Month: February 2022

Poems

MATTHEWS POEM

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Christmas Poem 

What is a poem, without a rhyme? 

It’s like William Shakespeare sitting on the loo doing a ……. 

The same goes for Christmas, without any snow; dark and dank, without any cheer, just like 2020, no parties or fun, unless of course you live at number ………. 

So what was the highlight to brighten the year; it was friends and creativity, all coming together, not living in fear. 

Karen our leader, with her love for bags and high heels rallies the troops, to set minds free, just so we can all enjoy, what each other thinks, sometimes great works, sometimes more for the loo! 

Caroline,  yes; Caroline, doen’t like carols, so this Christmas we sing Carolines, outside please, under the mistletoe. 

Carol our songstress, I’m sure has written a few lines of Jaz, Rhythm and Blues; mostly about love, but hardship, injustice and possibly all of you lot too! 

David, yes David, we all love you. Always a smile, laughter, and a joke, you brighten the room wherever you go. 

Anne Nevelle, otherwise mysteriously named, Margaret, is a brilliant writer too; well educated in verse and storytelling, she’ll be ready to mark my school work, yet another ‘2’! 

Andy arrives with troops, so beautiful and well behaved. They bring down the average age, and keeping dad, in good order, ensure he behaves. 

Jana, the astounding, can write in English too. We haven’t learnt any Czechoslovakian, however ……‘Veselé Vánoce’  

All characters in the poem are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental  

News

NEXT ANTHOLOGY

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Stories and poems for the anthology.

A journey that includes or involves Folkestone set in any period of time and written in any genre. Stories or poems, with a word count of up to 3,000 words. Any photos to be in black and white and jpeg format, please note that they will be reduced in size for the book. Closing date 31st August 2022 All submissions are to be sent to Debby at gorddinan@live.com.

All about us

ALL ABOUT US

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To provide a safe, inclusive and constructive environment for local writers to share and discuss their work.

We meet twice a month on a Thursday evening at 6.00 pm, our venue for the group meetings is Anna’s which opens just for us so as a thank you, we purchase drinks and food if required from the bar to consume during the evening. Our events are held here as well at 7pm.

Our group meeting includes a catch-up of all bookish news, competitions, events, submissions and writing-related opportunities. A group exercise is given by one of our members, which is normally a fun way to get your brain thinking about words, sentences and writing. A sharing of work for general discussion and constructive feedback for the writer. Planning for future events. There is also a book swap at Anna’s. 

We then have an event given by an author, illustrator, journalist, critic, poet, writer, publisher or anyone that is local to Folkestone and Kent in the book industry of some description. The talk is about an hour then we have a Q&A session for everyone to participate in. We have a day each week to meet and write, anyone can pop along to these, bring your notebook or laptop to get some words down.  

There is no charge for our events, everyone is welcome plus we are very friendly. Our members have produced two anthologies with the next published in May 2023 they are all available on Amazon. 

Our dream would be to build a community of ‘bookish’ people and offer Writing Retreats in Folkestone.

Events

MEETING CHARLIE GALLAGHER

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Write By The Sea had a wonderful evening on Thursday, with local crime writer Charlie Gallagher. After quite a few years as a serving police officer, Charlie is living the dream and writing full time. What did we cover? It would probably be easier to ask what we DIDN’T cover, but to give you a flavour…life as an author with and without a literary agent, the process of editing (not to be confused with proof reading), Point of View and Narrative Voice, genre and getting your books onto Audible, which is a rapidly growing sector of the market. Watch out for future Write By The Sea events.

I would like to take this opportunity of thanking The Grand for allowing us to hold our events in their spacious Tudor room. All our events will now be here, starting at 7pm. You may bring your own refreshments but tea and coffee will be available for a donation if possible.