CAPTAIN'S LOG: 29th January 2019

Happy New Year to you all.

I hope you have all been working away over Christmas and have plenty to submit.

So, we are back on Wednesday the 6^th February and I’m happy to receive work at any time now to pass onto the group for our first session. I confess, I’ve been slack and have not written a word.

As you know, Meg will not be with us this year due to her new job. At this stage, I’ve had no word from the library about a replacement, or even if we want one.

Hope to see you all soon.

Regards

Les

Captain's Log September 12th 2018

G’day Wordies,

We had six show up for Meg this week, Tracey, Sonia, Julee, Janeen, Terry and me. Apologies from Kristen. 

First up, we had a very interesting discussion about the ramification for writers of the closure of Dennis Jones and Associates, the book distributor. A sad and disturbing thing, which affects a great many Australian writers. Then we moved onto Meg’s writing exercise, and no, it wasn’t writing using the wrong hand while meditating by standing on our heads. It was, however, very different. In fact, it was quite interesting and thought-provoking.

     Meg is off to London next Wednesday, so I’d just like to wish her a happy and successful trip. London is a great city, with so much to do and see. 

Now – Warning – Warning – Warning. School holidays are approaching, and still no sign of any ‘kid raid’ shelters being provided by the council.  So, we need to make a decision.

     Kristen, Sonia and Terry are unavailable both weeks. Janeen will be out for the second week, as will Julee and I. Therefore, I think we should still have a normal session on the 26th September as, Tracey, Janeen, Julee and I should be in attendance. I think that we should cancel the second week (3rd October) as only Tracey is available. However, with her ‘Big Day’ looming that Saturday, I’m sure she won’t mind cancelling that particular Wednesday as well. If I’ve mucked up, please feel free to let me know.

A normal critiquing week next Wednesday, if anyone has anything, you know the drill. If not, I’ll throw myself down for sacrifice again. 

I hope to see most of you next Wednesday.

Until then, ‘Falbh ann an sith.’

Regards,

Les

New Calendar Update

2018

FEBRUARY 7          MATHEW 14        CRITIQUE 21        CRITIQUE 28        CRITIQUE	MARCH 7          MATHEW 14        CRITIQUE 21        CRITIQUE 28        CRITIQUE	APRIL 4          CRITIQUE - School Hols 11        MEG            - School Hols 18        CRITIQUE 25        ANZAC DAY
MAY 2          FUN DAY 9          CRITIQUE 16        MEG 23        CRITIQUE 30        CRITIQUE	JUNE 6          CRITIQUE 13        CRITIQUE 20        MEG 27        FUN DAY	JULY 4          CRITIQUE - School Hols 11        CRITIQUE- School Hols 18        MEG 25        CRITIQUE
AUGUST 1          CRITIQUE 8          CRITIQUE 15        MEG 22        FUN DAY 29        CRITIQUE	SEPTEMBER 5          CRITIQUE 12        CRITIQUE 19        MEG 26        CRITIQUE- School Hols	OCTOBER 3          CRITIQUE - School Hols 10        CRITIQUE 17        MEG 24        CRITIQUE 31        FUN DAY
NOVEMBER 7          CRITIQUE 14        CRITIQUE 21        MEG 28        CRITIQUE	DECEMBER 5          CRITIQUE 12        LUNCH

Captain's Log: 21st March 2018

A full house yesterday for an interesting session. First off, we welcomed our new mentor, Meg, a highly qualified and motivated lady who has made writing the main focus of her life (after her family of course). Meg will be conducting once a month workshops/talks. for us.

First off, we had a roundtable discussion get to know each other, to talk about our and Meg’s various writing backgrounds. Then, Meg sat through two of our critiques:

Terry’s chapter 7 - Hallelujah, praise the lord, Voss lives. I thought he was a goner for sure after the four-wheel drive incident. Was it an accident or deliberate?

Julee’s chapter 39 – As KT said, ‘What are you doing to us? First Emma and now Violet.’ Oh, and don’t worry, even though the fire brigade was called to attend the blaze caused by the unauthorised welding, no real harm was done.

Two excellent chapter, which, with a little tweaking will both be even more excellenterer (I invented the word this morning and it will be in the Oxford dictionary by tonight).

