Formed over forty years ago, our Writers Circle is based in Felixstowe, Suffolk. Meetings are held in The Room at the Top in Felixstowe Library, normally on the first and third Tuesday of each month commencing at 7.30pm and finishing by 10.00pm. Check this weblog for details of meetings.

There is an annual November to November fee of £30, April to November is £20 and June to November £15. For members preferring to pay at each meeting the charge is £5 per meeting. To contact Felixstowe Scribblers simply email scribblers.1@btinternet.com or the Secretary, catherine.stafford1@ntlworld.com

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Prole Books


Prole, Poetry and Prose is open to submissions all year round. We consider fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry in all its forms. Prole is read around the world and we pay our writers a royalty based on profits. We keep on top of submissions, normally responding within three weeks.
Full submissions guidelines can be found here: http://www.prolebooks.co.uk/page3.html

Brett Evans and Phil Robertson
Editors
-- 
Website: www.prolebooks.co.uk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Prole/236155444300?v=wall
News blog at: http://prolebooks.blogspot.com/
Twitter at: https://twitter.com/#!/Prolebooks
Reader/writer blog: http://readwriteblog.prolebooks.co.uk/

Monday 24 September 2012

SPECIAL OFFER TO WRITERS’ CIRCLES - £100 DISCOUNT


This is a special offer we are making to Writer’s Circles to help them have a presence on the internet with their own website. United Press will build it for a discount of £395.

We have just started building websites for individuals, so congratulations to John Pegg, Christine Smith and Kevin Andrews. They are the first three people to have their own site built by United Press.  Each website will feature their poems, a biography, photos and contact details so that agents and publishers can see their work at a glance.

Our setup package includes – photos of you, poems, stories – a collection of your circle’s work, perhaps even novels - biographies of your members detailing everything about them from the lives they lead to what inspires them to write and what they want to achieve.

It’s simple. We discuss our ideas with you and handle the construction of your site from the material you provide.

We will also advertise your site on the United Press website and provide a direct link. (Our website receives 500,000 hits per year).

If you are thinking about taking that next step as a circle – and would like to reach a much bigger audience with your work, please e-mail us on info@unitedpress.co.uk.

Julie Embury
United Press

Sunday 23 September 2012

A message from Jack's mum, Caz

Today I would like to thank all those who turned out to do 'The Jack Wilkinson Memorial Walk' for Cancer Research UK. Also those who gave of their time to sign us in at various points of the route. Bless you for getting out of bed on a Sunday and raising funds for a great cause and remembering our Beautiful Boy. After the Walk Pat, Judy and I, popped in to the White Horse in Old Felixstowe. for a well deserved glass of wine and the proprieters, as well as giving us a 'warm welcome'. gave us a generous donation for our efforts, so I just wanted to personally thank them too, for their generosity and kindness. xx Hope to see you all again next year. xx

Caz

Fantastic achievement...


Scott of Mr Cobbler fame proudly informs us that his wife Aimee has just won the Suffolk Coastal Sports Personality of the year.  Well done Aimee!!

Custom Book Publications

Publication of your book should be one of life's greatest moments ...
We support and involve you through the publishing process... 
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LIMITED SUBMISSIONS BEING ACCEPTED
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Send a short enquiry EMAIL in the first instance - 

 include authors name, country,  working title of the manuscript, 
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Pulp Detective


Just a quick message to inform you that ‘Pulp Detective’ magazine will be launching this Thursday 27th September in W H Smiths and independent news agents.
 
To find the store locator and more information please visit www.pulpdetective.com.
 
Richard Kavanagh
Plesio Publishing
Website : www.pulpdetective.co.uk
Twitter: @pulp_detective
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/john.munro

Friday 21 September 2012

Competition!




Author Talk at Felixstowe Library - our Ruth


You may remember I mentioned a while back that we hoped to continue holding author events in the library.  I am pleased to be able to tell you that Felixstowe author, Ruth Dugdall, has agreed to give us a talk at the library in November.  Some of you may know that Ruth has had three books published.   Her first, The James Version, is an historical crime story based on the Polstead Red Barn murder.  The Sacrificial Man is a thriller, and her latest novel is entitled The Woman Before Me.  You can read sample chapters of Ruth’s books on her website:   http://www.ruthdugdall.com/ 
Unfortunately we are down to about 1 copy of The James Version and are unable to buy further copies.   However, there are quite a few copies available for loan of The Sacrificial Man and The Woman Before Me so let us know if you would like any for your group.

