Captains Report 23rd November 2016

Melton Library

23rd November 2016

Hello Wordsmiths

Sonia, Kristen and Terry were apologies today. A great pity because it was quite a vibrant session and I’m sure they would have enjoyed it.

We had critiques for today. From Terry, Kevin and me:

Terry fled the field of battle, preferring to live and fight another day – Next Wednesday in fact.

Kevin’s chapter rolled up in an immaculate, light green Ford Prefect. It stopped beside a bright red telephone booth and our intrepid storyteller jumped out with his caped crusader costume under his arm and dived into the booth. Sadly, as he slammed out of the small edifice yelling, ‘Up. Up and Away,’ he tripped on the undies still around his ankles and fell on his face.

Kevin now has a little work to do on his chapter: A few dents, scratches fixed, and a new muffler will see it back on the road again, as gooderer (special word for Joleen) as new.

 

As my chapter was presented for critique and the air raid sirens began to wail, I grabbed my helmet and waited in terror for the shot and shell to pound my position.

With Captain, Please B. Gentle at the helm, HMS ICBO sailed into a hell storm of fire, taking massive hits to her stout timbers (and a huge Huuumf from Judy). Most bounced off harmlessly, and after replacing and reconfiguring just about everything I’ve written, she’ll be even better than when she was first launched.

On behalf of both Kevin and myself, I’d like to thank the Wordsmiths for once again, helping to improve our stories.

Next year’s calendar is done (attached). I’ve put a fun day after every five critique weeks. Except for July. I’ve jumped a week there, as the fun day would have landed on the school holidays. As the fun day is Sonia’s baby and she can’t be there during school holidays, I’ve put it on the following week.

Don’t forget lunch at Golden Fleas Hotel, 12.00 on Wednesday the 14^th December.

As always, a fun and helpful day today.

See you all on Friday night to watch and support our victorious Wordsmith Warriors - Sonia, Kristen and Judy.

Les

Les's Weekly Roundup

MELTON LIBRARY

23rd November 2016

Hello Wordsmiths

Sonia, Kristen and Terry were apologies today. A great pity because it was quite a vibrant session and I’m sure they would have enjoyed it.

We had critiques for today. From Terry, Kevin and me:

Terry fled the field of battle, preferring to live and fight another day – Next Wednesday in fact.

Kevin’s chapter rolled up in an immaculate, light green Ford Prefect. It stopped beside a bright red telephone booth and our intrepid storyteller jumped out with his caped crusader costume under his arm and dived into the booth. Sadly, as he slammed out of the small edifice yelling, ‘Up. Up and Away,’ he tripped on the undies still around his ankles and fell on his face.

Kevin now has a little work to do on his chapter: A few dents, scratches fixed, and a new muffler will see it back on the road again, as gooderer (special word for Joleen) as new.

As my chapter was presented for critique and the air raid sirens began to wail, I grabbed my helmet and waited in terror for the shot and shell to pound my position.

With Captain, Please B. Gentle at the helm, HMS ICBO sailed into a hell storm of fire, taking massive hits to her stout timbers (and a huge Huuumf from Judy). Most bounced off harmlessly, and after replacing and reconfiguring just about everything I’ve written, she’ll be even better than when she was first launched.

On behalf of both Kevin and myself, I’d like to thank the Wordsmiths for once again, helping to improve our stories.

Next year’s calendar is done (attached). I’ve put a fun day after every five critique weeks. Except for July. I’ve jumped a week there, as the fun day would have landed on the school holidays. As the fun day is Sonia’s baby and she can’t be there during school holidays, I’ve put it on the following week.

Don’t forget lunch at Golden Fleas Hotel, 12.00 on Wednesday the 14^th December.

As always, a fun and helpful day today.

See you all on Friday night to watch and support our victorious Wordsmith Warriors - Sonia, Kristen and Judy.

Les

Melton Library

16th November 2016

Hello Wordies,

Be still my beating heart - A full house yesterday, with even the sun tanned, rested and relaxed Terry in attendance. Kristen’s husband tried to stop her from coming by stealing her car, but we foxed him and picked her up – Ha, ha, ha (maniacal laughter). Point scored for the good guys.

   Julee’s chapter was the only piece under the spotlight today, sent in with a flourish and a terse, ‘Do yer worse.’

Once I was able to bring our rioting crowd to some semblance of order, we attempted to present our critiques. Easy you might say, but all I can say is, ‘Hmmmm?’

   Julee’s sleek armour-plated limousine (model Chapter 28), floated down Critique Road with hardly a pothole to spoil the ride. With only a scratch or two at the finish, a tire change and cut and polish will bring it back to showroom condition. Well done Julee, another great offering.

   As always, it was a great, fun session, with everyone joining in.

The NaNoWriMo writers - Judy, Tracey and Terry - are all doing well and if not lighting the world on fire, are well on the way to it.

   Lunch has been booked at the Golden Fleas Hotel (257-263 High St, Melton) for 12.00 on Wednesday the 14^th December. Mathew will be there.

   Lastly, I’d like to congratulate our three victorious Wordsmith Warriors - Sonia, Kristen and Judy - for receiving a well-deserved place in the Melton Writing Competition. I’m humbled in your presence and will be there Friday week to bask in the limelight of your win.

