Guest Speakers Sue Hampton and Leslie Tate

Guest Speakers Sue Hampton and Leslie Tate (2016-02-21 23:09:48)

Guest speakers Sue Hampton and Leslie Tate gave a talk as part of their Purple Tour so-called because both have recently published novels with purple in the title.

Sue Hampton writes for children, young adults and adults. She is also an ambassador for Alopecia UK. She introduced the characters from her latest novel Flashback and Purple through short extracts on cards that were passed around for members to read.

She talked about how she uses different language and writing styles for each character. Her book is about the connections between the characters, much of it told through thoughts in flashback. She ended by reading the first page of the novel.

Leslie has a background as a poet and he talked about the importance he places on language. His novel Purple is set in the 1960s and he has attempted to capture the authenticity of the period. He aims to write in the voices of the characters and talked about the method he has used to find a unique voice. He read from the opening of his book and from a section which illustrated the novel's two narrative styles. Both Sue and Leslie write blogs about writing and other topics that are important to them.

Sue and Leslie have websites with their weekly blogs http://www.suehamptonauthor.co.uk/ and www.leslietate.com/

Slough Writers Sponsor Writing Awards

SLOUGH WRITERS SPONSOR WRITING AWARD (2016-02-04 13:43:05)

For the first Slough Writers are supporting the Berkshire Music and Arts Festival by sponsoring a prize for young writers. This year the trophy was presented by the chairman of our group Terry Adlam. The cup was won by ten year old Thurka Ananth from Newbury for her story The Gas Mask in which a schoolboy finds a Second World War gas mask and when he wears it he is able to travel in time and experience the war.

The presentation day was Sunday 31 January at Ufton Court near Reading and was attended by musicians, performers and writers. There were readings by established authors and poets in addition to the presentation of awards. Lesley Saunders, who has been a good friend to Slough Writers for many years, was the judge of the poetry section of the competition.

Terry Adlam presenting the trophy to Thurka Ananth

The Trophy Itself

Another way SW supported the festival was to enter the adult fiction section and our efforts were rewarded when we won all three prize places. First prize including Kindle vouchers worth 75 pounds donated by author Clare Whyle went to Mike Pearcy for his story Cyber Romance about a woman who gets involved with an online dating scam but makes sure she comes out on top.

Mike Pearcy, Clare Whyle, Linda Hurdwell, Terry Adlam and Robert Kibble.

Linda Hurdwell came second with her story Thelma and Ed set in Canada in the 1880s studying a woman who cares for a bear cub to ease her loneliness while her husband works away building railways.

Third place went to Robert Kibble for his story entitled Memories, Not Echoes which placed its main character in a locked sound proof room and explored what goes through his mind as he runs out of air in the complete darkness.

The prizes were presented by Clare Whyle who writes in partnership with her best friend and together they produce a series of romantic escapist novels under the pen name of Nina Whyle. Their fourth novel is called My Disorganised Life and tells the story of Eve Poots who changes her life by creating a things to do list but then realises it was the wrong list.

The three stories may be read here: Cyber Romance, Thelma and Ed and Memories Without Echoes

2015 Article Competition Results

Michael Pearcy, Martin Trepte, Lorraine Forrest-Turner and Lee Taylor

Results of 2015 Article Competition (2015-12-09 15:26:19)

And the results were:

• 1st and the SW Article Competition Trophy: The ANZACs and Us by Michael Pearcy

• 2nd: The Road Not Taken by Lee Taylor

• 3rd: To Leave or Not To Leave - That Is The Question by Lorraine Forrest-Turner

Newspaper Editor Judges Article Competition

Slough Writers held their last meeting of the year at The Palmer Arms in Dorney on Monday (07 December) and used the event to announce the winners in their annual article writing competition.

The judge of the competition was Maidenhead Advertiser editor Martin Trepte who was asked to select the winning three articles from ten entries. The task set for the competition was to write a 1000 word article on the theme 2016.

