Erskine Writers

 This was the first meeting of the new session and was well-attended by thirteen members, apologies having been received rom Joan, Jacqui and Irene. Club president Sandra gave a warm welcome and then updated us with the medical conditions of various members including Donnie (whose return to the fold was extremely gratifying) and long standing member John S to whom we send our love, prayers and good wishes. There was news of a potential overseas member an ex-Erskine resident, Peter McCartney. A nurse, he now lives with his family in Seattle, USA and has already published a book on Amazon by the name of “The Clyde Boys”. This can be found at https://amzn.eu/d/dlGDrs3 and we hope he can join us at some point through the wonders of technology. Sandra then gave us the worrying news that our current location at the Erskine Arts Hub, part of the Sports Centre was becoming financially unsustainable and, in all probability, we will have to move. She had already investigated alternative venues including the Muthu Hotel and, more promisingly, Bishopton Library and discussion with them were ongoing. There followed a discussion, led by Lorna, of gaining a grant from engagerenfrewshire.org with whom she had successfully negotiated on behalf of the tennis club and plans were put in place for Sandra and Rob to accompany her on her next meeting to investigate a potential claim on our behalf citing mental health welfare as justification. 

We then studied the forthcoming syllabus and highlighted competitions, guest speakers and two specialist workshops on recording biographical memoirs and humorous writing. Donnie then told us of his delight that distant family members from Albuquerque had actually read his family history which had encouraged them to visit Scotland; Lorna let be know that she had a new puppy, Daisy, who could well form the basis for future children’s books; Jeannie has now completed her MLitt thesis and awaits the results and in the meantime has had a poem published and John H has sold four of his artworks over the Summer period.Rob read out two poems he had been working on over the holiday Marilyn, a poem on hope and resilience and Jeannie followed suit with a beautiful piece of descriptive work on a Hebridean beach. Hilary then gave us the breakdown of her trip to Vancouver and her cruise to Alaska. Pride of place was reserved for John M who, in July, had launched the first two of his Italian detective novels in the beautiful village of Monteverdi, Tuscany.The  third will soon be coming and the UK launch takes place at Gavin’s Mill, Milngavie on 2nd October at 19.00 hrs. All welcome. Other dates for the diary are the beginning of the Bloody Scotland Festival on 12th September and the Gryffe Valley Book Festival between the 5th-12th September at venues around Houston and Kilmalcolm. Work starts in earnest nest week when Joan leads a workshop on the popular “double decker” writing.