The Chair has entered two novels in a competition for the first chapters of novels, and a story in a short story competition where the theme was ‘writing’. The closing date for both was 30 April, so maybe there will be some news soon.

Will also tried to enter a competition which was eventually abandoned due to lack of entries – but may have got the organisers interested in his novel instead!

4. Other News
Sarah Harrison, a very successful novelist who runs Morden Writers’ Group, will be joining us on 19 May to talk to us about writing. Sarah Witchett has kindly offered to host the evening.

Sarah is a very engaging and down to Earth speaker who makes her audience believe that they too can achieve something with their work, so this should be a very worthwhile and inspiring evening.

If you have a question that you would like to put to Sarah Harrison, or a topic that you would like covered, please could you let me know and I will pass the items onto her. The evening will take the format of talk – break – questions, so there will also be opportunities to ask questions on the day.

5. Discussion of Work
We had some really good stories this month – all of them very different and original. Sarah wrote about a dinner with three fascinating people, and really brought them to life. Amanda cleverly dovetailed four scenarios to form a very satisfying tale. Will created an imaginative piece where the central character actually meets older and younger versions of himself...and it sounds as if this might be the foundations of a bigger project... Valerie didn’t disappoint with a tale written in the style of a fable and concerning the adventures of Buddha – this might also be the beginnings of a bigger project. The Chair wrote a story about the doings of the nefarious Max Cady.

6. Break
No break this month as we were all having too much fun discussing the stories. It’s fascinating to find out where members got their ideas from and how long it took them to produce their story.

7. Aims for the coming month
Everyone is aiming to produce something for the next meeting on June 2nd. The theme is, “Novel !! We’re not asking for the whole thing-just an outline and the first few pages. You never know-you might be inspired to finish it.”

However, if anyone is working on something not connected with the theme, as ever, they are welcome to submit that instead. It would be helpful if we could circulate our work a week in advance of the meeting to allow for reading time.

Can we also remember to put our names on our stories (the Chair is the main culprit here) to avoid confusion.

The Chair has also got a variety of targets for the month:

* A member of the Letchworth group has been approached with a joint venture on publishing their novel – the Chair is to make contact and get a review of their progress and experiences.

* The Chair is also to approach the editor of ‘The Villager’ to get guidelines for short story and poem submissions.

8. Any Other Business?
Meeting venue – the Chair has been approached by a lady who has recently opened a tea shop in Gamlingay, to see if we would like to use one of her rooms for our meetings. The Chair has visited the premises and sampled the goods in the interests of research, and the upshot is that we have been ‘pencilled in’ for June 2nd at 7.30.

It should be stressed that this can be considered a ‘one-off’ for the time being, to give us a change of scene and the chance to try a variety of cakes. The address is 27 Church St, Gamlingay – parking can be a bit fraught but the proprietor is going to agree with the pub opposite that we can park there for the evening.

The building is very olde worlde and gorgeous, all sloping floors & beams, and could be an inspiration for a story in itself.

See you all next month! Happy writing!!

Tracey