The Cleckheaton Writers Group met yesterday with Kathy, Mandy, Martijn, Neil, Pauline and myself (Karen) in attendance, Dawn, Andy and Pippa having passed on their apologies.
Karen started by introducing those members who had not met new member Kathy and the group discussed their writing history.
Work In Progress updates: Karen had been working on plot planning the new novel she is writing and hoping to use as her NaNoWriMo project for this year, Neil has been working on a horror short story which he hopes to use as his anthology piece and for NaNoWriMo, Martijn had been working on a new story, a preface into a short story or novella that he had brought along for feedback and Mandy has had an idea for a novel/novella and she will be going to Robin Hoods Bay with a fellow writer friend to work on their writing together, which she hopes may be her NaNoWriMo piece.
Kathy had brought along a short story with a twist that had been inspired by the timed writing exercise at CWG. It was emotionally powerful and all the group enjoyed it, encouraging her to enter it into a flash fiction. Mandy recommended Flash500 (March, June, September and December) for the £300 prize (£5 entry) or the flash fiction competitions in either Writers Forum or Writers Magazine.
Mandy brought her short story for feedback also which was inspired by the tsunami and it was evocative of place and poignant. The group enjoyed it and suggested themes the story had to help with the title as it did not have one yet. This led on to a discussion about titles, as Kathy's story did not yet have one either, as most competitions expect a title.
Martijn had also brought along his new piece, that he may use for his NaNoWriMo project, which was a supernatural tale about TV ghost investigators looking into murders in a North Yorkshire town. The group were very intrigued by the piece and the main character came across very well. Martijn revealed where he thought the story might go, along with a backstory that he may weave in, about the murders and we look forward to hearing more.
Karen gave some feedback on some of the Masterclasses she had attended as part of Ilkley Literature Festival (blog posts have full details) and reminded the group that Morley Literature Festival is running at the moment.
Mandy reminded the group that only four members had forwarded submissions for the planned CWG anthology and Pauline promised to send along her short story The Good Samaritan.
Pauline reminded everyone about the Patricia Adams-Wright event on 29 October (an author talk followed by a talk on paranormal investigation) which lead to a discussion about the supernatural experience members had had, which Martijn found very useful as research material.
The next meeting will take place on Monday 2 November 6-8pm at Cleckheaton Library.
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