Writing Buddies, 6 July 2012

Plenty to Report

Southampton Writing Buddies met again at The Art House, Southampton on Friday July 6th, the first meeting on our new monthly schedule of first Fridays. Here's what members reported about their writing-related news since last time.

Mo has been filmed in Notting Hill Gate, speaking about the 1959 Notting Hill riots. Her novel, A Blues for Shindig, is set in London in that decade - she wasn't part of the riots herself! She is also shortly to have one of her short plays filmed by a team who have won a Toronto film prize. The Oldie magazine has produced an annual-type book to celebrate their twentieth anniversary, and included in it is one of Mo's articles printed in the magazine previously. She showed us a copy, and told us about the forthcoming celebration dinner to which she's been invited.

Jacqueline has registered with Ether Books (mobile quick reads); her first submitted short story is now on the site, and she has also sent two biographies. One of her stories is about to appear in the ebook Tortured Hearts Vol 3, and she has just heard that her WAAF memoirs piece was in The People's Friend last September! She has had a letter in the Daily Echo, and has started pitching her WW1 diary article to military magazines.

Catherine has completed her novel rewrite following suggestions by the Romantic Novelists Association New Writers Scheme. She has had a 75-word piece published on paragraph planet and has entered a short story competition. She and her fellow NWS writers have a blog, The Romaniacs, and they are featured in current writing magazines.

Josephine has received, from the Society of Women Writers & Journalists' (SWWJ) a novel for review for their magazine The Woman Writer. Her list of likes and hates is building nicely and she hopes to publish them as a small gift book next year. Her book about managing meetings should be completed by the end of this month, and she is considering some articles related to it. She is also planning her next book, which will be on staff management. Park Radio, with whom Josephine is associated, is only online now, but they are looking for contributions and local reporters in the New Forest. 

Patricia went to the Writers' Conference at Winchester. An agent was very impressed by her book, but wanted an elevator pitch for which she was not ready. She has now sent her book to the agent with a pitch and has found two other possible agents. She has been writing and submitting flash fiction.

Jimmy has read and returned the proofs of Not a Guide to Southampton. He has just started writing a 1950s childhood book in collaboration with Penny. His preschool book had language which needed adjusting so he is now working it for the 3-5 age group and hopes to publish in August. He is considering a follow-up to his book Growing Up in Wartime Southampton, and is working on two of his other novels.

Karen feels that her novel in progress needs to be more detailed, and she plans to start songwriting again.

John is keeping up his Friday blog posting. He has been attending the poetry group Moving Voices at The Art House, too. He mentioned that the Gumtree site is looking for real life stories.

Penny has been very busy promoting and selling her book, Under the Queen's Colours, locally, in London, and to people from abroad. The launch at Netley went well. There has been much interest at Australia House in London; she has enough further material to consider an Australia/New Zealand book on the same topic, and there is interest from a publisher for this. She may also consider a book of women's experiences in the forces.

In the discussions, it was mentioned that Amberley Press is planning a series of photo/picture-based books comparing past with present, and is thinking of Eastleigh as a suitable topic area. The History Press continues to look for new writers, and they have just set up a historic fiction section. Penny suggested invited one of their staff back to talk with us, and the group thought this a good idea. We also discussed why and how tags should be used, blogging generally, and internet hacking problems. 

Writing Buddies will meet next on Friday August 3rd, 2pm at The Art House, Above Bar, Southampton - and as ever, anyone with an interest in writing will be very welcome.

Blog notes by Jacqueline Pye.

Writing Buddies - 1 June 2012

Writing Buddies met at The Art House on June 1st, 2012

** Please note change of frequency of meetings - see end of this blog.

The meeting was quite well attended, and as usual, members have been very productive.

Josephine attended a non-fiction workshop run by another member, Wendy Hughes. Josephine is still working on her book about people's loves and pet hates, and remains open to suggestions. She has been working with Park Radio; they are shortly to close down because of funding problems although they may maintain an online presence. She is reviewing some academic articles, and her book on managing meetings is close to completion.

Silma has now published her book 31 12 on Amazon; it's the story of a boy who finds access to an alternative world through his mobile phone. Silma now has a blog, and has joined LinkedIn, and she reports some recent success in having articles published.

Rowan has been enjoying producing some free writing, based on random words and phrases.

Jimmy has edited his Jayden the Goldfish story and awaits a decision as to whether it is ready for publishing. Jimmy has been advised to adjust the title, and this remains under discussion. He has nearly completed Not a Guide to Southampton for The History Press, and is reviewing the third book in his trilogy The End of the Tunnel.

New member Jean has primarily been a poet, but she is currently planning a short story.

Another new member, Phil, has written some short stories, too.

Jacqueline has entered a children's poem for a Writers' News competition and a piece of flash fiction for consideration for an anthology. She has heard that a short story written during a recent online course has been accepted for Volume 3 of the ebook series Tortured Hearts. She has also posted Jubilee-related recipes on her food blog.

Karen has been planning the structure and content of her novel. She is working with Jimmy on the artwork for his Jayden book.

Janet has been looking at her diary, and is now working on expressing its content in poetry form.

