Nik Morton at Writing Buddies!

It was good to see twenty people at the Southampton Writing Buddies meeting at The Art House on September 24th. We were very pleased to welcome author Nik Morton with his wife Jen who is also a writer; they had come over from their home in Spain. Nik had kindly judged the fiction entries for our recent anthology competition, and was able to give us all some advice about writing fiction and making our work as good as it can be. He also presented certificates to successful writers who had been unable to attend last time’s awards meeting.

Elizabeth is about to start further work on her novel, including decisions about the names of the characters. It’s a romance with a touch of mystery, with the plot covering about a century.

Sylvie is still working on her sci-fi children’s book, but is having to give time to the publicity for her choir’s forthcoming anniversary event.

Glen continues to write for Express FM’s soap Conway Street, broadcast three times a week from Portsmouth. She has received very positive feedback for the episodes which she writes alone. She was featured in a paragraph in September Writing Magazine, as a winner of a number of writing competitions.

Pam was glad to be back at the Buddies’ meeting after a break, and had been surprised to learn that she had won several awards in the anthology competition. The awards have inspired her to keep up her writing.

Nik had begun his serious writing by taking a course. The first of his 11 published books so far came out in 2007 – but he assured us that some were based on work honed over the years rather than in just the last three. His range includes westerns as well as other novels.

Mo has provided the first few pages of her graphic novel to her illustrator. She remains unsure whether the new man at the publishers will honour her contract to publish her latest book. She has been busy with her blog.

Christine attended a self-publishing workshop set up by publisher Antony Rowe and led by Barbara Large. It seems that the process is expensive, and the author must have edited the text to be absolutely ready to print. (Other members reported knowing of publishers who appear to be less expensive.) Christine is considering this route to publishing her book on bringing up young people in their teens.

Richard was welcomed as a new member. He has been writing since his teens, including short stories and poetry, and has one novel currently finished and one nearly done. He also produces cartoons which are published regularly, but would like to concentrate on novels.

Barbara competed for the recent Scroll Award at Southampton Writers’ Circle. She continues writing her daily diary and also writes in her local church magazine.

Tony first wrote for his school magazine. He has had short stories published since then, and was very pleased to have won the latest Scroll Award from Southampton Writers’ Circle.

Chris was another new member. He has written a sci-fi novel and is looking for a publisher. The group suggested some possible contacts who produce books in this genre.

Jimmy reports good progress with editing the length of his novel Growing Up In Southampton, Someone Else’s Trousers. It is now down to the length the publishers require. He is working on the website for his fantasy novel and his Sundance Gang fiction, and is hoping to take them to the next London Book Fair.

Tessa is working on Ladybird Soar, the third novel of her trilogy, as well as her non-fiction book for children, Forget-Me-Not. She is discussing with Penny the publication of our anthology through her Thorn Press.

Eileen was another new member. She is currently working on a novel, and attends a writing group run by Della Galton.

Monica enjoys writing stories for fun, and has submitted a children’s story for a competition. She is working on a course with the Writers’ Bureau, and writes articles on her personal health issues for a magazine. She was pleased to gain an award for a non-fiction article on this topic in the anthology competition.

John showed the group his newly published booklet of poems and associated art works, and it was mcuh admired. It is on offer to members at a reduced price. He was pleased to have already sold copies to Blackwell’s book shop.

Jen, our visitor, has written short stories and has now finished the novel which she began some time ago. It is set in Spain, and at a little over 200,000 words it needs a suitable publisher.

Catherine has sent off a proposal to How-To Books, for a work provisionally called A Writers’ Guide to Social Media. She has entered the Daily Mail competition for the first 150 words of a novel, submitted a short story to Hampshire View, and completed the first draft of a story for a Writers’ News competition.

Jacqueline was about to finish her latest script for the Eastleigh Talking News. She reported that the Talking Echo magazine will be looking for original short stories, 500-800 words, and upbeat poems. More details will follow. She is back producing articles for suite101 now that they have changed some of their terms.

