Writing Buddies in Full Flow

Southampton Writing Buddies met once again at The Art House in Above Bar on Friday March 9^th, 2012, and after our writing news we were very glad to welcome a guest.

Josephine has finished the final edit of her book on managing business meetings, but she is wondering now whether a section about technology should be added. An example would be teleconferencing, and the group felt that this would be a useful addition. She is starting work on another book about management.

Mo has pitched an article to a specific contact at The New Statesman, and awaits their reply. One of her stories is currently being filmed, too.

Jo feels that she is losing her way a little with her travel book. She has written six chapters now, but is still unsure whether it should take the form of a travelogue or an informed novel, and the group discussed this. She will continue to work on it.

Rowan, a new member, is working on some fiction. He told us about

Project Gutenberg, where free books are available.

Karen continues working on her novel, and once finished she is hoping that it will be published.

Alan is working out how to manage his first children’s book. He has submitted a two-part comedy play script to the Nuffield theatre.

Jimmy is continuing with his commissioned miscellany of Southampton, which is expected to be published in January next year.

Veronica is currently studying various religions. She has written some poetry which she hopes to publicise, and is looking for some voices to perform it.

Glen had an excellent formal book launch for Voices of Eastleigh with around sixty guests, and sales were very good.

Janet continues with her stories centred on nursing, but she is keen to go travelling and to write about her experiences.

Tessa is working on her next book, The Land of Smiles, and she is adding to her book

Knitted Quilts and Flounces and will be reissuing it.

Penny has finished Eastleigh: Then and Now and submitted it. She is on a final edit of Under the Queen’s Colours and awaiting the proofs for publication in May, and also working onBloody British History: Southampton. She is thinking about her next book.

Jacqueline recently gave a talk to Writers in Southampton on how to write and sell magazine articles. She has the star letter in the current issue of The Vegetarian magazine as well as a short quote in the vox pops section. She continues with the online short story writing course.

We were very pleased to welcome Ben Ottridge to the meeting. Ben is the director of www.selfselfself.com, which offers ebook publishing for writers - we had discussed his service at previous meetings. He recognised some time ago that self-publishing ebooks could be tricky and time-consuming for writers, and with several years’ experience, he now translates writers’ work from its basic Word format into an ebook which is compatible with Kindle, Kobo and iPad. There is no upfront fee, but the company takes 15% of the net profit (after distribution costs, taxes etc). Ben will provide a basic cover if required, but for £20 he’ll design one individually. Details of the process are on the website.

General discussed followed. The group considered Jo’s concern about her work in progress, and whether it should be a travelogue, an experience piece, or a combination. It was thought important that the book should have ‘something to say’, to lift it above a description of experiences. We also discussed blogs, and the need to take notice of criticism and make use of the parts that seem relevant and right.

Our next meeting will be at The Art House, Above Bar, Southampton on Friday March 23^rd at 2pm. Anyone with an interest in writing, at whatever level, will be very welcome.

Notes by Jacqueline Pye.

Serendipity at Southampton Writing Buddies – February 24th, 2012

We met once again at The Art House to discuss our work, questions, ideas and concerns. Jimmy chaired the meeting in Penny's absence.

Firstly, Mo was presented with a book token, the prize for her winning slogan in a competition run on Twitter and Facebook by another of the Writing Buddies but judged independently. She received an enthusiastic round of applause.

Glen had been delighted to receive a consignment of her new book, Voices of Eastleigh, and she'd brought a copy for us to see. She is holding a launch party, and will be signing at Waterstone's in Eastleigh on March 17th (likely 11am - 2pm). A salesman at The History Press has told her that copies are 'flying off the shelves', and Keith Hamilton of the Daily Echo has agreed to mention it in the paper.

Tessa has had to resubmit our anthology, Wordfall, for consideration for an award, as the organisers had evidently mislaid the carefully constructed entry, but it is still in time for the judging.

Mo has had much interest in her recent blog post about her earlier recovery from addiction, including from her publisher, and there may be other platforms for it. Some students are making a film of her story, 'Teddy Boys Picnic'. The American film director continues to seem interested in filming one of her plays, involving her in the screenwriting, but as yet there has been no firm offer of the film or of payment.

