Wirral Writers Online

December 3rd was our last meeting for 2010 and we celebrated with our annual Christmas Party. Despite the weather we turned up with our goodies and Christmas writings. Mike set us off with his fiendish book quiz that had most of us scratching our heads. Great fun though. Tom had written a special christmas play in which we all had a part. So many thanks for that, it was great fun to do and we take our hats off to Tom's super casting skills. For those who couldn't make it, we were thinking of you and hope everything is fine. Looking forward to next year and our first meeting in January. Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and Sucesssful New Year. Chris

Competition in magazine Gardeners World Closing date 28 th February 2011 A poem of no longer than 40lines Subject Gardens submit by post or email email to gwpoetrybbc.com Post to Gardener's World Magazine, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TQ Include your name, address, telephone number, email address and Poem title Winner's poem will be published in the June 2011 issue Prizes 1 st Prize £100 National Garden Gift vouchers, Runner-ups will receive £50 of vouchers Main terms of conditions Must be your own original work must not have been published in print or online. Nor have been entered into any other competitions. On entering you grant the BBC perpetual irrevocable and royalty free licence to publish or broadcast your poem in any media. Winner to be notified by 30 th April 2011 June magazine will on sale from 27 th May

The meeting on 19 th November was cancelled due to so many members being unable to travel because of the fog. Unfortunately this was our Winter Comp. night so our competition will have to be postponed. Next meeting is the Christmas party night, so we'll try and fit it in then if time permits. It is a disappointment to all, especially after our long November lay-off (it seems like ages since the last meeting) but hopefully our Christmas night will make up for it, with food, prizes, games... and new for this year, we are promised a spectacular Christmas play by Tom, our favourite playwright. So cheer up, listen... are those jingle bells I hear?

Hi everyone I hope tonight's fog isn't a sign of things to come this winter. It unfortunately put paid to our winter competition night as so few of us could make it to Bebington. It has been suggested that the competition could be included as part of our Christmas Evening so please bring your entry with you on the 4th December. However if you have written your Christmas piece please bring your seasonal offering too. Just to remind everyone the Christmas Evening has an open invitation to friends and family to join us. Members are requested to bring something for the Christmas Draw, it's more like a Lucky Dip really as most years everyone gets to receive something. Please bring your favourite nibbles and drink. And most of all bring yourselves.

Here's one of my trunk stories. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for this one. I guess it's appropriate for a blog about writers. (Note, the story is protected by a Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives licence - see note at the end) Words Fail by Mike Wood “So, tell me, when did this… condition, first manifest itself?”             Doctor Roberts sat back and peered at Malcolm over the top of his bifocals. “Yesterday afternoon,” said Malcolm. “I’d been marking exam papers all morning and I needed a break, so I walked into town to buy a paper.” Malcolm unfolded his arms and the doctor could see that his hands were shaking. “It was raining. I went into W H Smiths and just wandered over to the magazines. I picked a few up, you know, just to kill time until the rain passed. I started reading… oh, I don’t know, might have been National Geographic or something. After just a few lines I realised that I wasn’t reading ...

A quick update on what's coming up over the next few weeks>>>> Next meeting, 1st October, is our AGM. If anyone has anything to go on the agenda please email me. 15th October is the night when we learn who wins the Maynah Lewis Cup for 2010. We are pleased to welcome this year's judge, Judith Railton, who has agreed to announce the winner, present the cup, and give a little talk. Looking forward to it. Now, important, THERE IS NO MEETING ON FRIDAY 5TH NOVEMBER . This is because the annual  fireworks display and ritual burning of Mayer Park takes place that night, and there will be nowhere to park our cars. So it gives us an extra night of writing at home to prepare for Friday 19th November, when we will hold our annual short competition. For those of you who are new, here's how it works: We each write a 500 word piece (this year it is an article about a hobby or interest) and on the 19th Nov meeting we read it out. Nobody says a word, instead we mark eac...

Just back from this year's writer's meal at the Brook Meadow Hotel. Another succession outing and the weather continues to be kind to us, allowing us to once more extend our afternoon into the gardens. Good to see some new faces this year - I hope that Nick, Tom and Linda enjoyed the occasion. No photo this year I'm afraid. I spent so long trying to set up the camera and figure out the self timer that the batteries died before I managed to actually take the picture. Ho hum. Cheryl presented us with a new challenge - a flash fiction piece in just 75 words, five of which were specified in advance. As we only had yesterday to knock something together it was great to see so many having a go. If anyone wants to post their efforts, feel free to put then up on the blog. This year's Maynah Lewis competition is in the process of being judged. We're pleased to have Judith Railton, the creative writing tutor from 3L's as our competition judge this year. Judith is a...

Two pieces of news this week. Firstly, my Writer's of the Future story has been recorded and is currently running on StarShipSofa (which is nice, because StarShipSofa is also my favourite podcast) and to add some extra spice the story is being put up in a head-to-head against a piece by the writer Frederic Brown, old writer vs new writer. (I'm the new writer, by the way - I guess my bio picture hasn't been studied too closely.) So if anyone wants to vote, please pop over to the Starship and hit the button - but listen to the stories first and judge on merit, I'm not advocating any log-rolling here, even though I stand to be publicly humiliated before the whole planet.) And then, hot on the heels of this piece of news, I also have an acceptance from Jupiter magazine for my SF story 'The Bottle Garden'. Those with a good memory might recall my reading this at the writers group about a year ago - so thank you to everyone, your advice and suggestions were (mostly) ...

A reminder to those who have not been to some of our recent meetings, the closing date for Maynah Lewis competition entries is Friday 21st May. The theme for this year's short story is 'travel'. Entries should be of 1600 words or less and your name must not appear anywhere on the script. Inventive pseudonyms are therefore encouraged. So, just ten days remain. Start writing!

Hi Mike, got your email, thanks, but unable to reply via email all my post is being returned to me. Can't think why and I don't understand the reasons given. Lovely barbie weather during the day, though this morning the fog was so thick it stopped the ferries running and slowed the rush hour traffic so much that the carpet layer arrived at 7.30am instead of 7am. I don't know what surprised me most the fog or the fact that tradesmen start early here. I'm glad everything is on the way with John Oakden and hopefully I'll be back before June, ash permitting of course. Will contact again through this link if anything crops up that might be of particular interest. Regards

I've had an email from Elaine Speight who is an artist and curator based on the Wirral. She's currently doing some work in the housing renewal (HMRI) areas of Wirral, namely Rock Ferry, Tranmere, Birkenhead and Seacombe. From Thursday 1 April until the end of May she and novelist Jenn Ashworth will be running a series of weekly workshops for residents of HMRI areas in creative writing and blogging. I'll pass on more details at the next meeting, but in view of the short timescales any members who are interested could email me and I'll pass on Elaine's email address for more info.

A call to everyone at Wirral Writers. We've been asked for more stories for Vintage Radio. This time the stories will be recorded and put out on an internet version of the show. If you have anything of, say, ten to fifteen minutes, and you want to give it an airing on the WorldWideWeb, please let me know ASAP and I'll let Marion know of our response. If you're not a member of Wirral Writers and you're reading this, why not come along to our next meeting and give us a try. It's fun, and you too could get to hear your work broadcast. Mike