Meetings

FEBRUARY MEETING

Many thanks to you all for attending which again was a big turnout plus a huge welcome to four new writers, I hope we can support you in what you require.

Faversham Literary Festival – Jane has very kindly offered four tickets to the events pictured below, to our group. Paul is having the Michael Rosen one so if any of you would like to go to the others please let me know and I will give them to you on Thursday evening.

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The event at The Beacon is coming along with almost twenty authors booked so far. If you know of any authors or artists, as we have lots of wall space to fill, who would like to be involved then please get them to contact me. There will be live music, I am looking for buskers so there is some background music in the sitting and eating area. I have a couple of wellbeing practitioners but could do with some more, please. The Write By The Sea authors will be in a group together plus I am thinking of having a reading corner so you can read parts of your books to people. If you have not registered for this then please let me know and I can send you the form.  Chris and Liz from The Chambers are doing the bar and food.

Shakespeare Evening – 23rd April, we will read out what we have written under the heading of what would he think about his birthday today, what presents would he have today, imagine you are him. Or even a comparisen of then and now for his birthday.

As the event last year at The Chambers was so good they are keen to have another one so that will be a Book Festival Fringe Event again on Sunday the 18th October from 11am until 6pm. This will consist of three separate areas downstairs for crime, sci-fi and can we have an idea for the third, I would like children’s authors but we do not appear to have that many local or even in Kent that I know.

Our writing task for March will be any of our work, so we can get feedback from everyone. This is of course optional.

Andy got back to me about the Anthology and competition so we will discuss this at the next group meeting. Please think about your stories about ghostly goings-on in Folkestone if you would like them to be added to the book. Also a ghostly cover photo plus someone to illustrate inside in parts. Or even drawings of each place that is written about.

Thursday is our event for this month, a Poetry Workshop for Valentine Day. Thank you all for helping to publicise all our events.

The link for the publication event is on Facebook but please share also our events and dates.

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Meetings

JANUARY MEETING

We held our first meeting of the year in the new venue, THE HIDEAWAY, I would like to take this opportunity of thanking Matt & Leanne for their hospitality. Food and drink will be available at all meetings. A warm welcome to our new members.

I have closed the private Facebook group so we just have a page on Facebook, it was not being used for members writing and I am trying to keep things easy and simple.  I will put everything on the website and Mark has very kindly offered to transfer it onto social media. Thank you so much, Mark.

Please go onto the website at folkestonewritebythesea.wordpress.com and scroll down until you get to this:

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Then follow by putting in your email address. You will then get an email when I post something for the group. I have started to do the posts for the 33 authors that attended the book event in November so they will be on there, please do like and share them for the authors.

The stories from the Living advent will go in our GHOSTLY ANTHOLOGY that I plan to have done by Halloween so we can sell it then. Members can submit stories or poems in this theme up to about 3,000 words. The cost will be £5 for each piece of work entered. We can proofread each others that you can organise yourself as to who you would like to ask as some like myself are not very good at that. We will also need a ghostly Folkestone photo for the cover. For the artists amongst you, it would be nice to have some illustrations between the work. I will bring in the last 4 anthology books for everyone to have a look at as to the setup. I will ask HG Wells society if he could come and advise us about how he does their books.

We will be drawing up a funding proposal for the anthology and advertising stands, Debby has kindly offered to help with that. We will ask local such as the council and Roger De Hann for funds.

We are having a CRIME PANAL DAY on a Saturday during September, details to follow about that.

Every Thursday will be a WRITING DAY at THE HIDEAWAY from 9 am until 3 pm This is for you to write or get advice from other members.  I will try to be there during the mornings but then from 1 pm until 2.30 pm I will be doing the STORYTIME at THE WELLBEING CENTRE by Sainsbury’s, if you would like to come along to listen or read or to help and maybe take a session then please do let me know.

 

The children’s writing competition put on by Pelham House has been cancelled as there were only 6 entries. I have suggested to them that maybe they should just involve groups such as brownies, cadets etc as schools have such a tight curriculum now it is hard to fit extra things in. Also if they want to do workshops then the group organisers can take these as they have already got their police checks. So we may be asked next year just to judge, we will have to wait and see.

There is now a BOOK SWAP on the side in THE HIDEAWAY so please all make use of that, I started it off with a few of Jane Wenham-Jones books and Dave Stone put his book in there.

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There won’t be a newsletter anymore just these posts with all the news. I will also do one for any up-coming competitions that look appropriate for us and low cost.

I have bought an A-frame notice board for outside THE HIDEAWAY I have to re-paint it then it can have a poster of our picture and dates of meetings written on it. Leanne has kindly offered to do the writing on the board.

Our charity last year was MIND we raised £31 for them and I have given it to them. They will be putting photos and info about our group on their website. They will also be bringing it up at the next meeting about our group and them getting involved in it by way of sending people who would like to write for their mental health.

I will be sending a write-up to all the small free booklets like the Folkestone town one letting them know our dates and plans so hopefully, we will get another free inclusion as they appear to be the best for advertising.

This year appears to be the ’60 years’ old, Matthew and Debby have said they are having a garden party on the 20th June for members and families. It will be bring a plate then a barbeque in the evening, they have a marquee also will look into some live music. For more information please have a chat to Matthew or Debby.

Please could everyone take a couple of posters and put out as then we are spreading the word about our group. I am eager for people to join in who are housebound as they can still share their work and read our posts.

