Erskine Writers Meeting 23rd April 2024

 There were 12 members attending today's meeting. Jeannie began the session reading her article 'A Sense of Belonging' which won first prize at SAW conference in March and published in I SCOT.

 Today's theme was our book reviews;

Sandra's choice 'The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane' by Lisa See

Hilary chose 'The Liar's Bones' by Morag Pringle

Rob chose 'Endurance' by Alfred Lansing

Lorna chose 'Becoming' by Michelle Obama 

Irene chose 'Etta and Otto and Russell and James' by Emma Hooper

John M chose 'Death in La Fenice' by Donna Leon

Joan chose 'Norse Mythology' by Neil Gaiman

John H chose 'Out of Darkness' by Alex Gray

Joyce chose 'The Reluctant Beatle' by Phillip Norman

Jeannie chose 'Caledonian Road' by Andrew O'Hagen

Donnie finished the reviews with 'Smiley's People' by John Le Carre

Sandra M will be The Ginger Cat in Bridge of Weir on Friday to do her book talk and Jeannie will be there the following week to do her book talk.

The syllabus meeting for next year's session will take place on the 9th of July.

Erskine Writers meeting 16th April 2024

This week the group drew out one line sentence from the hat. They were give 20 minutes to complete a flash fiction story. We were then going to pair up with a colleague who drew the same one liner and then work together merging their stories into one piece. We took the collective decision that this was going to be very challenging so we were happy to omit this task. The one liners were;

A bolt out of the blue

One minute she was there the next she was gone

Such a gawky little specimen

Walking on eggshells

You have a one new voicemail

You haven’t changed a bit

Michael sat down in the middle of the road and began to cry

Your mother lied to you, that’s the truth

I was dressed in an inappropriate shade of pink

After only two months, Helen decided to become an exotic dancer

“I like hats” that’s what Derek said the day he killed Sally

On the following Friday we packed our bags and planned our escape

There were seventeen cats living in Harry’s basement

Out of sight out of mind

A very interesting exercise which produced great submissions from the group. Morag confirmed that we will be submitting 11 entries for Greenock Writers to adjudicate. Jeannie looking for volunteers for this years syllabus meeting which will meet in July. Mandy had good news that Wee Stoorie Press will be delivering 'The Aligrog' on 10th of May 2024. Sandra attending book event at The Ginger Cat Book Store, Bridge of Weir on 26th April 2024. Jeannie will also be giving a talk at the same venue the following week.