Wirral Writers Online

A reminder that the 2014 Maynah Lewis Competition is now in play. Open to members only, the challenge is to write a short story in less than 1500 words, incorporating each of the nine images from the story cubes as shown above. This year our illustrious adjudicator is Barbara Trevor, to whom we are most grateful. Barbara is a multiple past winner of the trophy herself, so she knows all about the struggle, the passion and the clashing of pens in the quest for literary supremacy. Deadline for entry is 16th May.   Who will prise the silverware from Mike's grasping hands this year? He already has his tin of brasso at the ready, and promises that by awards night the trophy will be gleaming. So, let battle commence!

Back in September Wirral Writers had their annual flash fiction challenge, always one of the year's highlights. This year the theme was The Biggest Pumpkin in the World. I'm chuffed to announce that my offering has been accepted as one of the featured stories on Short-Story.me Here's the link:  http://short-story.me/featured-stories/601-the-biggest-pumpkin-in-the-world.html If you missed it on the night go and take a look. You might also consider subscribing to SSM's story feed. I did, and it's a nice way of getting a new piece of flash fiction in your inbox at regular intervals. There's a box on the website where you can add your email address and name.

A posse of Wirral Writers headed over to the Unity Theatre in Liverpool this afternoon to watch the one act plays in the Script-in-Hand segment of the Write Now Festival, and in particular to see, Premier Programme,  written by Wirral Writers’ E J Fisher. Liz Fisher, writer of Premier Programme, at the Unity Theatre. None of us knew quite what to expect, but we were each, blown away by an afternoon of sparkling theatre. Premier Programme tells the story of a dedicated Liverpool Fan who, against his wife’s wishes and better judgement, completes his collection of Liverpool FC programmes by buying, on ebay, for a lot of money, the missing copy from the 1914 FA cup final against Burnley. It is all bound to end in tears, and so it does, but for more people than we imagined. It was an excellent play, full of wit and pathos, and it brought out a great performance by the young cast. Other plays in the afternoon were Moths Wing Soup , by Patrick McGuire, The Route o...

The winner of the 2013 Maynah Lewis Short Story Competition was Mike Wood. The cup was awarded by this year's guest judge, Claire Oxley. Second place went to Ann Conroy, with Laura Kirkbride, one of our newest members, taking third. The awards night was the usual fun occasion, with drinks and nibbles and plenty of white-knuckle tension strung out right through to the announcement of the winners. Wirral Writers would like to give a big thank you to Claire for her hard work and for the detailed critiques she delivered on all the entries.

Vintage Radio Just to let you all know that the programme we recorded for Vintage Radio will be on the Web next Saturday 11th May .  At 11am,  2pm,  5pm,  8pm,  11pm.  So open your computers and logon to www.vintageradio.org.uk   to listen to Allan, Arthur, Chris and Helen read stories and poetry.  Allan has composed a signature tune and is our presenter. I hope you will enjoy our offerings. We will appreciate comments as feedback will be invaluable if we are to produce some more programmes. Thanks must go to John Blainey of Vintage Radio for doing the recording and editoring same. He has made us sound quite good I think. Chrisb

Hi everyone,  this is just to let you all know that the Wine and Reading evening held at Bebington Library to raise funds for the library was well attended. And that we contributed several very well received pieces.   My thanks go to Arthur, Laura, Allan and Helen for coming along on such a rainy evening. I must say we were the only group to keep to the theme of love. There was however some quite quirky writings produced which cause some chuckling. Chris