Martin Trepte said, "The entries, while very different, were all excellent and picking the top three was exceptionally difficult as they were all winners in their own unique ways. I enjoyed reading them immensely and I needed to read them all several times to pick the winners.

"There was a wide range of subjects chosen by the writers including a biographical piece about Jimi Hendrix, a look at the life of William Shakespeare which asked what we really know about the bard and a sideways look at leap years, their history and the people born in them.

"The article I selected as the winner was The ANZACs and Us by Michael Pearcy who wrote about the origins of the famous Harefield hospital during the First World War and told of the wounded ANZAC soldiers that were treated and of the 112 who died and were buried in the village churchyard. It's not the story of the bricks and mortar hospital but of bonds forged in the tragedy of war between communities separated by half a world that has lasted to this day.

"Second in the competition was Lee Taylor's piece about the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken. Martin commented, "This was a really thought provoking piece and the more I read it the more I got out of it. I think it will resonate with anyone who stops to think about the what-ifs and alternative possibilities and the idea that for every decision we take a new parallel universe is created."

The third placed article was entitled To Leave Or Not To Leave That Is The Question written by Lorraine Forrest-Turner which looked at different types of questions and how we use them. Martin said, "Another great thought provoking piece that challenges perceptions and makes the reader think. Taking the in-out EU referendum as its starting point it looks at the very nature of questions themselves. And we learn they are far more complicated than we might have thought. The writer tackles the subject with great clarity, aided by entertaining examples and a great vein of humour running throughout."

The evening finished with readings of the winning articles and a question and answer session in which Martin fielded questions from the nineteen writers at the meeting.

2015 Summer Competition Results

Winners of the Summer 2015 5000 Word Romance Competition (2015-11-10 23:47:40)

Picture shows William Campbell (comp. coordinator), Michael Pearcy, Carol Breuer and winner Lorraine Forrest-Turner.

And the results were:

• 1st and the SW Summer Competition Trophy: Getting On With Freya by Lorraine Forrest-Turner

• 2nd: Lost In Translation by Carol Breuer

• 3rd: Strings Attached by Michael Pearcy

As competition adjudicator, William gave feedback on the entries and the results. There were ten entries. Five were over 4,900 words and the average word count was 4,600. All the rules were adhered to by all the entrants, though there were some requests regarding making a submissio that were not met.

Presentation

This was not up to par for all the entries to some extent, i.e. use of fundamentals of a word processor. All manuscripts threw up typos or misspellings and some were set for US English. Spacing, first line of paragraph indents and time gaps were not consistent. Four of the entrants attempted to guess the authors. With such a low response this part of the competition was abandoned. William pointed out that since it was beyond most of us to remove the author's name from properties in a Word document guessing the author was redundant.

Critiques

William thanked the entrants for submitting their feedback on the other nine entries. He recommended to the authors that they look for recurring themes when reading the feedback on their story.

Ranking

William used a weighted scoring system: first 12 points, second 10 points, third 8 points, then 6,5,4,3,2 and 1. The maximum score was 108 points. The totals were spread across the range from 75 down to the 30s. Seven of the stories had at least one 1st place ranking from the judges. William produced a progressive leader board as the results came in. (Email William if you would like him to send a copy of this.)

Lorraine gets a round of applause after reading her winning entry.

Ranking the Three Winners

Third place was Strings Attached with 67 points; Second was Lost in Translation with 70 points and first with 75 points was Getting on with Freya.

William congratulated the winners and everyone who entered and for writing the critiques for their fellow entrants. The word count, timing of the competition and theme were discussed. Terry thanked William for all the hard work he had done. Lorraine and Carol read their winning stories to much applause. Once more, Terry thanked William and the meeting closed at 9.30.

This report by Sally East.

Theatre Director Julian Hirst talks at SW

Theatre Director Julian Hirst talks at SW (04/10/15) (2015-10-06 23:24:48)

At Slough Writers we had a visit from Julian Hirst who describes himself as Actor, director, behavioural coach, conference/event MC & former gypsy saxophonist to the House of Romanoff. Or you may recognise him better in the photo below. Julian left Panto Dame off his list of achievements but during his four years as director of the South Hill Park Panto (this year it's Sleeping Beauty) he has always taken the role of Pantomime Dame.

