Writing Buddies Latest News!

Writing Buddies moved to a new, monthly meeting format recently and this has proved to be successful.  Buddies have more time to write between gatherings and consequently have more to say when they all get together.

One casualty though has been the minuting of meetings.  The group's founder, Penny Legg, attends most of the group's meetings but does not have the time in her schedule to write up the notes taken at the time.  She has been very grateful to Jacqueline Pye and Elizabeth Streatfield, who have between them taken on the role of keeping the world up to date with the writing lives of the Buddies.  However, both of these writers have found coming to the meetings every month difficult recently and the blog has suffered as a result.  Penny has had to have a rethink about the blog as a consequence.

From now onwards, the blog will continue to try to give a flavour of what each Writing Buddy has been up to but will also give information on local festivals, events and such like, too.  Thus, when there is no scribe to write up the meeting, there will be no notes but there may be other information, relevant to all writers locally and further afield.  Penny hopes that readers of this blog will like the change.  If not, perhaps they would like to volunteer to come along and write the notes for this blog themselves!

The next meeting of Writing Buddies is on Friday 7 September at the Art House Cafe, Above Bar, Southampton, starting at 2pm.  Everyone is welcome.

The Guildford Book Festival is coming up shortly.  If you have not sampled its delights, here is a peep at what is on offer:

Hello!,   Hello again from Guildford Book Festival! We have some exciting news... We've been hard at work over the last few months building a fabulous programme of events.  The eagerly awaited Festival brochures will soon be appearing on doorsteps, in libraries, at Festival venues and in shops around the town and beyond! The brochure will also be available to download or you can view events online . The line-up includes, among others, writer and comedian Sandi Toksvig, bestselling authorKate Mosse, ex-ITN newscaster John Suchet, actor and comedy writer Ben Miller, BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz, ethnobotanist James Wong and writer, navigator and explorer Tristan Gooley. Festival Exclusive As loyal fans of the Festival, you are the first to know that Box Offices open this Friday at 10am. For full programme details or to book tickets log on to our website . Alternatively, call  The Electric Theatre on 01483 444789 or the  Tourist Information Centre on 01483 444334. Special Ticket Offers Linked Events: Block out an afternoon or evening and take in some great double bills. You can save money too! Just look out for the red + symbol in the brochure. Indulge in a double helping of Prue Leith and Rachel Allen onThursday 18 October, the opening day of the Festival or how about a historical double bill featuring Lindsey Davis and Simon Scarrow on Sunday 21 October. Following on from the success of last year's 'Britain's Defenders - An Afternoon at War', Clare Mulley and Nicolas Rankin and Derek Niemann present an afternoon of engrosing wartime stories on Thursday 25 October. A double bill not to be missed. Finally, crime fans will not be disappointed - also on Thursday 25 October spend an evening in the company of thrilling crime writers Nicci French and Tania Carver in Double Acts and Sophie Hannah and R J Ellory in The Dark Side. Reading Group Offers: If you belong to a reading group, there are some great savings to be made on a whole host of fiction events including Frances Osborne, Ann Cleeves and Peter James, Salley Vickers and David Nobbs! Look out for the green R symbol in the brochure and find out how to register here. A Feast of Fiction: Kick start your week with day devoted to fiction and a line up of fabulous novelists on Monday 22 October. A chance to catch Jenny Eclair, Kathy Lette, Kay Burley, Kathryn Flett, Dorothy Koomson and Judy Finnigan. Find out about the all day special deal at box offices. We hope you'll agree there are lots of good reasons to join us. See you soon!  The Festival Team www.guildfordbookfestival.co.uk    Guildford Book Festival Funded By

Writing Buddies, 22 July 2011

The Southampton Writing Buddies met at The Art House Café on 22 July and welcomed Chris Litton from the Southampton Are Talking Echo, who was joining the group to talk about the organisation.

To give time to our guest the Writing Buddies gave a brief account of their writing experiences since the last meeting:

Vijay writes fantasy and has started plotting for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in which he will write 50,000 words in a month. See www.nanowrimo.org. The Writing Buddies will give him every encouragement and support.

