In line with government advice to avoid non-essential social contact, all LWC activities are cancelled until further notice.

The committee is working at ways in which we can keep in touch and encourage each other’s creativity via on-line means. Watch this space.

In the meantime, make the most of any extra spare time at home by getting on with that poem or story or novel that you’ve never had the time to finish. Now is the moment. Stay well, stay sane, stay writing. All the best everyone.

First, Rita Morrison was short-listed for the H.E.Bates Short Story Writing Competition. Although not going on to win a prize, this should be considered a great success. Her story would have been up against stiff competition.

Following her recent success, Su Ryder has been able to announce another poem being accepted for an anthology to be published later this year.

Also, David Cundall and Sandy Hogarth-Scott were both long-listed in the Cinnamon Literary Awards for novels. 

And Emma Storr continues to set a great example by getting lots of things out there, as well having her own recent poetry collection pick up a number of good reviews. She had two poems from Heart Murmur chosen for publication in the print magazine Raceme, which also published a couple of reviews, one on Lydia Kennaway’s pamphlet A History of Walking from HappenStance Press and another on Katrina Naomi’s pamphlet Typhoon Etiquette from Verve Poetry Press. Heart Murmur was also favourably reviewed in Raceme by Shirley Wright. Emma received another positive and interesting review from Thomas Ovans in London Grip. You can read that one here.

Finally, the success of the latest workshop needs to be credited, with thanks to the dedicated work of Caroline Humes who organised this over-subscribed event. From Caroline herself …

On 18 January 2020, Leeds Writers Circle was fortunate to welcome Deborah McAndrew as our guest leader for a Scriptwriting workshop. Deborah is an award-winning playwright, creative director and actor, and is the Chancellor of Leeds Trinity University.

Her workshop was titled ‘All the Parts’. It examined the many viewpoints the dramatist must envisage when writing for the theatre, and explored how both poetic and practical demands can inspire creativity and develop craft.

Deborah gave many nuggets of useful information. She talked about the role of the playwright and how theatre is about transformation. You have to take the audience on a journey, and the main character or their circumstances should undergo a definite change. 

Of the exercises we did, my favourite was one in which we reflected on a narrative piece we’d seen or read recently, and mapped out our reader/audience journey in terms of the audience experience that we had. By identifying the moments where we felt riveted/happy/scared for example, we can analyse how the writer created those moments and replicate the techniques in our own work.

Leeds Writers Circle would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Deborah McAndrew for such a successful event.

Monday, January 13th saw the adjudication for our 1,000 word short story competition, judged by versatile story writer and poet, Alison Lock. Full details can be seen on the Competitions Page.

On closing, Alison offered some general advice in regard to the craft of short story writing, which we thought would be worth sharing here for the benefit of all members.

– Enter the story with some action that draws in the reader. Ask if the opening paragraph is necessary.

– Play with the point of view and/or tense.

– When the story is finished, look at the title. What does it tell you about the story, is it interesting, does it add to the piece?

– Think about the theme/s and strengthen wherever possible.

– Technical – how do you release the plot? Explore the idea of foreshadowing (in a subtle way). If you use the idea of flashback, ask if it is necessary.

– Some stories benefit from having the beginning and end drawn together, or reflected.

We thought it would be useful to highlight those members who have a writing presence on the internet. At a time when it’s becoming harder and harder to get published by traditional routes, blogging is one way of getting your words out there into the world and promoting your writing. In the call to create this listing, members were invited to give some small insight into their blogs and that’s been reproduced here wherever offered.

Andy Armitage:  andyarmitage.com

RJ Barker: https://www.rjbarker.com/

Terry Buchan: https://mychoriamb.wordpress.com

Terry’s blog was intended to be a spoof poet’s diary but rapidly veered off course and became a fictionalised account of trivial and slightly less trivial events, as well as a notepad for miscellaneous jottings. He occasionally plunders it for material for sketches and commentary pieces for East Leeds FM radio.

David Cundall: https://www.davidcundall.com/

David aims to post a Pangolin to his site every new moon. He’s just published the 50th of these.

Sunyi Dean: https://www.sunyidean.com

Sunyi writes book reviews, craft or publishing articles, and the occasional personal update. She also puts up reprints of short stories that have been published elsewhere. 

