Archive for the ‘Workshops’ Category

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This Writing Life


2010
08.19

Posted in Inspiration, My Writing, Workshops, Writing your novel | 2 Comments »

I am very excited by this writing life just now. Why? Well firstly I’m excited about possible options on my Danny Beck novel for publication here and USA in 2012.  Given the delay on this I have decided to put my second crime novel on ice and in the hiatus of Renga days – I still find I’m fascinated and surprised by writing this daily verse – several new projects have emerged.

To some extent they are ideas that lay fallow – an East Anglian novel (place is so often my starting point) being one of them. I now have approx 5000 words and a kind of outline of where the novel is going and more importantly I am very much enjoying the writing.

Then there are my short stories, the first of which, about the artist Michelangelo, floated almost fully formed into my head and demanded to be written. I am now working on a themed collection and have just completed a story in the voice of Mark Rothko. This feels like quite a creative leap for me but one which springs out my love of Art and my background in Art History.

There’s my poetry too, I haven’t abandoned working on that.

And last but not least is my Autumn Novel Group – the details of which are below – this is something I’ve wanted to do for some time and feel quite passionate about.

Autumn Novel Group 2010

This autumn I am offering a unique course for writers interested in making significant progress with a book length project i.e. a novel, a collection of short stories or a family memoir.

The course will take place fortnightly in my home in Witton-le-Wear from 7-9.45pm on Tuesday evenings at a cost of £15.00 per session and will initially run from Sept – December (start date Sept 14th) over a period of 12 weeks = 6 sessions.  Follow up options may be arranged to continue into 2011 with possible monthly meetings.

Places will be limited to 6 participants. This is to ensure those taking part have sufficient time in which to discuss their current work, their progress and concerns at each meeting.

My intention is that we will concentrate less on reading out and the fine detail of our text (although this may sometimes be appropriate and relevant) and more on process – plot, narrative voice, structure, beginnings, middles, drafting, editing, the language, dialogue, research, procrastination…….we might discuss some or indeed all of these and more, depending on where you are with your writing and what issues or problems you bring to the group.

Having written my first novel The Sweet Track whilst taking part in just such a group I am keenly aware how much there is to learn in the rarefied atmosphere created by the committed few.

It is my intention that as well as leading the group I will write alongside you. My current crime novel has attracted interest with an option for purchase in 2011 and publication in the UK and America in 2012. In the intervening period I will be writing a new novel set on the east coast of England. I am also working on a themed collection of short stories inspired by the lives of well- known artists.

Whether you are just starting out, or already part way through, embarking on and completing a piece of long fiction can be a daunting task. It will be my aim to offer you advice, support and focus in achieving your goals, as well as a warm welcome, coffee and biscuits and a share in my own passion for writing and getting the work done.

If you are interested in joining the group or have any further questions please contact me at: amjoy@hotmail.co.uk

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Making Books – A Day With Chloe


2010
07.18

Posted in Inspiration, Notebooks, Visual Arts, Workshops | 1 Comment »

The books I made at the workshop

The Hearth at Horsley (west of Newcastle) is a beautiful grade 2 listed building that houses eight working studios used by artists and musicians and a very friendly coffee shop selling heavenly scones (as well as other goodies).

On Saturday I spent the day there at a bookmaking course run by Chloe.  Chloe was a great tutor, very laid back but incredibly well prepared, so that we each came away having made three books and all clamouring for a follow up course. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The company was a real treat too – lovely people – as was the chocolate and almond cake Chloe made for our morning break. The course was fantastic value for money and utterly inspiring. I think I might be hooked on making books. As a writer I especially enjoyed the opportunity to do something practical rather than cerebral and know I definitely need more of this.

I found the course via New Writing North’s newsletter  – you can check out coming courses on The Hearth’s website (linked above).

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New beginnings…beautiful things


2010
03.08

Posted in My Writing, Workshops | 1 Comment »

The Easington launch was a great success: a packed house and over two hundred books sold.

If you would like a copy it is available through all good bookshops (ISBN 978-0-9564823-0-3) OR through AGNES FRAIN . Email her at agnesfrain@hotmail.co.uk Catch all the photos and details on Wendy’s blog post.

Beautiful gift from Easington writers

Now  the RoomToWrite conference is imminent!! – next Saturday in fact. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to arrive on as beautiful a morning as we did last November? If today is anything to go by then we may be in luck, with some early spring sunshine catching the dewy grass and sparkling its welcome.