Ruth’s talk will take place on Saturday 10th November, 2-4pm.  We are giving book groups who use the library advance notification of this talk before publicising it more widely.  Places are limited so if you would like to come please get in touch with us as soon as possible. Tickets are free but we may ask for a small contribution to cover the cost of refreshments. During the afternoon there will be an opportunity to buy signed copies of Ruth’s books.

I would just like to add that Ruth is a lively and confident speaker and we can look forward to an enjoyable afternoon. 
                                                                                                                                                                                          
Debra at Felixstowe Library

Darker Times fiction


I run 'Darker Times Fiction', a monthly short story competition for stories of 3,000 words and less in the horror genre or on the subject of 'darker times'. I've just come across your site and was wondering if this would be something that would interest your members?

All of the information can be found on the website - www.darkertimes.co.uk . It's open to UK and international writers and ends on the last day of each month.

Jessica Grace Coleman
 
'The Former World: A Little Forest Novel' now available from Amazon.
 

Darker Times Fiction


Wednesday 19 September 2012

An Ipswich based writing group


Ipswich Writing Group are looking for new members

We meet every Thursday afternoon from 2-4pm in a private room at Gainsborough Library, Clapgate Lane   Ipswich. IP3 0RL

It is free group, open to all.

Sessions consist of:-

Time to discuss reading and writing, share tips and give details of events
Introduction of writing exercise and a short activity
At least half an hour writing time
Sharing what has been written in the session

For further details contact Mai Black

Bill Budner meeting report.

As usual we had a good meeting. The standard of writing keeps getting better and better. Although we can sometimes tell from the stories, who the writer is, it is always fun trying to work it out.

Our members present included two new recruits Mai and Angela. Others present were Dick, Dave, Tony, Beryl, Liliane, Janet, Martin, Ray and myself.

Apologies were expressed from Caz ,Carolyn and Les, who has been in the wars again. Get well soon.

I will give the Winner of the trophy first and that was Dave with his story Then Darkness, a tale of war and a soldiers desperate attempts to let medics know that although his injuries were horrific he was not dead and his efforts to convey this message right up to the second they close the morgue door on him. A graphic and very well presented piece from Dave. A worthy winner.

In Second place was Ray with his story The End a story of a lone biker who believes he is the last man on earth until he meets a young girl who is pleased to see she isn't alone. Although she pleads with him to stay he tells her he will not be a part of the vicious cycle of perhaps creating the same crazy world again. He would rather be alone.

There were two third places and they were Martin's Let them eat cheese and tomato sandwiches and The prisoner from Tony.  The prisoner was a story of a man waking in a strange be, realising it is a prison cell then the cell reveals a tunnel from where sword fighting noises come forth. The prisoner walks down the tunnel but it provides no real escape, just more bodies that he assumes he will be blamed for.

Martin's piece is a difficult one to describe, just that he involved many well known names to a party. A clever piece.

That was the first three then came The Restless sleeper from Susan, a story of a woman trapped in a relationship where she finds there is no escape.

Beryl gave us The Runner, a tale of a builder after having a bad fall finds his legs shattered and his rehabilitation process to finding his inspiration from the Blade Runner Pistorius and wins a gold medal for running.

Mai was one of our new recruits and she gave us The writing workshop. This told of a writer told to go out and find inspiration from the outdoors then finds what appears to be a pebble but turns out to be a finger, then a hand to drag him down below the ground.

Liliane gave us Isn't honesty always the best policy? A story of a fractured family and the effect a secret sibling has on one daughter and the detrimental effect the secret son has on the rest of the family.

Janet gave us Smokey, my healing cat, an insight into her own experience of having rescued two kittens from the pound how they have a soothing effect on her life.

My own piece was called The explosion and told of a terrible event  in a US town called St George and the effect the carnage had on seasoned officers of the FBI.

As I said this was another really good meeting and provided us with another name for the cup, Dave Feakes for the third time. Well done Dave.

The next meeting will be on the 2nd of October with the subject chosen being 'Happiness.'

See you all then 

Barry.

Tuesday 18 September 2012

The Bill Budner Trophy meeting

Previous holder Liliane Savaraj
presents the trophy
to Dave Feakes
An evening of top quality entries for the prestigious Bill Budner Trophy provided excellent entertainment for all present.

