Book Launch and NaNoWriMo

Anna Turner, also known as Anna Chilvers, has emailed me to let me know about her Book Launch and Reading from her new collection of short stories Legging It. It will be at Hebden Bridge Library on Monday 17 December at 7pm.


NaNoWriMo

Well, yet again I have attempted this challenge and only made it to 32.5K words.  I had my computer die on me last year at the same time as I lost focus this year.  First it was because I had a full week of work, so got behind and then I was beavering away editing Thorde: The Keeper of the Trysk so that I could enter it into the Macmillan Write Now! competition with a deadline of 1 December.  I do not feel that I have failed, as I have quite a chunky manuscript to work on and I have entered Thorde into one competition and my children's bedtime story 'No Bear for Bedtime' into another.  I am looking at it in terms of writing done and at over 60K, Thorde is over and above the word count needed for NaNo.  To all those who have managed 50K this month, well done and I wish you well with the editing process.

Writers meet and Competition entries

Had a lovely meeting with my fellow writers Ian and Krys today in Leeds Art Gallery Cafe and it was great to catch up.  We met at a writing workshop in Hebden Bridge earlier this year and really hit it off. 

At our meeting, we discussed lots of writerly things including Ian's short story Flashing Lights and his work in progress novel Boy Meets Ogress.  I absolutely loved Flashing Lights as it pulled me straight into the main characters world straight away.  Sadly Ian teased us by not sharing the ending yet - can't wait for our next meet when we will find out.  Ian tells us that he has perfected the first three chapters of Boy Meets Ogress and feels ready to share it, so I am looking forward to receiving it in my email inbox soon. 

Krys shared the first five chapters of the historical romance novel she is working on at the moment and I have to say I really love the idea of a thoroughly modern heroine bucking against the dowry system - can't wait to read more.  She also discussed her other work in progress novel about a Fairy Godmother and Ian was surprised to learn that she is also thinking of putting in about the Pendle Witches as he has a nod to them too in his novel.

I shared the short biography and synopsis that I have written for Thorde with them and we then discussed our various plot ideas with each other.  It was refreshing to get instant feedback and throwing ideas at each other and seeing if the others thought they would work.  Really looking forward to our Christmas meet.

Yesterday I submitted my children's bedtime story 'No Bear for Bedtime' to the Mumsnet children's writing competition on-line and I also submitted the first three chapters, synopsis and biography for Thorde: Keeper of the Trysk to the Write Now! on-line competition in association with Macmillan Children's Books.  The prize is a publishing contract with Macmillan and £10,000, and if my entry is shortlisted, I should find out on the 1st of February.  Fingers crossed........

Cleckheaton Writers Group meeting 26/11/12

Excellent meeting tonight.  Even though L, D and P could not make it (thanks for sending apologies L & P), D, N and I had a very productive session.  First I told the guys about the fabulous Picador Notebook Session that I attended last Tuesday and then we launched straight into talking about what we were working on at the moment. 

D is about to enter her children's story TSC into her first competition which is very exciting.  She has almost finished her second draft, has polished the first 5k words, written a one-page synopsis (no mean feat when it has to be double spaced and hacked down from her original synopsis of over 2k words) and is working on her biography, ready for entry by the 1 December deadline.  D shared her synopsis and biography and revealed that the biography was weird to write as it had to be in third person.

N is not doing NaNoWriMo (he had said that he would, but changed his mind - wise man, I am stuck at 32.5k due to the competition deadline for Thorde), but has been inspired to work on his novel The Wormhole Effect (TWE) that he had been having doubts about as he had recently seen a film with a similar plot line.  We explained that there seem to be very few 'original' storylines and that every story is different even if they have similar plots, as the writers perspective is unique (we gave Twilight and Vampire Diaries as an example of similar plots, but different styles).  We are looking forward to N sharing futher chapters of his novel TWE with the Group soon.

I then shared two chapters of Thorde, as I am thinking of entering the same competition with it.  I am not looking forward to chopping my synopsis down from 2,100 words to approximately 350 though, what a challenge.  D and N enjoyed it but were a little lost with the plot as it is quite near the end of the novel, so I promised to send the full first draft along to N, as D has been receiving the chapters, but is a little behind in reading them, so that they will be up to speed should I decide to share more.