Penny is fighting with her computer after updating her operating system, but is discussing with Tessa the publication of the anthology. The title has been chosen – it will be Wordfall. Penny continues with her editing job in London. She learned that she had gained a certificate in the recent Scroll Awards at Southampton Writers’ Circle, and Tony presented it during the meeting.

Other areas of discussion included computer troubles, the website www.youwriteon.com which is similar to authonomy, query letters, Portsmouth BookFest (Oct 25 to Nov 13), and learning computer skills for those who use only longhand. The magazines Freelance Market News, Writers’ News, Writing Magazine and Writers’ Forum were discussed and compared. We also reminded ourselves that, “If you write, you are a writer.”

The next meeting is on Friday 8th October at the Art House Cafe, Above Bar, Southampton at 2pm. Everyone is welcome.

The First Anniversary Writing Buddies Anthology Competition - The Results!

Winners all! With Simon Whaley, who presented the certificates.

Excitement was high at the Art House Cafe, Southampton, on Friday 10th September. It was results day and there was a larger than average group of Writing Buddies present, all agog to know who had won what!

Non-fiction judge Simon Whaley attended and presented the prizes, as well as finding

himself press-ganged into giving a drum roll on a handy set of bongos found lying about at the venue! The Writing Buddies had not known that Simon was so talented!

There was an uncharacteristically quick zip around the table to introduce each Buddy, during which newcomer Roger Colman, a non-fiction writer and the author of a history of the 7th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment during WW1, was welcomed.

The Competition was run to celebrate the first birthday of the founding of Writing Buddies and all those who won or were placed will go forward and be published in an anthology of work, to be published in time for Christmas.

The results were:

Non- Fiction 1500 word article, judged by Simon Whaley:

First - Glen Jayson - The Taboo "F" Plan

Second - Monica Rees - Living with an Invisible Disease

Third - Wendy Hughes - Literary Cats

Highly Commended - Jacqueline Pye - Dora Carrington - Painter, Bohemian and Object of Desire

Non-Fiction 300 words filler, judged by Simon Whaley:

First - Jacqueline Pye - Let's Hear it for Lymph

Second - Catherine Miller - Can the Hashtag Bring the Writing Community Closer Together?

Third - James Marsh - The Wonder of a Belt

Fiction - 1500 word short story, judged by Nik Morton:

First - Wendy Hughes - Bringer of Dreams

Second - Pam Whittington - The Birthday Treat

Joint Third - Christine Hooper - Michael and Mrs Cartwright

Joint Third - Pam Whittington - See you on Sunday, then

Honorable Mentions:

Elizabeth Streatfield - Hooked

Elizabeth Streatfield - A New Hope

Fiona Vandersluys - Wrong Footing

James Marsh - The Haunted Hut

Wendy Hughes - An Electrifying Experience

Flash Fiction - 100 words, judged by Nik Morton:

First - Catherine Miller - Keisha

Second - Catherine Miller - Guines Fowl

Third - Pam Whittington - Life after Dust

Poetry - Non-Rhyming, judged by Doris Corti

First - Jacqueline Pye - The Parade

Second - Pam Whittington - Time's Dawn

Poetry - Rhyming, judged by Doris Corti

First - Mo Foster - Jargon

Joint Second - Glen Jayson - Afternoon Flickers

John Goodman - Robots and Fairies Our This Week’s Theme

Drama - 10 minute one-act play, judged by Valerie Dunmore:

First - Catherine Miller - Permanent Ink

Second - Jacqueline Pye - Now Wash Your Hands

Third - Elizabeth Streatfield - Enlightenment

At the end of the meeting the Writing Buddies presented Simon with an interesting-looking silver parcel and Penny Legg, who organised the event and will edit and bring the book to fruition, was presented with a bouquet of flowers and the thanks of all the Writing Buddies.

Southampton Writing Buddies met at The Art House on Friday 27th August.

Thanks to Jacqueline Pye for writing these notes on the last meeting:

Elizabeth is just finishing a story to submit to Hampshire View; after that she will be revamping other short stories and submitting them. Longer term, time will be devoted to her novel.

