Yahoo seem to have a problem with my emails to the group. It seems I can reply to individuals but not to the whole membership. I've informed Yahoo directly but only receive goobledegook responses. What ever happened to Plain English?
Tom.
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Friday, 22 May 2009
Wonderous offer ...
Looking for fame? Longing to tread the boards with the (ex) bard?
The Pyramid theatre in Warrington is staging the ex-laureate Andrew Motion on Thursday 4th June (two weeks away) as he promotes his latest book.
They are looking for somebody to chair the Q & A session after the performance. Ideal person is a local (preferably to Warrington) poet/chair/rabble-queller who knows a bit about poetry.
Any offers? They would like a name by Tuesday - give me a ring 01925 264926 if you're interested or have a bright idea!
Tom.
The Pyramid theatre in Warrington is staging the ex-laureate Andrew Motion on Thursday 4th June (two weeks away) as he promotes his latest book.
They are looking for somebody to chair the Q & A session after the performance. Ideal person is a local (preferably to Warrington) poet/chair/rabble-queller who knows a bit about poetry.
Any offers? They would like a name by Tuesday - give me a ring 01925 264926 if you're interested or have a bright idea!
Tom.
Saturday, 14 March 2009
VRWG March Meeting
Another packed meeting - I lost count at 24 attendees! I think the time is fast approaching for a second mid-month meetign to take off.
Marian gave us an interesting exercise. First liners from books. Aim was to continue the story from the first line. Of course there was the inevitable trying to guess what book the first line came from. I'm not sure if any of us got any of them!
Bob's started yet another book!
Marian gave us an interesting exercise. First liners from books. Aim was to continue the story from the first line. Of course there was the inevitable trying to guess what book the first line came from. I'm not sure if any of us got any of them!
Bob's started yet another book!
Saturday, 7 March 2009
It were a reet good neet (try that on your spool cheeker!)
Just to report on a) the poetry group meeting at Warrington (refurbished) Library on Friday. Everybody on form - poetry as good as I've heard anywhere and free biscuits!
and b) Congratulations to Marian for her efforts which produced a superb hard-working half day writers' workshop at Northwich Salt Museum today. VRWG weren't the only ones there - how large do we want the group to go?
Tom.
and b) Congratulations to Marian for her efforts which produced a superb hard-working half day writers' workshop at Northwich Salt Museum today. VRWG weren't the only ones there - how large do we want the group to go?
Tom.
Friday, 23 January 2009
Vale Royal AGM
Well last Monday night was the first AGM of the VRWG held at the Blue Cap.We managed to get a quorum (just) and worked our way through the agenda without there being any fights, tantrums or pen throwing.
Bob did the hard work putting it all together.The Exec committe stood down and got re-voted back in again (funny how there weren't any other people desperate to stand - especially for Treasurer!)After the AGM we had a Management meeting to discuss some group "stuff".
We all agreed we'd had a reasonably busy year and were looking forward to the 09 events coming up.
Minutes should be on the group site shortly.
Bob did the hard work putting it all together.The Exec committe stood down and got re-voted back in again (funny how there weren't any other people desperate to stand - especially for Treasurer!)After the AGM we had a Management meeting to discuss some group "stuff".
We all agreed we'd had a reasonably busy year and were looking forward to the 09 events coming up.
Minutes should be on the group site shortly.
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Rag Rug Writings
So much for new starts in a new year. The Great African Novel drags at my shoulder like a disintegrating rag rug being dragged, part complete, to a dusty market. Look - here's half the opening chapter under an empty flower pot. There's a shoddy erotic adventure, chewed by termites, in the bottom of a battered suitcase ...
Any one else having problems kick-starting creativity?
Best wishes,
Tom.
Any one else having problems kick-starting creativity?
Best wishes,
Tom.
Sunday, 30 November 2008
St Deiniols in November
Since I would like to call myself a budding writer, I thought I would try and be verbose and eloquant in my account of the day at St Deiniol's Library. So here goes...
We went to St. Deiniol's and it was dead good. Sorry, I would say a bit more but I have a very poor imagination and everyone made me use up what little I had yesterday in what could only be described as a totally inspiring day. (Well, maybe not 'only described'; it could have been described as 'a frosty, foggy November morning' or 'Saturday'.)