Jacqueline is working through her online course on short story writing, and is keeping up. She was taken aback by a lengthy, mainly negative critique, from a co-student, of her story which was to be just a first draft, but members were very supportive about this. Other critiques were kinder. She now has a writer's page on National Flash Fiction Day's site, and has started a new blog about vegetarian food. She has pitched a biog piece to The Lady magazine.

We then heard from Ricky Tart, who happened to be at The Art House and who helped put up the tables for our meeting! He is writing a novel but teaches poetry in local schools. He is helping people to put up iBooks (for the iPad), and spoke of the necessary preliminaries such as linking with a book company registered in the USA and creating an account at iTunes. He is going to send useful links, which we'll put on the loop.

Janet is still working on some short stories on a nursing theme.

Karen continues with her novel, but she has unearthed some earlier short stories, and is now editing them for possible submission.

Lynn has been thinking of a fantasy scenario which involves the physical shifting of a whole country, but she wasn't sure of the target audience. The group felt that almost any fantasy scenario is worth working on, especially if there is a planned placement for it.

Jimmy feels that his own photographs for his Southampton Miscellany have not been sufficiently professional, so he is working on these skills. He has had huge disruption with alterations in his home, but has found that he is able to block out the noise and concentrate surprisingly well. Other members wished they could do the same.

During the following discussion, Glen read out the review of Wordfall from the new edition of the SWWJ newsletter The Woman Writer. This was a positive review, and singled out two pieces for particular praise, one by Catherine and the other by Monica. We also discussed the pros and cons of having an agent for a book, and went through the options for the writer, such as agent, self publishing, direct approach to publishers, and eBooks or iBooks. We chatted a little about the nature of addiction and about a promised new version of Kindle involving colour and better pictures.

The next meeting will be on Friday March 9th, 2pm at The Art House, Above Bar, Southampton. We are pleased that Ben Ottridge of SelfSelfSelf will be explaining the arrangement whereby he will publish writers' work as an eBook for a percentage of any net profit but no upfront fee, spreading it to all the usual platforms. There will also be a general discussion on e-publishing. Anyone with an interest in writing is very welcome to join us.

Blog notes by Jacqueline Pye

Writing Buddies 10 February 2012

The Writing Buddies met again at The Art House in Southampton. There was plenty to report, and a lively discussion followed our news updates.

Shirley has finished the first draft of her sci-fi novel, and is about to start editing. She may look for an agent when it’s ready. She has had some short stories accepted onto the mobile publishing site Ether books; up to five can be uploaded free.

Janet is busy reading widely, so as to compare various writing styles.

Karen is planning to get back to working on her novel very soon.

Jo is writing her travel memoir, having got going with it following the previous meeting. She is currently writing detailed chapter plans.

Silma is currently considering self-publishing her fantasy book for children, possibly using the Kindle publishing system. Feedback from publishers has been positive, though so far none have accepted - the group commented that positive feedback was a really good sign.

Glen has completed her book Voices From Eastleigh for The History Press, and it is about to be published. There was loud approval for this! Glen is holding a launch party and would circulate details. She has entered a short story competition, and her reading of one of her poems is featured on The Art House’s CD of their recent Open Mike evening.

Jimmy continues with his Southampton miscellany book for 2013 publication, and has gained permission to take pictures from West Quay. He has visited a useful private collection of photos. Jimmy has found business community site LinkedIn helpful, especially for suggestions for publishers for his books. His children's picture books need editing for language level, but may have a local publisher, and Waterstones have said they’d like to see them, which is exciting. Jimmy’s book Growing Up In Wartime Southampton, Someone Else’s Trousers is now available for Kindle.

Veronica told the group about the Friends of Southampton Cemetery, and about the Deanery Poets group. She suggested writers pass on to the Mayflower their memories of activities at The Gantry, which no longer exists. She spoke about Age Concern’s new magazine Life to the Full and distributed copies. She and Penny are both involved in its publication.

Lynn is a new member. She has been writing children’s comic stories, and would like to start writing comedy. The group mentioned, as before, that good sitcoms are currently in short supply, and that the BBC is currently looking.