The meeting ended with the suggestion that we hold the next one (or part of it) at a pub to celebrate Christmas and I think this is a fabulous idea.  Looking forward to the next meeting........

Local library writing events in Kirklees

Diane Green has just informed me of some local writing events taking place around Kirklees which I thought I would share with my followers:

Thursday 29th November, 1pm – 3pm at Cleckheaton Library

Culture Club Where life gets more interesting for the over 55s.  A joint event from Kirklees Libraries and Culture Club

The over 55’s are invited to Coffee and… a muddy history of Great Britain – a local view on Thursday 29^th November 2012.  ‘The Muddy Archaeologist’ Gillian Hovell will take us on a trip through time – from prehistory to the 20th century - exploring the world we live in today with a fresh, eye-opening approach.  This lively, entertaining and engaging talk might even get us in the mood to go for a walk around Cleckheaton if anyone has caught the bug!  To be recommended; Gillian who has been on the Time Team gives an enthusiastic and fascinating presentation.

Thursday 29th November, 1pm – 3pm at Cleckheaton Library

Rate 1 (Kirklees passport):  £2
Rate 2 (Standard rate for Culture Club members): £3
Rate 3 (full price for non member): £4

It’s free to join the club on the day or join by phone and includes talk, refreshments (and a walk afterwards if you feel like it)

Please contact Culture Club on 01484 663518 or Cleckheaton Library on 01274 335170 or or email cultureclub@open-art.org.uk  or look at our website, www.culture-club.org.uk to book a ticket.  It is free to join Culture Club (for 55yr+) on the day

Wed 5^th December: Storytailors; a friendly storytelling club for all

at Marsden Library. 7.30-9.30pm and the 1^st Wed of every month

Join us for STORY TAILORS,
Come tell a tale,
Sing a song,

Play a tune….
Or just come along and listen.

£2 including refreshments  For further information email diane.green@kirklees.gov.uk

Huddersfield Library, Thursday 6th  December at 7.00 - 8.30pm.  Two Local Poets: Two New Poetry Collections.  Come along and enjoy the book launch from Jo Haslam and Julia Deakin.  Readings and book signings: not to be missed.  You can even do some Christmas shopping after the event!      

Tickets: £2 available from all Kirklees Box Offices 01484 223200, 01924 324501 Holmfirth Tourist Information Office 01484 222444, or on line at http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/townhalls/boxoffice.shtml

 

Saturday 8^th December, 1.30-3.00pm at Huddersfield Library: The Midday Poets present a book launch of Poetry by Elspeth Smith plus readings from the Midday Poets who meet weekly at Huddersfield library.

Reserve your free of charge place through

Huddersfield Lending Library, in person,  by phone 01484 221959, or by email huddersfield.lic@kirklees.gov.uk

 

Sat Dec 15^th 10.30am at Dewsbury library:   Festive Storytelling for all the family from Ursula Holden Gill.  More details to follow soon. 

 

Wednesday 19^th December:  Write Out Loud Open Mic Poetry.  At Marsden Library from 7.30-9.30pm  and then on the 3^rd Wednesday of every month.  Cost £2  An open-floor poetry evening, open to all to read a poem, your own or a favourite. Also open to short story tellers, singer/songwriters, etc.
Beginners encouraged and all welcome. This is a friendly and supportive club.

The Picador Notebook Session 20/11/12

I was lucky enough to gain one of 12 places on the first Picador Notebook Session this Tuesday evening and I thought I would review this excellent event for my followers.  The Notebook Session was a 2 hour introduction to creative writing led by former literary editor Suzi Feay and Picador Editor Francesca Main.  This session was for everyone, whether they had never written before, were trying to find their voice or wanting to know where to begin and it was an opportunity to meet like-minded people and gain expert advice and guidance.  It was held at PanMacmillan Publishing House in Kings Cross, London from 5-7pm.  The team kindly provided pens, notepads and a goody bag full of books, and all we had to do was come with an open mind and a smidge of creativity.

