Book:
I have now sent everyone a complimentary copy of the book, and you all seem pleased with it: thank you all for your warm comments, but remember, it could never have been written and compiled without your involvement. I have sent copies of your reactions to Michele, because I think the cover is superb. Most of you have acknowledged the receipt of the book, but please do so when you get it.

I have decided after your replies, that I will charge £3 a copy for the book, (which will include postage and the envelope). That will leave £2 clear per copy of those we sell. But that's only to those who respond to adverts.

For Alpha members, we should only ask £2 a copy for any extra copies they would like - and how they distribute them is up to them. I'm also offering copies to those members who left in the middle of last year at £2.

I've talked to the Arts Council today, and they don't want to know about making small amounts of money - that's up to us. So if we can make enough to produce a record of something we've done in the current year that would perhaps be a nice thing to do.

I've been in touch with Barbara Large, the director of the Writers' Conference at Winchester, and she has suggested that I might like to have a stand at the Writers' Conference this year (June 23-25). It won't cost anything, but I would have to attend the Conference, which I have done for a number of years.

I sent an article to NAWG in the hope it might get into The Link magazine, but I was too near the deadline for the April issue, so hopefully, we'll get something in the June issue.

The people that you meet
Three weeks ago, we stopped in Lostwithiel in Cornwall to take advantage of a £5 lunch meal (courtesy of the Times), and got chatting to the people on the next table. The lady asked us if we'd ever been to Fowey, and of course, we said we often go to the du Maurier Festival. On this news, the lady told us that she was Esther Rowe, Daphne du Maurier's housekeeper cum secretary for 30 years - and she told us not to believe all that rubbish the questioned du Maurier's sexuality! She, being of a theatrical family, just called everyone "darling". Ms Rowe criticised those who wrote about personal aspects du Maurier without even approaching her.

Organising Challenges
Challenge 7: You have all had the entries and the comments, and there's nothing more that I can add. I hope you all enjoyed the challenge - no-one actually predicted that Jim Babcock would actually go back and do the same thing again! But I will appeal to you - keep your eyes open for strange newspaper columns - and put them on one side. They're great for this kind of "What happened next?" kind of challenge.

At the end of Challenge 7 I have calculated the overall rankings by adding in the latest results. Margie got 3pts, Catherine, Clare, Geoff and Zena got 2 pts, with every other entrant getting 1 pt.

Members rankings after Challenge 7 (on my scoring of 3 pts for the first, 2 for the next 4 and 1 for every entry):

=1: Sally and Zena 12pts (including 1 win)
3: Laura 11pts (inc 2 wins)
4: David 11pts (inc 1 win)
5: Ann 11 pts (no wins)
=6: Christine and Geoff 11 pts (no wins)
8: Margaret 10 pts (inc 1 win)
=9: Catherine and Clare 10 pts (no wins)

With 3 challenges to go, it still could be anyone's crown.

Challenge 8: We've all been assessing the entries for this, and Ann will be sending out the results when all the assessments are in. I've just seen her email complaining about the lack of judgements getting to her, so send yours off straight away if you haven't done so.

Challenge 9: Entries should now be with Clare.

See the Challenges page for details of this month's regular challenge, and for the results of previous challenges!

Longitudinal experiment:
Click here for details.

Group Creative Writing:
Click here for details.

Discussion:
I've not seen many comments about "bad language" - I thought there might have been more.

But a more important discussion point comes in considering next season, because the end of the season is on the horizon - do we want to proceed to another year? If we proceed to another year, then I'd like someone else to take over the guiding hand. This is because, as I think I've explained before, the group is a living entity, and as such, it must always change. Any volunteers?

If your answer to this is "yes", then what changes should we make in the pattern which we've used so far?

The challenges this year have been handled by others to take the load from me, and I have appreciated that. We could go further and let members set challenges as well as co-ordinating them.

Does David's idea for a cliffhanger sequence qualify as a longitudinal exercise? I think it does, although maybe not everyone would want to contribute. Or are there any other ideas for a longitudinal exercise?

Would someone ensure that there is a sequence of discussion topics?

And an exercise to which we all contribute simultaneously - would that be another Group Book?

Any thoughts you have about this, could you please circulate them with the subject box "CONTINUING".

Enjoy your last challenge.

- Olaf