Felixstowe Scribblers Report of Meeting 1st November 2005.

Felixstowe Scribblers Report of Meeting 1^st November 2005

Several Apologies were received for the meeting. Firstly Caz and Jack will not be with us again - details follow below. Alex has a rare night off to go to the theatre, Judy sadly has a family funeral to attend in Watford which means that Allen won't be with us either. Ann will be holidaying in Dorset whilst Bill B cannot attend either this or the next meeting. Ruth is down with the flu and Gordon has a prior engagement [it wouldn't be at Carrow Road, - would it???] Mavis had a committee meeting to attend whilst Mark is now involved with his heavily increasing workload of studies and will be unable to come to many meetings in the foreseeable future. With eleven apologies, what was the likelihood of a good turn-out?

There was still a healthy sixteen in attendance. They were Morag, Peter, Dick, Liliane, Rachel, Les, Scott, Louis, Lisa, Tony, Christine, Barry, Ken, Zoe, Kate and Dave.

SCRIBBLERS NEWS

It was good to welcome Louis back after missing several meetings through holidays and work.

Barry and Ken seemed to recognize each other when they first met and now they have made that connection. They both attended the same writing course in Harlow xxx years ago.

GOOD NEWS WEEK 1

Scott informed us that he has a ghost story published in Best - a story he submitted about a year ago. That's his fourth now, at £25 a time, so there should be enough for a small round of drinks to celebrate.

GOOD NEWS WEEK 2

Rachel having been prompted by all the support of the Scribblers and, especially, Dick, went and did it. Entered her poem 'The Choice' and won the October Coast to Coast Writing Competition - with each of the monthly winners going forward to the main final in December. Well done Rachel - we know you can do it!

GOOD NEWS WEEK 3

Ruth has been short-listed for the Debut Dagger Award with her new novel THE WOMAN BEFORE ME (UK) and attends a function in London next week along with the other short-listed authors for the announcement of the winning author. Go to

http://www.thecwa.co.uk/awards/debut/

for details. Best of luck Ruth, we know you can do it!

JACK and CAZ

An update from Caz is that Jack had his operation in Great Ormond Street, and was transferred to Ipswich Hospital last week but had a temperature and an infection. Fortunately all was well at the weekend so Caz was allowed to take Jack out for a little while to see his new puppy. Jack went home today but has a trip to Addenbrook's later this week to see the consultant.

Caz sends this message :

Will you please pass on my sincere thanks to all the Scribblers at the meeting on Tuesday and thank them for all their cards, gifts, phone messages, texts and e-mails to wish Jack well. We have been so very grateful to all of you and wanted to tell you it means so very much to know you are there and that you
care.

One of Jack's school friend's Dad and three friends have just done a bike ride from one end of the country to the other in aid of Ward C2, the ward Jack goes on in Addenbrooks. I had intended to bring along a sponsor form to Scribblers to see if you could support this cause, but unfortunately events overtook us somewhat. We won't be offended as you have your own causes that you support but if anyone would like to make a contribution to this sponsorship, it would be very welcome. Already around £1,000 has been pledged which we feel is a fantastic amount. The teenage part of the ward where Jack has spent most of his visits because he is sensible, does not have much so we would like them to have this money to help make the teenagers have a better time whilst in hospital….CAZ

MARK

Is studying for a BA in Film & Media Studies. It is a real balancing act for him, doing his BA studies, writing and still fitting in his also family life. Mark is enjoying his writing a lot more, but says that whilst the Writer's Bureau course is good he is finding the non - fiction end, a bit of a struggle as it is not something he is familiar with. If you think that's busy though, then he is entering more and more writing competitions, is working on a screenplay based on submission requirements in the BBC Writing Room and is also considering the UEA Creative Writing Course that Jan told him about. Now that really could be "busy"!

Incidentally Mark adds that he has " found this writing competition, which is free to enter online, and I think that you will all find it interesting. One of the key reasons that I have noticed this one is becase it asks you to write a story linking five random images together. Considering the image that Belinda left us with, it might be fun to have a go at this one also. I will paste the link here, the closing date is a fair way off and it gives people a chance to have bit of a think about what they might enter/submit.

http://www.fygleaves.co.uk/competition.htm

"

BELINDA AND GEOFF

Belinda and Geoff have e-mailed to confirm that they are, at last, back in their homeland where the rain has fallen every day since they touched down. They are currently surprising their unsuspecting relatives and, they say, missing us! Their full email is posted on the weblog.