Jacqui now has a blog – jacquelineswritingworld.blogspot.com – an interesting read. She has entered a complaints competition, and is having a letter published in Freelance Market News, available on subscription from the Writers’ Bureau - topical information, letters, market info etc. The group agreed this looked useful. Jacqui was complimented on her latest assignment returned from the Bureau.

Mo attended a poetry open mic session at the Nuffield, which went well. Her Hollywood director contact is asking her to write some scenes for a production. She has broken with her publisher, since her second book was accepted but when he took over he rescinded the contract. She is pursuing the legality of this.

Tessa has the second book in her Dohlen Inheritance trilogy out – Hobgoblin Gold – and is working on the third. She plans to write a natural world book for adults and children, and is discussing with her illustrator.

Lisa has joined the authonomy website, and had some useful feedback on her work as well as winning a book through the site. She has entered a sci-fi novel for the Terry Pratchett competition (details on www.terrypratchett.co.uk – for a debut novel, deadline Dec 31st).

Jacqueline has stopped writing for suite101, but is left with a useful bank of original work. She now has a basic website – www.jacpye.com – and is ready to submit a second feature to Best of British magazine if the fee for the already published piece is acceptable, otherwise it will head elsewhere.

Silvie is working on a story set partly on earth, partly in space. She is managing publicity for Portsmouth Chorus choir, especially as it is their 80th anniversary this year.

Catherine now has 10,000 words of her novel completed. ‘How To’ books are putting articles on their site, and she has written for it on using Twitter. She distributed some very helpful information about it to the group, and is considering writing a book on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Jimmy’s book, Growing Up in Southampton: Someone Else’s Trousers, is due to be published in May 2011. Chapter 13 of Java’s Revenge is in progress - “The war is about to start,” he says. His website – www.aloejimmy.com – includes information about his Sundance Gang novels as well as a link to his blog.

Glen is enjoying writing for Conway Street, the radio soap at express fm, and attends script meetings. She has been co-writing, but finds it easier to work solo. She has decided to self publish a book of short stories and articles, and is reading up on self publishing.

Barbara is still working on the programme for next season for Southampton Writers’ Circle.

Penny is working through computer problems. She has had book signings for Folklore of Southampton in Southampton, Lymington and Portsmouth, and will be at Chapter 1 books in Hythe on the 3rd September from 2pm to give a talk on compiling the book, and to sign copies. Her next book, Southampton Then and Now, will be published in October. Publication of Haunted Southampton is in hand.

The anthology competition judges have now given their verdicts; in addition to the top three in each category, there may be some entries ‘highly commended’ too, and the judges have kindly provided feedback for the writers. Results will be announced at the next meeting. The funds from the competition, which now include an anonymous donation, should be sufficient to allow the anthology to go ahead – Penny will be checking this.

Other matters discussed include contracts, methods of filing ideas, sponsorship for the anthology, members’ writing environments, office chairs, and the thorny problem of changing duvet covers (for some reason). Amazon’s cut was also discussed; their initial claim is 60%, but this can usually be negotiated down, possibly to 35% or so. New Writing South was mentioned; it is related to the Arts Council, and has published a booklet, ‘Word Up’ which looked interesting. They offer creative writing courses, and Fay Weldon is a patron. Website is www.newwritingsouth.com

The next meeting is at 2pm on Friday September 10th – competition results day – at The Art House, Above Bar, Southampton. All writers, aspiring or published, are welcome.

Writing Buddies, 13 August 2010

Another busy Writing Buddies meeting was held at The Art House Cafe, Above Bar, Southampton on Friday 13 August, which saw eleven Buddies around the table for coffee and chat.

Catherine has been busy working on her entry for an Arthritis Care competition, working on her blog and writing for the six word Arvon story competition. She was pleased to announce that she had completed the set number of small projects she set herself and has now started working on romantic fiction.

Mo has had a lesson on how to tweet on Twitter. She has fallen out with her publisher and has started writing her autobiography.

Barbara is still writing her diary. She has written everyday for forty years. She is busy working on the programme for the Southampton Writers Circle for the coming year. She has booked Wendy Hughes to do an article writing workshop. Local author, Nicky Slade, will judge the Scroll Award competition this year.