Vijay has been looking at the information about comedy writing on http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom and he is working on the early stages of a script of his own.

Jacqueline’s flash fiction is published in the current edition of What The Dickens internet magazine. She has found a possible format for her article on a relative’s WW1 diary, and has just started a six-week online course on writing literary short stories. She plans to blog about the course.

In the discussion, everyone was very pleased to hear that the ebook publisher Ben Ottridge is due to meet with us on March 9th to explain his no-upfront-fee system. Several members expressed an interest. We also discussed the need for blogs and websites, and how to get started with both, and our Yahoo email loop. We were all worried about library closures, but thought overall that ebooks would grow but not eclipse the printed book any time soon. The Nuffield Theatre writers group was mentioned, as they are currently looking for new members.

The Writing Buddies will meet next on Friday February 24^th at 2pm at The Art House, Above Bar, Southampton. Anyone with an interest in writing will be very welcome.

Writing Buddies - 27 January 2012

Writing Buddies met once again at The Art House Cafe in Southampton on January 27^th, 2012.

Tessa has now written her latest book, The Girl from the Land of Smiles, and is currently editing it. She has proofreaders ready, both locally and in Thailand, and the book should be published in the summer. She is also preparing to publish a book of paintings for her son.

New member Jo has always been a keen writer. She has concentrated on writing for business in the past, but is now planning a book about her trip to Mongolia. This project is proving complex, and the group discussed ways for Jo to produce the work, perhaps both as a travelogue and as the basis for fiction.

Karen is continuing with her novel, though she finds that since the story is so familiar already, she finds it hard to be consistent in writing. She plans to enter some flash fiction competitions in the meantime.

Janet is working on her nursing stories, using her background knowledge and also consulting relevant magazines.

Ray’s memoirs are still in progress; he has been working on them for some time, but mentioned that he finds the Writing Buddies meetings useful and motivating. This raised a cheer in the group!

Lynne, another new member, is a literature and language teacher and has always been an active writer. While training she had to critique other writing, and wonders if this has made her hypercritical with her own work. She made some useful suggestions in the discussions.

Mike still awaits a response from the publisher about his aviation book. He has a co-written book coming out in March, Shipwrecks of the Cunard Line.

Alan is halfway through his second mouse book for preschool children. He has also been working on sketches and a sitcom, helped by his experience on the comedy stage. The group thought there is a good current market for television comedy.

James is still hoping that the Daily Echo will review his book, Growing up in Wartime Southampton – Someone Else’s Trousers . He had a letter in the Echo that week, citing a relevant quote from his book, though the reference was removed before printing. The work may be made into an audio book. James continues with Southampton - a Miscellany and his books for young children, and plans to send off a Sundance Gang book to an agent recommended to him.

Jacqueline’s flash fiction piece about Miss Havisham will appear in the next edition of What the Dickens internet magazine, out on February 1^st. She has entered a short story competition online, and will be entering two flash fiction competitions. She has enrolled for an online short-story writing course, which starts next month.

Penny has been to the National Memorial Arboretum to take some final pictures for Under the Queen’s Colours, though the Royal British Legion has not given permission yet for their use. She has recently finished editing the first edition of the new magazine Life to the Full, and is hoping for offers of admin help and sponsorship to enable the second edition to be published. She has nearly finished her book Eastleigh Then and Now for The History Press.

The general discussion was wide-ranging. Topics included how to kick-start a stalled project, ways of keeping up motivation with writing, and whether a Buddies magazine might be a possibility. A stand to sell members’ books at The Marlands is still being debated; this would be for the run-up to Christmas, and volunteers, exact venue and good marketing would be needed.

A new ebook publishing service was discussed. This is described at www.SelfSelfSelf.com by a digital consultant who takes Word-document books and converts them to ebooks for all platforms, with no up-front fee but 15% commission on net takings after other costs. It was decided that some members would take a look, and perhaps check the presentation of ebooks already published by this means.

The next Writing Buddies meeting will be on Friday February 10^th at The Art House Cafe, Southampton from 2pm. Anyone with an interest in writing is very welcome.

