For this month’s competition, imagine people gathering around a table. It might be to eat, play a game, hold a meeting…. anything. Write a self-contained scene or a short story of no more than 400 words set around a table. Make sure your characters interact. How they interact is up to you! Any genre.
Deadline: Midnight 30th August
Adjudicator: Judith Heneghan
Winners will be announced at our 10th September 2024 meeting; online and in the newsletter thereafter.
In the summer, Hampshire Writers Society takes a break, but we’re still here, and if you aren’t enjoying a well-earned holiday, we’d love to see you for coffee and chat.
Whether the sun is shining (or not), you’re in the garden, on a beach (or stuck in work), writers write. And writing is always better with friends, coffee, and cake. So join us once a month in the cafe at the Winchester Arc (also known as the library) for writerly chat and mutual encouragement — all writers welcome.
These informal meetings aren’t hosted or organised in any way, but Catherine will attempt to attend and bring a (hopefully) easily visible 30cm artist’s mannequin (see image below) to help you find the group.
Members and non-members welcome.
Dates
July, Friday 26th 10:30am
August, Friday 23rd 10:30am
September, Friday 27th 10:30am
If you have a request for a different day, time, or venue, or any questions, email inquiries @ hampshirewriterssociety.co.uk.
To kick off the new season of Hampshire Writers’ Society talks, we’re delighted to welcome Judith Heneghan back as our main speaker.
Judith Heneghan is a writer, programme leader for the MA Creative Writing at the University of Winchester, and a mentor with Jericho Writers. She has written over 60 books for young people, and her first novel for adults, Snegurochka (Salt, 2019) was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford travel writing awards.
She’ll be talking about her recently published second novel Birdeye. Members are encouraged to read Birdeye ahead of the September meeting and come prepared with questions.
Our guest speaker is local historical fiction author Lelita Baldock. Her novels The Baker’s Secret and The Girl Who Crossed Mountains, published through Storm Publishing, explore lesser-known stories from World War Two, focusing on the untold stories of women during this era-defining conflict.
Lelita will talk about drawing from your family history to write historical fiction authentically and honestly.
The meeting will be Tuesday September 10th, at the Tower Arts Centre. Come along from 7:00pm. Talks start at 7:30pm. Members free, non-member tickets £10, students £2 (no advance booking, payment on entry).
Spring has sprung! Before we know it, the clocks will go forward, the central heating will be turned off, there’ll be a heatwave and a hosepipe ban. Have your New Year writing resolutions survived?
Whether 2024 is going super good, super bad, or anywhere in between, writing is always better with friends, coffee, and cake. So join us once a month in the cafe at the Winchester Arc (also known as the library) for writerly chat and mutual encouragement — all writers welcome.
These informal meetings aren’t hosted or organised in any way, but Catherine will attempt to attend and bring a (hopefully) easily visible 30cm artist’s mannequin (see image below) to help you find the group.
Members and non-members welcome.
Dates
April, Thursday 25th 10:30am
May, Friday 24th 10:30am
June, Friday 28th 10:30am
If you have a request for a different day, time, or venue, or any questions, email inquiries @ hampshirewriterssociety.co.uk.
For our June meeting, the main speaker is Tom Bromley. With 25 years experience in the publishing industry as a prolific author, ghostwriter, editor, bookseller, and teacher, Tom is an expert on practically everything. Whatever you want to know about writing and publishing, whether fiction or non-fiction, now’s your chance to get the answers.
As traditional, we’ll be holding our June book fair. Be sure to come early (from 6:30) to check out the wonderful books created by members of the HWS.
Our guest speaker is travel writer Martin Kyrle.
Martin Kyrle’s personal travel anecdotes – all of them true – span seven decades and will take you off the beaten track even if you’re familiar with the countries where they take place.
His books include Jottings from the Trans-Siberian Railway, which chronicles a month crossing Russia and Mongolia, and several collections of shorter travel memoirs.
The meeting will be Tuesday June 11th, at the Tower Arts Centre. Come along from 6:30pm to enjoy the book fair. Talks start at 7:30pm. Members free, non-member tickets £10, students £2 (no advance booking, payment on entry).
New Year, new writing goals. 2024 may be the year you finally get that novel finished (or started)… or you might grapple with a non-fiction project, dip your toes into flash fiction, or scribble some poetry. Whatever it is, writing is better with friends, coffee, and cake. So join us once a month in the cafe at the Winchester Arc (also known as the library) for writerly chat and mutual encouragement — all writers welcome.
These informal meetings aren’t hosted or organised in any way, but Catherine will attempt to attend and bring a (hopefully) easily visible 30cm artist’s mannequin (see image below) to help you find the group.
