Hampshire Writers' Society

Author: Catherine Griffin

  • Tuesday, 8th May How to Find Your Writing Voice: Sophie King aka Janey Fraser aka Jane Bidder

    JaneBidderA report by Carole Hastings from the Hampshire Writers’ Society May 8th meeting

    Sophie King took us through the main session of how to create a voice that will have you stand out on the publisher’s pile. Sophie is a successful author who started her writing career under her name of Jane Bidder as a journalist and author of non fiction books for Orion. She has now published five contemporary novels and non fiction books under the name of Sophie King, a name deemed very marketable by her publishers. As Janey Fraser she has a new book called, The Playgroup.

    She shared a number of tips and exercises to help us develop our voice or voices:

    • Your first and last sentence are key – these are the two that will make the agent/editor read more …
    • Use photographs to inspire you – try out different scenarios – use them as stepping stones – do it daily
    • Set yourself challenges and meet new people – more book material to help you widen your experience
    • Try writing with a buddy to create a change in tone
    • Use a change of circumstances to help you find a new voice
    • Write in a different place, perhaps at a different time, perhaps with a change of hairstyle
    • Read what you normally don’t read to see if another genre might be for you
    • Write for five minutes each day without thinking – try subjects you’ve never thought of before
    • Think about your characters and their relationships before you start on your plot
    • Use your book framework as a guide and let the characters evolve
    • Revise your work before you move onto your next chapter
    • Make sure there’s an action point or element of conflict in each chapter and aim to keep them of similar lengths
    • Try out different narratives/viewpoints but avoid first person for anything other than a short story as it may become restrictive in a novel
    • Have more than one viewpoint in a novel but don’t muddle them
    • Make sure you have a balance of narrative and dialogue
    • Avoid writing two different books in two different voices at the same time – you’ll lose your voice …
    • Try your hand at competitions – Writing Magazine is a good read for all writers

    Check out Sophie’s website.

    Stephen Boyce, freelance heritage and arts consultant and published poet talked to us about the developments in Southampton and Winchester on the cultural scene. He’s Chair of Culture Southampton and gave us the heads up the the new arts complex, including studios and a theatre, being developed on Guildhall Square in the heart of Southampton. There will be a public performance on June 16 for those who want a taste of what’s to come. He then read a tender poem about his father photographing his young bride en route for their honeymoon.

    It was encouraging to hear from Hermione Wilds [Laake] that going to an English Literature session with Gary Farnell at the Winchester Writers’ Conference was the catalyst in moving her from aspiring writer to published author. Her book Bertha’s Journal is soon to be available on Amazon and from the publishers Strategic who are the joint publishing venture involved. The video link for Bertha’s Journal.

  • Speaker: Ali Sparkes Children’s Author: Why Did It Take 30 Years to Find out That I am an Author?

    Ali Sparkes didn’t know she was meant to be an author for about 30 years. How she got to be one is a tale of sequins, plops, lovelorn bats, juggling unicyclists, many props and much silliness. In a stirring, tempestuous session, Ali will share her many ups and even more downs… and show you fear in a handful of Tellytubby.  Ali Sparkes’ website.

    Review of Hampshire Writers’ Society Evening 10th April 2012 
    Report by Carole Hastings:

    It was a brilliant evening kicked off by Mark Courtice, the director of the Theatre Royal in Winchester. He told us that the theatre is soon to open its garden space so that theatre goers can have a bite whilst enjoying some new performance pieces. He will be commissioning some new works and is happy to hear from writers who would like to have their works aired at the theatre.

    Next up was the Hampshire Poet Laureate, Brian Evan-Jones who read his first commissioned poem on Lymington entitled “By Sea & Forest Enchanted.” He will read his second work as part of the Jubilee celebrations at Winchester Cathedral in June. He has plans to create a poetic map of Hampshire and is interested in hearing from groups who might like to contribute poems to an anthology or work with him on creating some new poems.

    Ali Sparkes held the floor with an exciting and engaging session on her progress from a six year old with poor reading skills – courtesy of experimental alphabet-free teaching – to a top children’s author. As a child she dreamt of being on stage and being a performer of some description but all the time she wrote adventures.

