HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WRITING BUDDIES!

It was party time for us at our May 2nd meeting. We celebrated our fifth birthday, with more than thirty members at our regular venue, The Dolphin Mercure Hotel in Southampton. As we were a larger group than usual, the hotel very kindly allocated a delightful upstairs meeting room, one in which Jane Austen once danced the night away!

Penny, who with Pam founded the flourishing group in 2009, treated us all to wine and luscious cake, so it was quite an event. Even Catherine’s young twin girls were able to join us!

Group News

Former policeman Jim Brown’s talk on Murder in Southampton was to take place on May 7^th at Portswood Library.

Jimmy’s latest book for The History Press, A 1940s Childhood, From Bomb Sites to Children’s Hour, had just been launched, with a foreword by famous crime writer Peter Livesey.

Mo had given a reading from A Blues for Shindig  at the Cockpit Theatre in London, and her next reading will be from her forthcoming new novel.

Jim Brown has a new book out, Southampton's Lucky Jim: A County Borough Copper in the 50s and 60s. 

Catherine has a story in The Romaniac’s collection of stories and flash fiction, Romaniac Shorts. The Romaniacs are members of the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA). Catherine recently won a place on a very enjoyable writing course through the RNA.

Gerry, who now lives in Alicante, belongs to a writing group there - Wordplay Writers’ Forum. Not long ago the group won Writing Magazine’s Writers’ Group Award. Gerry recently published his novel Farrell’s Last Case, and offered members a free download. He is currently writing the sequel, Witches’ Mountain.

Lisa informed the group that http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom was accepting comedy scripts for the next few days.

Jacqueline and her husband each entered the local Union Learning Centre short story competition; results are not yet out.

Barbara Dynes has a new book out, Masterclasses in Creative Writing . Barbara writes for Writers’ Forum and for The Voice.

Robin is writing on health and social care, and education. He edits and distributes the internet newsletter The Voice, with articles on the written word from both reading and writing perspectives. Several Writing Buddies have been interviewed by Josephine for The Voice. The newsletter is free to receive by email; contact robin@robindynes.co.uk

Bill attends Southampton Sight Writing Salon; he suggested Buddies might consider individual podcasts.

New member Margaret used to write, and is back again now and keen to restart.

John has just released an ebook of his poetry: Love Poems by JPF Goodman. (http://jpfgoodman.wordpress.com and scroll down.) He read some of his work at the final day of the Ship to Shore event at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton, and was soon to read again at Write Angle, an event in Petersfield. Podcasts of both these readings can be seen on his blog as above.

General discussions followed. These included whether we should do individual podcasts and who might help with these. Lisa mentioned she had marketed a book she’d written under a different name, promoting it in both names in social media. It was initially offered free, and entered Amazon’s top 100 free books. She recommended low pricing for better overall revenue.

Calvin runs Friends of Portswood Library. He hopes the library will become a community hub including for writers, and any members wanting to promote their books by readings or launches can contact him at calvin@calvin-smith.co.uk Several members had given talks or readings there already, and more are to come.

Our forthcoming exhibition at the Central Library was discussed. Members would jointly set up the books, articles etc on Monday 12^th May in time for the opening by the mayor Councillor Ivan White at 2pm. The exhibition would close on the 17^th. Christine planned to make a celebration cake for the event and there would be wine too.

Josephine then gave a very helpful talk on administration for writers. She reminded us of the importance of documenting every event and all income and expenditure, and suggested ways of doing so. Questions followed and the group thanked Josephine for her advice.

Writing Buddies will meet again at The Dolphin Mercure Hotel, High Street, Southampton from 2 to 4pm on Friday June 6^th. The last half hour will include a talk by Lisa on the topic of copyright.

Blog notes by Jacqueline Pye

Writing Buddies 1st March

Friday 1^st March and Writing Buddies met for the second time at the new venue the Dolphin Hotel. The meeting was held in the foyer as we had been told a wedding party was due and they needed the restaurant space.

Jimmy stood in for Penny and gave this news to the meeting.

Jimmy told the meeting about the launch of his new book Not a Guide to Southampton and showed a copy at the meeting.

Jim Brown gave a talk on his latest venture. He showed his i-pad on which all of his books are stored. Jim believes that this is the way publishing is going. He also told us about the way the police force is now being run. As a former Police Officer himself, in his day there were far more police personnel on duty at all times.

Publisher Tessa agreed with Jim about publishing as e-books.  She again pointed out that manuscripts offered in this way must be properly edited before they will be considered for publication.

Ray Dumper told us of his plans for the book he has written about his life. He intends to self publish and knows that quite a lot of his family and friends are showing an interest in this. He has enough material to write his story in two editions and the Writing Buddies wish him luck with this venture.

The meeting ended early due to the noise in the hotel foyer and the Writing Buddies will meet again, at the Dolphin Hotel, Below Bar, on Friday April 5^th.  Everyone is welcome.

Notes by James Marsh