Rhiannon is finding that her writing is very fluent at the moment and she is considering starting NaNoWriMo as well.

Janice is continuing with her poetry.

Tessa showed the group the cover of her third book of her trilogy which is titled Ladybird Fly and is due out in August.

Ann has completed the non fiction part of her Writers Bureau course. She has had success in getting four pieces of work published.

Christine Donovan joined Writing Buddies for the first time She has self published her book Jump Derry and is writing more novels.

Jacqueline has had major problems with her computer and lost most of her work. She is, however, soldiering on and has been pitching to Woman magazine and Yours magazine. Her sleep article will be published in the August edition of Yours.

Glen is more or less on target for the deadline, in about five weeks time, of her book Voices of Eastleigh. She is working on the photographs now and getting good feedback from friends who have seen her work.

Christine has edited the latest version of her book Child and Adolescent Mental Health and the publishers are interested in reprinting shortly. She is now on her second assignment with The Writers Bureau.

Lisa is trying to wean herself from writing about zombies and has started to write a romantic novel. She reported that 150 copies of her books have sold on Amazon.

Josephine thanked the Writing Buddies for their response to her request for pet hates. She is considering either putting these into sections or using them in one bigger book. She is considering writing an article on presentation for Writers' Forum magazine.

Pat is writing for Humble Boy and continuing with her poetry.

Jimmy is currently editing all his books. He announced that his book Growing up in Wartime Southampton: Someone Else's Trousers is selling well and he has had some wonderful feedback from local people who have read it. His interview with Andy Dyke on Radio Solent was very successful.

Elizabeth is continuing with the third assignment for The Writers Bureau.

Janet has a degree in Fine Art taken at Solent University and she undertook a creative writing course some years ago and is hoping to blend the two together.

Mo advised that she sold seven books at the reading at Shoreditch. She will try rewriting a script. Sanctum will sell her book as part of the ticket price but Mo will have to watch she gets paid.

Penny enjoyed the Buckingham Palace garden party and her husband, Joe, chatted with Prince Philip. She received a phone call from Radio Solent who want her to record over a period of five days. This will be looking at one of her published works each day and there would be a general chat with presenter, Katie Martin. It will be an opportunity to raise the profile of Writing Buddies and plug books. The Diamond Jubilee book is coming on. In July 2012 a military event will take place at The Kings Theatre, Southsea and they have invited Penny to be their an guest author, with Under the Queen's Colours.

Chris Litton from Southampton Talking Echo gave some background of the charity. It has been running for 37 years as a registered charity providing local information for the blind and sight impaired. There are currently 80 volunteers who record information. This used to be recorded onto an audio cassette but a memory stick is now used. The listener is sent a green wallet which encloses the memory stick and this is then plugged into the supplied play back speaker (a computer is not required). Articles covered are gardening, cookery and local history and once a month other information is included. The listener receives the memory stick every fortnight and this is almost three hours of recording and is a free service. The organisation produces news letters to generate income.

Chris is hoping, as a way of increasing the variety to the listener, that authors from Writing Buddies would be willing to record their own work, but, readers can be available if that is the authors' preference. The stories required should take 15-20 minutes recording time (1500 – 2000 words) on any theme. Submissions can be fiction, non fiction or poetry and there may also be the possibility of serialisation of longer pieces of work. Chris advised that a typical listener is female between ages 60 – 90 but they do have some younger listeners.

Jacqueline, who is a volunteer herself, is willing to co-ordinate. There are sufficient readers at the moment but editors and sound engineers are being sought - see www.sate.org.uk. Writing Buddies would, of course be mentioned on the recording. Chris demonstrated how the machinery worked and confirmed to those not familiar with recording machines that, should the reader make a mistake, it is only necessary to pause for a moment and then continue. The continuity will then be taken care of and when they edit, the reader will have a copy to listen to. 'Book at bedtime' is a theory they may pursue.

The Writing Buddies expressed their interest and thanked Chris for his very informative presentation.

Further general discussion took place and Janet advised the group that she used to be a nurse in the 1970s. She would like to write about her nursing experiences. The art degree she has is in book binding and she informed the group about Red Hot Press www.redhotpress.org.uk who are artistic printers and run book binding courses, and also www.blurb.com.