    Her journey started with family word games around the kitchen table, failed attempts at being accepted by acting schools, backstage work at musicals, a Bluecoat at Pontins [hoping for an Equity card], cabaret singer, journo then comedy writer for the Daily Echo, staffer for BBC Radio Solent, then a freelancer with pieces aired on Woman’s Hour and Home Truths. All this, whilst writing and pitching works to publishers.

    Ali was frank and funny about her rejections, her earliest as a teenager and others after monumental feats of writing – 60,000 words in a fortnight. She opted for getting an agent and signed up to the late Rosemary Canter at Peters Fraser & Dunlop. She landed Ali with a contract from Oxford University Press for a five part series of Shapeshifter a couple of weeks after the deal was signed.

    Ali was entertaining and inspiring – she is a success without any formal creative writing training or mentoring. She draws elements of her books from her family and advised us to always write the first draft of any book so that it entertains you first and foremost. Her latest book, Frozen in Time was inspired by The Famous Five, a childhood favourite.

  • April Competition Winners 2012

    ‘Create a character for a children’s story’

    1st Prize – Susan Piper for her character, The Colour Thief

    2nd Prize – Kristin Tridimas

    3rd Prize – Gill Hollands

     

    Highly Commended: Hazel Donnelly, Di Castle and David Eadsforth.

  • March Competition Winners 2012

    ‘Write a 750 word opening chapter of a village saga’

     

    1st place – Celia Livesey with ‘The Ad-Man Cometh’

    2nd place – Jenny Brooks with ‘The Fete of Lynton Village’

    3rd place – Hazel Glenholmes with ‘A Village Saga’.

  • Review of Hampshire Writers’ Society meeting 13th March 2012

    Rebecca Shaw, author of the Turnham Malpas/ Barleybridge village series, made creating, writing and marketing village sagas sound very easy. Such an inspiration. She didn’t believe in retiring after her children departed for university. She chose to be a writer!

    We are grateful to Carole Hastings, Publicity Chairman, for the following…

    Calum Kerr, lecturer in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Winchester, kicked off the evening by telling us about his ‘short story a day’ regime that he started May 1, 2011 and has continued every day since then. He was chosen for a Christmas Eve feature on Radio 4 and has organised the National Flash Fiction Day to take place on May 16 with events and various competitions happening across the country, including Southampton and Winchester. An anthology of the best work will be edited by Calum and Valerie O’Riordan.

    Rebecca Shaw, our Guest Speaker, started a creative writing class when her youngest child went off to university in 1992 to fill her free time. She wanted to focus on short stories but was advised that this was the domain of well known individuals, As a result, she wrote her first novel based on the imaginary village of Turnham Malpas and sent it off to six publishers. After five manuscripts were returned rejected…she was delighted when Orion offered her a three book deal. She hasn’t looked back. She has written 22 books in 20 years, the majority based on her village sagas, but three books have been based on a veterinary practice. Her two sons, who are vets, have provided the rich research and technical advice.
    Her advice to writers is to write when you are bursting with ideas, not necessarily every day. Then your writing will feels fresh. Don’t try to force yourself to write. She uses the time when she is not writing to observe and to store ideas and information in her brain. She believes that supermarkets are great places for people watching and advises “You must watch the world as it is.” When she started writing she avoided reading for two years so that she could develop her own voice.
    Rebecca’s success has proved that there are opportunities to become a published writer when you least expect it.

    For those of you who missed out on Calum’s Flash Fiction stories, his ebook 31 is now available for Kindle at:

  • February Competition Winners 2012

    ‘Love letters’

    1st Hazel Donnelly

    Gorgeous Dan,

    I’m just home. Sorry I left like that and I can’t face speaking to you on the phone, so here it is in writing.

    I’m sorry I embarrassed you as well as myself, but Valentine’s Day always makes me nervous. I knownow that you only went down on one knee to clear up the cat dish I’d knocked over.

    Sorry I misread the situation, sorry I overreacted, and sorry I shouted yes so loud your mates heard. Sorry you had to explain.