Tim Dempsey: http://hill-joy.blogspot.com/

Tim’s blog is about the mountains and nature. It explores our connection with them through first-person accounts, conveying a madness for the wet, blustery high places of the North. He describes it as a haphazard, bumbling narrative of his journey through grief and loss, bringing a very personal edge to the posts and, he hopes, some insight.

Marg Greenwood: margstravelinscottishislands.wordpress.com

Marg’s blog is about her solo travel in the Scottish Isles, told through words, images and songs.

Graeme Hall: https://graemehall.net/

Bob Hamilton: https://earthdreamery.co.uk/

Bob has been blogging almost daily for the best part of nine years, combining photographs with all kinds of narrative, posting well over half a million words and thousands of pictures in the process. It’s a way for him to find his way back to stories and moments in the past that he might try to flesh out in the future. In an attempt to bring some order to the chaos, this relatively new website collects together his various projects under one roof. 

Caroline Humes: https://carolinehumes.com/ and https://sffdirect.com/

Caroline runs two blogs. First, she has a writer’s site where she blogs about the craft of writing. Second, she also runs the science fiction and fantasy website SFFdirect, where she writes about all things related to SFF, usually with a literary emphasis. Posts are targeted at fans, readers and writers of SFF.

Jane Kite: http://www.janekite.co.uk/

Jane has recently revamped her blog for when she’s away on a writing residency in January at Can Serrat in Spain. She’ll be keeping a record of what happens during the month and will aim to post a photograph and a line or two of poetry/prose or some ideas on most days. 

Iby Knill: http://ibyknill.co.uk/

Kirsty Lambert: https://kirstwrites.wordpress.com/

Kirsty says she has lapsed in recent times but hopes this promotion will stir her into action!

Mark Pennington: https://angelofdent.wordpress.com/

Neil Rathmell: https://neilrathmell.com/

Neil offered some useful advice to bloggers, drawing upon his experience. His blog started out life as a WordPress blog called A Writer’s Diary, on which he blogged regularly as a reader as well as a writer. He says he learned two rules quite early on: blog regularly and don’t publish anything you think you might want to submit to a magazine or enter for a competition—as, if you do, it will immediately and forever be ineligible. For the next four years or so, he regularly published a short essay on some aspect of literature, but kept his own work off the site altogether. Over time, his fortnightly routine went to monthly and then became more sporadic. He says it’s now not really a blog but a website where he keeps up to date with news and information about his writing and which also offers access to well over a hundred literary essays. These continue to be read by somebody somewhere every day.

Emma Storr: https://emmastorr.co.uk/

Emma is still finding her way with the blogging experience. She aims to keep her website up to date with news of her published work, both poetry and reviews, as well as details of readings and events. Individual poems will feature that reflect Emma’s current projects such as the Leeds Lieder Festival in 2020 and the launch of the NHS Anthology These Are The Hands.

The close of the year has brought a number of successes for members of the Circle. The most exciting is the announcement of a Chapbook of Graeme Hall’s Macau-based short stories, to be published by Fly on the Wall Press next year. There’s an introduction to Graeme on their website here. Regulars at the Circle will be familiar with Graeme’s storytelling and know how much this recognition of his talent is deserved.

Another well-deserved and frankly overdue success can be announced for Su Ryder. She’s had a poem selected for an anthology on the theme of poets, prophets & protestors, to be published by the Leeds Church Institute. There will be a launch event as part of Leeds Lit Fest in March.

Gill Osborne has been shortlisted in a “Writing Magazine” competition under the theme of New Start. Her story was called “Finding my Mojo”. Those of us who heard this story read by Gill on one of our Manuscript evenings this summer will not be surprised.

Pat Belford continues to inspire us by selling stories to the People’s Friend. Her latest is a short story called “No Emails for Santa!” It’s about Rose, a young woman visiting a country village who unexpectedly finds herself involved in helping the local children write “proper” letters to Santa Claus.

Emma Storr has had her own personal string of successes this last month. Her poem Harness was published in November in Pennine Platform No. 86. She’s also had two of the poems from her debut pamphlet Heart Murmur—Six Week Check and Repeat Prescription—chosen to appear in the NHS Anthology “These are the Hands” due out in March next year. Michael Rosen was the judge and Deborah Alma, the Emergency Poet, one of the editors. The anthology will be launched on Friday 20th March in London and all proceeds from sales will go to NHS charities. Emma also has a new poem Present chosen for inclusion in the Leeds Church Institute Anthology.

