Next Meeting May 17th Write on the Night: Opening line, “It’s my fault”

Ormskirk Writers & Literary Society (OWLS) When? Meetings held on the first and third Monday of each month at 7:30 Where? New Church House Who to contact? If you are interested in joining, or just want to enquire about what’s going on this year please contact… The secretarial team: Saime Higson: saimehigson@hotmail.co.uk Val Hearn: jrhearn@supanet.com Or: Find us on facebook: Either search for us or follow this link. https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/ 124457731015964/?fref=ts What to expect? Ormskirk Writers’ & Literary Society - OWLS was established in 1963 to promote local writers. Today, whether your into poetry, playwriting or prose, OWLS offers a relaxed atmosphere where both novice and experienced writers can meet and discuss their work. All visitors may attend three free meetings before joining. What’s on this year’s program? May 20th Jun 3rd Jun 17th Jul 1st Jul 15th Aug 5th Aug 19th Sept 2nd Sept 16th Oct 7th Oct 21st Nov 4th Nov 18th Dec 2nd Jan 6th Jan 20th Feb 3rd Feb 17th Mar 3rd Mar 17th Write on the Night: Opening line, “It’s my fault” Workshop on dialogue Debate and discussion evening. Manuscript evening Write on the Night: Pick and Mix Manuscript evening Manuscript evening Booze and Amuse. Pick your favourite books, new books you’ve read or anything you want to share. Dora Doyle Manuscript evening Jo Cowell (in house) Manuscript evening: Murder and Mayhem: Halloween/bonfire night. Write on the Night, objects as stimulus. Christmas Party Manuscript evening, Reflections theme Manuscript night, Burns night/Scottish theme Manuscript evening. Manuscript evening: Valentine’s Day story/poem whatever you like. AGM Manuscript evening.

New announcements Coming shortly

Minutes April 15th 2013 Present: Judy, Val, Saime, Tim, Sarah, Graham, Cec, and Alex. Judy Shot to piece Short story (mystery) Agnes enjoys growing fruit and vegetables, when one she makes a startling discovery. The “metal thing” turn out to be a riffle. Agnes debates who to call, the police? 999? How had the riffle got there? And why? Had anyone been killed? Agnes remembers a police car at her next door neighbour Maggie’s house, on boxing day looking for Maggie’s brothe who was suspected in a shooting. Agnes remembered being given a number to call at the time, but can’t find it. Would the police believe her? Would they think the gun was hers? Agnes finally calls the number. Tim Freshers weeks Short story (contemporary/comedy) The antics of Freshers week between a group of very diverse students, all forced to live and function together. Cec Pocket dictionary Short story (quirky) From the point of view of personified lonely pocket dictionary. Point of view a member of a fictional writers group, who struggles to write a piece on the uncanny after a presentation. Sees an apportion of an old woman in a bonnet. Starts to write in an unfamiliar hand, the story is about Ermintrude, the lady of the bonnet, who was due to marry a ship owner, but ran off with a poor man. Her daughter dies before her, leaving a girlchild, who should have inherited but was never found. One of her descendants was in the room. Alex Henry the Camel book 2: Henry’s Adventures: The Journey of a Lifetime A chapter from a longer work in the Henry the camel series. Chapter, Expect the Unexpected Henry tries to convince Oboe the gerbil that the elephants are his friends, but it all goes wrong when the elephants mistake Oboe for a mouse and try to squash him. We convinced Alex to read from the next chapter Travelling in Convoy as we feared Oboe had died. Graham Horror 1836 Short story (historical) About reviewing child labour laws in the 1830s.

Members please Note:

Members please address Entries or remarks to me for insertion in this blog beachc05@gmail.com

A G M 2012

Owls AGM minutes 5th March 2012

PRESENT: Cec, Alex, Keith, Sarah, Saime, Tim, Bryan, Tricia, Carol, Liz, Kate,Jean, Ishbel, Nick, Val.
APOLOGIES: Judy.