Ann wondered if she should ask for a particular rate when pitching to a publication. The general practice is not to do that but instead, check current rates before pitching. The NUJ offer guidance to freelance rates.

Penny reminded the group that The Art House window display must be cleared today.

The next meeting will be on Friday 5 August at 2.00pm.

Notes by Elizabeth Streatfield.

WRITING BUDDIES, 21 JANUARY 2011

The Writing Buddies met at The Art House Café in Southampton on Friday 21 January 2011 where several new members were gathered round the table.

Jimmy has received the cover for his book Growing up in Wartime Southampton: Someone else's Trousers from The History Press and is very pleased with it. Chapter 24 of Java's Revenge is ongoing, possibly continuing to chapter 25. Recently he was asked by Age Concern to talk to a group of young people from Southampton College about his experiences growing up during the war. He ran a writing workshop in the afternoon and was particularly impressed by one young man’s grasp of what life was like during the war.

Claire, a new member, wrote two non fiction books some years ago but now wants to try her hand at fiction writing. Last year she attended an Arvon Course and this led to her entering a competition with her first story of 4,000 words, set in China. As yet she has not received any results. She is also thinking of entering the Début Dagger competition.

Jacqueline entered the How-to-Books, December competition. She is still writing for Suite 101, which she informed the group has re-vamped its site. Now, statistics show how many people read the articles that week, particularly over Christmas. She has been looking at the Cats Protection Competition which is for a poem or story up to 1,000 words. The first draft of her children’s book is finished and she is now editing and this will be ready in February.

Pam has had a quiet time on the writing front but continues with her research.

Laurel, another new member, writes short stories and has written a science fiction book for children, which was turned down by the publisher she sent it to. She has recorded it for You Tube. The title is Alice and the Best Friends Forever! Jane's Secret. She has also submitted four poems for consideration with a publication and is a member of the Southampton Writers Circle where she recently won the Greensleeves trophy for a short story competition.

Mo's illustrations for her new novel are presently on hold. She reported that her Berlin interview has inaccuracies. She is re-writing her novel and has written four or five more poems.

John has been reading short poems in Bournemouth and has written four drama reviews this year. On line reviewing from Writing Buddies would be appreciated. John advised the group of a Poetry Anthology competition with a closing date for entries of 30 June 2011. To enter send three unpublished poems of no more than 20 lines and 160 words each to United Press Ltd., Admail 3735, London EC1 1JB or visit unitedpress.co.uk.

Tessa has sent the illustrations for her trilogy to Germany and is considering translating the trilogy. She has been asked to do a talk on Holocaust and Genocide Memorial Day and a reporter from the Echo has been to interview her.

Josephine has 'started to finish' her book on Meetings. She went to a Parish Meeting and realised there was no difference, but it was useful. Next step is publication as all the book is written - 163 pages plus 70 appendices. She is considering taking bits of the book for articles.

Mercy, a new member, has a poetry connection and is currently writing a novel about HIV set in Africa. She has so far completed 10,000 words. She wanted to join a group and not just be a lone writer so would welcome sharing her work for feedback.

Richard has ideas for a novel and stories but other issues are at present preventing him from forwarding these.

Annette told the group that she had recently purchased Penny's book Southampton Then and Now from Tesco's, Bursledon. She has been inspired by Writing Buddies and approached BBC Scotland regarding a script she had written about life during the last world war. They informed her that they do not take unsolicited scripts. She has poems put together that need illustration. Her family suggested she write a book set in the 1950s about her memory of Scotland. One story has already been accepted. She wrote an illustrated children’s book some years ago and is now wondering about its suitability for animation.

Fiona has finished her book Relative Truth, the editing of which took a long time. She has drawn up a list of agents who favour first time writers. The synopsis is done and she is pacing herself. She has also started her next book. The City Literature course is going well. Her partner's book is being launched 19^th February, about Racing Ace – Samuel Kinkade.

Martin, new to the group, was a columnist back in the 1980's, mainly writing about family life. He started blogging in July 2009 and has self published a poetry book through Blurb.