But rain or shine it’s sure to be a day of intense and focused discussion, a lot of learning  and of course writing ,with one or two glasses of white wine or G&Ts thrown in. I’m looking forward to it very much. Why?  Because I like nothing better than to spend the day with writers and talk writing!

Today the sun at the conservatory window has set my bowl of hot red and pink tulips alight, and my beautiful gift of flowers from Easington Writers fills the room with its scent.  The sky is a faultless blue – and accompanying the day is sense of the winter past and the new spring arriving – a time of beginnings.

Speaking of new beginnings – I set myself the task of writing six beginnings from portraits – here is one I wrote in Suffolk – this time from a live portrait..

A lone figure appeared on the horizon, looming out of the shoreline fog,hovering in the mist thrown up by the North sea: black and hooded and bent into the wind, leaning on a rolled-up umbrella. A man she thought, a young man, although she couldn’t be sure – a man from another age,  pilgrim-like, a saddhu robbed of his nakedness by the icy east winds…

I have been working on several other beginnings since Suffolk and  the strange – although perhaps not really strange thing is, they are beginning to look like fragments of the same story – who knows a novel even…

And speaking of beautiful things do take a look at    absolutelybeautifulthings – I discovered it today – its a real visual treat!

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Easington Book Launch- Only Week Away !


2010
02.27

Posted in People, Workshops | 4 Comments »

It is now only ONE WEEK to the launch of Shrugging Off the Wind, a fabulous collection of writing from the Easington Writers Group – pictured left- from top left, Mavis, Terry, Agnes, David, Anne, Mary, Susan, Joan and Chris.

The Launch (free entry) will take place in the Easington Social Welfare Centre                           Seaside Lane, Easington Colliery SR8  3PL  – Sat 6th March,at 2pm.

Judging by rehersals yesterday it will definitely be an afternoon to remember! It will be an opportunity to hear each of the writers read from their work, to share their celebrations and, most important of all, to buy your copy of the book.

ISBN 978-0-9564823-0-3

I’m very excited about Saturday as it’s the culmination of over a year’s work in Easington but there is a bitter sweetness about it for me too as it will mark the end of the project. There is no doubt that Wendy and I have enjoyed working in Easington enormously – we have made some very special friends here and have great affection for our talented group and for the community. We will undoubtedly miss our trips east but I trust the friendships and connections will remain – after all we have a beautiful book – HPM Printers have done  a fantastic job – to bind us together, as well as our love of writing.

Thank you Mavis, Anne, David, Mary, Agnes, Chris, Susan, Joan,Terry for all your hard work and all the good times – good luck for Saturday – can’t wait! (Just hope I can Shrug Off the cold.)

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A Dust Of Snow – Xmas Trees and Sunday’s Workshop


2009
12.17

Posted in Inspiration, Workshops | No Comments »

snow_1_470x353

I thought I might not bother with a Christmas tree this year, but my grown-up son David soon put me right on that one. It wouldn’t be Christmas without a tree! Was I turning into Scrooge? What would Katie say when she got home? etc etc.

So! we have just returned from our annual trip to Raby Castle where we’ve purchased the best tree ever (every year’s is always the best.) We drove there and back through the winter showers and looking out of the window at the snow driving in on the east wind and covering the road outside the house I am glad we are back. I am also glad that we bought a Christmas tree and that I didn’t give in to a weariness of spirit that sometimes overcomes me at this time of year (all that food, those presents, cards etc to manage).

I should in fact be celebrating, as early in the week I wrote the last page of my Danny Beck novel!!! There will be more editing of the last few chapters to do and no doubt more work once my agent reads it but coming to a conclusion is always a special moment.

Last Sunday (knowing how close I was to completion)I decided to brave it and share my opening pages with the RoomToWrite workshop group (we were, after all, talking about beginnings) at Wendy’s house. I was very nervous as it’s the first time I’ve read anything from this novel but I’m so glad I did. It can be very difficult to read one’s work out in a group. It can be very emotional and very exposing but in the right place it can be truly supportive and it can help sustain one’s belief in the writing – that perhaps it does work after all! I certainly felt sustained by Sunday and I hope the other writers, also reading from a fascinating variety of work which has grown from their interest in family histories, felt likewise. It was a great way to spend Sunday
- thank you to Linda, Penny, Norma, Lise, Judith, Eileen and of course Wendy. As Wendy and I always say – if we run a workshop we frequently find inspiration for our own work, Sunday was no exception.

