Felixstowe Scribblers Report of Meeting 7th June 2005

Dave writes...





Felixstowe Scribblers Report of Meeting 7th June 2005





Apologies were received from Richard whose wife is unwell. Sue is on holiday in Canada, Judy is also on holiday sailing to wherever the wind blows her! Allen is spending time in Wales with his daughter. Christine is unable to attend for two or three meetings from tonight.



It was nice to be able to welcome Lisa to the meeting as she wished to meet like-minded people. Lisa has only

been writing for about 18 months but has already sold 13 stories to Take A Break magazine and their monthly supplement fiction feast. 8 have already been published, the remaining 5 stories will be published over the next few months.





It was also good to see Scott back in the fold after several meetings absence although of course his homework comes in regularly.





Pride of place this evening had to go to Ruth who was having a night out from her young family - and to celebrate the publication of her long awaited novel "The James Version".





Joining them in attendance were Alex, Dick, Ann, Belinda, Rachel, Caz, Morag, Gordon, Liliane, Tony, Ken, Peter, Ellen, Les, Dave and a little later, Jack. A tremendous attendance of nineteen!





The Library: As the modernisation progresses, there will be some structural changes with a new 'side' door expected to be in place and operating before our next meeting. For the second time in two meetings the library was double-booked for the evening! A complete accident but at least we all fitted in and weren't really disturbed in the Children's corner.





Events.





Les has volunteered to represent us at the Age Concern Roadshow event in Felixstowe on Thursday 16 June 2005, at St Felix Church Hall, Gainsborough Road, Felixstowe from 10 am to 12.30 pm. The event is for anyone aged 50+, to go along and discover what is on offer in the local area. It would be nice to give Les some support! Thanks Les!





Ruth's will be staging two book signing events, the first at Magpie Books in Felixstowe between 2 and 3pm also on Thursday 16 June 2005, then at Ottaker's in Bury St Edmunds on Monday July 9th at 11am. "The James Version" is set 30 years after the murder of Maria Marten in the Red Barn at Polstead and looks at why the murder happened and the motivation behind the heinous crime. The book retails at £6.99.





Felixstowe TV's mini drama serial…





The Scribblers Scriptwriters have now finalised the first nine episodes and are well on the way to completing the tenth and final one. We are just waiting now for some filming dates to come through from Chris at Felixstowe TV. Remember

http://www.felixstowetv.co.uk/miniserial/ for updates.





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And so to the readings. There was a change in the writers of the long open pieces with Ann opening proceedings with her untitled story that evolved after finding some fragments of medieval pottery in her garden. It prompted tales of Edwin going to join the English fleet bound for Flanders… Three Scribblers offered to do critiques for Ann who has promised to forward it to Alex for display on the website and hopefully produce further comment. Our website is at http://nar8or.blogspot.com





Caz followed with "Ride For Life" the true story of the Wilkinson family's involvement in raising funds for the East Anglian Children's Hospices with their 25-mile bike rides in Thetford Forest. Jack was the motivation behind this and he raised well over £700 in two years. Puts some of us to shame!





"Five Go Mad In Fallopia" was Tony's flowing contribution that could have got him into trouble with some of the lady Scribblers - in fact how he got away with it one will never know. What with Fallopia, tubes and sprogs…well let your imagination take over!





Alex provided one of his rare long pieces of work. Based on truth and his cycling experiences through pine forests, a hamlet and the most descriptive uphill ascendancy to the peak of the mountain resulting in the wonderful alpine views.





Ironically two of the four open topic works revolved around the homework issue of "Cycling" which we have to thank Peter for!





The shorter works on the homework theme began with Dave's abridged but humorous version of "On Yer Bike". Liliane followed with "Cycling Son" about her son who enjoyed two wheels. It was backed up with a photograph of him in full gear out on the road..





Ruth, as one would expect, came up with a lovely story about buying her fiancée a Citroen off E Bay for Christmas. The fiancée bought a ring that he by selling his Citroen on E Bay.. Scott's "The Race" was another of his fabulous tales about … The Animal Olympics Cycle Race!





Belinda's was a true story "Round and Round We Go, Heel to Heel, Toe to Toe" about her as a six year old on a tricycle with her almost three year old sister making a fearless journey to Grandma's some four miles away.





"Big Ears Strikes Back" could only have been written by Gordon and featured the Tour de Toyland Bike Race in another hilarious outpouring of emotions with poor Noddy being banged up by the 'orrible Mr Plod!





Rachel is a wonderfully expressive writer as she showed with her "Cy Cling" based on the madness of war in Yugoslavia. She followed this with a poem "Choice" written for a previous homework.[knees]. As Dick suggested [or was it insisted?] Rachel should be entering poetry competitions.





Our Jack arrived late, lay down on the floor and wrote a lovely little piece entitled "The Imaginative Ride" and put many of us to shame. There's no writer's block there!





Ellen provided "The Bike Race" in which two starry eyed teenagers had diaries of Our Love Life With Mr Kenning. One loved him so much that she would do anything to make him notice her with disastrous results at the end of the Tendring Ten Cycle Race.





Margareta's last minute email with her homework "A Condition for Happy Cycling" had a July setting during Festival Time in Salzburg and relayed the choice between attending the full opera premier and a forgotten bicycle lock. A lovely lucid tale read out by Ken in a foreign language - well Cockneyish-Essex at least!





"A Shock For Ian" was one of Dick's little ghost stories with a Claude Butler bike slipping onto the railway line at the lonely country station and under the wheels of the approaching steam train - except moments later the bicycle lay undamaged on the ground devoid of railway lines…





Morag was given the task of reading out Sue's very newsy "Canada 1", a resume of her first days in Canada which is posted below.





Peter produced "Wheels for a Purpose" including one large lady cycling through the country lanes complete with a settee strapped to her back!





Last and by no means least our Les - unfortunately having lost his homework - was blessed with two pieces of his work for display at Age Concern and read both out beautifully - "Caesar's Farewell" and also "Don't Go Son."





This rounded off yet another excellent evening's entertainment that money just can't buy!



The new homework assignment is "ATONEMENT" which was set by Ellen and deserves between 250 and 500 words on the subject. The open theme work 'volunteers' for the 1,500 word works of art are Rachel, Gordon and Dick.





Our next meeting is in two weeks time on Tuesday 21st June at the usual 7.30pm start time although the side door may be in a new location!





Until then,





Keep Scribbling,





Dave.





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