, which takes place 23 October - 1 November at a number of venues across the city.  Writing Buddies and SO:To Speak have partnered to run the first writing competition and WB members are braced for a hoped-for rush of competition entries.  The awards ceremony will be on Wednesday 28 October at which we are looking forward to hearing some of the work of the writing talent in the SO postcode region. 

Various Writing Buddies are involved in SO:To Speak and there is much excitement building as we inch nearer to the date.  See later posts for more details.

Our next meeting will be on Friday 2 October at the Central Library at 2.30.  Barbara and Robin Dynes will be running a short workshop on plotting the short story at this meeting.  Everyone is welcome.

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