    Dan, I can honestly tell you that you are the most scrumptious boyfriend I’ve ever had, even though I get cross when you always pinch my bum – and I really must show you where the laundry basket lives.

    You introduce me as your‘special girl’, you make me laugh in an ‘I can’t breathe’sort of way. You tell me I’m beautiful when I am perfectly aware I’m not.

    I know I’m clumsy and awkward. My thighs wobble when I run and I admit I am a teensy bit needy.

    So I’ll understand if you say no, but it’s a leap year, and I love you, so, I am asking ifyou will marry me.

    OMG – just had a delivery of red roses – not my all time favourite flower – but yes to your question in the little card. Yes I absolutely will!

    Love from your ecstatic, future wife.

    Megan

    xxxxxxxxxxxx

    PS. Ring me when you get this and you can ask me out loud!

    ©Hazel Donnelly 2012

     

     

    2nd Hilary Gregory

    Dear Terry,

    I was clearing up the mess after you left, and I looked again at the knickers I’d found in your pocket on Friday. I remembered that Aunty Flo’d given me a pair like that – with the red dots and the white bow – for my 16th birthday and that on Tuesday, on the way back from the twins, I’d handed them to you, to wipe the windscreen.

    Mum told me you dropped Poodle off at hers on Saturday. Then, all of a rush, Robin confessed he was lying about how you’d taken him to Christopher Hills and the vodka and the 15 film. Later, I had a talk with Dolly and she doesn’t hate you. She quite likes you and she says it’s not your fault you’re a male. Seven’s not her best age. I think she was cross I’d made her stay in to tidy up her room.

    And, about your not being – cool… I looked at the photo again. The one you tossed on the floor with: ‘I love Karina’ on it. Honestly, I had to sit down. My eyes went all cloudy and then I got through one and a half boxes of Kleenex tissues before I could stop. Don’t try to imagine what I looked like. In any case, the puffiness has died down now, but I don’t want it to start up again. … I can’t go round with a hole in my heart Terry.

    Please come back!

    Your loving Karina

    ©Hilary Gregory 2012

     

     

    3rd David Eadsforth

    White Ford Cortina Mk1, 1600cc. Pristine condition internally and externally (all chrome fittings original and perfect), Boot large enough and interior spacious enough to take two adults and three children on long vacations in comfort. Very reliable; never broken down. Many original spares are included. Garaged for the last twenty years and very little used. Lovingly maintained by one careful owner.

    Death of elderly relative forces sale.

    © David Eadsforth 2012

     

     

    Highly Commended – Grethe Ridgway

    My love for you lies deep inside my heart. It’s wrapped in soft downy folds. Unwrap each one and there will always be my love. Your heart came from my heart, grown in velvet warmth. Beating softly in enveloping dusk until at last you lay in my arms.

    I watch you now as you sleep. One arm curls around your heard. Little poppy lips purse in your dream. Soft silk cheeks like living roses. Your fingers so tiny, your nails so perfect.

    My heart overflows with joy. I hold my breath as I watch you breathe. Your nostrils flare in gentle rhythm. My lips brush your brow. Your skin feels peachy soft. Eyelashes touch your cheek. You stir. Legs stretch and flex.

    This moment will stay forever in my heart. In my memory, which not even a photograph can capture.

    I can’t believe you are here at last. My perfect diminutive miracle. Sleep my little one. Your sweet innocence is fleeting. My dearest wish is to help you be the man you’re meant to be. I cannot protect you forever. All I can do is to show you the way. The rest is up to you.

    One day, I may share this with you. Maybe, not until I am gone. When that time comes, as it will I want you to remember that my love will always surround you. You will never be alone, my son.

    With all my love, now and always

    Your Mother

    © Grethe Ridgway 2012

     

     

    Highly Commended – Jenny Brooks

    Rise up Love

    I am expected to write a love letter, but to whom?

    Will he remind me of your touch, will he look and give me our knowing?

    Can he know the pride of our brood that binds us?

    The smile that could melt away my darkest mood, can he deliver.

    Will our boys tumble with this new love when the moment is there?