Sylvie has written all twelve chapters of her children's sci-fi novel and is now editing it. She says she was 'inspired' by coming to the last Writing Buddies meeting!

Tessa's second book in the 'Dohlen' trilogy, Hobgoblin Gold, has just been published and is out now. Her illustrator, Andrew Jones, has several pieces of his work on display at The Art House Cafe.

Jacqueline is on assignment five of The Writers Bureau fiction course. She received a mixed reaction from her tutor to her fourth assignment, which was to write a People's Friend short story. Jacqueline has re-written her piece and has now submitted it.

Glen, with her Writing Buddies Anthology Competition Secretary head on, reported that there had been 7 flash fiction entries, 11 non-fiction articles, 4 non-fiction fillers, 5 plays, 5 poems and 20 short stories.

Glen has been busy working at Express FM in Portsmouth, where she has been involved with writing a soap - Conway Street. She found it an interesting assignment as she was paired with another writer - writing with a partner is new to her - and had to write for other people's characters, which she found challenging.

Eileen is celebrating the publication of her crime novel, Miss McGuire is Missing. She was looking forward to joining other writers at Selsey on 20 August, as part of the Selsey Writing Festival there. She is on the fifth draft of her second novel and half way through her third novel. She was interviewed in Writers' News this month and won a Moleskine notebook from Writers' Forum for her work. She has been invited to judge a short story competition and give a talk in Lee-on-Solent. She will be book signing in Waterstones in Fareham on 11 September and her book launch party will be in Gosport on 9 October.

Bridget joined the Writing Buddies for the first time and was warmly welcomed. Bridget is a poet who has been with the Southampton Writers' Circle for 17 years. She says she has been 'lucky' to be widely published in magazines and, in particular, in South, where she is listed as the Poet of the Year. 18 of her poems are to be showcased by this publication. Bridget tutors on poetry for workshops and also gives public readings of her work.

Jimmy has had a second article accepted by Best of British magazine. He is happy with his website and is pleased to see that his forthcoming book, Growing Up in Wartime Southampton: Someone Else's Trousers is now on both Amazon and WH Smith online for pre-order.

John is busy making corrections to the proofs of his poetry collection, Poetic Imagery, to be published shortly. This will be published using a local printer - George Man Publications. John has been looking at a website giving advice about rejections and found Query Fail useful. He also looked at the Publetariat site, which is useful for general freelance writing tips - including the value of having an agent.

Penny has been dealing with the complete crash of her computer system. As this was just before the manuscript for her book, Haunted Southampton, had to be at the publisher, she was not best pleased. Folklore of Hampshire seems to be well received by the public.

Carol Blake's book, From Pitch to Publication was discussed and was generally felt to be very useful.

There was a general discussion about backing up data on computers and the value of doing so.

The phone-in on Radio 2 on the Jeremy Vine show about self-publishing was discussed and it was noted that the increasing popularity of self-publishing reflects the difficulties of interesting a mainstream publisher nowadays.

The next meeting of Writing Buddies is at 2pm on Friday 27 August at The Art House cafe, Southampton. Everyone is welcome.

Apologies

As you can see from the blog post below, there are a few problems with the layout of it.

Apologies, but all efforts at sorting it out have proved fruitless.

Writing Buddies, 30th July 2010

Southampton Writing Buddies met on July 30th at The Art House in Southampton's Above Bar Street. This was a really busy meeting, constituting the deadline for submissions for our anthology competition. There were a number of very welcome last-minute entries on the day.

Richard continues to work on his poetry. He recently entered a competition in a local news magazine; his poem was highly commended, and he received a certificate which we all admired.

Jimmy now has his website up and running - www.aloejimmy.com - which gives information about his writing career and current writing activities, as well as some good links. Best of British magazine, which published one of his articles earlier this year, has accepted his latest feature on a long-gone butcher's shop in Southampton. His book Growing Up In Wartime Southampton: Someone Else’s Trousers is due out in May next year. Java's Revenge, the latest novel in his sci-fi series, is not in Chapter X.