I will be chatting on ACADAMY FM at just after the news at 11 am on the first Wednesday of every month with Kay.  Acadamy fm

THE BEACON has asked me to advise and help them put on an event similar to the November one. Thank you, Paul, for offering to come with me and be note-taker, it does all sound like a brilliant idea. This will be on a far bigger scale, plus including artists and wellbeing practitioners as well as us authors and a bar with food.  I am setting up meetings for this week to get a rough idea of interest, if you would like to have a table for the first event in April then please let me know. I am thinking we could have a block of tables together for our group. There is much to organise but I should have everything planned by our next group meeting. The Beacon will do the main advertising but we can all share on our pages over social media. I will do another post about all this hopefully next weekend if all meetings have gone ahead.

Members read from their books or stories they had written, it is nice to hear what we are each up to.

Hannah has suggested that she records the author events and put them on our website, I think that is another good idea, especially for people that can’t get to our meetings.

TASK – We picked four words: COFFEE   MAGAZINE    ROYAL    MANIC                                Your task is to make something from these words and bring it along to the next group meeting on the 6th February at 6.30 to share if you would like to, no pressure from us.

See you all on the 23rd of January at 6.30 for our author event where I will be chatting to two first time authors about the roads they travelled to get their books published. I am sure this will be a really interesting and well-attended event. We all want to know how to get published.

Thank you all so much for attending, have a great writing week.

News

EVENTS

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What a busy time the writing group have had the last few weeks, first we had the book event and meeting all those brilliant authors, I will be doing blog posts about each of them next week.

The Chambers hosted a fundraising Christmas market to raise funds for the homeless,  another great event last Sunday. Jodie and I bought a pack of the wax covers and food wrap which are made from cotton and wax. Feels hard but softens so you can wrap it around food, such as lime and lemons for your Christmas drinks.

We then popped over to the wellbeing centre as they had some stalls where people were selling things they had made. Jodie got a cute little wreath to put around a candle.

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We also had our Living Advent calendar door number ten to open, what an absolutely brilliant evening. The five ghost stories about prominent places in Folkestone went down so well and everybody remembered their lines. We then had a Christmas buffet for members and family so that was a great evening.

We are finished now for this year but will be back on the eighth of January when I will be on the radio then the next day we have the first group meeting at The Hideaway at 6.30.

Have a super Christmas and Happy New Year

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News

WHO’S BEEN READING ABOUT US?

I have just checked on the numbers for this site and was surprised to see the number of countries that have been having a look so thought I would share with you.

We will be using this site for all the group’s events and notices next year so if you haven’t put in your email then head there now just scroll down this page until you see this: BA1A5C53-6953-4CAE-96F4-6C0A931B7781_1_201_a

Then click on FOLLOW US. You will then be emailed as soon as something is posted on here.

News

WRITE BY THE SEA WILL BE MEETING AT THE HIDEAWAY FROM JANUARY 2020

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From the 9th January 2020, this writing group will be held at The Hideaway in Bouverie Road West. The bar and restaurant will be open with an evening menu available.  It is all on the same level so easily managed for the disabled.

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Our meetings will follow the same as this year, a group meeting and an author talk each month. We will also have special events like a sci-fi evening and a crime panel, these dates will be available next year.

We will also have a BOOK SWAP table for the readers, a group book reading will be available each month for the members who like to read and chat about the books. Maybe we could read the book that our visiting author has written so we can then ask any questions we may have about the book?

We should have our retreat up and running by the summer so if you have any ideas of workshops you would like to attend then please let me know.  My plan is for authors to come and stay in Folkestone so they can just write in a calm atmosphere but with the opportunity of attending workshops if they would like too.

Newsletters will now be emailed to all members once a month. Please sign up to receive emails with the latest posts from this website as then you will not miss anything.

We welcome new members, also if anyone wants to be part of the group but cannot attend the meetings then do please let me know as I can keep you informed about everything from the group.

Thank you to everyone that attends you are what makes this group so great.

News

MONOPOLY COMES TO FOLKESTONE!

I think Karen’s World should go on here! lol

I cannot wait to get hold of this and have a big Folkestone games night. I can think of so many places that could go on here so what a task that is going to be for them. We even beat Cornwall to get this board, how good is that? I am going to show you my list so please let me know what you think, or have I missed something out? I do of course think I should go on there lol

Karen’s World

MY LIST

The Harbour Arm
The Warren
The Old High Street
Martello Tower
Write by the sea (Folkestone’s writing group)
Quarterhouse
Chummies fish stall
Party Bar
St Eanswythe church
Eurotunnel
Burstin Hotel
Sunny sands
The Leas

I wonder if they will put places on from the past as then it would have to be:

The Parisian and The Rotunda!

I am just so excited, it’s going to be great. I never realised how many places actually have their own Monopoly until I started to write this blog post. I wonder if I can get them to send me the first one, then maybe I could play it with my favourite Folkestone people in one of the places they pick!

News

NEWS ABOUT FREE COURSE

Jane very kindly has let us know about this free course that she has completed so I am sharing it with you all.

START WRITING FICTION

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Derek Neale

A novelist and short-story writer – his latest novel is The Book of Guardians – Derek has recorded many interviews with novelists, playwrights and biographers about their approach to writing.

Please let us know how you get on and what you think.