Everyone was on their best behaviour this week, with no verbal fights, swearing or punches thrown.

It certainly was nice to meet Meg for the first time and I do feel, that after meeting us, she has our measure and will be able to put together some interesting and informative workshops for us. I have promised to include her in our critique post outs so that she can keep an eye on what we are producing.

I’ve prepared a new calendar, reflecting Meg’s sessions and am just waiting for her to get back to me about April (Meg can’t do the third week) before I send it out.

Congratulations to Janeen for the Hobart bookshops who have asked to sell her book. And to Terry who’s first Voss is about to go into print.

I look forward to seeing you all next week, until then  ‘Sholem Aleichem’.

Regards Les

Judy Rigby Wins City of Melton Short Story Competition 2017

Wordsmiths of Melton member Judy Rigby took out first place with her short story Clearing Session. Judy placed second last year and with this triumph is showing us the breadth of her ability to sum up emotion and place in lest than 1500 words.

   Short story is all about conveying the emotion of the characters, the tension within their dialogue and setting the story with enough economy of description to put the reader in the scene. In Judy's winning work, Clearing Session, Ro, Ava and (call me) Ray come together in the clearing session where Ray hopes to resolve the impossible.

   Click here for the link to download your copy of Judy's Story.

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

   More of Judy's stories and musings can be found on her website: http://judyrigby.com/

Captains Log

Melton Library 29th November 2017

Sometimes there's a bit of bovine
by-product in our sessions

G’day Everyone,

Seven reported for duty today, Tracey, Terry, Janeen, Judy, Lena, KT, Damien and me. With two critiques sent in from our long-range sniper, Kevin and two more to follow.

Apologies from Julee and Sonia.

We also had a drop-in visit from John, to show us a copy of his new book which has just been published. It looks pretty impressive.

We had four critiques to cover, chapters from Terry, Janeen and me, plus Lena’s chapter from last week.

Each had good reviews with only minor tweaking.

I thought mine was doing okay, until Judy and Janeen both jumped on me from a great height for lack of emotion (Ouch, those steel cap boots hurt). I promise to do better next time.

Congratulations again to Judy for coming first in the Melton Comp, with her story – very exciting.

Mathew next week, hope to see you all there. 

Until then, ‘selami ke’ānite gari yihuni

Regards Les

Mon Kapitan Les

Five yesterday – Tracey, Sonia, Judy, Terry and me. Apologies from KT, Julee and Janeen. With long distance Kevin lurking on the email.

Terry’s Voss is doing very well and I hear on the grapevine that Tracey’s Ruby (great to see Tracey pounding the old keyboard again with such vigour) is considering hiring him.

As you can imagine, with three chapters and a poem to critique, the potential for open warfare and bloodshed was huge. 

However, apart from a sprained wrist (from warding off comments), some cuts, bruises and dented ego’s, all went well.

Another great session, with lots of chats and constructive comments, all designed to improve our writing skills.

Next week is Mathew. I have no idea what he has in line for us but I guess it’ll be interesting.

Hope to see you all next week.

Until then, Fred være med dig.

Regards Les

Captains Log 23rd August 2017

My Dear Wordys,

Today was ‘Exercise Day’. On parade we had, Tracey, Sonia, Judy (welcome back), Terry and me. Sadly, KT had hurt her back, Julee had a doctor’s appointment and Janeen was studying for an exam.

We started off with a general chit chat about, of all things, just how useless Qantas Frequent Flyer points are. After we’d had enough of that, we started work.

For this week, I devised an exercise on words to avoid when writing. I gave an example of a piece of writing full of bad words and invited everyone to re-write it and remove the bad words. While not mind boggling it did give us all pause to reflect on the words we use in our stories.

Tracey had given me a topic – A car found thirty years after the crash. We all wrote a short piece, using the first exercise as a guide. As per usual, when we do these impromptu stories, some good results were achieved and more than one of them could be easily turned into a short story.

The exercise can be found on our Writing Exercise page in the next couple of days.

All in all, it was a thought provoking session which, I hope, will improve everyone’s writing.

Hope to see you all next week. Until then, aapako shaanti mile

Regards Les

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