Julian gave a very entertaining talk to the assembled writers about his career and his experiences as a theatre director. In particular he talked of the relentless production cycle for a the South Hill Park Panto - script, casting rehearsals and working with dozens of children - he loves them, he really does. On the right of the picture set above is Julian's mind map (or mind tree?) that he used. Click on the image for a closer look. It's fascinating to see this technique in action - we've talked about it as a technique in plotting but few of us have made it work.

(Photo from Bracknell News Twitter feed)

(photo shown with Julian's permission.)

2014/2015 Writing Awards

WRITING AWARDS FOR 2014/2015 (2015-07-31 10:44:37)

Slough Writers paid tribute to some of our best writers at the Annual General Meeting. This year only three awards were presented.

Photo shows Sonia Weiss, Lin Hurdwell and Wally Smith.

Sandy Lee-Guard Award for Endeavour (voted by the committee)went to Lyn Hurdwell.

Writer of the Year (voted by members) was shared by Sonya Weiss and Carol Breuer

The Taylor award for service to the group (voted by members) was awarded to Wally Smith.

The Best New Writer could not be awarded because nobody matched the two year time limit.

For the first time in its history, the Writer of the Year trophy was awarded to two people: Sonya Weiss and Carol Breuer, who will each keep the trophy for six months.

2015 Poetry Competition Results

Tony Matthews, Roslyn Adlam. Mike Pearcy and Lee Taylor

RESULTS OF 2015 POETRY COMPETITION (2015-07-31 10:20:53)

Judge Roslyn Adlam gave comments on each of the twelve entries. She said that all the poems were unique, special and sincere. Then she gave the results.

• 1st and the SW PoetryTrophy: Allow Us TO Be by Michael Pearcy

• 2nd: The Lycra Biker by Tony Matthews

• 3rd: The Art Of Making Mistakes by Lee Taylor

Terry thanked Roslyn for judging the competition and presented her with a gift from the group.

Mike, Tony (once more with rhythm!) and Lee read their poems.

Special Presentation to our Chairman

SPECIAL PRESENTATION TO OUR CHAIRMAN (2015-07-30 11:01:29)

At the completion of business at the 2014/2015 AGM, Lee and Mike took over proceedings in order to celebrate Terry's twenty-five years as Chair of Slough Writers.

Mike read a brief, irreverent history of Terry's writing career and life as Chair of the group, from his first set of good reviews at secondary school, via Dick Spanner, Lorraine's writing class to his twenty-fifth year as Slough Writers Chair.Lee stated that Slough Writers owes its success as an organisation to Terry's drive.The milestone was celebrated with champagne and a cake (made by Kathleen). Terry was presented with an engraved glass commemorative plaque. Terry thanked the group and Steph, Claudia and Roslyn for their support.

2015 Short Story Competition Results

Results of 2015 Short Story Competition Announced (2015-04-03 12:39:30)

The competition results were:

From the left: Wally Smith, Sally East, Lorraine Forrest-Turner, William Campbell, Ian Savage (judge), Carol Breuer and, inset, Lee Taylor. photo by Terry Adlam.

• 1st and the SW Short Story Trophy: Flying Like A Bird by Carol Breuer

• 2nd: Untitled 67-11 by William Campbell

• 3rd: A Pleasant Interlude by Lee Taylor

• Highly commended: First Dance by Lorraine Forrest-Turner

• Highly commended: Ralph and Georgie by Wally Smith

• Highly commended: Dollface by Sally East

Our judge, Ian Savage, began by introducing himself and giving a brief resum� of his career in publishing. There were 13 entries and Ian said that he had expected to be able to disregard 4 or 5 on first read through, but he was unable to do this because of the high standard when looking at plot, characterisation etc., so he set two rules.