Rob was visiting from Spain. He is a successful writer, photographer and editor, and is involved in managing the Torrevieja writers’ circle. He belongs to Writers Abroad, an online site for ex-pats (www.writersabroad.spruz.com ). He mentioned that Writers Abroad plans to compile an anthology of stories for November; entry is for current or past ex-pats, and work must feature something about ex-pats in up to 2500 words. There is more information on the Writers Abroad site. Rob’s blog can be found athttp://robinespana.blogspot.com, and his website at http://www.robinnes.wordpress.com

Stu writes horror mystery short stories; this is so far a hobby, but the group encouraged him to consider trying to get them published.

Catherine was welcomed as a new member. She has written fiction since age three! She was an editorial assistant for, among others, the Tesco magazine, and was involved in a current book by John Simpson in which she is credited. She has recently finished her first novel, and is now working on a historical romance aimed at Mils & Boon. She also writes short stories.

Tony is back writing again after a prolonged absence. He writes mainly poetry and for children, and had recently performed two of his poems in an open mic session in Petersfield.

Glen has been busy logging the entries for the anthology competition. She has been accepted as a writer for the ongoing ‘soap’ on Portsmouth’s radio station Express FM. She has also been interviewed by e-mail for a writing magazine’s feature on people who have won writing competitions.

Josephine writes non-fiction, and has nearly completed her book on managing meetings. She is one of the many members who have submitted entries for the anthology.

Mo is considering putting on a one-woman show at Edinburgh – this would be her own work read by an actor. The format worked well at a recent show in London. She has also written a piece for The Woman Writer, the magazine of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists.

Jacqui continues with her Writers’ Bureau course; she is nearly at the end of the short story modules, and will then move on to the novel writing component. She has submitted a short travel piece to The Daily Telegraph online, and has started work on a novel.

Jacqueline was just finishing a script for the Eastleigh Talking News, and her feature on early teddy bear postcards was published in the August edition of Best of British magazine. She has also had some business cards printed, and was up to 33 articles on www.suite101.com

Sylvie is another new member of the group. She is writing a sci-fi adventure book aimed at children aged 9-12 - she has been keen on writing since childhood. She has submitted short stories to magazines; although not published, they attracted individual advice, which the group thought a very encouraging outcome. She had a letter published in Writers’ Forum earlier this year, and has been asked to write the publicity for a choir to which she belongs.

Elizabeth started a book a few months ago, and plans to start working with it again. She has decided to start submitting short stories to magazines; even though the market has shrunk, there are still openings worth aiming for.

John has started writing his diary again after a gap. He has found a suitable printer for the booklet of his poems exhibited in the recent art/poetry exhibition at Goblets, and he hopes it will be ready by the end of August.

Christine was pleased to learn that the story she submitted to the Southampton Area Talking Echo was recorded for their magazine and sent out during July. She has submitted a story for a competition on Write Space (www.writespace.co.uk ). She has written a book on young people’s mental health and is looking at publish-on-demand for it. She co-wrote a published book on mental health and has been working on a rewrite for a second edition; a mainstream publisher has shown interest in her contribution.

Barbara continues to write her diary. She had prepared an entry for the anthology competition.

Penny attended a book signing in Portsmouth for her new book Folklore of Southampton, and has other signings planned. At Portsmouth she met a pagan priest who is very knowledgeable about folklore in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, which was interesting as her publisher The History Press are discussing the idea Folklore of the Isle of Wight. She was looking forward to the launch party for her book two days after the meeting. Waterstone’s are stocking it, as is Milestones museum in Basingstoke. She has just seen the cover for her next book, Southampton Then and Now, due out in October.

As these proceedings were longer than usual, there was little time for discussion. However, we did cover the ethics and method of researching details of a serious crime, the Writers’ Bureau ongoing writing competition for students, and the availability of various archives and dictionaries through the library’s website. The route is www.southampton.gov.uk/s-leisure/libraries/learning then click ‘online resources’ for the list.

The next meeting of Southampton Writing Buddies will be on August 13th at The Art House.

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