Tuesday 16 March 2010

The Writing Buddies at The Art House

Thanks to Jacquline Pye for these notes:

The Writing Buddies met once again at the Art House, on March 12th; it continues to be a good venue for us.

Richard attended an open mic event at the Art House recently and read some of his work; he was happy with the audience reaction.

Mo is currently writing publicity material for a group of artists in London. Her book “A Blues for Shindig”, about Soho in the 50s, is being brought out again by Exceptionally Independent Publishers. (N.B. Amazon’s UK website stocks this; at the time of writing they had just one copy in stock but were expecting more – the book had top rating by all reviewers.)

Glen continues to write the newsletter for Hamwic Speakers. She recently read one of her poems at a party, and found it was well-received.

Elizabeth received the critique for her story from WriteSpace. It has been very helpful, and as a result she is rewriting the story with a new slant.

Jacqueline has pitched a feature idea to a newspaper’s weekend magazine, and has just finished her latest script for the Eastleigh Talking Echo. She received the critique for her story from Writers’ Forum, which pointed out some details of the plot that needed explaining. She plans to rework the story and submit elsewhere.

Jimmy has sent off his autobiography and awaits a response. Legend Press has invited him to send the first instalment of his novel. He is also working on a short story to be entered in a competition, and the group discussed some of the detail he had included. He is currently struggling with computer problems which he hopes to resolve very soon.

Penny has been taking more photographs for her forthcoming book “Southampton Then and Now” - the publisher’s deadline is close. She has a contract on the way for another book for the History Press; this means she expects to have three books published next year – the group chided her for slacking! She has just been appointed as the official photographer at the Swanage Armed Forces Weekend in June.

Lewis joined the group for the first time. He has been writing for some years, including both poetry and short stories.

In the general discussion, Peter Lovesey’s recent talk at Southampton Writers’ Circle was discussed as being very enjoyable and informative. Many of the group had heard him speak at various venues. The issue of choosing names for characters in fiction threw up a number of ideas, though Jimmy would take the prize for the most inventive names.

Jimmy had thought of a feature idea on his way to the meeting; the group had some fun with this, and possible markets were debated.

A new bimonthly literary magazine was mentioned, Platinum Page, available only on subscription. It does not currently pay authors, but hopes to in the future. Poems and stories may be submitted. It has a mention in the April issue of Writers’ News, and there’s a blog - platinum-page.blogspot.com

The next meeting of Writing Buddies is on Friday 26th March at the Art House. Everyone is welcome.

4 comments:

  1. For more on Platinum Page

    http://platinum-page.blogspot.com/

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  2. thanks jaqueline , what a plug!
    Very comprehensive coverage of the meeting. well done. the meetings just get better all the time!
    1 arm bandit Mo

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  3. Hey, Tom here.

    Sorry I couldn't make it last time. I was intending to but unfortunately I had a little too much to drink on Thursday night and woke up around lunchtime on Friday in the back of a van somewhere in Bitterne Park. Luckily it was a friends van so I wasn't too worried but I needed a shower and a toothbrush before I saw anybody.

    All things being equal I should be there this Friday for an update.

    Regards,

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  4. Hi Tom,

    Sounds like you had a fun night out! See you on Friday.
    Penny

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