Sunday, 4 May 2025

Cleckheaton Writers Group minutes, meeting Monday 28 April 2025

Cleckheaton Writers Group (CWG) met on Monday 28 April at Cleckheaton Library with Ivy, Karen and Reuben in attendance, Barbara, David, Kathy, Molly and Paul having passed on their apologies.

There were no minutes from the previous meeting where Barbara and Reuben were in attendance.

WIP updates: Karen has submitted her romantic suspense novel to two agents, one of whom has already sent a rejection, been undertaking more CSY writing/editing/feedback work, giving feedback as part of her Story Godmother mentorship (and editing her own MS with mentorship feedback) and received another 5* review for her debut rom com Christmas Evie. Reuben has not written any fiction as been applying for jobs. Ivy has been looking at illustrating her twisted fairy tales anthology and researching fairy tale specific publishers. She also attended the Folklore Centre in Todmorden's weekend of folk-horror, including a talk about film and graphic novels. Ivy hopes to develop a brand alongside her friend who designs their own comics and attend a folklore and fairy tales course at the Centre of Excellence then put on her own workshops following accreditation.

CW comps/events/workshops: Anna Chilvers Writing courses and Think Forensic event (details attached to the agenda/on Karen's blog), Cleckheaton Library pop-up cafe 3 May, Denby Dale Book Fair at Pie Hall 3 May 1.30-3.45pm and Huddersfield Literature Festival 8-18 May 2025 (Egyptian talk 14 May).

Writing plans: Karen will be taking part in the Promoting Yorkshire Authors Denby Dale Book Fair at Pie Hall on Saturday 3 May.  Karen will undertake more feedback and send her next chapter for feedback for her Story Godmother mentorship. She will also attend an online picture book session as part of her mentorship. Ivy will get back into writing the anthology and finish it off. She also recommended the Meditation Cafe in Leeds, The Kadampa Meditation Centre, and hopes to find another job to get more balance around this. Reuben is applying for jobs too and if he gets time, will continue writing his YA novel.

Feedback sessions: Ivy shared her most recent fairy tale, the genre of which she feels is flash fiction and nonsense poetry, entitled Gothic Dead Riding Hood and Grandmalar Rescued which had both rhyming and non-rhyming text. Members enjoyed the story especially the juxtaposition of the light and the dark. As part of the story Gothic Dead Riding Hood disappears into a portal and a member wondered why Grandmalar did not notice. Another member pointed out the change of pronunciation of some words to fit the rhyme which was not unprecendented. Ivy confirms she likes to break writing rules.

Writing challenge: It was decided May's theme should be Maypole or Star Wars.

Next meeting: Monday 12 May 2025, 5.30pm-7.00pm at Cleckheaton Library. New members always welcome.

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