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What happened at our July meeting – news and readings
MINUTES OF WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING 21 JULY 2022 Attending: Amanda, Hilary, Liz, Carla, Greg, Alan, Simona, Tricia Apologies: Heather, Sarah DD, Peter, Emily News: Our August meeting, to be held on Thursday 18 August, as usual at the church, will be a summer social. A list of food to be brought and those bringing it has been circulated. Literary contributions also welcome, but of a light and summery nature. Alan reported that the 81-word anthology, which has 1,000 stories by 1,000 authors, including one of his, has now achieved world record-breaking status. Liz said the Book Group would be…
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What happened at our June meeting – news and readings
Meeting of Woking Writers Circle on 16 June 2022 Present: Simona, Greg, Hilary, Liz, Alan, Amanda, Tricia, Carla Apologies: Heather, Sarah DD, Peter. News Greg is taking part in a book signing event at the Lionheart bookshop in Woking on July 23, with other Woking writers. The event is due to take place from 4-6pm. Carla and Greg have been involved with The Vision Project, involving music, dance, art and poetry. See Carla’s article Carla was due to perform her poetry live and to be interviewed at Teddington’s Poetry Performance on Zoom. She has also been displaying her art and…
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What happened at our May meetings – news and readings
Minutes of meeting of Woking Writers Circle on Thursday 19 May 2022 Present: Simona (guest), Sam (guest), Emily, Sarah, Tricia (chair), Liz, Alan (minutes), Peter, Hilary Apologies: Heather, Carla, Greg, Amanda News: Liz reported that the Book Group had read The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes and The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson. Both novels dealt with the efforts of the so-called packhorse librarians – women who campaigned for and actively facilitated the provision of books to isolated and disadvantaged rural communities. This was a scheme originally initiated by Eleanor Roosevelt. Voting for The Giver of Stars ranged from 2…
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What happened at our April meeting – news and readings
WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING AT ST MARY’S CHURCH HALL, HORSELL ON 21 APRIL 2022 Present: Peter, Emily, Alan, Hilary, Carla, Tricia, Liz, Heather Apologies: Greg, Sarah, Amanda News: Alan has had a letter praising The Witchfinder, a BBC2 sit-com, published in TV Choice magazine. Hilary’s short story, ‘Chocolate Frog’, had been selected by judge Alysoun Owen as one of nine shortlisted entries out of more than 750 stories submitted to the Writers and Artists short story competition. Congratulations, Hilary! Heather has had a poem ‘When Words Fail’ (read at a previous WWC meeting) published in the latest Hysteria anthology. Carla…
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What happened at our March meeting – news and readings
MINUTES OF WOKING WRITERS’ CIRCLE MEETING AT ST MARY’S CHURCH HALL, HORSELL ON 17 MARCH 2022 Present: Greg, Peter, Amanda, Emily, Alan, Carla, Heather, and Liz (on Zoom) Apologies: Dan, Tricia, Hilary News: Greg: The Woking News and Mail has published an article featuring Greg’s latest poetry collection, The Fall of Singapore’, marking the 80th anniversary of this event. The collection is available to buy from Greg or from Dempsey and Windle’s website. The online launch will take place on Wednesday, 30 March and Greg has sent the link to members. Attendees are required to sign up by 26 March…
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What happened at our February meeting – news and readings
MINUTES OF WOKING WRITERS’ CIRCLE MEETING AT ST MARY’S CHURCH HALL, HORSELL ON 17 FEBRUARY 2022 Present: Greg, Peter, Liz, Hilary, Heather Apologies: Dan, Carla, Amanda, Sarah DD News: Greg has published a new poetry collection, ‘The Fall of Singapore’, to mark the 80th anniversary of this event. This volume, again published by Dempsey and Windle, includes relevant prose linking the poetry to Greg’s father. Greg has included some previously published poems with the new material. The collection is available to buy from Greg or from the publisher’s website. Greg also distributed flyers for an evening of one act plays…
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What happened at our January (hybrid) meeting, in-person and on Zoom
WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING at St Mary’s church hall, Horsell, on Thursday 20 January Attending in person: Amanda, Greg, Emily, Liz, Hilary, Tricia. Attending on Zoom: Carla, Alan. Apologies: Heather, Peter. News Carla announced publication of her poem ‘Words are good’ in Acumen poetry magazine. We all congratulated her, particularly Greg, who has tried several times to get a poem in Acumen! Liz mentioned upcoming Burns Night celebrations, the Lionheart independent bookshop in Woking, and a recent debate she had attended in Woking on trans-gender. The book group had read The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, which takes place…
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What happened at our October meeting – news and readings
WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING, 21 October 2021, St Mary’s Church Hall, Horsell Apologies: Alix, Alan, Melanie, Heather, Sarah DD, Amanda, Peter. Present: Emily, Greg, Hilary, Liz, Carla, Tricia. News: Emily has been offered an internship with a new lifestyle magazine reviewing afternoon teas. This sounds like a marvellous learning opportunity. We all look forward to hearing more about this exciting venture. Greg’s poetry collection Marples Must Go! has been published. It includes a sequence of five poems about the Sean Henry statues in Woking, and there has been an article about the book in the Woking News & Mail headlined…
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What happened at our September meeting – news and readings
MINUTES OF WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING AT ST MARY’S CHURCH HALL, HORSELL ON 16 SEPTEMBER 2021 Following our summer social at the church hall in August, this was our first in-person official meeting since the Covid lockdown in March 2020 Present: Amanda, Liz (chair), Carla, Emily, Heather Apologies: Tricia, Alan, Dan, Hilary, Greg, Simon, Alex, Peter. News Amanda has reviewed ‘Looking Good Dead’ by Peter Jones. This appears on the WWC website. Amanda explained that the turnaround time for completing reviews and sending them to the theatre was very short; Greg then posts reviews on the WWC website. Amanda advised…
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What happened at our July meeting on Zoom – news and readings
WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING Thursday 15 July 2021 Present: Greg (Host), Carla, Hilary (Chair), Heather, Sarah Bell, Liz, Dan, Alex, Alan (Minutes) Apologies: Tricia, Amanda News: Heather had given a poetry reading to Carers UK, on Zoom. She found this a profoundly moving experience, feeling “humbled” by the carers’ unfailing concern for and commitment to severely ill children. Many carers were effectively trapped in their homes, with their loved ones or other dependents, as a result of the latter’s needs and the current restrictions. Hilary advised that Amanda has offered to host the next meeting in her garden, with the possibility of this being…
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What happened at our June meeting on Zoom – news and readings
WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE ZOOM MEETING ON 17 JUNE 2021 Present: Amanda, Hilary, Alan, Liz, Greg, Carla, Alix, Heather Apologies: Simon, Tricia, Dan, Melanie News: Liz reported that the book group had read Shuggie Bain and would be discussing it at the meeting on Monday 21 June. Alan’s book, Theta Double Dot, had been picked for consideration for a TV mini-series. Alan had received a most encouraging letter. He would let Greg have this to be shared on the WWC website. Members were encouraged to post reviews of Alan’s book on his Amazon website page. Greg has posted Carla’s review of…
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What happened at our May meeting on Zoom – news and readings
MINUTES OF WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE ZOOM MEETING ON 20 MAY 2021 Present: Tricia, Hilary, Alan, Liz, Greg, Carla, Heather Apologies: Alix, Danny, Sarah DD, Amanda News Carla has attained her PhD – many congratulations, Carla! She is reading submissions and commenting on them for Litro magazine and the editors then decide whether to publish. Carla has also revised an article about her grandmother that she wrote before Christmas and this will be published by Memoir Magazine. Alan’s ghost story, ‘The False Note’ was originally published on the NAWG website and a recording of Alan reading this and other stories is…
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What happened at our March meeting on Zoom: news and readings
WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING on Zoom March 18 2021 Present: Amanda, Heather, Alan, Greg, Liz, Carla, Alix, Dan, Melanie, Sarah DD, Simon Apologies: Hilary, Tricia NEWS Liz said that the Book Group would be discussing Where the Crawdads Sing on 22 March. Alan reported that he had had a 100-word piece of flash fiction published in the Australian writing group magazine circulated by Peter. READINGS Heather’s poem ‘Madness by Moonlight’ saw “the steady cedar” throw “caution to the mad March winds” in a tableau of garden craziness, with magpies, squirrels, pigeons and badgers all playing their part in the cabaret.…
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What happened at our Zoom meeting in February – news and readings
WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING on Zoom on 18 February 2021 Attending: Amanda, Greg, Liz, Alan, Heather, Tricia, Melanie, Alix, Carla, Hilary, Sarah DD, Dan, Simon. News Carla said she had successfully come through her Phd Viva on Margaret Atwood, and was looking forward to a degree ceremony in December Greg said Dempsey & Windle was due to publish his debut full poetry collection Marples Must Go! In September. He was very happy to have reached such a milestone before turning 70 … Alan said that one of his flash fiction stories would be published in the autumn in an anthology,…
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What happened at our January meeting on Zoom: news and readings
WOKING WRITERS CIRCLE MEETING ON Zoom 21 January 2021 Attending: Hilary, Heather, Carla, Alan, Greg, Liz, Dan, Tricia, Alix Apologies: Mel, Sarah DD, Peter News Hilary drew our attention to a one-man show billed for the Guildford Fringe this summer. “Escaping from a high control religious group is not simple. It is a waking up process that can take years.” Waking Up Gay is on 10 July at 5pm at the Star Inn. More details here Liz said the book group had recently read Half of a Yellow Sun. Their book in February would be Diary of a Nobody. Readings…