Sunday 29 January 2012

Meeting Report: 23rd January 2012

At our last meeting members read out their entries for the first of five competitions towards our Writer of the Year 2012 award. This was for an open-theme poem of up to 40 lines and the competition attracted a good response with 22 entries being submitted. These included some strong and varied work: thoughtful, sad, poignant and humorous poems covered a wide range of topics with even a couple of murders for good measure. Our judge, award-winning poet and creative writing teacher Kim Lasky, will attend on 20 February with her feedback and the results.
Kate O'Hearn, our Deputy Chair, was able to report the third book in her very successful Pegasus series 'Pegasus and the New Olympians' is just out, and the publisher is planning book tours for her. We are delighted that Kate's writing career has taken off in a big way.
Other news is that at the recent local Bowskill Trophy presentations, Hastings Writers' Group was awarded a framed Certificate of Merit for 'support to writers at all levels' which was displayed at the meeting for everyone to admire.
Our latest publication 'Ghost Writers' containing 20 spooky tales for dark evenings is on sale from some local shops or obtainable by post at £6.50, cheques to Hastings Writers' Group at 39 Emmanuel Road, Hastings, TN34 3LB. Profits will be shared with the Association of Carers Young Carers.
For further information about our group please visit www.hastingswriters.co.uk or contact our Membership Secretary, Amanda Giles, at membership.hwg@gmail.com or tel. 01424 442707

Tuesday 17 January 2012

Meeting Report: 9th January 2012

The first meeting of the New Year poked and prodded the little grey cells out of their Christmas fog with a ‘Weaving the Words’ Workshop.

After welcoming three new members to the group the new Chair, Jill Fricker, announced that she had been awarded ‘Highly Commended’ in the Milton Keynes Open Creative Writing competition with a poem. Congratulations Jill!

Jill then went on to explain the way the workshop would run. Members had each brought in two sentences taken from favourite books. These went into a bag, then mixed up, passed around and two taken at random by each person, which they had to ‘weave’ into a piece of original writing. There then followed half an hour of intense silence broken only by the scribbling of pen on paper. After the break members read out their work; it was of an interesting, varied and high standard. The evening was declared a success and great fun. The new members are made of strong stuff and have vowed to come along to future meetings.

The Hastings Writers’ Group meets on alternate Monday evenings at the White Rock Hotel, Hastings from 7.30 to 9.30pm, the next meeting being 23rd January. If you are interested in joining the group please contact the Membership Secretary Amanda Giles on 01424 442707 or e-mail membership.hwg@gmail.com.