   See you all (except the ones I won’t) next week.

Les

Five Challenges When Shifting FromTraditional to Self Publishing

This link came into our inbox today and it makes good reading for writers unsure of which type of publishing works best for them.

https://www.chatebooks.com/blog-5-Challenges-When-Shifting-from-Traditional-to-Self-Publishing


Please leave a comment with what has been successful for you.

Offset Sixteen Launch - by Les Stillman

Julee and I attended the Offset Sixteen launch last night. Both she and Matthew had their stories published in the book.

Matthew was already there looking quite dapper dressed in chinos, shirt and jacket. He was standing aloof and intelligent his head cocked slightly to the side. Well, we thought he was aloof, but in reality he was waiting for the bar to open, listening for the tinkle of glasses – more shattered illusions.

We had a great chat and a drink with Matthew before we separated to mingle.

Matthew was in his element and it was fun watching him flit around meeting old friends and colleagues. As Yoda, would say, ‘Hmmm, popular our young Matthew is.’

Once the crowd poured in and we had a drink in our hand we started to mingle.

Julee’s shoes hurt her feet, so she had to sit down and wait for visitors. Of course, they flocked to her in abundance and she had a great time chatting with some interesting people. Jessi, the young girl we’d dealt with throughout, swept Julee away introducing her to the other girls on her team, all who wanted to tell her how much they loved her story.

I, on the other hand, had no restrictions. I slipped amongst the crowd looking for interesting people, forcing them to talk to me so I could bore them to death.

It was a most interesting group, full of very colourful characters. I must say, everyone I spoke to was delightful. I had a lovely chat with a girl who sported bright blue hair and dark blue lipstick. She was very nice.

Anyway, back to the crowd. My favourite was a little lady who looked like a lollipop stick. I say this in the nicest way I might add. She was dressed in the colours of a rainbow, with leggings over her pants, a neck scarf and a bandanna holding back a bird’s nest of hair with things sticking out of it. She had a bright, intelligent face with huge glasses and she also carried a walking/sitting stick, equally colourful as her dress. Somehow, it all came together and worked. I had a great long chat with her and she was a delight. An artist of course, who had one of her pieces on display. It was modernistic and stimulating.

Anyway, having said all that. It was a great night, we had fun and more to the point, I’m very proud of both Julee and Matthew for winning and grinning.

Local writer in the news

Local writer Christine Mackley is featured in a story by Sumeyya Ilanbey in this week's Star Weekly.
Christine, a multiple City of Melton Short Story Competition winner gave her views on what it takes to make a story stand out. She is proud that her work, Fair Fight, will be published in this year's Award Winning Australian Writing 2016.

Christine made a point of saying different things had helped her writing. One was being part of a writing group, this had helped because she had other like minded people to read and critique her work. She advised writers to use all of the five senses to put the reader into the story, so they can see, taste, hear and feel what the writer is saying.

Every word has to count in a short story so the writer needs to ask if it has a reason to be in your work.

Fair Fight took weeks of work to get it into shape before she submitted it.

Award Winning Australian Writing was launched at the beginning of Spring and should be available from a bookstore near you.

Les' Report 7th of September 2016

Captains Log 7th of September 2016

It was Mathew’s day on Wednesday – as per normal, interesting and helpful. We discussed our individual writing progress, short story writing and competitions in general, then finished up with a discussion on the Melbourne Writers Festival and its motivational implications. Everyone joined in the discussions and as usual, it was frenetic and jolly, with a dozen different conversations going at once. Of course, I tried valiantly to get everyone on track and of course, as usual, I was completely ignored. Still, it was all good natured, lots of fun and I think we achieved quite a bit.

Then Mathew pulled out a punctuation exercise (cue dramatic music – Da, da, da, daaaa). It was, interesting to say the least and caused an interesting differing of opinion and quite a bit of discussion. Which, of course is exactly what we want.

Please remember that entries to the Melton competition will close on the 7^th October. It would be nice if we could all put in entries.

City of Melton Short Story Competition 2016

The long running Melton Short Story competition is now open to entries copy and paste this address into your browser to access terms and conditions.

http://www.melton.vic.gov.au/Out-n-About/Libraries-and-learning/Libraries/Short-Story-Competition-2016

Thre are three categories again this year and are as follows

Adult Section (18 years and over)*1st Prize: $500
2nd Prize: $200
3rd Prize: $100

Teenage Section (13–17 years)*1st Prize: $250 (plus $250 for their school)
2nd Prize: $100 (plus $100 for their school)
3rd Prize: $50 (plus $50 for their school)

Junior Section (up to 12 years)*1st Prize: $250 (plus $250 for their school)
2nd Prize: $100 (plus $100 for their school)
3rd Prize: $50 (plus $50 for their school)

Entries are open to any medium: print, illustration, video, verse, voice or combinations of any of the above. Each entry should be no more than 1500 words and, for other story formats, something that takes no more than 5 minutes to experience.

*First time entry encouragement award

*Prizes for all finalists in each section

In case of two winners in any category the first and second prize will be added together and divided equally between the two winners and there will be a third prize.

Read the conditions of entry before submitting your story

Get some writing tips from a pro!

Find out who's judging.