1. Nobody would lose marks for grammar or punctuation.

2. He would take into account the degree of pleasure he gained from the stories.

Ian chose three winning stories and three highly commended stories. He commented that the use of a single word as the theme was successful in allowing the authors to go anywhere with it.

Carol, William and Sally read their stories.

Times Best Selling Author Speaks At SW

Times Best Selling Author Speaks At SW (2015-02-18 18:59:58)

Guest speaker, romance novelist Carole Matthews

Pic shows, Kevin Matthews (Carole's manager), Carole Matthews and Terry Adlam (chair SW)

Terry introduced Carole who last visited the group three years ago when she judged the short story competition. Her 26th novel is now out in hardback and she is currently working on her novel for publication next summer. Carole began by talking about how she uses the various types of social media that the group discussed last week. Through social media, she has created a little world ‘Matthews Towers in the Costa del Keynes’ that readers like to feel part of. She balances writing and social media use by being disciplined. She also has reader giveaways via her newsletter, reader outings, and has participated in virtual blog tours. She recommended registering with Net Galley in order to send free samples of self-published books to book bloggers. She has dipped her toe into other genres and has worked on pilot episodes of sitcoms, as she really enjoys scriptwriting and writing dialogue.

Carole brought with her some copies of books about the craft of writing that members could take away.

Terry thanked Carole and Kev for visiting the group and the group posed for photographs with them for putting on social media.

(report by Sally East)

2014 Article Competition Results

Results of the Article Competition - Humorous Article (2014-12-29 01:14:44)

Terry introduced Jan Fredrickson, the judge for the article competition. Jan said that she realised how daunting it must have been for those who entered the competition to write a humorous piece. She said that it is difficult to write a sustained piece of wit and humour, particularly when limited to only 1,000 words, which restricts ‘punchiness’. She read two extracts of humorous writing. The first was from The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek, the comic adventures of a soldier caught up in the First World War, and the second from a collection of poems by Simon Ray – A.P. Herbert’s The General Inspecting the Trenches, in which humour is used to both enforce and enhance a serious issue.

Jan then gave feedback on each of the eight entries and announced the winning three as:

• 1st and the SW Article Trophy: The Life and Times of Colin Tigwell by Michael Pearcy

• 2nd: Seven Phrases to Avoid if You Want to be Taken Seriously by Lorraine Forrest-Turner

• 3rd: Old Harry by Linda Hurdwell

The three winning entries were then read out and Jan was then able to field general questions from members. Terry thanked Jan for judging the competition and for providing the comments and feedback on each of the pieces.

Waxing Lyrical Part 2 - Andy Barrett Sings Our Lyrics

Waxing Lyrical Part 2 - Andy Barrett Sings Our Lyrics (2014-12-28 19:56:20)

Terry welcomed Andy Barrett back to Slough Writers to feed back on the lyrics submitted by members to the two tunes that Andy had supplied as part of a collaboration between him as composer and the members as lyricists. This evening he added a third element – vocal interpretation. In some cases, Andy was required to make a few adjustments to the lyrics in order to fit them to the rhythm of the melody line.

Seven members submitted lyrics, with one member submitting two songs.

Andy numbered the songs 1-8 and played and sang each song in turn, commenting upon the lyrics.

Three lyrics were submitted for the ballad (Wally, Sally E and Terry) and five for the rock and roll number (Mike, Lorraine, Wally, Tony and Lee).

Andy commented on the structure, rhyming patterns, imagery and themes in the lyrics.

The members joined with Terry in thanking Andy for his comments and renditions, making for an entertaining and enjoyable evening.

Following this, members talked about and read (or sang) excerpts from their favourite lyrics. These included folk, country and western, rock and roll and musicals and spanned the decades from the ‘sixties to the present day. The members even joined Lorraine and Andy in a rendition of Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town.

2014 Summer Competition Results

Winners of the Summer Competition Announced (2014-11-14 01:03:31)

The winners with the actors

The actors

Richard James and a group of actors (Ros, Amber, Sally and Jonathan) joined us for the meeting to give the results and read the top four plays.