After Suzi, Francesca and Sandra Taylor introduced themselves, we started with a question and answer session where we all revealed what we thought stopped us from writing.  There were various reasons from the 12 attendees, but time, our own inner critic and social networking seemed very popular.  We then wrote for a short time about whatever came into our heads.

Suzi then told us that Julia Cameron, creative writing guru, recommends that we should write for half an hour and Edward St Aubyn advises we make a friend of our inner critic.  Then she circulated a sheet of paper with questions like:

5 names you like, 3 Places you know well, Jobs you have done, your fears and a time in your life when you were un/happy.

 

We then had to write three plots using selected sections of information from the sheet.  Following this, we had to pick one of the plots, take it and develop it by adding conflict and confrontation and giving the chosen character an emotional journey.

Suzi then circulated another sheet that had ten first lines from Picador novels.  We had to write the next line for all of them.  After this exercise, Suzi revealed where the first lines were from.  They were from several novels such as Claire Messud's The Last Life, Leanne Hern's Across the Nightingale Floor and poets like Brian Collins.

Suzi recommended an exercise at our own peril - write your own autobiography without emotions, just fact and tap the energy from the early years.  She also suggested writing our first drafts by hand as it is how you see the archaelogy of your writing and, as Tony Harrison said, if you can't read it, sometimes you come up with better words.

In the Q&A section, Francesca revealed that books that are chosen from agents, are ones that they love and think they can sell.

After the attendees filled in a review sheet with our contact details, the event finished with a networking session.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this stimulating and informative session and it was great to meet the lovely ladies from Picador and my fellow aspiring writers..  I am hoping that more events will be to follow and I can highly recommend attending them.

 

 

 

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

Just got back from the cinema with my daughter who I took for a girlie treat as she had such a brilliant parents evening.  Considering it has only been out a very short while, the cinema was surprisingly quiet, though I guess when there are two showings per hour, it may get spread out.  I have only twice been to the cinema and been witness to the phenomenon of people clapping during and at the end of the movie (after all we are in Britain), but this movie caused the audience to do so. 

Having read the books, I was expecting the fight scene to be pretty good, but I wasn't expecting the gasps and the claps.  The Volturi are very good at menacing, except perhaps Michael Sheen as Aro who plays insane very well, yet still manages to be threatening - psycho anyone?  The new vampires are very good too, dracula one and two a tad bizarre, but the ones with abilities make up slightly for the fact that my favourite character (Alice) is not in as many scenes as I would wish her to be (loved her ability in the books and I think Ashley Greene plays her very well).  My daughter has always found Carlisle to be her favourite character and she still held on to that at the end of the film.  I loved Billy Burke (who plays Bella's Dad Charlie) in all of the movies and again I think he stole the movie in the scene following Jacob's revelations.

The gore factor was upped as were the fights, so I am sure there will be plenty more for the boys to convince them to want to accompany the girls, though the romance was still there and there were many nods to the previous films in the franchise.  I did find the CGI used for Renesmee very distracting and unnecessary as Mackenzie Foy was enough like Kristen Stewart (KS) to carry it off and if I'm honest, I would love there to be a movie that did not have to revolve around KS. I never thought her acting was particularly good in these movies, though she was convincing in Panic Room, and she was painfully bad in this one.  Quite a few of them seemed more over-the-top in their characters, except maybe for Edward (Robert Pattinson), Charlie, Jacob (Taylor Lautner), Alice, Rosalee (Nikki Reed), Carlisle (Peter Facinelli) and Esme (Elizabeth Reaser) and I missed seeing Mike, Jessica, Eric and Angela (though we did see them briefly in the credits).