Penny's latest book, Under the Queen's Colours, is published, and she has been to signing events. It is available on Amazon's website and also Waterstone's. She has been a guest on Radio Solent's Alex Dyke's show, and went to Australia House to discuss her book and sold all the copies she had with her. Her hardback Eastleigh Then and Now will be published in September, and work is in progress on Bloody British History: Southampton. She has a ghost book being published by The Thorn Press in October.

John has entered a formal scheme to register as a professional writer, and has been working with advisers on how this could develop.

In the discussion part of the meeting, topics included blogging and how to attract readers, how to set up a twitter account, whether a profit can be made with performance poetry, and the value of taking online writing courses.

** Although Writing Buddies is a successful and lively group, for logistical reasons it has been decided to alter the frequency of meetings. We will now be meeting on the first Friday of every month, so the next date is Friday July 6th, 2012.

Blog notes from Jacqueline Pye

Writing Buddies 4 May 2012

Southampton Writing Buddies met at The Art House. Attendance was a little down on the usual level, as a number of Buddies had other commitments that day. Jimmy chaired the meeting in Penny's absence.

Filming is about to start on Mo’s short story, which is exciting.

Janet continues with her nursing-based stories; she has about five on the go at the moment.

Karen is forging ahead with her novel, but she has been struck with inspiration for a new story and a new direction for her writing. The group looks forward to hearing more about this.

Tessa has downloaded a programme called Kinstant for conversion purposes, and has published her novel Spellbinderfor kindle. Her Knitted Quilts and Flounces is now available. She is also working on a mystery novel, and suggested two possible titles to the group who showed a clear preference for one of them.

Jacob is working on the text for a game-based site, as well as developing his own board game.

Paul is looking for people who would read and comment on his pieces of short fiction. He is not yet sure how to categorise them in a single genre. He has had work published on Ether books.

Jacqueline has had two of her tweets published in the June edition of Cook Vegetarian magazine, and a book review printed in Self Publishing magazine. She is working on a short story for a competition, and planning how to publish her children’s ebook.

Jimmy’s preschool stories are nearly ready but still need adjustments to language. He is nearing completion with Not a Guide to Southampton, commissioned by The History Press. He has nearly the full quota of photographs, and has agreed a larger word count with the publisher. Councillor Royston Smith has agreed to write the foreword. Jimmy is also considering ways of publishing his Sundance Gang and fantasy novels.

Discussion topics included copyright issues for photographs, setting up and maintaining blogs and web sites, formatting and publishing ebooks, pricing and returns for ebooks, and Amazon’s Creative Space for self-publishing books.

The next meeting will be on Friday May 18^th at 2pm, as usual at The Art House, Above Bar, Southampton. Anyone interested in aspects of writing will be very welcome.

Blog notes by Jacqueline Pye

Writing Buddies at The Art House in Southampton, March 23rd, 2012.

Janet is still working with her nursing memoirs. She is pleased to have a digital print, Impact, as part of Southampton library's Titanic exhibition.

Ray is happy with the progress of his memoirs of the 1950s and 1960s; he has been working with a proofreader who thinks the work will sell but has suggested a reduction in the length of the text to make it more commercial.

Rowan has just written 1,100 words of a short story, though he is concerned about the plotting aspect and this was later discussed in the group.

Tessa now has one of her books published with SelfSelfSelf, though she insisted on seeing the draft and proofreading and correcting it, as well as ensuring that she is listed as the publisher. Tessa is bringing out a facsimile of an earlier work; she has just received the proofs and is pleased with how printer Lightning Source is producing it. Her book The Girl from the Land of Smiles is nearly ready, and should be out in the summer; she is checking that the Thai way with English is being faithfully represented.

Jimmy is still working on the language level in his Jayden the Naughty Goldfish books. His local guide is now to be called Not a Guide to Southampton, and he is negotiating about changes the publishers have requested in number of words and photographs. Jimmy is still seeking an agent for his Sundance Gang novels, and he is considering ebook publishing for the three Far End of the Tunnel books.

Veronica flagged up a local project, the co-op make-a-book club, and mentioned (from The Guardian) that The Gentle Author is running a course on blogging for a £300 fee.

Jacqueline was pleased to report that she won a runner-up prize in the limerick competition in Freelance Market News, and a hardback non-fiction book via Twitter for a rhyme about child workers in the industrial age. She has completed the short story course and submitted a 75-word flash fiction to paragraph planet (internet flash fiction site, one piece published daily).

Discussions involved how a blog can be useful, and looking at plotting in short stories. A book was suggested: Plot Versus Character: A Balanced Approach to Writing Good Fiction. We considered a procedure for finished memoirs, and some members thought a professional edit would be worth while although it can be expensive. Then the options include an agent, a publisher, self-publishing (perhaps print-on-demand) or an ebook. It was thought a good idea to write different genres under different names, and one member is already doing this.

*** The meeting which would be due on April 6th (Good Friday) is cancelled, so the Writing Buddies will next meet at The Art House, Above Bar, Southampton at 2pm on Friday April 20th. As ever, anyone with an interest in writing will be very welcome.

Notes by Jacqueline Pye.

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.