Catherine took a break from writing in December but is now continuing on the first draft of her novel of 75,000 words. She was very pleased that her application to the Romantic Novelist Association New Writers Scheme has been accepted. Catherine has booked to go to the York Festival of Writing in March, where she has a meeting with a publisher. She has submitted a short story for Queensland competition which is for 500 – 1,000words and closes on 28 January 2011. One hundred entries will be selected as winners.

Elizabeth has enrolled with The Writers Bureau which will give her the encouragement and incentive to continue writing regularly. A short story for a competition is well under way and she is progressing with her book, although much research is still needed.

Penny advised that the Writing Buddies Anthology has been proof read. She apologised for the delay but her software is not compatible with the publisher's and this had caused a problem. Her book Voices of Southampton is on track for end of February. Haunted Southampton is due out next week and she should have copies by 4 February. It will be in the shops shortly after that. Penny continues to mark scripts for The Writer Bureau. She was invited to The Writers' Study in Dorset to present the prizes after judging their short story and poetry competition.

Further discussion took place and Penny advised the group that she could arrange to have one Buddies meeting just about self publication. She will keep the group advised about this.

The London Book Fair will be held at Earls Court on 11 -13^th April 2011. Writers can book appointments with publishers and discuss submissions and contracts. This is an opportunity to meet publishers and test out ideas, knowing they will give straight answers. There will be workshops but you need to book the fair in advance. It is advisable to take a trolley on wheels for all the literature that is available. Details are on line now.

York Festival of Writing, 25 - 27^th March, is residential but with the London Book Fair you can do a single day.

On Friday 4 February Penny is running a creative workshop through Age Concern for the over 50s. It will be held at Cranbury Terrace, Southampton from 10 – 12 noon and the accent will be getting going with writing and making it fun. Penny emphasised that poetry will not be covered.

Mercy was hoping that someone from the group would be willing to read her work and it was suggested that perhaps she and Claire could become writing buddies.

Penny requested new members to furnish her with their blog addresses, so that they could be put on the Writing Buddies blog site.

The next Writing Buddies meeting will be held on Friday 4th February, at 2pm, at the Art House Cafe, Above Bar, Southampton. Everyone is welcome.

Notes written by Elizabeth Streatfield.

Writing Buddies, 2nd July 2010

Southampton Writing Buddies met again on July 2nd at The Art House. Numbers were down, due to the tennis as well as car, guest and employment issues, but there was plenty to discuss.

Jacqueline now has 28 articles published on suite101.com but still awaits her fortune. She completed their challenge to publish 20 in the month of June. She’s also working on a script for the talking news, and is pitching a feature on sleep issues to magazines. Entries for the Buddies’ anthology competition are taking shape.

Elizabeth has submitted a flash fiction entry to the Bridport Prize competition. She feels that the content could be expanded and used in another context and is making plans for it. She is also preparing her entries for the anthology competition.

Jimmy continues to work on his fantasy novel, the plot of which is taking unexpected turns. The first 10,000 words of the novel are destined to appear on the website authonomy which showcases writers’ fiction. He is working on his feature on an old butcher’s shop for Best of British magazine, and is considering a feature about the neighbouring pub, which has remained unchanged since his youth. He also is preparing his entries for the anthology. His memoirs still need reducing in length by the November deadline.

Penny has started her new part-time job in London working on and editing magazines for the Diplomatic Services Families Association. She continues with her next book Haunted Southampton, and meanwhile she is very pleased to have Folklore of Southampton now published by The History Press and available in local bookshops and from Amazon. There is to be a launch party to celebrate, and the Buddies heartily congratulated her on this. With her level of output she may need to make a regular date for launch parties ... There is to be an interview about the book posted on an online community magazine for Hedge End, and Penny’s writing buddy, Rob Innis, who lives in Spain, will be at the book launch on August 1st.

Lengthy discussions included publishing in general, taking high resolution photographs, Indian food, Bangladesh, reminiscences of Southampton, the dififculty in placing magazine features, publishing recipes, underwater photography, and travel – all with a writing slant of course.

The Writing Buddies will meet again on Friday July 16th at The Art House, Southampton from 2pm. All are welcome