Heart Murmur has scored an insightful review from Carole Bromley in Ink, Sweat and Tears magazine. You can read it here.

Emma has also been busy on the other side of the fence. She’s had a review of Gareth Writer-Davies’ poetry collection The End, from Arenig Press, published by London Grip. You can read that one here.

Finally, Marg Greenwood has a spread in the Nov-Dec edition of the Scottish Islands Explorer Magazine. It talks about the progress on her book: Return to Muck. The piece outlines some of the topics and experiences to be included. It sounds like a great marketing coup.

The last manuscript evening (Monday, Nov 11th) was memorable for a number of reasons. We had great readings— a profound poem and a compelling short story—from two very new members (Ella Sanderson and John Biglands) and also a memoir from our longest standing member (Anna Sutcliffe), read by Ian Harker for extra effect.

Anna’s wonderful piece introduced a new word to us all. Indeed, it seems to be a new word to the entire modern world. A google search returns not a single hit. We think it deserves to be better known.

scremshuns
noun
A term once used in Calderdale, West Yorkshire to refer to the pieces of deep-fried batter that are left over in the fryer as a by-product of frying fish and served as an accompaniment to chips.

Nobody liked cold scremshuns

Origin unknown

Ten of our members enjoyed a grand day out as they took part in the Ilkley Literature Festival Fringe on Sunday Oct 6th, sharing a platform with the Night School Poets. We were on stage for about 35 minutes, reading and performing pieces on the theme of “why and how I write”.

Thanks are due to Lucie for getting this venture off the ground and acting as host, and also to Pat Pickavance for her excellent tutelage (take a breath, slow down) and organisational skills, making sure we all knew what we were doing – quite a feat as organising writers is apparently like trying to herd cats.

It’s fair to say that the experience was enjoyed by everyone, both up on stage and in the audience. Certain fears about reading in public were dispelled and a general appetite has been acquired for more. It was lovely to see a few members coming along in support and join us in the pub afterwards.

All the pieces have now, with grateful permission, been posted on the website (Click here). They stand as a great tribute to the diversity of talent within the Circle and make for a thoroughly entertaining read – although just reading Pat P’s piece will never do justice to the performance she gave on the day. It was a quite brilliant finale. You really had to be there!

Pat Belford continues to find success with her stories for The People`s Friend. One Maltese Morning – about a village baker who discovers an abandoned baby when he makes an early bread delivery – earned Pat a front cover credit for best fiction. Making the Best of It will appear in the magazine’s anthology next year. It’s about a young couple who find an unusual solution to a dry rot problem in their sitting room. 

Emma Storr has a review of Remnants by Jane Burn and Bob Beagrie published online with the London Grip. You can read it here.

Members were recently able to get their hands on actual hard copies of Mark Pennington’s much anticipated novel, The Angel of Dent. From the back cover: “Featuring Yorkshire, railways and family secrets, this unusual novel will take you to places you never imagined, sleeper to sleeper.” This correspondent wasn’t disappointed. It’s a thoroughly engaging coming-of-age story with a decidedly quirky charm. It comes thoroughly recommended. Find out more here.

Linda Fulton had her short story Call me Elspeth long-listed for the Frome Festival Short Story Competition.

Anna Sutcliffe has two poems, Passage rite and Martagon, published in Strix #7.

Emma Storr has won 3rd place in the Saltaire Festival Poetry Competition for Engagement.

Finally, our own Caroline Humes has an interview with Sarah Brooks on her SFFdirect website. It’s a great read.

Monday, July 8th saw the adjudication for our dialogue competition, judged by novelist and poet, Mandy Sutter, and compèred by our new competitions secretary, Emma Storr. No less than 29 members submitted pieces for the competition, providing quite a challenge for our judge. She described the quality of the entries as high throughout and began with providing some very helpful advice in respect to the pitfalls to avoid when writing dialogue, as well as offering a few useful tips. Mandy went on to provide individual feedback for all the people present on the night who had submitted. Finally, we enjoyed readings of the winning dialogues. It all made for a thoroughly stimulating and entertaining evening.

The winning members present on the night (from left to right): Pat Pickavance, Judge Mandy Sutter, Rita Morrison (with winner’s trophy), Linda Fulton, Ian Harker and Jenny Tennant-Jackson.