WRITE BY THE SEA IN FOLKESTONE
To provide a safe, inclusive and constructive environment for local writers to share and discuss their work.
At our first meeting on the 13th of January at 6pm, we will be catching up on any news and finalising the details of our next anthology.
We will also share our stories about the photo we picked from the assortment below.
See you on the 13th
On the 9th December from 6pm, we will be having our end-of-year celebration with a Christmas buffet. Everybody is welcome including partners and if you are thinking about joining the group then pop along and meet us all during a relaxed and friendly evening. There will be a nominal charge per person which Matt is working out from The Hideaway.
The members will each be writing a verse for a Christmas card which we will share during the evening.
Our two anthologies will be for sale, Ghosts By The Sea and Doorways To The Sea also if any members would like to bring a couple of their own books so others can see what they have done and buy them or get the link from yourselves then that would be great.
This will be a good time to get to know others from the group and maybe discuss any ideas for next year.
Karen
Our next group meeting is on the 4th November starting at 6pm for people to get a drink, network and eat, then we start the meeting about 6.45
Our topic for the evening is emotions, the task set by Andy will be to write about 100 words transferring from one emotion to another. If you use any books like the one above please bring them along to share with your work.
See you on the 4th.
The writing group had a very different event last week which proved to be very interesting, there are many forms of spiritualism and we only really touched on a couple. We had the lovely Carly Rose who actually came to our very first meetings and had been writing a book for a few years. After going through some traumatic events she found herself at the point of following her beliefs and also writing a book about healing.
Carly Rose is the podcast host for The White Witch Podcast and an author who lives with the sea at the end of her road in Folkestone, Kent with her daughter Amelie, french bulldog Bowie and witch’s black cat Tarot. As a kid Carly never wanted to be a princess always wanted to be a witch, her mum Leonie is a closet green witch and honours many traditional pagan ways, combined with her grandparents moving from South London to Bodmin in Cornwall with school holidays packed off to stay with trips to Bodmin Moor, famous for its druid stone circles, talk of the fae and Cornish piskies along with the odd visit to the Boscastle Witches Museum all sparked a love for the craft which has never left Carly.
Carly loves aspects of the craft that link to green and hedgewitch practices such as working with native herbs and plants and shamanic rituals. With the podcast and her first book, The White Witch’s Book of Healing, Carly aims through her work to keep some of the old ways very much alive and known of but to demystify how you can integrate some of these practices into your craft and turn to witchcraft to support your spiritual and mental well being. Something that has been so very vital and beneficial within Carly’s own life.
Carly’s first book shines a light on navigating the dark night of the soul, deconstructs shadow work, soul loss and soul retrieval, inner child work and reparenting yourself, shamanic journeying and deciphers working with deities and ancestors within your practice. This book offers up spell work and rituals relating to gods and goddesses, ancestral magick, processing grief, heartbreak, cord-cutting, self-love and confidence, through to bringing in the new using the witches pyramid. Journal and divination prompts are scattered throughout this book to help you work through your deepest of soul wounds.
The White Witches Book of Healing offers nourishing and encouraging support through a blend of nurturing self-care ideas combined with more disciplined processes that can build a foundation for personal self-transformation.
Find more of her work at https://www.patreon.com/thewhitewitchcoven or listen to her podcast The White Witch Podcast on all good podcast hosts.
Book available to buy from Amazon here.
Mary was our second speaker, who talked about how she writes down what she hears from the spirit world. Some of her examples were very clear and precise which gave everyone something to think about.
Since when have you reached out to the sky and asked for help? Why do humans look to the sky for inspiration? I believe that deep in all of us there is a fundamental belief that there is another energy or life beyond our scope of understanding? If only we could access it, our questions might get answered, or some comfort provided. Mary Leadbetter, a practising Medium and Spiritual healer shares some of her channelled writing, which is given to her like dictation. Some of the pieces are philosophical: some are from individuals who relate their earthly life and explain about life in another dimension. If you are in need of comfort, or of some explanation about the world beyond, then this little book could supply some answers.
Mary’s book is available on Amazon here.