The task set by Richard was to write a 10 minute play on the theme of The Photograph

Richard began by congratulating all those who entered. There were sixteen entries, all different and all competently written. He said it is the greatest thing for playwrights to hear their plays read by actors. It shows what works and what does not and how actors bring a script to life.

Richard gave his thoughts on all the plays and then announced the winners. (There are links to the videos of these plays at the end of this article.)

Picture shows Michael Pearcy, Lorraine Forrest-Turner, Richard James, Carol Breuer and Lee Taylor.

• 1st and the SW Drama Trophy: A Foreign Country by Carol Breuer

• 2nd: The Legacy by Mike Pearcy

• 3rd: Complicit by Lorraine Forrest-Turner

• Highly commended: Not Drowning by Lee Taylor

At the end of the evening there was time for some questions. Lorraine asked about markets. Richard said that if the plays could be extended to one act play length they could be sent to LazyBee Scripts for consideration. Another possible outlet is English/Drama departments in schools.

Another competition open for 10 minutes plays can be found at The Sussex Playwrights Club web site.

Each of the winning plays were performed as a reading.

THE WINNERS ON VIDEO

If you want to view videos of the readings they are available here.

First place A foreign Country by Carol Breuer

Second place The Legacy by Michael Pearcy

Third place Complicit by Lorraine Forrest-Turner

Highly Commended was Not Drowning by Lee Taylor.

Broo Doherty of DHH Literary Agency

Broo Doherty of DHH Literary Agency (2014-10-13 18:06:48)

A question and answer session with literary agent Broo Doherty of DHH Literary Agency. She accepts literary fiction, crime and contemporary women’s fiction (no sci fi or fantasy). There is an agent in the group who accepts children’s books.

Broo talked about the importance of having an agent and suggested the best way to find an agent is to look at the ‘thanks to’ section in books you have recently enjoyed reading.

To approach an agent by letter make it relevant, mention any books, short stories or articles published, as well as membership of the group and your website or blog if you have one – in fact anything that shows that you are serious about writing.

When assessing books sent to her for consideration Broo looks for good storytelling, warmth, humour, and well written and well plotted manuscripts.

For personal/family histories you could try Andrew Lownie at The Biographers’ Club, Thomas and Mercer, or Ingrams.

If you are writing non-fiction, send a proposal to the agent.

The advice on publishing and submitting to agents was invaluable and Terry thanked Broo for speaking to the group.

She ended by saying that she will consider submissions from members. Terry has her email address if you wish to send Broo your manuscript.

By Sally East

Broo Doherty, literary agent

Waxing Lyrical with Andy Barrett

Waxing Lyrical with Andy Barrett (2014-10-06 17:18:31)

Terry welcomed Andy Barrett on 29 September who was leading the evening’s talk – ‘Waxing Lyrical’ about writing words for music. Andy is a singer and songwriter but apologised at the outset for being unable to sing on the night because of nodules on his vocal chords.

Andy said that in order to write lyrics it was essential to have music or a musician or composer as well. In other words it has to be a collaborative exercise. He compared writing lyrics with writing poetry and highlighted the different demands of each discipline. Lyrics are generally one dimensional, allowing more freedom for the writer with chord sequences dictating the mood of the lyrical story.

Andy gave examples of different song lyrics and defined four song types. Those with a construction of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-middle eight-verse-chorus (Type 3) being the most popular formula for hit songs. As with many forms of writing, Andy said that the opening ‘hook’ was very important in establishing the mood.

Members were asked to vote ‘good’ or ‘bad’ from a list of song lyrics, some of which were standards, which demonstrated how lyrics on their own can sometimes be uninspiring.

Andy then played two musical compositions for which members were asked to supply lyrics. These will be disseminated as MP3s and submissions will be sent to Andy to review and comment upon at his next session on November 24th.

Andy Barrett - music producer, singer, song writer, actor - inspired us with his enthusiasm for lyrics.

