Next meeting: November 10th

Hi all,

I really enjoyed meeting and hearing new attendees at the last meeting, including Roisin's excerpt from her novel - I for one am looking forward to hopefully hearing more. In the absence of a satisfactory solution to finding a new home for the writers group (after The Fountain decided to install a defunct fridge freezer up there!) I have decided to host this Thursday's meeting (10th November) at my flat; no noise, comfy and plenty of room. Please bring whichever drink tickles your taste buds and snacks if you fancy it! But most importantly yourselves and your work :-) 

5 copies of poems please (I need to remember this myself!!)

Olivia

ps: Please contact us at the usual address if you haven't had the email and would like to know where Olivia's flat is.

NEXT MEETING - THURSDAY 13th OCTOBER - venue and more...

Hi all,

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed attending the reading last Thursday. Hearing ex-Chichester resident Liz Adams read from her recent collection 'Green Dobermans' (I bought a copy, great work) plus internationally acclaimed poet Mario Petrucci - incredible moving...was a real treat. Plus all four of us got the chance to read a poem of our own too :-) A wonderfully inspiring and stimulating evening all round I thought.

Well it's our mid month meeting on the 13th October which I'm really looking forward to - now venue wise this is still a little unclear. One idea mooted on Thursday was Wests on West Street - it's a huge cavernous space, formerly a church, so easy to find a quiet corner. I think it'll make a great venue and when we looked in it was very empty, perfect! I'll discuss with Andrew and we'll confirm as soon as we can. You never know The Fountain may have cleared the room upstairs....I'll check.

13th October: Vee will be doing a little talk on Thakeray, then time to read, comment and share. October 29th I'll be doing a little workshop....more details soon!

We look forward to seeing you there fellow scribblers!

P.S Since drafting this email we will definitely be meeting at WESTS bar - 7.30 for an 8p.m start. We very much look forward to seeing you there and we will be entertained I'm sure by Vee's talk on Thackeray (hope I have remembered this correctly?!) Please confirm if you're attending.

Beating writer's block - from an SF point of view

I nearly wrote SF POV but that's too much acronym for a title. Anyway, io9 is a science fiction / speculative fiction site, but this seems appropriate to anything narrative:

http://io9.com/5844988/

a

Havant writer in residence

The Spring in Havant has a writer in residence, with opportunities Athena types might be interested in - look here! http://www.thespring.co.uk/component/zoo/item/writer-in-residence

See you on the 13th

a

Midmonth Meeting: 8 September

Hello everyone -

just a quick note to remind you we're expecting to meet up for our first mid-month meeting on the 8th September, this Thursday, at the Richmond Arms (the Waterside, as was).  I'll look forward to seeing what's brought, and what Rick has to say on the subject of Fitzgerald!

Also - Olivia is also excited about the poetry reading at the library that clashes with our 29th meeting, so we'll confirm that plan of cancelling the group that night and being at the reading.  Full details: http://www.chichestercreativenetwork.co.uk/2011/08/a-celebration-of-poetry-at-chichester-library/

All best -
Andrew

Mslexia novel competition

Mslexia novel competition: http://mslexia.co.uk/whatson/msbusiness/ncomp_active.php

1ST PRIZE: £5,000
Judging Panel:

• Clare Alexander, literary agent
• Jenni Murray, broadcaster
• Sarah Waters, novelist

The competition is open to unpublished women novelists writing in any genre for adults, including literary fiction, women’s fiction, young adult fiction, science fiction, fantasy, chick-lit, crime fiction, thriller, historical fiction... but not nonfiction or fiction for under 13s. To constitute a novel, your book must total at least 50,000 words. 

Closing date: 30 September
Entry fee: £25

August 25th - meeting (NEW VENUE!)

Hello everyone -

[Edit: The Waterside has a new name: it's the Richmond Arms now.  Still in the same place.]

The Waterside doesn't seem to have a working telephone number at present, so I've not been able to speak to anyone there about having a room set aside for us, but we do need to pick somewhere as the next meeting of the Athena group is this coming Thursday.  (It still seems to be a good shot at a place to meet, and I'll try to drop in during the week and sort it out face to face.  There's a games room that we might be able to commandeer even if there's music on.)

That means the details for this month are:

TIME: 7.30 for an 8pm start
VENUE: The Waterside Inn, on the corner of Canal Wharf and Stockbridge Road, Chichester (just south of the station).

I'll look forward to seeing what new writing you bring to the new venue.

All best -
Andrew

On writer's block

N Quentin Woolf writes: http://sentinelquarterly.com/vol-4-no-4-julyseptember-2011/essays-and-features/woolf/

...but everyone is familiar with the montage of the writer ripping near-naked pages out of his typewriter and hurling them disconsolately into the wastepaper basket. It is a romantic image, a way of finding drama in an activity that is otherwise tertiary, solitary and silent. Even non-writers allow themselves to get writer’s block once in a while: the business executive struggling with a presentation; the post-grad swamped by their thesis. It seems that the sickness has spread, like mad cow disease or swine flu, out of the group within which originated, to blight us all...

first sentences

a link from Writer Unboxed: http://writerunboxed.com/2011/08/02/the-first-sentence-as-an-amuse-bouche/

Narrative Nipple

A link from Twitter today: http://narrativenipple.com/

It's "An online literary magazine that focuses on the impact, revelation, celebration, darkness, exasperation and expressive cravings of a breast cancer survivor, fighter, thriver." No experience of breast cancer required to submit, but do say if you have a connection to the disease.