DAVE

Despite losing three hours work with a computer glitch [politeness personified] Dave has finalised another - his third - edition as guest editor of Chapter & Verse the in-house staff magazine of Libraries and Heritage.

LILIANE

Liliane got an unexpected Halloween surprise when phoning Dave - his daughters were in Edinburgh preparing to go on the Edinburgh Castle Halloween Tour of the dungeons etc. Knowing this, Dave texted "Boo!" to them. They replied by text "That's it, we can't go now, we're too scared." As they nearly always follow up with a phone call it was no surprise when the phone rang. Ann, his wife, picked it up and blasted "BOO!" down the phone to a very surprised Liliane!

HOPALONG…

Now replastered, Tony is well and truly out of action at present. He has some exposure in the Evening Star which is on the website. The best thing is that he can now sit at his computer and create more fun bits for the Scribblers.

THE ONLINE JOTTERS

A reminder was given to the Scribblers that there are three ways open to publication on the website via Online Jotters. There are two writing competitions - one for short stories and the other for poetry. Additionally there is also the ongoing writer's tennis which has now reached the 12^th episode. Keep up the good work Jotters! Go to

onlinejotters@yahoo.co.uk

If you have emailed the Jotters but had no response then please advise Dave at

scribblers@ntlworld.com

We need to know if anything is going astray.

THE WEBLOG at

http://nar8or.blogspot.com

Now surpassed the 2,000 hits with very nearly 6,000 page visits, the weblog is doing very nicely. We have had one series of minor problems with anonymous posting of comments but this has now been resolved and adds to the overall security of the site. Should you wish to post a comment then this will still be welcomed although now you will need to email your comment to

fswebsite@hotmail.co.uk

Incidentally don't forget that comments, views and suggestions are welcome on the construction and content of our new site at http://felixstowescribblers.com Click on the word "test" at the bottom right hand corner to enter the site. Anything you spot that is not quite right or would like to suggest something else then please email Alex at fswebsite@hotmail.co.uk

THE PLATFORM.

A really atmospheric evening with little lighting except for a few torches. The stories and tales and poems rolled out in what must have been one of the most enjoyable meetings for a long time and, I am pleased to say, nobody left
the building until the very end. The torchlight readings began with Dave and his 1,500 word work 'It was a Dark, Bleak October Night'.

Next came Lisa with The House Ghost and Louis with a 'Dragon Whispers' poem 'Blind Mans Buff' which had appeared in Punch magazine back in 1888, then followed this up with his own updated version.

Scott read 'Night Night' looking quite sinister from the glow of his torch. Les shared 'The Visitors' whilst Rachel read her poem Road Kill.

Liliane came up with 'The Essay,' and Dick produced a horror story, 'Playing the Game'. Peter had 'A Restless Night' and Morag read 'A Ghost Story'.

Kate read out some messages that had come to her when she was giving an address to a spiritualist group and Zoe read her first short story to us since joining called 'Death of a Dentist'

Ken shared his 'Night of Souls' whilst Barry read 'Run Mortal, Run'. Christine completed the first chapter of her book 'The Cul-De-Sac Kids and Tony -once again - brought up the rear with 'Oakwell'.

A WORD OF THANKS

To Liliane, for collecting the key, to Morag and Kate for doing the refreshments, to Ken for collecting Tony and Alex's provisions, to everyone who helped setting up the library, and to everyone joining in to make this another really memorable meeting.

THE NEXT MEETING

Our next Felixstowe Scribblers meeting is in two weeks time on Tuesday 15^th November at the usual 7.30pm start time at the Felixstowe Library.

The homework assignment is BETRAYAL, set by Kate and so a maximum of 500 words on this subject please. The two 1,500 word open themed 'volunteers' are Louis and Barry.

So until next time,

Keep on Scribbling!

Dave