Members and non-members welcome.
Dates
January Friday 26th 10:30am
February Friday 23rd 10:30am
March Friday 22nd 10:30am
If you have a request for a different day, time, or venue, or any questions, email inquiries @ hampshirewriterssociety.co.uk.
Hampshire Writers Society member Guy Caplin (writing as Guy Rolands) has self-published a new book — Boring But Essential: A Handbook for Authors.
Since the advent of widespread computer technology, more and more people have attempted to break into the market with their literary creations. Whether you seek an agent/publisher or decide to self-publish, the task ahead is daunting: the competition is enormous: agents and publishers are overwhelmed with submissions. Readers can choose from an unlimited number of books online. Any work submitted, which contains typos, poor spelling, mistakes in grammar and punctuation or laid out in a non-standard format, will be put aside.
The publishing industry employs proofreaders, line editors and story editors who work with their authors to ensure every work stands a fighting chance of success. If any aspiring author has the money, I urge them to do the same: employ professionals to knock your book into shape. If you don’t have the wherewithal, this boring handbook will give you a fighting chance to produce, edit and proofread your manuscript to a professional standard.
Your literary ability should sell your manuscript; the information in this handbook will prevent your work from being rejected for the wrong reasons.
This book is boring. I’m sorry, but there’s no other way of putting it. If you want to read something exciting and different, try one of my novels; however, if you want to get your masterpiece in a fit state to be read and not rejected, the information in this handbook is essential. It may sound a little odd, but the whole point of this boring book is to avoid boredom: the boredom of changing and correcting your manuscript’s layout and style. The method of working explained in these pages should allow you to concentrate on the most important thing — your writing.
For more information, you can visit Guy’s website or find Boring But Essential on Amazon
For our May meeting, the main speaker will be literary agent Becky Bagnell.
Becky is the founder of the Lindsay Literary Agency and has been in publishing for over 25 years. She worked as a commissioning editor at Macmillan before becoming a literary agent in 2008. Becky’s clients have been published in over 30 languages across the world and include multi-award winning authors such as Pamela Butchart, Sue Wallman, Sam Gayton, Josh Silver, Larry Hayes and Louise Finch.
Her talk will focus on how to approach and secure a literary agent, how to make your submission stand out from the crowd and what to expect from the relationship. Leading on from this it will look at next steps and how to work with your agent to ensure you find the best publisher for you.
As our guest speaker, we’re pleased to welcome back Louise Morrish.
Louise is a librarian and author who lives in Hampshire with her family and canine writing buddy. Her passion is discovering the stories of ordinary women in the past who achieved extraordinary things but whom history has forgotten, and then reimagining their lives in her fiction. When she isn’t working, you can find her running, albeit slowly, in the countryside.
Louise’s new book Women of War tells the forgotten story of two pioneering female doctors in the First World War, who despite being rejected as military surgeons by the War Office went on to create the first all-female-run military hospital in France, and saved thousands of lives. Women of War is also inspired by another forgotten woman – Dorothy Lawrence – an aspiring journalist who disguised herself as a man and risked her life to fight in the trenches in order to report the truth of the war. Louise will be talking about how she transformed these real women into the characters in her novel.
The meeting will be Tuesday May 14th, at the Tower Arts Centre. Come along from 7pm. Talks start at 7:30pm. Members free, non-member tickets £10, students £2 (no advance booking, payment on entry).
For our April meeting, we’re thrilled to welcome Scott Pack — a publisher and editor with more than twenty years’ experience and an author with several award-winning and bestselling books to his name.
Our guest speaker is crime thriller author Anna Britton.
Anna lives on the Isle of Wight with her husband and their chronically clumsy Labrador. An avid reader, she began writing around ten years ago and hasn’t stopped since. Anna works as a freelance editor and loves helping out other authors. When not filling her head with stories, Anna enjoys baking (and eating) cakes and exploring rivers in her kayak.
We’ll also have a brief chat with the organiser of the Winchester Books Festival, as well as the results of the April competition, judged by Scott.
Come along to the Tower Arts Centre from 7pm. Talks start at 7:30pm. Members free, non-member tickets £10, students £2 (no advance booking, payment on entry).
The HWS Critique Group will be holding a one-off in-person meeting at the Railway Inn, Winchester, at 7:30pm on the 19th of September.
This is an ideal opportunity for new members to get involved: bring a few printed copies of your work to share (up to 1,000 words), or simply come along to meet the group.
Critique Group meetings are ordinarily held online at 7:30pm on the third Tuesday of each month – to get involved, contact Damon at damon.l.wakes@gmail.com – but for this one you’re welcome to just walk in.
