Riverside Writers

Fourteen people attended last night's Riverside Writers meeting, including three new people and return visits from two people who joined us only last month. And that's with three regulars absent!

One of second-time-around visitors was Lisa Hinsley, whose Fantasy book Coombe's Wood is available on Kindle. The product description reads: "Izzy Santana and her 13-year-old son Connor move into a flat in the sleepy village of Cedham. Locals darkly warn her to stay away from nearby Coombe’s Wood, hinting first at elves, then at multiple murders… "

This month's group project was to create a poem or short story starting with "The door was locked." Most people had written something; in fact we ran out of time before everyone could read aloud their work. As Chair, I try to fix things so that anyone who doesn't get chance to read at a meeting has first go next time. This latest batch of stories were rather sombre in tone. Clive said that between us we'd killed off half of the population of Wirral.

My contribution was Rebirth, which describes an older woman leaving a convent after thirty years. I'm not entirely happy with the ending of it yet; not so much the plot, as the wording which isn't quite right yet. I'll work on it.

Next month's project is titled "Pudding." This was arrived at via a compromise between those who wanted a Xmas theme and those who didn't. With "Pudding" a person is free to make it Xmassy or not. (Is Xmassy a word? Hmm, probably not, but never mind.)

Peter Hurd, our Treasurer, was able to tell us that Riverside Writers bank account currently has £336.74 in it - accrued through sales of our anthology and group subs. Did we wish to continue taking subs?

The response was affirmative. We might publish another anthology next year, and I've not booked a speaker for the group for a long time. Also, I suggested we might like to purchase a small PA system for our future public events, an idea which everyone liked.

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