We also had Anna from Magpie Emporium who bought a small selection of her wares, which I must say were so good. Pick the crystal you would like in a necklace or have a couple on a bracelet. Lots of things for the witches amongst us plus Tarot cards and many many more wonderful gifts, which would make great Christmas presents.
Anna from Magpie Emporium is here on Facebook.
You can find Anna here on Instagram.
Our next meeting is on the 1st July at 6pm, we are starting a bit earlier so people have time to get their drink and order food also have a catch up with other members.
Please let us know if you are attending so we can keep an eye on numbers.
The Hideaway – Thursday 30th July 2020
After welcoming everyone, discussing the social distancing and leaving all names plus numbers as per the recommendations from the government, then the drinks were bought with some eating as well, we then got underway. It was great to see you all after such a long time.
It was a good turnout for our first meeting since this awful pandemic started with twelve of us meeting and apologies from Debby, Matthew, Carol, Mary and John.
Tony decided that the Zoom would not work as needed someone to ‘man’ it. Facebook messenger was suggested but think that would have the same problem. Mark suggested that we film it and then put it on the website. I will talk to Hannah as she may have a suggestion.
Debby asked me to mention the Hythe Festival 25th to 27th September, Facebook page here. They are thinking a book marquee for workshops, readings and selling your books. I will update when I hear more but keep the dates free if you can.
Author events – These may be people we know or our own members giving a talk. I will chat to Charlie Gallagher as he could do a local talk. Also, our member Paul who writes children’s books offered to do one, I thought this would be good as not had a children’s author visit us. I had Andy Markwell booked to do a talk about photography for book covers in November so hopefully, that will still go ahead.
Roll-up banner – Tony met up with Roger to ask about the progress so it is still in hand and going ahead, we must remind him in a couple of weeks and see how it is progressing.
Our Anthology – Andy did some calculations so we are looking at the 5 advent calender stories, which may need a polish off by the writers. Then another 15 stories of about 1,500 to 5,000, I am thinking 2,000 is an average word count. It would be good to have a couple of poems and some illustrations or photos to mix it all up. Should we have a children’s section at the back with a story and poem in there for our young readers? The theme has always been ghostly set in Folkestone but you can mix that up into romance, comedy or anything, as you are all great writers. I can ask Andy Markwell to assist us in the cover photo. We will aim for Halloween, Christmas or Easter lol
Sharing of work – It was great to hear what everyone has been up to on their writing journeys and listening to the poems and stories we all shared.
The Wellbeing Centre – I have had to stop the storytime sessions here but if any of you would like to do something similar then please contact Sheree on Facebook messenger.
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) – This will be for the month of November, I think we should all try to be involved with this, more so if we do have another lockdown as we can make a messenger group or WhatsApp group to keep everyone updated about what and how much they have written. We can support and encourage each other.
Future meetings
Meetings held at The Hideaway, 16 Bouverie Rd West,
Folkestone CT20 2SZ at 6.30 pm
3rd September – Ghostly writing to share and brainstorm
8th October – Group meeting plus ghostly writing & sharing work
12th November – Group meeting & sharing work
19th November – Andy Markwell, photography for book covers
10th December – Group meeting & Christmas meal/buffet
7th January – Group meeting
Contact: Karen 07967532899 or email: karensworld.writer.co.uk
See you all on the 3rd September at 6.30pm New members always welcome
I have attached a poster of dates so if any of you can share that it would be good as I am not putting out posters in town myself.
https://folkestonewritebythesea.wordpress.com
Hi, first of all I hope you are keeping well and safe. A few things have been bubbling away in the background and I would like to share the Zoom meetings with you that Tony has undertaken to host for the group. Thank you Tony.
I am struggling with this lockdown so not really up for much at all, in fact I keep thinking I should be writing about all this as it will eventually be history that our future generations will read about and learn, but the motivation and thoughts are just not there.
Here is the message from Tony about how to connect with us tonight.
TONIGHT 6.55
Firstly, if you have not already done so, please make sure you have downloaded Zoom:
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The meeting ID is 788-8834-9662
The meeting Password is 132655
You may not have to use these figures.
I will open things up at 6.55pm.
I have now purchased a monthly subscription to Zoom, so there should be no issues about the meeting stopping suddenly.
