Felixstowe Scribblers Report of Meeting 5th July 2005

Felixstowe Scribblers Report of Meeting
5^th July 2005

Apologies

were received
from Christine, Sue and Judy who are all on holiday.

A bumper attendance this evening when we were
pleased to welcome three new faces into our midst. Mavis, Kate and
Louis as well as a pleasant surprise with Margareta visiting from
her Salzburg home and Diane taking a well deserved break from her history
degree course. Joining them in attendance were Lisa, Dick, Peter,
Rachel, Les, Ann, Morag, Liliane, Scott, Tony, Ken, Belinda, Ruth, Alex, Ellen,
Gordon, Mark, Caz, Jack and Dave.

This is our biggest ever attendance for one
evening and one that took everyone by surprise. We knew it would happen one day,
but with 25 of us it was always going to be a struggle against time to
complete the meeting.

It did mean that the meeting overran until 10.30pm
with some members having to leave before the end and others unable to read their
work out. This is something we must apologise for but it is a situation that we
hope to remedy at the next meeting.

In view of the obvious need get away at a
reasonable time, we have decided that the best way is to reduce from three to
two, the 1,500-word open themed homework. Despite hurried discussions at the end
of the meeting we have decided to allow all other writers the opportunity to
write up to a strict maximum of 500 words for their homework.

Should the same situation arise at our next
meeting then we may have to look at other perhaps less popular options such as
dropping the 1,500 work altogether, splitting the group into two sections or
even limiting the number of readings per meeting.

If you have any views on this please email your
thoughts to

scribblers@ntlworld.com

News and events :

Belinda and Geoff have decided that the
time is fast approaching to desert our Suffolk shores and return home to
Australia (after a few weeks in Kent). Sadly, for the Scribblers, they will
leave Suffolk at the end of August but not before we have a send-off for them at
the Grosvenor on Tuesday 23^rd August. There is a new menu available
and the night should be a great occasion despite being a farewell. Caz will
obtain a menu before the night but we will soon need names of those able to
attend. Details will follow.

Sue has sent her third and
final email from Canada - she should now be back in England and hopefully
avoided the terrible situation in London today (Thursday) with all the bombings.
Her final account is attached at the end of this report.

Did anyone hear Ruth being interviewed by
our friend Rachel Sloane on BBC Radio Suffolk on Monday? All to do with her
brilliant novel "The James Version". A reminder too that she has another book
signing session at Ottaker's in Bury St Edmunds on Monday July
9th at 11am.

Ann thanked everyone who
gave her some excellent feedback on her last homework and now has to decide on
how to build on the first chapter of her work… we all wait with baited breath!
Her homework can still be viewed (and commented on) on our website at

http://nar8or.blogspot.com

We understand that our cheeky chappie, Les was not
feeling too well and had to spend Wednesday having a check-up at the hospital.
Hope everything went well - we'll be thinking of him.

And talking of hospitals, spare a thought for Jack who is
expected to go into Gt Ormond Street hospital this weekend for treatment. With
the London bombings and all the transportation problems it must be an extremely
stressful time for Jack and his parents Caz and Karl. It was nice to see him at
our meeting looking cheerful and full of fun despite being quite
tired.

Don't forget that Les has his personal history and
anthology of his written work, "Another Life" on sale to members at
£5.

On the subject of books for sale, we are fast running out of the
Felixstowe Scribblers Anthology and copies can now be purchased at the
reduced price of £3 (add 50 pence if you wish this to be posted).

Ruth's

'The James Version' is selling at
£6.99

Dave

has 'Ipswich Speedway The First 50
Years' on sale to members at £8.00 (Retail price (£10.99)

Details of the following publications can be obtained on
request.

Doreen's

'Under One Umbrella' is still
available at Magpie books

Morag

has novels available for sale on
line at Little Lemur

Sue

has children's books available for
sale

Dick

still has a series of illustrated
children's books available.

Looking at that little list, then things are looking quite
healthy for our writers!

Gordon

has had something of a success
with one of his humorous homework assignments, 'Knees' being adapted by
Tony and performed at Rose Hill School, Ipswich - with every possibility
of it being produced by Rushmere Players later in the year.

Ken

asked for help with feedback on an
hour-long television script he has written. I know some people have already read
it and thought it is excellent. I have to finish reading it and must confess it
is building into a terrific tale. If anyone would like a script to 'review',
then please request a copy to be sent by email.

Had an email from Gilly who wrote and published an
article on the Scribblers a year or so ago. She wishes to be remembered to
everyone and says that she is still in the middle of her studies but still
manages to do some work 'here and there'.

