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Tuesday 10th December

 The calendar year ended with our annual Christmas party which was also to mark our last involvement with the Bargarran Community Centre. There were a handful of apologies who could not make the celebrations of which I was, unfortunately one, being laid low by one of these nasty Winter fevers! However, I have it on good authority that a good time was had be all bolstered by our self-catering, Lorna’s quiz and Brian’s music. So it’s a merry Christmas to all and a peaceful and happy new year as we look forward to a long and fruitful association with the Erskine Sports Centre. ………..book review week on 7th January!!

Minutes from meeting on Tuesday 3rd December

 Twelve members attended, there being apologies from Donnie, Brian, Ted, John S and John H. 

We were saddened to hear of Jeannie’s intention to relinquish the presidency but can understand her reasons for so-doing. We wish her well as she continues with her creative writing studies at Strathclyde University and reassure her that she and husband Ted are in our thoughts  and prayers. We thank her for her dynamic and forthright leadership over the past eighteen months or so.

It’s a pleasure to welcome Sandra back into the President’s chair, a seat which she has graced before and, for a rookie secretary, her knowledge and wisdom about all things writing is sure to be a boon.

It was good to hear that John has now safely arrived in Australia after what seems to have been an “interesting” 40 hour (!!) journey

Members are reminded that next week’s Christmas Party begins at 1.00pm and they are to arm themselves with their own mug and a Secret Santa Christmas card thereby carrying on the  traditions of previous years. Members signed up for their particular gastronomic contribution for the table and if anyone has forgotten I have the sheet.  Lorna will produce a quiz and it is believed Brian is in charge of the music

The topic for the day was to write a the nativity story from the point of view of a bystander, an extra if you will who do not warrant a mention in the New Testament or any other contribution to the canon of Christmas writing.

Irene wrote of the perils of the angel atop the Christmas tree as it was toppled to the ground by vigorous children and how she was saved by some Santa magic. Lorna wrote a traveller’s diary written by Noah the donkey

Sandra R. wrote of Felix the cat who witnessed the birth yet has no biblical mention though the fur distribution on his head may have been some reward.

Joan also wrote about a loving cat in the stable whilst Jeannie wrote a caustic account given by a camel driver employed by the wise men. Rob and Morag both concentrated on the role played by the innkeeper’s wife - albeit coming from different angles, whilst John and Jacqui both wrote thoughtful, sensitive pieces - John on the role played by a young, lame boy whose thanks came in the form of a first miracle whilst Jacqui wrote of the importance of a family Christmas to her 92 year old mother.

There were further contributions given by Rob and Jeannie.

And so we say goodbye to our room at the Community Centre - a room full of memories and if the walls could talk they WOULD have lots and lots of stories to tell. 

Erskine Writers Meeting 26th November 2024

 Whereas apologies were received from John Spence, the meeting was attended by fourteen members. We were disappointed to learn that Elizabeth has chosen to resign from the group and wish her well for the future in the hopes that she continues, possibly, as a postal member. Congratulations are to be given to Lorna whose children’s novel “The Superstar Puppy” has recently been published on Kindle and further esteem needs to be applied as she told us of the time-consuming task of self-publishing. We wished John Bon voyage as he sets off to Australia to welcome his new grand-daughter into his family when she arrives and look forward to seeing him on his return in February. Good on yer, cobber!

The main part of the afternoon was taken up by a workshop based on the genre of crime-writing delivered by Russel McLean. An author of eight crime novels - the eighth “The Friday Girl” due to be published in the New Year. Russel is also an editor for numerous publishers including Amazon, has taught creative writing at Dundee University and has also worked in film and TV.

He compared the agony of writing with its ultimate joy and urged us to approach our own efforts with a youthful zest. We were encouraged to read outwith our normal comfort zone and question the appeal of particular books and what makes us so keen on them. We analysed the concept of conflict, the build-up of character empathy  and concentrated on the “primal urge” which drives characters forward  thereby drawing us in. He drew from a wide variety of authors - both classical and modern - illustrated his ideas with reference to TV and film and, again, urged us to think outside the box. We analysed different types of crime writing - from the cosy mysteries to police procedural and crime noire, his most librating point being that a crime writing can cover all forms of writing providing that a committed crime remains as a central core. This certainly freed up a lot of ideas - especially amongst the afficiandoes of science fiction within the group. It was a very thought provoking and “freeing” afternoon.

Russel’s competition is to write a short crime story of 1500 words based on the title “Who killed Alexander Black……and why?”. Members will smile at the title with obvious reasons! He advised entrants to “open up at a point of high drama and get out quickly at the resolution”. Entries to be with Morag by 14th January.

Thank you, Russel

Erskine Writers Meeting 19th November 2024

                                                         Tuesday 19th November

Eleven members attended the meeting and there were apologies from Ted, Donnie, John H, Jackie. 