The library at St. Deiniol's is a beautiful building in a beautiful setting. As someone (it may have been Chris) pointed out, the library looks like you expect old libraries to look. Bill said it reminded him of Terry Pratchett and he half expected an Orangutan to be swinging across the shelves. Unfortunately the bannister upstairs was loose so I couldn't go swinging (unless you count Bill's workshop where I teamed up with Joyce and Steph with Tom - but that's another story).
Polly led the first workshop and had us sniffing ladies' handbags - something I told the judge I would never do again - and eating fruit. Quite how this prompted Tom to write of witches' cats, or Bill to write about black bikinis, I'm not sure.
I went next and adopted a similar tactic to my normal teaching, i.e. don't prepare anything, say very little and let everyone else do the work. There were some brilliant pieces of work throughout the day, but Bob's political apology was superb. He clearly has a future in avoiding saying anything.
Lunch was lovely. I have to say, for £20 we were well cared for in terms of the room, the food and drinks and just having the opportunity to write undistracted for so long.
After lunch, Bob did his bit. Bob's was much more of a taught lesson than the morning's sessions and made a nice contrast. Instead of writing a finished piece, we had to think about a character's journey, develop a character and develop a plot idea. This was very stimulating and provided us all with good ideas for future works.
Bill's session changed the mood again. He had us working in pairs on dialogue and some of the work had everyone in hysterics, as did Polly's comment towards the end of the session that she'd finally worked out what was going on. It took me a while to recover from Tom rolling about on the floor begging for a sick note while Steph told him he wasn't cut out to be a fitness instructor.
Christine's workshop at the end was also very inspiring. She had us all packing a Gladstone bag with six items. Tom read a beautiful piece about Christening gifts, Steph packed herself in the bag and Chris did his first piece that wasn't about sex. The variety of the sessions and the running order, which happened (partly by coincidence) to be perfect made the whole thing work so well.
Both Steph and I are so glad that we went and feel so inspired that we may even get round to writing something one day. Thanks must go to Joyce for organising this fantastic event.
We went to St. Deiniol's and it was dead good. Sorry, I would say a bit more but I have a very poor imagination and everyone made me use up what little I had yesterday in what could only be described as a totally inspiring day. (Well, maybe not 'only described'; it could have been described as 'a frosty, foggy November morning' or 'Saturday'.)
The library at St. Deiniol's is a beautiful building in a beautiful setting. As someone (it may have been Chris) pointed out, the library looks like you expect old libraries to look. Bill said it reminded him of Terry Pratchett and he half expected an Orangutan to be swinging across the shelves. Unfortunately the bannister upstairs was loose so I couldn't go swinging (unless you count Bill's workshop where I teamed up with Joyce and Steph with Tom - but that's another story).
Polly led the first workshop and had us sniffing ladies' handbags - something I told the judge I would never do again - and eating fruit. Quite how this prompted Tom to write of witches' cats, or Bill to write about black bikinis, I'm not sure.
I went next and adopted a similar tactic to my normal teaching, i.e. don't prepare anything, say very little and let everyone else do the work. There were some brilliant pieces of work throughout the day, but Bob's political apology was superb. He clearly has a future in avoiding saying anything.
Lunch was lovely. I have to say, for £20 we were well cared for in terms of the room, the food and drinks and just having the opportunity to write undistracted for so long.
After lunch, Bob did his bit. Bob's was much more of a taught lesson than the morning's sessions and made a nice contrast. Instead of writing a finished piece, we had to think about a character's journey, develop a character and develop a plot idea. This was very stimulating and provided us all with good ideas for future works.
Bill's session changed the mood again. He had us working in pairs on dialogue and some of the work had everyone in hysterics, as did Polly's comment towards the end of the session that she'd finally worked out what was going on. It took me a while to recover from Tom rolling about on the floor begging for a sick note while Steph told him he wasn't cut out to be a fitness instructor.
Christine's workshop at the end was also very inspiring. She had us all packing a Gladstone bag with six items. Tom read a beautiful piece about Christening gifts, Steph packed herself in the bag and Chris did his first piece that wasn't about sex. The variety of the sessions and the running order, which happened (partly by coincidence) to be perfect made the whole thing work so well.
Both Steph and I are so glad that we went and feel so inspired that we may even get round to writing something one day. Thanks must go to Joyce for organising this fantastic event.
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