The Woking Writers Circle have published their inaugural (at least we thought it was!) anthology of work entitled Podium.

Mainly poetry but some prose including my 500 word short story called Four.

Woking Writers Circle Christmas Dinner. We had all anonymously written poems about each other and they had been put in the crackers. A great evening.

I put a lot of effort into writing a well constructed limerick, but being as I didn’t know the person I was writing it for and his name was rather hard to rhyme, my attention to detail in the construction was entirely lost!

For those in the slightest bit interested the limerick, though perhaps associated with a medieval latin verse form, was populazied by Edward Lear in the nineteenth century; some speculate that the name corrupts Lear-ick. More often it is attributed to the refrain “Will you come up to Limerick” (an Irish county and City), said to have been sung between extemporised verses at convivial Irish gatherings. Limericks are judged by the elegance of their structure, the wittiness of their conceits, and often their ribaldry. There are five lines, and the rhyming scheme is a-a-b-b-a. The first, second and fifth lines have three feet each–an iamb an two anapests. The third and fourth have one iamb and one anapest each.

Okay, here goes… (Spellings altered for effect, and technically, yes, the last word of the lines should have been one syllable.)

There once was a man we’ll call Derrick
Whose job was a bore and generrick
Deciding one day
To go his own way
He took up a life as a clerrick

Not exactly earth shattering I grant you, but I had fun working it out!

Fellow Woking Writers Circle member Ian and I had a great writing session today at his flat in the centre of Woking.

Having had a flash of inspiration I spent six non-stop hours writing a scene of a new play about a young man and his somewhat simple brother (at least I think he’s a brother) set in a hotel room in northern France.

It was very strange for me because this was the first time I have just let the characters do the talking.

The result was interesting, to say the least. I have no idea where it’s going, but it is promising and I’m looking forward to doing some more work with it.

Wow, time to write a blog entry!

Apologies to regular readers. The past couple of weeks have been busy - well busy for me, that is, especially compared to my last entry.

The following day - Tuesday 11th, I met a fellow writer for coffee in Woking, and we set about deciding it was about time we got really committed to writing - ie making a living. We now meet three times a week and get two 90 minute writing sessions in per meeting, as well as about an hour or so of writing related discussion, reading etc. We are not ‘collaborating’ as such (though the option is there I suppose) , just commit to spend the time writing on the various projects we have.

We have committed to a six week trial program of Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11.30am to 4.30pm. We meet in each others houses and do each other lunch, then on Thursdays we go into Woking and work in the library or the new Lightbox museum. (Designed by the Architects who did the London Eye and very pleasant.) We refer to these days as ‘going to work’ and having just finished our 3rd week together I must say the benefits have been enormous! I have been working on my play and my colleague has been working on a children’s novel for a competition. We’ll both shortly start writing loads of short stories to submit to various women’s magazines as well as take on any writing projects for anyone willing to pay the going rate!

Over the past couple of weeks I have been working hard on my play and on Wednesday night I finished it and printed out the first full proper draft. With two acts of 60 and 50 minutes, it is gripping stuff; a contemporary piece, quite unlike anything I have done before, and my first proper full length play. I’m very proud of it. I have just handed it over to my friend Amanda from the Woking Writers’ Circle who has been eagerly awaiting to proof-read it for me. The play is called Kath and Kin and I am hoping to hold a reading of it at the end of October.
 

Called the garage yesterday. Yep! The RAC Patrol man was right. Our little purple Nissan needs a brain transplant. Parts, labour and VAT come to £621.71 - more than our R-reg Micra is actually worth. Pity really. Other than the NATS going a couple of years ago, this car has been brilliant and highly reliable. A little hole in the sill led to a bit of welding in order to pass last year’s MOT, but nothing else has ever been a problem in the 6 years we’ve had it. (It’s not a she or a he, since we’ve never named it!) Wouldn’t be able to get another car as good as that one for six hundred quid (especially since ours has only done 70,000 miles) so gave the garage the go ahead. Hope to be driving it again tomorrow.

To be honest, I can’t say I have really missed it. In fact not having the car has forced me to think differently, which is good since I had a brilliant idea for a new play.

I’m entering the Guildford Play Writing Festival, a new part of the Guildford Book Festival. I found out about it through my writer’s group a couple of weeks ago and set about trying to think of something. The judges are looking for “contemporary themes or the exploration of modern issues” and being as none of my work so far fits this criteria, I knew I’d have to come up with something from scratch. Not easy. With me inspiration strikes when it feels like it. I was beginning to wonder if it ever would; the closing date is the end of the month.

Saturday afternoon an idea popped up whilst having afternoon tea with Richard in his studio in the garden. So far it’s had four titles and lost two characters, but it’s shaping up really well, and I’m very, very pleased with it. Spent most of Sunday writing, 12 hours on Monday, and yesterday afternoon and evening. Still a lot of work to do. This play is coming out in a completely different way than the others I’ve written. There are elements of sytle I have used before, but it’s doing it’s own thing. The characters appear much more real to me than in previous pieces. I think it’s something to do with it being the ‘modern issue’ or the ‘contemporary theme’. Or maybe I’m just getting better with practice. I’m loving it. Richard is pleased that I’m writing again. He says I’m much, much happier when I’m writing.

Time I was back in playwright mode…

Oh, nearly forgot. The excellent Stephen Fry programs are being shown again tonight and tomorrow. Well worth a viewing if you didn’t catch them the first time round.

Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive. BBC4. Wed & Thurs. 8pm
 

Just got back from an amazing ‘Murder Mystery Evening’ organised and brilliantly written by one of my friends in the Woking Writers’ Circle. This was our summer holiday meeting and there was plenty of intrigue and fab food!

I played Tom Barker, a writer undergoing anger management therapy whilst suing the victim for plagiarism. Shopaholic Pamela Potts had been a published author, but it transpires that her astute assistant was miffed because she had actually written the thriller, the reticent researcher had done most of the work and wasn’t happy either, and the not so best selling book was based entirely on Tom’s short story.

To add further motive: the bookstore executive husband was seeing the poetic but jealous sister; Pam was blackmailing her literary agent for wanting to cancel her six book contract since he was having it away with a novel novelist while his MP wife with staunch family values didn’t know; Nora the nosy neighbour (don’t mention the goat) had an ASBO; the livid lawyer’s love was unrequited; the investigative journalist was desperate for a scoop; and the diligent Detective Inspector and his servile Sergeant just didn’t have a clue!

Brilliant! Well Done, Amanda!

PS. The aggrieved agent did it. He poisoned poor Pam with oleander. Oh, and did I mention the goat?
 

Me again. Apologies for the lack of content. Hardly a blog if I don’t post anything. I do however have a good reason for being away from the blogosphere and it’s not the usual, ‘Boy, have I been busy’ excuse I read elsewhere on the web. I’ve actually been in hospital, and then had a couple of weeks recuperation and realignment. Not the best few weeks of my life I can assure you…

It is important however and I now feel the need to write about it, but not in today’s post. I’m off to my monthly writers group meeting in a few minutes and will then be driving down to Wittering for a long (wet) weekend. I have done the thinking; I now have a lot of post writing to do. I’ll update you when I get back.

In the mean time, I thought you might be interested in some fiction. Here’s the homework set at my writing group’s last meeting - a short story in five hundred words… Enjoy.

‘Four’ by PAFoster