A surprise phone call from Lyn, who was our resident
medium when she used to come along to meetings, revealed that she is now into
painting watercolours at a very tender age of 75 !

It may be interesting to note that artist Jacqui Loose has some of her work available for sale at the Ferry Boat Inn. Included is her Coastal Erosion which the Scribblers helped with by providing written work on the most topical subject.

A new On Line (email) club is proposed and will kindly be hosted
by our friend Jan up in Brough. Very soon we will send out an
invitation to join the club which will be known as Felixstowe Scribblers –
Online Jotters. The Jotters will then have a separate section on our website
and will hopefully draw in a lot of online members.

Felixstowe TV's mini drama serial…

All ten episodes have now been completed by
Ken, Dick, Tony and Dave and sent to Felixstowe TV. Intended
filming dates have been sent out with a request from Chris for details of
availability. Extras will be needed and if you are interested please view the
website at

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

.

An enquiry from a lady named Devona found out about the
group via Google following attendance at a scriptwriting workshop at the New
Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich. A few other groups came up within the Suffolk region,
but Devona was 'drawn' to the Felixstowe Scribblers owing to the website and
ready access to information, which I am glad to say has been backed up by the
detail on the blog.

The Felixstowe Scribblers website is
currently at

http://nar8or.blogspot.com

Alex and Dave are still working on ideas for the website and
details will soon be released.

***

And so to the readings.

Lisa

read out 'Nan's
Freedom, a beautiful little story that produced some dramatic moments and a real
twist in the tale.

Peter

produced an
interesting "Bully Magic" set at a school and dealing with the topical
issue.

Mark

with his first
attempt writing other than fantasy and sci-fi produced 'The Weight and Burden'
about a judge who passed a harsh sentence then suffered the
consequences.

After the coffee break we attempted to read as much as we were
able. Ken came out of the hat first but without his homework read out
Jan's X-rated 'Honest Sir, I Didn’t Mean To Do It'. The subject matter
and Ken's manner made this very humorous and very well received.

Ann

was next with a real life 'I Didn't
Mean To Do It' about a supply teacher, and the playground cruelty to a
cat.

Belinda,

perhaps now missing her
Australian home, provided some sketches that illustrated the charred lands of Oz
- caused by a careless smoker discarding a cigarette.

Les

was allowed two short pieces, the
first 'To The Next Generation' and how the unlatched Pandora's Box had affected
the starving children of this world. Also his hilarious 'Not Guilty Your
Worship' about a court case in which the defendant represented
himself.

Caz

owned up in 'It All Seemed to be
Going so Well' to cutting her husbands hair so badly that it looked like a pair
of Skoda wheelarches.

Diane's

'One Year' dealt with the blame
for a broken marriage.

Mavis read

her short story entry for a
competition. 'The Artist' about an art teacher taking early retirement, creating
a new image and returning to producing his own art.

[Mavis has since contacted me and asked for
feedback so may well ask for some volunteers at the next
meeting.

Morag

shared 'I Didn't
Mean To Do It' about a distracted mother and a screaming child…

Alex

produced another
precision piece of short, sharp, writing about a couple, in bed, each pretending
to be asleep and not wanting the other to know they were still awake.

Ruth

came into her own
with 'The Birth' no doubt from her own recent addition of a precious star to her
family.

Jack

admitted that 'I
Didn't Mean To Do It' - and didn't!

Scott's

'Who's Done It?'
was based on Colonel Mustard and Cluedo.

Kate

read out her
descriptive 'I Didn't Mean To Do It' relating to a bay, beach huts and
winter..

Dave's

'I Didn't Mean To
Do It' about missing top secret documents from the department, a possible start
to a longer story.

Dick

shared 'The Fence' a
tale of Woolworth's and shoplifting during the 1940s.

Ellen's

'Off the Ward' dealt with the
anger of Nurse Tully after a confrontation with a Mr Day.

Tony

shared a real drama entitled 'Why
Did I do It?' based on the true events surrounding Fleetwood Mac.

Rachel

came up with another descriptive
work - 'Road Kill' reminding us of the perils of the road for the animal
word.

Gordon

rounded off a long night with
another amusing and topical rhyme 'Wimbledon Streaker.'

Again apologies go to those who were unable to read their
work.

***

The new homework assignment is 'Secret Desires'
set by Louis. Agreement has since been reached that the very maximum
number of words should be 500 for the subject. Two 1,500 word open themed pieces
will be read next time with Liliane and Ruth the volunteers.

Our next meeting is in two weeks time on Tuesday
19^th July at the usual 7.30pm start time.

Until then,

Keep Scribbling,

Dave.