Two writers did not enter the competition, new member Angela, who was making her first visit and is associated with Felixstowe Radio, and Dick who has only just returned from a cruise on the Rhine.

Angela and Dick stole the limelight by volunteering to read out all the entries. And a superb job they did too!

The voting was close but the winner, for the third time, was our Chairman, Dave with his story "Then Darkness". Runner-up was Ray with Martin and Tony sharing third place.

We heard that Les had a fall yesterday and feels a little off colour so was unable to attend. We were also reminded about the Jack Wilkinson Memorial Walk that that takes place next Sunday - details in an earlier post. Also the possibility of the Scribblers sponsoring an event in next year's Book Festival. Watch this space!

Keep Scribbling!

Monday 17 September 2012

Jack's Memorial Walk

The 'Jack Wilkinson Memorial Walk' is on Sunday 23rd September

It starts from Foxgrove Nursing Home High Road East at 09.45

You can either walk 1.5, 5 or 9 miles.  It has some very picturesque views.  Dogs are also welcome.  You can register on the day but it is a good idea to arrive before the start time as registration takes a few moments.

All proceeds go to Cancer Research UK and you can make a donation on the day if you wish or sponsor forms can be obtained from Caz on 01394 212259

Would love to see as many of you there as possible to remember our Darling Jack and to raise much needed funds in his memory.

Caz

Sunday 16 September 2012

Our Next Meeting: The Bill Budner Trophy

Coming up on Tuesday 18th September at 7.30pm in The Room at the Top in Felixstowe Library - The coveted Bill Budner Trophy. This is always a gret evening of not only entertainment but anticipation too. Will we have a completely new winner? A repeat winner? Can anyone win it for the third time?
Why not come along with your entry and find out who the winner will be. It could just be YOU...

Bill Budner joined Felixstowe Scribblers in August 2005 and soon afterwards registered with our online group. A really friendly and popular character, Bill made many friends at Scribblers in such a short time. His tremendous passion for writing produced many prolific words in his short stories, his mild manner and quiet voice accentuating every facet of his work.
Away from Scribblers Bill was a lay preacher and heavily involved with church affairs at St Mary's in Walton where he took over the responsibilty for the parish magazine.
Bill died suddenly from a massive heart attack on Tuesday 14th February 2006 leaving his wife Maureen and family deep in shock and mourning his loss, Felixstowe Scribblers sharing their grief.
Maureen sponsored two successsful writing competitions for adults and children in his memory whilst a trophy, purchased from the donation of her prize money from Belinda Janz, has become a regular and revered part of the Scribbler's programme. This is run as an anonymous competition with the guidelines for The Bill Budner Trophy as follows:

Short stories or poetry up to a maximum of 1,000 words on any topic
·         Work must be typed (on single sides of paper)
·         Entries must be completed before arrival at the meeting
·         Work must be anonymous - no names or identification marks on the paper
·         On arrival at the meeting work will be placed face down on a designated table
·         At a given time all members will collect one entry (but not their own!) and will be given time to familiarize themselves with it -whenever possible all stories will be read by independant readers
·         The stories will then be read out to the group with everyone present marking their top three entries
·         At the end of the evening all marks will be added by a nominated adjudicator.
·         The winner will then be announced and the prestigious Bill Budner Trophy presented to them by the previous winner.
·          
The trophy will then be engraved by Scott at Mr Cobbler in Felixstowe
The trophy will be held for four months until the next competition
The holder undertakes to return the trophy to Felixstowe Scribblers and advise of any change of address.

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Flash Lit Fiction Night


Just a reminder that on Sunday 16th September, Paragraph Planet is proud to be co-producer of a literary event in Brighton entitled 'Flash-Lit Fiction' together with Brighton Literary night promoters, Grit Lit and Story Studio.

It's at the Green Door Store in Brighton (near the station) and it involves flash fiction writers taking part in a 3 round story slam (first round, semi-final then final) plus a twitter competition using #flf12 (theme: future-facing)

There'll be projections and digital trickery (the night is part of Brighton's digital festival) and we're doing the final bit of promotion.....

So if you can come along, fantastic (there may even be a slot left for slammers - email flashlitdigital@gmail.com) and even if you can't.....

