Congratulations!

Jean Chapman has been invited by the Romantic Novelists Association to be an honorary Vice President in "grateful recognition" of all she’s done over the years and "as further inducement, no duties are involved".

Jean is thrilled and commented: “Wow, I have looked at the names of previous incumbents and feel I move into very elite company - mind most of 'em are dead!”

LWC has long benefitted from Jean’s professionalism, humour and kindness and awarded her a lifetime membership for her extraordinary service to the club.

Mark Goodwin Workshop

Enter the Garden Poetry Day
by Mahsuda Snaith

I always thought poetry was like a silver service dinner party – it was for other people. Mark Goodwin’s Enter the Garden Poetry Day shattered all my concepts about what poetry is, who it’s for and, most importantly, who can write it.

Margaret Penfold’s beautiful home with its sprawling garden was an ideal setting for the day.  Armed with a cup of tea and notepad we were ready to jump in, but Mark began in the house, ‘filling us with poems’. He read from scores of anthologies and pamphlets, until images and feelings whizzed around the room.  I managed to catch hold of ‘arrow mouthed’ and ‘doll sized memory’ and scribbled them in my notebook before they escaped.  Without realising it, I was already collecting.

The beauty of the workshop was how Mark got us to work together, making poems out of randomly articulated words, as well as sharing our own individual work in a supportive environment. He encouraged us to tell lies in order to find greater truths, to let our minds find the patterns and hear the beauty in words juxtaposed. When we did enter the garden we were primed with imagery and metaphor. Pine needles became hair for stroking, bark peeled off trees in jigsaw pieces. Welsh poppies hung their heads under the weight of raindrops and pink blossom clung for life on another person’s tresses. I was officially stung. Everywhere I looked there was poetry. The colour of a book spine was now burnt orange. The vines of a trailing ivy were curling into smiles. How wonderful to discover that poetry is not a dinner party for the elite, but a buffet for the whole world.

Many thanks to Margaret Penfold and Jayne Stanton who helped to make the day happen and to Mark Goodwin who’s warm and passionate encouragement has helped one lost poet find her voice. 

Flash Fiction at Curve

I love it when common sense prevails. Curve is always looking to do new and innovative things with its audience, our authors are always looking for an audience. On Friday LWC members, past and present were in the foyer at Curve reading short stories to theatre-goers. 

Congratulations to all those who took part and a huge thanks to Lizzie Lamb for these pictures. You can see more photos on Lizzie's gallery page.

Club Competition Results

Review writing competition
Adjudicated by Wayne Burrows

It was an inspired idea: A competition to write a review. ‘Of what?’ you all cried. ‘Of ANYTHING!’ A peach of a brief like that never comes around in the real world, so it’s good to make the most of it when we get the chance.

          After some coercion, bribery and threats, our members produced the most amazingly diverse set of subjects we’ve ever seen in a competition. (No bones were broken, all the children were returned unharmed and Wayne Burrows was impressed with the variety and the quality of entries.) It was all worth it.

Competition Results:
1st: Siobhan Logan - House of Horrors (Blogpost)
2nd: Mary Byrne - Blurred Vision (John Keane exhibition)
3rd: Andrew Bannister - Writer still worth Tarrying over after 45 Years (Sci Fi author)

Commended:
T. D. Bradshaw - Angela's Ashes (Book by Frank McCourt)
Richard Sheehan - A Different Kind of Truth: (Van Halen CD)
Gwyneth Williams - Home From Home Comforts with a Personal Touch (Hotel)

Wayne Burrows was a delight to have as a guest and a speaker. He confessed that you start writing reviews in order to get ‘free stuff’. In the beginning, you write only about things you have a passion for. Eventually you become successful and it becomes ‘work’. That’s when you get asked to write reviews on all kinds of things whether you like them or not.

          He had helpful suggestions for the writing of reviews: Try to be objective, strike a balance, use a writing style that reflects the subject matter, use a pun in the headline and, take a kid with you when you go to a kid’s panto.

He also reminded us what George Orwell said of a reviewer: “He is pouring his immortal spirit down the drain half a pint at a time.”

Thank you Jayne Stanton for all your hard work and for knowing such fabulous people.

The best comeback since Lazarus

It's long been talked about and now it's back! We will keep this space updated with our news and events. Please book-mark the page and don't forget to check-in regularly.

The Middle Stanley author's retreat was as spectacular as the Cotswold valley it sits in. Visit members blog sites for their views (pun intended).
http://lindsaywallerwilkinson.com/
http://www.networkedblogs.com/blog/david_hood?&ref=fb
http://margaretpenfold.blogspot.co.uk/


Coming up:
Saturday 19th May- Mark Goodwin workshop - Margaret Penfold's garden.