That said, we can break again around 8pm in order that, those who wish to, can express their support for key workers.
I am planning now that we are joined each week by one or more local creatives to entertain us. This week, I am delighted to say that we have two popular artists for the price of one.
Some of you may know Helen Finn (Finn to her friends), owner of YoYo’s Street Food stall on the Old High Street. She is also a talented singer-songwriter, as well as fine interpreter of others’ work, and she will be singing and playing for us this evening.
In addition, I am so pleased that we will have Anthony White from Poets’ Corner reading his latest poem, “Isolation April 2020”.
With the 75th anniversary of VE Day on the following day, I invite attendees to read anything relating to the Second World War that is meaningful to them – poem, speech, personal reminiscence. Frank Butler and I are currently planning to read from the poets from that conflict.
It would also have been Robert Browning’s birthday, so if anyone wants to read from his work, they will be very welcome.
Ultimately, you are invited to read anything – a favourite poem, extract from fiction – or something you have written.
And if all else fails, I have another light Coronavirus inspired quiz for us to do!
Finally, if anyone would like to invite friends to join us, it would be great to see them too.
Look forward to seeing you this evening!
First of all thank you to the one’s that attended the group meeting and I am very sorry that I could not get there. I have a problem with my heart and now blood pressure that thinks it’s a yow yow. Hopefully they will sort this out soon as do not really want to spend any more time in the hospital with the current situation. Thank you Hannah for taking notes.
Please take care all of you, there will be no Thursday morning writing at The Hideaway for the foreseeable future. The Wellbeing centre is also closed.
Kerry Barnes author event Thursday 19th March
After speaking to Kerry we have decided to cancel this event, we will re-book Kerry for later in the year.
The event at The Beacon has been postponed until the 15th & 16th August, this will be an even bigger event which will include workshops and an outside area. So please keep the dates free. Anyone that booked and paid for their table it can be transferred to the new dates. There will also be a Christmas event over two days at the beginning of December, dates to be confirmed. You can each decide which events you would like to attend if not wanting to do all of them.
The Chambers loved the event last year so they would like another one on 18th October which will be on a Sunday 11am to 6pm. Sci-fi, crime and ? to be decided, any ideas? I would like it to be children’s but it is finding enough childrens authors, if you know of any then please ask them and get their details for the next meeting.
The Folkestone Rotary are very kindly buying us our roll up banner, everyone agreed with the design and I will put picture at the end. They have requested a talk for one of their meetings so if that is this month then Tony Quarrington will deliver it, if anyone wants to go with him you are more than welcome or if you would like to send a letter for him to read out about what you think of the group etc then please do. Contact Tony at tonyquarrington@msn.com
Our Ghostly Anthology is going ahead with printing in September, ready to sell in October. The stories from the Living Advent will be included, these can be increased or adapted if required. We need some more ghostly stories set in Folkestone of between 1500 and 5000 words. There will be about 15 stories plus the 5 from advent calendar. Please spread the word to your writerly friends, if you want any more information then please email Andy at MARCHIE77@googlemail.com Maybe Hannah Palmer could do a poster and leaflet when she has time as I know she is really busy at the moment. I will contact Hannah Nickolls to see if she would like to do some illustrations for the inside. I am looking for a good ghostly photo for the cover of our book, so keep your cameras ready for that one special photo. The closing date for stories will be 31st July. Then we have August to pick the 15 stories and arrange design ready for printing in September.
During this hard time of living with this coronavirus you can always share your work here, asking for feedback if wanted, plus write your ghostly stories about Folkestone. At the next group meeting on 2nd April you can share your own work if you require feedback or write a short crime piece of about 150 words. If we cannot hold the meeting we can do it on-line. Please do not feel isolated as we are all here for each other.
On 23rd April there will be a Shakespeare Evening organised by Tony with music, food, posters. For your task think about what he would make of his birthday in 2020, his presents, the party, or even imagine you are him. You can read a saying, quote or poem that he wrote. This sounds like a very entertaining evening and we can all hope that this goes ahead, I will keep you informed.
Stay healthy everyone and hope to see you all soon.
