Tuesday 4th March and we had a welcome turn out of fourteen members which was amplified by the possibility of a new member - Ryan McGrenaghan - who came to us following a recommendation from a third party. Welcome Ryan! The main business was given over to the results of competition number three from our annual syllabus. This was generally devoted to writing for children and was judged by Alan Dapre who commended the club on their entries demoing them energetic and full of fun. He followed that with highlighting the three cardinal points of writing for young readers - keep it short and strong, simple one syllable names and clarify the problem to bring it to a satisfactory solution. The winner was Brian with his entry “Chariot of the Sun” , a modern take on classical myth where Peter meets his father Apollo and the adventure which ensues. Rob came second with “The Woodpecker who wanted to sing” telling the story of Wilf, a lesser spotted woodpecker who wanted to join the dawn chorus and how he went about his quest. Hilary came in third with her tale of Bass the basset hound and how he was instrumental in helping to avert an agricultural tragedy for Sam and his puppy, the title a clever “It’s a dogs life.” Highly commended were Morag’s with “The Telling Spelling Bee” relating how a bee helped a young boy with learning how to spell and Ailsa with “Sally Jane. Sunday’s not for me” the gist of which we hope to hear in the future. Irene’s commended “Hetty Hedgehog meets the bully” delay with a problem often tackled in children’s books, the bully in this case being Sammy the stoat and his command over the woodland animals. Cleverly, Irene had numbered her pages so that artwork could be added at a later date. John Hughes made his comeback with a commended piece entitled “Patrick Penguin and the mysterious goggles” detailing the adventures of a short sighted penguin, his reluctance to swim and hie eventual ability to fly.
John MacDonald informed the group that he had taken the decision to self publish his quartet of novels based around his Italian detective Moretti - each one based on a season in Italy. He gave us a piece of his novella introducing his character which he intends to out on his website - his Hobbit prior to his Lord of the Rings if you will. John H then gave us his story based on a nine word Wordle problem and Sandra and Joan read out poems based around similar themes - the birth of the first grandchild. A busy, productive and entertaining afternoon. Members are reminded of Sandra’s book launch in Waterstones, Sauchiehall Street at 7.00 pm on 20th March and that entries for the seeions final competition - 500-1500 words on an article suitable for a newspaper or magazine are to be with Morag’s by 18th March.
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