As my daughter liked 'everything about it' I think it may be a fitting ending for most fans, though I still think there were enough nods and characters left for spins offs to be possible.  Having said that though, please, if the powers that be do decide to make spin off movies, let them be about the new vampires with abilities and KS free.                                           7.5/10

Local Writing events January 2013

Anna Turner has just informed me of some fantastic events taking place locally in January, so I thought I would post the information for my followers:

Thursday 17 January
Meet the Author - Fiona Shaw
Central Library, Halifax
7.30pm

FIONA SHAW is a writer living in York. She is the author of a memoir, Out of Me (Virago, 2001) and four novels. She is a Royal Literary Fund writing fellow and teaches creative and life writing. Her most recent novel, A Stone’s Throw, is published by Serpent’s Tail. Set in England and Africa, and opening during World War II, A Stone’s Throw is a novel about family, about love, about duty; it’s about the people we miss and the secrets we keep. Above all though, it’s about the choices we make – and those we don’t.

Tickets - £3

Wednesday 23 January

Meet the Author - Stephen May
King Cross Library
6pm

STEPHEN MAY is an award-winning novelist who lives in West Yorkshire. In 2009 he won the Welsh Book of the Year Reader’s Prize for his first novel TAG (Cinnamon Press, 2008), despite not being in the slightest bit Welsh. His second novel Life! Death! Prizes! was published by Bloomsbury in 2012. For 19-year-old Billy and his little brother, Oscar, their mother’s death is the most random and tragic and stupid thing that could possibly have happened to them. Now Billy must be both mother and father to Oscar. Funny, bittersweet and unforgettable, Life! Death! Prizes! is a story of grief, resilience and brotherly love.

£3

Sunday 27 January

11.30am – 1.30pm        
Writing the Journey – a Poetry Workshop with Christy Ducker

Write yourself into a change of scene. Join Christy Ducker for a poetry workshop that focuses on travel and transformation.

£6/4

2.30pm – 4.30pm               

Literary Thievery - Short story workshop with Cassandra Parkin

Do we ever really grow out of fairy-tales? Why do grown adults still love films like A Company of Wolves and Snow White and the Huntsman? And if you’re writing for modern adults, what exactly is the relevance of stories about dwarves, royalty, stepmothers, gingerbread houses, and wolves dressed up as our grandmothers? Dive into the world’s Grimmest treasure-chest and see what you can discover to fire your short-story writing.

£6/4

2.30pm – 4.30pm

The Long Poem: finding the story and the form – a Poetry Workshop with Pauline Plummer

Using mythic and fairy tale journeys, we'll look at plotting the long narrative poem - orchestrating its parts to create contrast and narrative hooks. We'll link that to the forms of poetry, mood and tone, using examples from a range of  verse novels/autobiographies from Bernardine Evaristo's 'Lara'  to Basil Bunting's 'Briggflatts' and Byron's 'Don Juan'.

£6/4

5pm – 6pm                        

Tales of Magic and Faraway Places

Readings and discussion with Christy Ducker, Cassandra Parker and Pauline Plummer

Chaired by James Nash

The nights have drawn in and the hours of darkness crowd the days at both ends. Are you fed up of winter already? Come along to this reading where three exciting new writers will transport you through magic and tales of faraway places.

Free event

CHRISTY DUCKER lives in Northumberland. Her pamphlet Armour (Smith/Doorstop, 2011) was a Poetry Book Society Choice. She has received the Andrew Waterhouse Prize, and is currently writing a collection of poems about Grace Darling, as part of her PhD research at Newcastle University. ‘Unsettling and edgy, these poems have the strangeness of myth and the zany logic of nursery rhymes, but for adult ears.’ Simon Armitage

CASSANDRA PARKIN grew up in Hull, and now lives in East Yorkshire. Her short story collection, New World Fairy Tales (Salt, 2011), won the 2011 Scott Prize for Short Stories. Drawing on the original, unexpurgated tales collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, six of their most famous works are re-imagined in the rich and endlessly varied landscapes of contemporary America.

PAULINE PLUMMER is originally from Liverpool but has lived in the North East since the 1980s. She tutors creative writing for Northumbria University and the Open University. Written in Chaucer’s rime royal, From Here to Timbuktu is a book about Third World poverty and First World consumption. It’s a travelogue, a satire, an epic poem, and a journey across the savannah in a four–wheel drive from here – to Timbuktu.