.... my favour is simply: any chance you can Re-Tweet, share our facebook page and generally spread the word to make this thing as big as poss..... in particular, this main link: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/org/1304631941?s=4716197

I'm  tweeting as @paragraphplanet and there's also a dedicated @flashlitfiction - so any RTs of those very much appreciated.

Richard Hearn 
Paragraph Planet

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Secretary's Meeting Report

Members present  were Dave Dick Tony Liliane Rhani Beryl Les Martin Ray and Barry.

Apologies from Janet and Carolyn.

The Homework subject for this evening was 'Rent'

I was first to read for a change with Home Farm, a story of a scream in the night that shatters the warm still air, the discovery of a badly injured woman and the threat from down the lane.

Martin gave us  Knife, a tale of bad feeling and knife crime that was endemic on a poor estate and the terrible trauma a knife crime inflicted on the mother of a victim.

Les attended but apologised for his lack of work.

Beryl gave us The Landlord, a true to life story of how immigrant families have been abused and taken advantage of by ruthless landlords in the 50's and 60's such as Peter Rachman.

Rhani gave us The tenants of Lost All Hall. the story of Lucinda and Juliette who resided in the hall and their association with Bradley Woodstock, the Earl who thought more of a missing book from the library than a body that lay at his feet.

Liliane's story How to solve a soap problem was  in essence a tale of two Australian soaps and how the characters live laugh and above all love in their respective programmes.

Tony had the continuation of Chapter One of a new novel Following Wind and told of the character we had met before, one that had a recurring cycle of being brought in to the mortuary and narrowly avoiding an autopsy performed by a skeleton then finding an old man in a separate room who tells him he can eat but then he will find himself back in the cold room the next day.

Dick gave us Behind closed doors. A couple, George and Emily and their decision to let out their garage and the subsequent suspicion that surrounded the new tenant, only to find it was a model railway club.

Dave gave us a continuation of Pauline's Story concerning the young lady injured and her return to  health helped by a policeman who has left his family to love her back to health. He was worried this day about not being able to pay Pauline rent but was assured he did enough for her to forgo his rent.

This was another enjoyable evening and although quite short, produced much fine work from all concerned.

The meeting was informed that following the Library decision to implement charges for our evenings, that there would be a choice for members of an annual fee of £25.00 or members could pay £3.00 per meeting.
This will start from the 6th of November this year, 2012.
Thanks to all those responding to my e mail regarding their choices. It has helped the committee to hopefully arrive at an acceptable conclusion.


The next meeting is the Bill Budner competition where we each submit 1000 words of our chosen subject and enter them anonymously on the night. We are hoping to have a reader in place to read all the entries.

This meeting will be on the 18th September. See you all there.

Barry

Another collection of genius...

The meeting tonight had two elements to it, the first over the proposed change of policy, and the second, the creative brilliance of our writers.

With regard to the change in policy brought about by the forthcoming implementation of hire charges for The Room at the Top, all members with Internet access were circulated to find whether they preferred an annual fee of £25 or a meeting by meeting charge of £3.

The options are very much divided between those who regularly attend and those infrequent attendees. The decision was to allow both choices so those members wishing to pay an annual fee should pay by 6th November whilst for others the £3 per meeting charge will apply from the meeting on the same day.

On this weblog you will notice an icon on the right that links to the 2013 Book Festival website and will bring you up to date with all the plans and events. There is also the option to sign up for a free newsletter. This promises to be a really big event - the first of its kind in Felixstowe - and success will make it an annual attraction.

The creativity of the Scribblers has never been in doubt but this evening, with a subject of 'rent', each writer produced a superb work - surely for entertainment alone it is worth coming along just to listen to all the stories. Where can you get such entertainment for £3 an evening?

Our next meeting reverts to our anonymous competition for attending writers for the Bill Budner Trophy. Background, rules and previous winners can be found at the top of this weblog. The meeting will be held on 18th September.

Until then,

Keep Scribbling!

Monday 3 September 2012

Our Next Meeting - TONIGHT

To Scribblers all,

Coming up rapidly...our next meeting at The Room at the Top in Felixstowe Library. Starting at 7.30pm the homework assignment is to write up to 1,000 words on the subject of rent.... something very close to our hearts at present.

If you haven't yet replied to Barry's email on forthcoming choices of membership fees and or meeting fees, then please let him know your choice as soon as possible.

Looking forward to seeing you all at the meeting tonight Tuesday 4th September.

The Scribe.