Richard James gives advice about writing drama

Richard James gives advice about writing drama. (2014-08-04 15:58:19)

Richard James, actor and playwright, set the theme and will be the judge for the Slough Writers summer competition. The theme is The Photograph. Full details about the competition are on the COMPETITIONS PAGE

Annual Awards 2013/2014

Sally East, David England and Keith Scudamore.

Annual Awards 2013/2014 (2014-07-21 00:06:20)

Slough Writers paid tribute to some of our best writers at the Annual General Meeting. This year four awards were presented including, for the first time, The Sandy Lee-Guard Award for endeavour.

Peter Green Trophy Newcomer of the year (voted by the committee) went to Keith Scudamore.

Sandy Lee-Guard Award for Endeavour (voted by the committee) � David England.

Writer of the Year (voted by members) � David England

Taylor award for service to the group (voted by members) � Sally East

Congratulations to all concerned.

2014 Short Story Competition Results

2014 Short Story Competition - Crime (2014-04-26 20:14:47)

At our meeting on 14 April 2014 the winners of our short story competition on the theme of crime were announced.

From the left: Sally East, Lee Taylor, the judge Elizabeth Hurst, Terry Adlam, William Campbell and Sonia Weiss.

• 1st and the Golden Cup: Whisky Chaser by William Campbell

• 2nd: Blood Money by Sonya Weiss

• 3rd: Blood Lines by Sally East

Highly commended were Scenes of Crime by Terry Adlam and Playing by the Rules by Lee Taylor

Elizabeth Hurst said that she did not ‘enjoy’ judging the competition because there were some truly awful crimes. She judged the stories on the extent to which the plot was character driven and how well the characters came across; the quality of the writing, which she said was very high; and whether the stories were focussed and pacey with good description. She commented that it was a difficult task because she was not comparing like with like, apart from the fact that they all featured a crime.

Elizabeth Hurst announcing the result, William on hearing of his victory, Sonia discussing how she developed her story and Sally reading her story to the group.

Science Fiction and Steam Punk

Science Fiction and Steam Punk at SW (2014-03-20 08:38:02)

Steven C. Davis is a bookseller, science fiction writer and host of the web radio show: Gothic, Alternative and Steampunk Progressive Rock show (GASP) on BLAST 1386 (Reading College). He visited Slough Writers to talk about his work.

Steven opened the session asking members what their definition of science fiction was. There were many different views and opinions as to what the genre incorporates. Steven gave an example of Margaret Atwood’s work which received the Arthur C. Clarke award for science fiction, but which the author has always strongly suggested is not, describing it as speculative fiction. Steven explained how science fiction nowadays can cross so many literary genres and is quite often against a dystopian background setting.

A sub-genre of sci-fi is Steampunk, featuring steam-powered machinery in a 19th century setting and which Steven explained has evolved a counter culture with followers dressing up in Victorian costume and engaging in pursuits such as tea-duelling. Steven then read extracts of his publications Cornix Sinistra and The Heart’s Cog Imperative. It was a fascinating evening introducing us to several new ideas and aspects of SF.

2013 Article Competition Results

Results of the 2013 Article Competition. (2014-02-11 18:26:13)

Tony Matthews, Lee Taylor and Kay Woods with the judge Sara Waddington (front).

• 1st and the SW Article Trophy: How To Give Up Smoking by Lee Taylor

• 2nd: Back To Nature by Kay Woods

• 3rd: Caught Short by Tony Matthews

Mike Pearcy's Narrow Winding Way was short listed.

At our meeting on 2nd December 2013 former Slough Writers member Sara Waddington was the judge. She began by telling the group how being a member gave her a good grounding in writing before becoming an editorial assistant and then editor on several specialist magazines. She now produces magazines for a variety of companies.

Sara said that she enjoyed reading the articles and learnt a lot about a range of topics. The layout of the articles was varied and some included sidebars and subheadings. She judged the articles on originality, appeal for publication, style of writing, grammar and punctuation. Sara read her comments on all the articles before giving the results.