    Can our girls see again the adoration mingled with laughter that once showered them?

    The silent times of memories will he manage to make mere shadows of those former passions?

    Will I forget? And in the losing bring forth again anguish of the day that God took you; oh, too soon and oh, so young from me.

    Can I write a love letter? Yes, but only to you.

    ©Jenny Brooks 2012

  • January Competition Winners 2012

    ‘Write the blurb for a children’s book’

     

    1st Prize – Kirsty Applebaum

    It’s weird, baby birthing.

    For fifteen years you think your heart pump’s made out of blood and cells and flesh – then bam! Twelve hours screaming and sweating on a labour farm, and a good mother’s saying I’ll take baby now: your job’s done.

    And you realise your heart pump’s not made out of blood or cells or flesh at all. It’s made of glass. Frail, flawed glass. Extra fragile.

    Worse, it feels like your extra fragile heart pump is clutched in the tiny fist of the newborn boy.

    So, as he’s lifted away, you swear, certain hard, you’ll find him again.

    But step careful.

    The newborns are guarded tight.

    ©Kirsty Applebaum

     

    2nd Prize – Louise Pears – Moon Dust on Pyjamas

    What would happen if a tree grew so tall it poked the moon?

    ‘MOON DUST ON PYJAMAS’-is a story about William, who just can’t sleep and is transported by a pear tree to meet the grumpy moon. He finds moon bugs with the flu and stars that are fading. So can he save the night?

    This cosmic adventure sees William trampolining between the stars, dining on lunar ice-cream and whizzing down the biggest helter-skelter the world has ever seen!

    ‘MOON DUST ON PYJAMAS’is a story about being open to magical possibilities.

    ©Louise Pears

     

    3rd Prize – Gill Hollands – FORGETTING

    Tim snapped awake. Something smelled funny. Gummy eyes flicked around the bare room. Hospital! What happened?’

    His mind was a snowy blank. He touched a finger to his hot head, felt bandages. His heart started to thunder against his ribs.

    The door slammed open. Tim jumped. Strangers walked in.

    ‘Tim! I’m so glad to see you awake!’

    The woman perched on the bed. There was no kiss, no hug, a plastic smile. The man grinned, hands in pockets rattling change, eyes like wet pebbles.

    ‘Who are you?’

    Lost in terror he knew they were going to lie to him…

    © Gill Hollands

     

    Highly Commended

    Celia Livesey, Janet Ellison, Pat Kerley, Ean Richardson, Sandra Curtin, Loveday Copeley-Williams, Hermione Laake, K.M.Lockwood, Stephen Edger. And ‘well done’ to all those who submitted entries.

     

  • Review of Meeting 10th January 2012 Speaker – Beverley Birch

    Those who were unable to join us for the January meeting of the Hampshire Writers’ Society missed an excellent talk given by Beverley Birch titled Between a Rock and Hard Place; Keeping Faith with Your Writing Self in Today’s Stormy Seas. Hopefully you will enjoy this resume of her realistic and supportive advice.

    As Senior Commissioning Editor of Hodder Children’s Books and author of more than 30 non-fiction books, most published by Egmont Publishing Company, she urged writers to strive for individuality, ‘Be passionate about what you are offering to editors and agents,’ was Beverley’s keynote message.

    Find your voice as an author. Choose wild, wacky settings that will catch the attention of editors. Make sure that you know who is telling the story, that your plot is well crafted with peaks and troughs that will sustain the interest of the young reader.’

    She explained the editorial process of selecting marketable children’s manuscripts and then having to justify them at Acquisition Meetings peopled by company accountants, rights teams, export advisors, design teams, bookseller representatives and publicists and described it as a ‘blood bath’. ‘Frequently,’ she said, ’this process denies children the pleasure of reading excellent imaginative books because the book business will not take the financial risk of promoting a new writer.’

    Editors are now looking for manuscripts that ‘ get you by the throat’ by page 3. Beverley explained that if the author has not ‘hooked’ the editor by page 5, that it was inevitable that the editor would read no further. ‘The editor needs to grasp where the plot is going by page five’. The marketing watchword is to ‘suck the reader into the story with alacrity’.