Confirmation was received that our last meeting at Bargarran Community Centre, prior to moving to the Sports Centre in the New Year will be on Tuesday 10th December which will be our Christmas Party. Please note that this is to begin at 1.00pm and will continue until 3.00 pm - a half hour earlier than normal

Members upgraded their contact and safeguarding information and Morag gave a short reminder of the protocols surrounding competition entries. Anyone wishing to see a performance by Jenny Lindsay, who recently delivered our poetry workshop, was advised to go to YouTube and look for “Woman World”. Irene gave an appreciation of her walking holiday in Spain whilst Jeannie told us of HER time in Spain spent at a writers’ retreat.

Topic of the day was “A letter to an agony aunt:, a paired writing exercise where one would act as the writer whilst the other would act as the agony aunt providing a solution to the writer’s problem. Two revolutions of the table enabled the roles to be reversed and the problems encountered were finding a lost ferret, a problem cat, a troublesome neighbour, lottery sharing with family and teenage angst. On the anti-clockwise rotation we encountered constant worrying, hasty marriages, a shy speech giver, a toucan with Tourette’s, marriage to a chef , loud sneezing, a dependency on crisps, a secretive vegetarian and a the cries of a dumped P2 pupil.

Great fun was had by all and we look forward to Russel McLean’s Crime-writing workshop this coming Tuesday - 26th

Erskine Writers Meeting 12th November 2024

There were ten attendees today with apologies received from Donnie, Joan, Jeannie and Ted.

Rob began with a recap of the exercises that we did last week with performance poet Jenny Lindsay. The details are on last week’s blog and form the basis of the poetry competition which can use any one of the exercises as a starting point. 

Each member is limited to two entries to the competition and the competition guidelines can be found in the blog. The deadline for the competition is the 3rd of December and entries should be sent to the Competitions Secretary, Morag as a PDF.

Sandra's good news was that on Thursday the 14th of November she has been invited to Paisley Abbey where the University of the West of Scotland will award her an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.

We were reminded that the Erskine Writers will be moving venue from 7 January 2025 to the Erskine Community Sports Centre.

Hillary gave us a full and interesting account of her trip to India and Goa which was crammed full of trips to nature reserves and parks where she saw a wonderful selection of animals and birds that made the early morning starts and the bumpy transport worthwhile. 

John Hughes reminds us of the Arts and Craft Fair and also that on the 16th of November at 7:30 PM on YouTube, the group yobcultcha will be releasing a Christmas single entitled I'm going to funk all over yule.

Lorna read Hillary’s short story, My Golden Treasure, the idea for which came from a bag of hair things dating from the 1900s that were found in her loft.

Rob read an extract form from the family history he is writing for his children and grandchildren – a dialogue piece entitled, I beg your pardon, Mr Previn, an account of a real meeting with the conductor while Rob was at Aberystwyth University.

Brian's contribution was belated response to the Kelvin Grove visit entitled, A formidable body of work that told about the life of Russell M Saunders, a Canadian acrobat who worked as a film stuntman. Saunders was the life model for Salvador Dali's Christ of Saint John of the Cross. 

John Hughes takes 9 words from his daily Wordle competition and writes a flash fiction piece using those words. He read out three pieces today.

Next week’s meeting is based on the theme of a letter to an agony aunt. Each member will write a problem to an agony aunt and pass it to another member who will reply as the agony aunt.  

Erskine Writers Meeting 5th November 2024

 Apologies were received from Donnie, Hilary, Joan, Lorna, Elizabeth, Jeannie and Ted.

This was our first workshop of the session and was one based on poetry. Our guest was Jenny Lindsay a performance poet from Maybole in Ayrshire. Originally a singer/ songwriter and Modern Studies teacher, a burglary at her flat in Edinburgh when her trusty electric piano was stolen forced her into reciting her lyrics rather than singing them at various open mic events. This was favourably received and she hasn’t looked back since. Describing herself as a political/feminist poet she has also written plays, literary essays and, as a freelance writer, is a regular columnist with, amongst others, The Times, The Spectator and The Australian.
The underlying theme of her workshop was taking the fear out of writing poems and she had designed or cobbled from others four exercises which the group were to undertake. Each exercise was very closely timed, Jenny actually employing a timer from which she counted us down to the very last second, and lasted for seven minutes - “seven being a magical number”
Initially we were to write on the theme of “the world is not watching” - a poem written in sleep. Anything and everything could be included as long as the pen never left the paper. If we stalled at any point, we were to continue to write the words “I am writing” until the muse rejoined us.
Secondly, a list poem based on one of Jenny’s own works written about an ex-boyfriend. This could be things I love, hate, remember etc and we were allowed to pause during the this exercise.
The third offering was a poem written about a specific feature of a loved one - be it one at which we “marvelled” or one we loathed. This could be anything from snoring (which was used!) to the time taken to apply make-up to things of a more general nature.
Finally, we were to write a poem based on the views from a specific window. This was structured with first the view, then the sounds followed by the smells associated with it. This was then developed with the idea of, as we stared out of the window, we were clutching something we held most dear and finally when the view was interrupted by a a visitor of some description.
It was a very enjoyable afternoon and quite challenging but cleverly designed to achieve the ultimate goal of approaching poetry writing with greater confidence.
Her challenge for the competition was to write a poem based on one of the following 
The Window Exercise, Someone You Love who has an annoying habit or The Truth.
Maximum of 40 lines to Morag by 3rd December.