COMPETITIONS, Events, Meetings, News

MEETING & NEWS

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.

screenshot 2020-02-29 at 12.39.54

 

Events

TONIGHT – TONIGHT – TONIGHT

screenshot 2019-12-10 at 12.41.52

We have had lots of interest in tonight’s event so I think it will be very popular. If you are thinking of publishing then please do pop along. I will be talking to two first time authors who took very different roads to publishing their first book.

I will be talking to them both on the sofa, trying to find out all the details, then I will open it up for questions from the audiance.

As usual this is a free event for anyone to pop along too, all we ask is that you buy a drink from the bar to support the venue.

See you tonight

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:

E8D94EF5-EC79-4A39-B5DE-9AE2065F2663_1_201_a

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.

7379ABF9-0ABC-4826-B848-03304E62E3F3_1_201_a

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.