Ellie Adams organised two socials this August. The first event, an open mic night, was a great success, with about 20 members present to hear a typically wide variety of readings, with lots of time to chat in between and afterwards, quite late into the evening. The idea was to read a favourite passage or story or poem. For your interest, here is a list of who read what. Some ideas for future reading, perhaps?
Ellie Adams – an extract from The Thought Gang by Tibor Fischer
Emma Storr – short story extract (with lots of swearing) from Dark lies the Island by Kevin Barry
Chris Read – selected paragraphs from Dishonesty is the Second Best Policy by David Mitchell
Jaspreet Mander – poems: Sounds of the Day and Rag and Bone by Norman MacCaig
Bob Hamilton – short story: The Weight of Dunlins, by Colin Watts
Miriam Moss – a number of poems from Michael Rosen
Richard Wilcocks – poem: Campo dei Fiori by Czeslaw Milosz
Linda Fulton – flash fictions from My Mother was an Upright Piano by Tania Hershman
Graeme Hall – the finish to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Susie Beever – extract from Orbital by Samantha Harvey
The second event was a quiz compiled by Francis Maietta, and was again a great success, with 5 teams of quiz goers who identified themselves as Alexander Dumas, So Long and Thanks for All the Quiz, The Old Vic Stalwarts, We’re Post Genre Anyway? and The Orwellians.
The winning team with a whopping 78 points out of 100 was The Old Vic Stalwarts (Sarah, Graeme, Lucie and Mark, pictured above, deep in consultation), who will each be taking home a £5 book voucher. It was a close second for The Orwellians who totalled 73 points. A huge thank you goes to Francis for creating such an enjoyable quiz and for being the evening’s quiz master. The teams of We’re Post Genre Anyway? and Thanks for All the Quiz possibly deserved prizes for their names alone.
Selso, the newly elected Chair, receives the gavel from Miriam, the outgoing Chair.
At a lively and entertaining AGM last night, which went the full distance to 9.30pm, Selso Xisto was elected to be the new Circle Chair, taking over after a three year stint from Miriam Moss, who steered our course through a tricky time post-Covid, leaving the Circle in excellent health. After receiving the gavel, in typically unconventional fashion, Selso offered us a heartfelt poem. He didn’t really need to apologise to the actual poets in the Circle! Most of those attending found their way to the pub afterwards and it was unanimously agreed that the Circle is indeed in safe hands.
The Circle
It’s just a hobby, it won’t pay the bills You need a real job with marketable skills Get your head down, chase that promotion But… this isn’t the life I’d have chosen
I’m OK with being a weirdo, the only one in the room whose mind is elsewhere, like a castle, a tomb or a ship, a meadow, a nebula, or a plane anywhere to escape the dull, the mundane
I’m used to the polite smile, the change of subject I know you’re not interested in my little project Imagine a world where everything I write Is greeted with applause and smiles of delight
But that’s not how it works. You don’t care, that’s OK No one wants to hear what I have to say So I scribbled my stories just for myself Fantasised about seeing my book on that shelf
I could be ‘normal’. I could pretend But inside, I’d be waiting for the smalltalk to end Then one day, a Circle changed my life forever A room full of weirdos, their minds full of treasure
You… want to hear my story? Do you really? Are you sure? But it’s rubbish, it’s a first draft, I’m being premature It’s alright. We understand. You’re not the only weirdo around here Our characters are real to us too, we’ll lend you an ear
Pantsers and plotters, poems and prose Novelists, doodlers, amateurs and pros Semicolon or em-dash, bold or italic Even brackets or an asterisk, though emoji are… problematic
I’ve found a planet where I can breathe without a mask Brilliant, creative minds, happy to help if you ask This Circle means more to me than my words can describe My search is over. I have found my tribe
Posting this at the end of March 2025, there are 15 months to catch up with since our last Successes post. Time flies. As we did in 2023, post-Covid, we put on a number of member-led workshops, all of which proved to be entertaining and very helpful to members. We are privileged as an organisation to have so much in-house talent and expertise to draw upon. Huge thanks to the following leaders involved.
March 2nd: USING SCRIVENER – Led by Selso Xisto Nov 9th: HISTORICAL FICTION: FACTS AND FANTASY – Led by Sarah Dodd Jan 11th: THE BEWILDERED WRITER’S GUIDE TO WORLDBUILDING – Led by Luc Biyard
Undoubtedly, the major success to report is the publication of Sarah Dodd’s The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, under her writing name of Sarah Brooks. At one point it was No.9 on the Sunday Times Bestsellers List for Hardback Fiction and one place ahead of Stephen King! Sarah’s novel has garnered some wonderful reviews. For newer members and anyone coming across this by chance, this one from the Guardian will give you a flavour.
Also, with the release of his latest novel, The Fairfax Redemption, Chris Shevlin has now topped lifetime sales of 100,000 on the Amazon platform. It’s a huge achievement and an inspiration for us all in that you don’t necessarily have to go down the traditional publishing route to achieve success—although it certainly helps to be as talented as Chris.
It took a bit of prising from Chris to discover that he was on the very short longlist for the Bath Novel Award for 2024, one of the most prestigious novel competitions around.
Quite a few of us in the Circle are plugging away at our unpublished novels, writing, editing, honing drafts, generally putting in the hard yards, any kind of success feeling like only a distant possibility. It’s lovely to be able to report then that three members have recently been recognised in separate novel competitions. Panni Loh is currently longlisted in a major one. Gemma Irving Lees was shortlisted for Picasso Among the Pigeons in the Farnham Literary Festival’s First Five Pages Competition. And Bob Hamilton was shortlisted for The Strange Talent of Madeleine Mallarkey in Retreat West’s Opening Chapter Competition.
On to short stories and it feels like it’s becoming harder and harder to get a piece published and out there into the world. That said, Stephanie Soper has had no less than seven short stories published in the Sayings of Life anthology by Spilt Ink. Panni Loh has had Chickens, Wolves and Lightning published in the Nightmare with a Twist anthology by Barrio Blues Press, as well as a flash fiction, Winter Solstice, published on Paragraph Planet. Mari Phillips has had three flash pieces published on Cafe Lit—love you lots on 27 March, Number thirty-five on 30 April, and A Shoe Story on 20 August. Mari also had Obituary published on Paragraph Planet.
Members have had a couple of articles published in the year. Graeme Hall had a piece published in The Author—the house magazine of the Society of Authors—on Ageism in Publishing. Stepanie Soper had a half-page spread commissioned by the Phuket News, on how to be a writer. Also, Emma Storr continues to get published on The London Grip with a number of poetry reviews.
Moving on, then, to poetry, Emma was placed 2nd with On Seaham Beach in this year’s Molecules Unlimited Poetry Competition, judged by no less than Imtiaz Dharker. This was a poem previously offered for critique at a Circle meeting and tweaked accordingly. Emma also had three children’s poems published in the Dirigible Balloon, accompanied by some of Su Ryder‘s artwork. Richard Wilcocks had his ekphrastic poem, Newport Tip—inspired by a photo of Tish Murtha’s—published in The Fig Tree Webzine.
Finally, no less than six members had poems published in Chapel FM’s 2024 collection with the theme of Recovery—Ann Clarke with Sweetest Hangover, Ben Grunwell with A Fallen Writer’s Philosophy, Gail Mosley with Missing on the Remarkables, Jaspreet Mander with Worlds and Wardrobes, Marg Greenwood with Buoys will be Buoys, and Terry Buchan with Charity Shop.
Leeds Writers Circle 