To celebrate the snow here in a Robert Frost poem which I love – I think going out to buy the tree today was like my ‘dust of snow’

DUST OF SNOW

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.


raby

Raby Castle

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Magic, Inspiration and Sparklers


2009
11.09

Posted in Inspiration, People, Places, Workshops | 4 Comments »

deer

There was something magical about driving up to Whitworth Hall on a sunlit autumn morning –  deer chewing on the damp grass, spilling their breath into the cold air,  a wet crust of coppery leaves on the gravel paths, lipstick red berries, melting frosts, a promising blue sky. If we had orchestrated the weather for the first RoomToWrite weekend we could not have done better and the morning was a gift that made our exercise in Close Observation, Wendy’s brilliant idea that subsequently yielded such beautiful writing, all the more inspiring. The world outside our round- tabled conference room sparkled.

In the evening, we were joined by our illustrious guest writers; Elizabeth Gill, Pat Barker, Sharon Griffiths and Fadia Fakir. We enjoyed wonderful food and great conversation, and drew our first day to a close with the dimming of lights and the lighting of sparklers -an inspired touch by Gillian.

sparklers

But perhaps what sparkled more than anything over the course of the weekend were the writers themselves and their writing. So many thanks to; Jackie, Judith, Michael, Anne, Erica, Mary, Eileen, Norma, Alison, Hilary, Linda, Lisette, Kathryn and Geri –a great list! – for making it such a brilliant weekend for us and to John from HPM. Thanks for all your hard work and for your great sense of fun, enlivened of course by the odd G&T.

Whilst we hope we enabled and inspired we were truly inspired by you. We felt the magic and I certainly came away believing that in the coming months I will make my writing an absolute priority – finish my current novel and start a new one (that’s exciting) – there is so much still for me to do in the world of writing – so much for all of us – and I look forward to hearing how everyone’s work and plans progress – I look forward to seeing some published novels too– the world’s our oyster now we have HPM to help us publish – so Good Luck and Keep Sparkling!

Do take a look at the feedback and lovely photos courtesy of Geri now at   RoomToWrite

whitworth

Whitworth Hall

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RoomToWrite -This Weekend- Easington Tomorrow


2009
11.04

Posted in Inspiration, Workshops | 3 Comments »

blue_banner

It seems a distant memory - Wendy and I sat in the lounge at Whitworth Hall thinking what a wonderful place it would be to run writing workshops. These would be different we decided- the difference being that they would be residential (something we hadn’t done before ) and that this would give writers in the North East the time and space and beautiful surroundings in which to truly think about their writing and their ambitions.

We thought Whitworth was inspirational – after all  Wendy had written most of Honesty’s Daughter there and we often met there to talk about our respective writing projects. It was the perfect place. Once Gillian agreed (we had already decided that without her it would just not be possible) RoomToWrite was born.

The response to RoomToWrite has been wonderful, we have some great writers on board and we have worked hard to plan and prepare everything – my printer is about to give up – new cartridges are called for, more paper too and somewhere to put all the neat and not so neat piles I am accumulating!  Can’t wait for it all to ‘kickoff’ – I know we will have a memorable weekend and I hope very much that those attending will be truly inspired.

In the meantime I have a great day in  Easington to look forward to tomorow. The Easington book is really beginning to take shape and I think it will be very special. I always look forward to our trips out East – lovely people, great writing, excellent lunch and a glimpse of the sea – what more could you ask for?

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Writing Workshops – Are They Good For You?


2009
07.06

Posted in People, Workshops | 3 Comments »

On Saturday I helped Wendy run a writing workshop at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on Life Writing. As always we got together before hand to plan it, only this time our heads were still floating somehwere between The North East and France – maybe over The Channel!

Nevertheless, as always, we gave it our best shot – to us it is very important when people invest time and money in a workshop that they go away feeling that it has been in some way worthwhile, hopefully inspiring.

Often I find that if the workshop seems to have gone well I may be tired (sometimes shatttered) but I  am invariably inspired and enthused. From this I conclude that workshops are good for you and that goes for the tutuors too. I never come away from a workshop without – a fragment, an idea – a longer piece of writing which I invariably use in my work. Perhaps this is beacause we always write alongside the group. This time I had a piece of prose about a barely known grandmother that I want to use in my poetry.

The best thing about workshoping is of course the writers you meet, and Saturday was no exception. From a long list, only four actually turned up on the day but what a four! They were all great writers – all with quite unique voices and some brilliant ideas, so that I am very much looking forward to our next meeting in August.

I came away feeling inspired – I hope they did.

I’d be interested to hear your views on workshops – I feel there may be many tales to tell -…!

John working on a great story from his life involving a pit explosion

John working on a great story from his life involving a pit explosion