Writing Buddies, January 13th, 2012

Our first meeting of 2012 was very well attended, and members had been busy over the holiday.

Rich belongs to a London-based writers’ group, and he submitted a piece for them to perform in a pub. They will be performing his monologue/narrative poem in February.

Glen’s commissioned book Voices from Eastleigh (The History Press) has now been submitted and the launch is to be scheduled. She is attending a song writing weekend, and one of her compositions has recently been well received.

Christine D has nearly finished her second novel. Publishers Weidenfeld & Nicolson liked her first book – Jump Derry - but thought it needed some adjustment before being taken up. Christine is working on this. She has entered short stories for both the Fish competition ( www.fishpublishing.com) and the one run by Chapter One Promotions who have several comps on their site.

Patricia has sent a story to BBC Opening Lines via Writers’ Room. She has also submitted a 30-minute play and a monologue script, and is now working on another play about Adam and Eve. She is trying out some nursery rhyme illustrations with agents, too.

Ray continues working on his memoirs. Through Writers’ Forum magazine he contacted Jean Henderson who said she would be able to advise shortly. Ray is keen to develop this contact, and will send her some work.

Janet was at Writing Buddies for the first time. She has just finished a Diploma in Creative Writing with the Open University, and has submitted to magazines and entered poetry competitions. She would like to start a novel, but is unsure whether she has enough material. This was discussed by the group.

Josephine is about to start a textbook on staff management; this links with her connection to Park Radio (New Forest area). She has been a programme assistant there, but is now promoted to co-presenter. She has been asked to run a workshop on her subject.

Annette is collecting ‘First Day at School’ memories for an article. She is also looking for a possible market for her piece, ‘My First Parachute Jump’, and several magazines were suggested by the group. Her first article for The Scots magazine was published in December, and the next will be in August. She has an article appearing in The Countryman this spring.

Karen told us she has contracted ‘the writing bug’ over Christmas, and is starting to work on a novel, which she’s had in mind for some time.

Catherine has now rewritten 30,000 words of her novel, being advised by the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s New Writers Scheme. She has met an agent/editor who wants to see the book. In February she is giving a talk to Writers in Southampton on the subject of social networking.

Member Janet is writing short stories; she has hospital experience and may check some nursing magazines to further inform her work. She is interested in travel writing, too.

Jimmy’s story for preschoolers, Jayden’s First Adventure, has been submitted to The Thorn Press, and he has a sequel in mind. He is planning the last book in his trilogy, Gerry’s Quest. Work continues on his commissioned Southampton Miscellany (The History Press), and he is working with Penny on a book about 1940s Southampton. The magazine Best of British will be reviewing his book Growing up in Wartime Southampton – Someone Else’s Trousers.

Jacqueline will have a short story in Hampshire View. Her poem appeared in the first issue of What the Dickens, and she has submitted flash fiction for the next. As yet she has not had any news about her children’s book, she may approach agents or publish as an ebook. She is giving a talk to Writers in Southampton in March on how to write and sell magazine articles.

Tony published his military history book We Spared Not the Capital of America in September with Authorhouse, and it is selling quite well on Amazon. It is available as a book or an ebook. He is now targeting military history and re-enactment societies to publicise it.

New member Mike has written books about Southampton docks, and has another co-authored book coming out on the subject of Shipwrecks of the Cunard Line.

Penny finished Under the Queen’s Colours for The History Press, and it is to be published in May. Current projects include an Eastleigh archive book and a grisly history of Southampton. She recently launched Life to the Full, a magazine for Age Concern, Southampton.

Vijay continues to work on the novel which he began for NaNoWriMo, and sees his way forward with the plot.

General discussions then worked around the need for blogs and websites as a personal showcase, and how to set them up. On the topic of how to start a novel, suggestions included blogging, setting targets, developing from a short story, creative writing courses, NaNoWriMo, and not stopping to edit but just ‘getting it down’. For marketing, ideas included Facebook and Twitter, making friends with local bookshops, and using LinkedIn (for professional people). The session ended with ideas for where to place particular articles and how to choose and write for a charity. Future meetings focusing on self-publishing and on ebooks are to be considered.