    To be published, books need to be buoyant, distinctive and quirky’. In her experience, Beverley explained that children learn by reading about other children’s lives; the good and the bad choices that they make and the consequences of these choices. She recommended both Anthony Horovitz and Robert Muchmore as authors who expose these themes.

    Self-publishing, e-books and print on demand were attractive alternatives to marketing new books to traditional but recalcitrant publishers. She commented that many writers now successfully market their books through their own websites or by using Amazon and Kindle opportunities.

    She reminded audiences that David Armand suffered 25 rejections before he became a publishing success.‘Don’t give up! Keep writing! Remember that the cycle of editors change. New editors come to the fore. They will look for fresh ideas Tuck away your rejected manuscripts for five years and start a new script’.

    HWS member, Celia Livesey said, ‘Beverley kept everyone enthralled by her energetic performance that described the parlous state of the publishing world yet encouraged everyone to continue with their writing’. Others spoke of her passion to support writers and valued the time she gave to answering a multitude of specific questions following her talk. One delegate declared to me that she was more determined than ever to get published.
    Barbara Large MBE

  • December Competition Winners 2011

    Competition were Celia Livesey (1st), Lynda Murphy (2nd), Gill Hollands (3rd)

    Celia’s winning carol to the tune of We three Kings

    A Christmas Nightmare.

    I love Christmas – what a mistake!

    Too much turkey and too much cake

    On line shopping – eyeballs a-popping

    Must go and have a break

    O Granddad’s scoffed his paper hat

    Bloke next door has killed the cat

    I’m not joking – Dad’s back smoking

    Mum hates that she’s getting fat

    Carol singers call at the door

    Dim the lights – then dive to the floor

    Baby’s crying – no denying – that

    We’re not here anymore

    O double Eastenders every night

    Stars of ‘Strictly’ shining bright

    Fill your stocking – nothing shocking

    You might give the kids a fright

    Nan is sick she’s been on the juice

    Sister Susie’s out on the loose

    My head’s spinning – think I’m winning – but

    Now Granddad’s turning puce

    O spent the night at A & E

    Boyfriend dumped me after tea

    Lost all feeling – head is reeling

    Dad’s just torched the Christmas tree.

  • Three Poets at Work Peter Dixon, Dr.Tom Masters and Mark Rutter

    Review of 13th December Meeting of the Hampshire Writers’ Society

    Three Poets at Work

    Peter Dixon, Dr.Tom Masters and Mark Rutter

     

    HWS member, Celia Livesey has written about the evening:

    My husband and I were at the December meeting of the HWS featuring Three Poets at Work and we enjoyed a wonderful evening. In fact each meeting has been amazing and thoroughly enjoyable in a variety of ways.

    The first poet to speak was Peter Dixon. He kept everyone enthralled with an energetic performance encouraging us to write.

    ‘Write about anything,’ he urged. ‘It doesn’t matter if it’s trivia. You don’t have to write about nature or leaves – write about a cupboard or anything, but just write.’

    He went on to give a reading of the ‘Booster Boys’, a funny, yet poignant poem evoking memories of a time long past.

    Tom Masters was the next up to speak. At first, during his introduction, I didn’t think I was going to be able to follow or keep up with the many ideas and concepts that darted backwards and forwards through his agile mind.

    And then he started the reading. I was blown away. His performance was mesmerising. At the end I asked him if he had considered introducing stage performances of his work and he asked me if I knew of any actors. I can only say that I don’t know of any actor, who would be able to do more justice to this work, than the performance given by Tom Masters, himself. I would like to see a CD produced to be sold together with his book ‘Silence’.

    Mark Rutter completed the evening with readings from a selection of his poems, some finished and also some work in progress. Again, a wonderful performance using poetry to weave stories about feelings and places.

    What struck me most was that each poet appeared poles apart in style, performance and disposition. And yet there was a commonality between them. Each poet captured the poignancy of life and of the soul.

    Many thanks to HWS for all the hard work, it really is worth it. We are looking forward to the January meeting with Beverley Birch.
    Best wishes,

    Celia Livesey.