WELCOME FROM CHAIR, KEITH.
Keith pointed out that as the AGM is generally the meeting of any organisation
that people tend to avoid, we did really well to get such a good turn out.

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT: KEITH.
Keith expressed his time as chair over the year had passed quickly.He has enjoyed the critique and company Owls have provided.
Poor weather can be off-putting, but when one makes the effort, evenings turn out to be rewarding with fun and excellent writing. He congratulated member’s successes in publication and thanked the committee for hard work behind the scenes, Sarah and Saime for minutes, Alex for financial work, and Judy for providing refreshments at her own expense. He highly he thanked everyone for great fellowship and fun, and for not
imposing stress upon him in his role as Chair.

SECRETARY’S REPORT: SARAH
We have had 21 meetings since the last Owl AGM. The following is a brief
synopsis. 9 m general manuscript nights, and 5 themed manuscript nights;
non fiction, fantasy, script, love on the rocks, a school play for
children night, a workshop on dealing with character and situation led by Tricia ,
and a a write on the night based around objects in stories led by Sarah . Also a
literary evening, and a meeting for magazine analysis, useful, critique of magazines accepting submissions. And a guest speaker evening with poet Stephen Beattie and novelist Mark Porter. And of
course the Jo Cowell night in-house competition for a children’s story, a Dora Doyle night with guest speaker poet Jim Bennett, and the Christmas party.
On average of 10 members attended each meeting and we have hosted 10 visitors, 2 of whom have signed up as members. Thank you to all members for attendance and support of the club, and all the written contributions and manuscripts. The members are what make the club.
an enormous thank you to Saime as stand in secretary and to other owl members who have filled in secretarial duties while I was away travelling. The minutes were brilliant – a real treat to read. Clearly a lot of time and effort went into them.. Thank you to all members for support and encouragement shown in making this group so successful and enjoyable to be a part of.
I’m looking forward to a really exciting year of OWLS ahead.

TREASURER’S REPORT: ALEX
Alex circulated the financial report to owl members earlier this week.
This year Owls did several things in-house which incurred lower
Expenses but the room rent did dent the accounts by £400.50, Which the issue can be addressed at the committee meeting next week.
NAWG is costing us £40 annually and. Owls discussed the pros and cons of its membership:
• PROS: regular emails, competitions, a magazine open to submissions, e-zine, workshops,and club a national profile, links people together for appraisal.
• CONS: poor notification process from NAWG incurs fines if mailing list not kept up to date. Few read or benefits from its magazine. We can have a national profile in other ways, e.g. (websites / our blog /facebook)
Alex proposed to cease membership to NAWG in July when our current membership expires. Liz seconded this and the majority of Owls voted in favour of this proposal.
Jo Cowell being run in-house did not have the same expenses as a national competition – so no income, but little expenses / judging fee etc.
Dora Doyle Evening incurred a financial loss, but members agreed that there was a great gain in terms of morale and enjoyment.
A card was sent on behalf of the club notifying the family of the evening.
Cec and Bryan’s separate charity poetry books raised a total of £35, which members agreed would stay in the charity pot, to have in hand, or for charities connected with members. A pot to dip into.
Finances are a bit tight to pay for the room but we can rectify this by encouraging new membership. Alex proposed that fees stay the same at £24full membership and £10 for students.
A higher fee for students (£12/£15)was suggested but Alex’s proposal to maintain the fees as they are was seconded by Ishbel and carried on vote.
Bryan's suggestion that the accounts should be accepted as un-audited was seconded by Tricia and carried by Owlclub members.

. JO COWELL REPORT: TRICIA
The competition theme was a Children’s story. It was held in-house on 18th July. All present voted and Sarah won a £10 book token.

. The committee will discuss how to proceed with this competition for next year.
. Suggestions from Owls members included working with the library, on a
combined event celebrating all founder members. It was unanimously agreed
that the Jo Cowell will continue in one form or another, whether in house
or wider. There was a feeling that some things have disappeared that are
important to the club and must be continued.