The next meeting will be on January 27^th at The Art House, Southampton, 2pm. Anyone interested in writing will be very welcome.

Post by Jacqueline Pye.

Writing Buddies, 9 December 2011

Southampton Writing Buddies met at The Art House, Southampton on December 9th. There were a good number of us, and Penny treated us to wine and mince pies.

Josephine is now involved with Park Radio's weekly "Working Lives" programme - with her business background she is the ideal person to research for them. The Chartered Management Institute is starting a quarterly newsletter, and Josephine is writing a Q-A column for them. She is also currently working on a book on staff management, and hopes that Hodders might take it up, as they have published her work previously.

Jacqueline is working with a relative's WW1 diary from the front, matching it to facts about surrounding action and aiming for an article, possibly for military history magazines. She has feedback from children about her novel, which has now been submitted to a publisher. The new internet magazine What the Dickens included her poem about snow.

Tessa is busy producing Ann Victoria Roberts' book The Master's Tale, published by Tessa's own company The Thorn Press, as an ebook. There have been problems with the vagaries of the programme, now sorted. Tessa continues writing her next novel, The Girl from the Land of Smiles.

New member Shirley was welcomed to the group. She writes short stories and novels, and is 75,000 words into a sci-fi novel and looking for an agent. She has had many stories published, and has been very successful in competitions, including a top ten place out of nearly 1,000 entries for The Glass Woman Prize. Her website is www.shirleygolden.net

Ray continues work on writing his memoirs, which start just after the end of WW2. He is currently 1,500 words into the project, and he discussed various aspects of it with the group.

Mo has been enjoying the work of punk poet Attila The Stockbroker. One of her short plays is to be filmed, and her publisher is aiming to go for print-on-demand for her novel A Blues for Shindig and may make it available on Kindle.

Catherine has replanned her novel following feedback from the RNA's New Writers scheme. She has a helpful writing partner who is also on the scheme, and has revised 6 chapters (17,000 words) so far. She is still entering writing competitions.

Jimmy has been book-signing at an authors' meeting at Waterstone's, and has further dates at October Books in Portswood and ASDA Chandlers Ford. He is writing the third in his trilogy of fantasy novels, and is working on a pocket miscellany of Southampton commissioned by The History Press. His book for preschool children, Jayden the Naughty Goldfish, is nearly ready.

Jan graduated recently in Fine Arts at Solent University. She is working on future plans for her writing.

Karen has also graduated in Fine Arts. She illustrates children's books including preschool, and is working on stories for teenagers, the first of which is well on its way.

Alan continues with his children's stories featuring Sniggles the travelling mouse. He is currently on the second of these.

Penny has completed her latest book, Under the Queen's Colours, by the deadline. During the week after the meeting she was due at the Centre for the Third Age, Cranbury Terrace, for the launch of their new magazine Life to the Full. Her book Folklore of Southampton has been mentioned in a video 'Wessex Boy' by folk singer Frank Turner.

During the following discussion, the need for writers to manage (and fund) their own publicity was discussed. Many thought this inappropriate - we just want to write - but it was agreed that in the current climate writers have to accept it. There are people who will take on the marketing, but it can be expensive. Building up a readership by maintaining an active blog was recommended. The possibility of a stand at West Quay in the run-up to Christmas was discussed, but the cost is thought too high. One member is considering volunteering at a library (otherwise to close), and wondered about offering borrowers a short writing course. This was thought a good idea, and there were offers of talks by other members.

The next meeting will be at The Art House, Southampton on Friday January 13h 2012 from 2pm. Anyone interested in writing is very welcome.

Post by Jacqueline Pye.

Writing Buddies 25 November 2011

After the excitement of the launch of the Writing Buddies' first anthology, it was a little disappointing to find only six buddies at the meeting immediately afterwards. Still, small is beautiful, so the group chatted rather than went into detail about what they had been up to.

The anthology launch was discussed and lessons learnt from it were noted. It was decided that there had to be changes to the way any future competition was be run, as the fees charged did not cover the costs of producing the resulting anthology.

The next Writing Buddies meeting will be on 9 December. This will be the final one before the Christmas break. The group will restart on Friday 13 January 2012.

Merry Christmas everyone!