. DORA DOYLE REPORT: CAROL
Ten Owls flocked to hear Jim Bennett,who runs The Poetry Kit: the second largest poetry site in the world, and is a well known figure on the poetry scene.
We were treated to work about Liverpool, and famous figures and historical events. Jim took questions from the owls. He said a poem is like an onion with layers. It must engage the emotions. He finished by saying that to be a poet you must read poetry.

. Suggestions were made for next year’s Dora Doyle evening. The committee
will discuss ideas. It was proposed that Dora Doyle will continue, Cec
seconded this, and it was carried by the group.

. Glass Owl prize: Alex
This was a bit of an experimental exercise in its first year. The marking
scheme turned out to be more complex than expected, taking a piece of
work, improving it three times and scoring became complicated, although it
was generally felt to be a great idea for improving work. The committee will
discuss an easier reformulation for the prize, to make it more user friendly.
Nonetheless in this first year, people did contribute and improve their work. The competition was especially close between two at the top. The prize wasawarded to Tim.Well done Tim!

. President’s Report: Cec
Cec has had to miss a few meetings due to health and bad weather. He thanked the committee for splendid efforts and noted that every member has contributed to the success over the year. Everyone has gained something, which is what it’s all about.
He encouraged everyone to do more, perhaps by serving on the committee to help reshape and improve the club.
He went on to lead a round of applause for all the committee members and members of the club.

. Election of committee.
Liz and Tricia are stepping down from the committee after a term of faithful service with Thanks for their commitment and hard work over the term .
New members stepping up to the committee are: Nick and Elaine. Positions will be clarified at the committee meeting on Monday 12th March.
The Committee as of March 2012 is:
President: Cec
Chair: Keith. Vice Chair: Margaret Secretary: Sarah
Treaseurer: Alex Committee member: Saime Committee member: Elaine
Committee member: Nick

. MembersSuggested nineteen items to go on next year’s programme:
Please continue to forward suggestions to the secretary for the committee to
fit into the programme in their planning meeting on Monday.

. We also had a fantastic suggestion that refreshments served at our
meetings could be run on a rota basis. We will discuss the best way forward
with this at the committee meeting. Thank you for the suggestion. Great idea
and many thanks to Judy for so faithfully providing refreshments for so long.
It was a great evening, with lots to think about and look forward to in the year ahead.
Next group meeting on 19th March 2012, is a manuscript night. Public and prospective members will be welcomed.

A message from Runshaw Writers to Ormskirk Owls

Dear Ormskirk Owls,

us folks at Runshaw Writers have been running a weekly soap opera on our website, http://runshawwriters.blogspot.com since May this year. This is deliberately intended to be an inclusive exercise in team writing. If you are interested, you can see all of the episodes so far at the link given. You are also quite welcome (a) to copy them to your own website if you wish, in effect 'syndicating' them (with due credit); (b) you are also invited to take part in writing episodes. I can supply the backstory details of the characters, locations, ongoing and proposed plot lines - please contact me at thepeterbird@talktalk.net.

Soaps may not to be to everybody's taste - indeed I myself am not really a fan. However, it has to be acknowledged as a very popular form of dramatic entertainment these days - yet it is nothing new - I gather that some of Charles Dickens' writing started off like this in printed periodicals. Writing for one, as a member of a team, is also a very good writing exercise in a large number of ways :

• writing within certain boundaries - such as characters that have already been created by someone else consistent with pre-existing plot lines,
• writing to a strict word count (1,000 words per episode)
• creating 'cliff-hangers' to make the read want to read on,
• writing to a deadline amd writing with other people, no longer the loneliest profession.
• Above all it can be great fun  and who know where it might lead? Soap writers at the BBC typically are paid £125k a year.

I hope you will find this proposal exciting and be interested in taking part. At the very least all feedback would be welcome and you can hone your critiquing skills.

Please let me know if you are interested or have any questions.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Bird.