Book:
As I said in a short interim circular, I'm progressing with the book. I've now amended - only very slightly - the plan for the book. I've done this as a result of some of my writing, and also finding that some of my files about discussions don't exit! So the following is my revised suggestion. (Items with * are written, but need vetting/proof-reading, as will the group story). The page numbers are only approximate as we don't yet know the size of the page we will be using. I have made sure that every member features at least once in the Challenge contributions, and at least once in the articles or discussion reviews. I have done this is because our success is in the main due to our cohesion as a group, and everyone has played a part in that. I am not naming who did what in either the longitudinal exercise and the group story. I have set aside a spot for our three new members, too. For all of you that I have mentioned on the right, expect an email shortly after this circular about it - the subject box will be BOOK.

PART I: [pages in square brackets]

1. *Foreword (Olaf) [1]
2. *The Original Concept (Olaf) [2]
3. *The Realisation (Olaf) [3]
4. *Membership (Olaf) [1]
5. *Critique variations (Olaf) [1]
6. First discussion review (Short Lists) (Zena, Margie) [2]
7. *Regular challenges 1-3 (include winner and 1 other) [3]
8. Second discussion review (What's in a name?) (John, Sue-J) [2]
9. WN reports, creation of Writers Log and Learning Curve [1]
10. *Group Story, Phase 1 (characters and village features) [1]
11. *Regular challenges 4-6 (include winner and 1 other) [4]
12. *Article on Dialects (Chris, David and Christine) [3]
13. *Group Story, Phase 2 (forming the overall plot) [6]
14. Third discussion review - Novel openings (Sally, Olaf) [2]
15. *Longitudinal Study [13]
16. *Regular Challenges 7-9 (include winner and 1 other) [4]
17. *Group Story, Phase 3 (fitting members contributions) [2]
18. Final Learning Curve format (Dawn) [2]
19. *Regular Challenge 10 (incl. winner and 1 other) [2]
20. Overall members writing activity (Margaret) [2]
21. *Article - Now we are thirteen (Laura, Geoff and Di) [2]
22. Review of the Experiment against its aims (Olaf) [3]
23. What have we let ourselves in for? (Ann, Catherine, Clare)[2]

We need a design a cover for the book? Has anyone got any ideas - or is handy with a sketch-pad? We also need a title for the book - but that can be something fairly ordinary. Something like "ALPHA WRITERS - the start of email groups" might do. Send any ideas to me under subject box COVER or TITLE.

Writers News
I talked to Jonathan Telfer at Writers News this week, and he is very interested in our progress. I think I had some kind of interview on the 'phone - I could hear his keyboard tapping away as he made a note of my answers to his questions (No, he didn't ask me who was the weakest link). He says he aims to include the information (Grant and Website), in the January edition (which is sent out in the second week of December). We've got an interim statement on the website, so we don't need to hurry with the next stage.

Judging of Challenges
There has been a little confusion about where to send entries and notes about the Challenges. The way I'd like it to work is for one member to take charge of the whole of a Challenge.

For Challenge 3, you will have sent entries to Di: she will send you a file of all entries for judging (*see below), and you will send back your comments to her. She will then prepare a file with all your comments and send them out to you.

Laura has kindly agreed to deal with Challenge 4. So the entries for Challenge 4 should be sent to her: she will put them all in one file and send them out (identified only by a number) to everyone, and she will subsequently collect the assessments and redistribute those.

But a volunteer for Challenge 5, please?

Chris will have sent you some numbers. As before, you will choose the best and 4 runners-up, and you are asked to comment on the winner and the four entries which correspond to the numbers you have been given, but if there is another one which you feel it is imperative to comment on, please do so.

There are some problems in this approach. Your own entry number might well be among the numbers which Chris has given you: in that case, clearly you can't comment. Also, if you have say, number 15, and for that challenge there are only 14 entries, then again you get off lightly! That is until I suggest that you add others instead as worthy of your comment.

Regular challenge:
See the Challenges page for details of this month's regular challenge - and the results of the last one!

You have, I hope, all had a go at assessing the entries for Challenge 2. I am sorry that there was confusion over whether to stick to the particular incident, or whether to extend it to the wider malaise of the decline of general behaviour. I have had another look at the brief which I set out, and sought another person's opinion, and as a result I still think that basing it on the Winchester incident was the right thing to do. However, as this is a writing challenge, I think the view I took in effect to deduct 5% from any supposed mark you give to the less restricted approach is fair. If you choose a less restricted interpretation, one ought to expect a better letter (that's not an discussion point!) I will try to make certain that such a confusion doesn't occur again, although there are no bounds to the ingenuity of some writers!! But all of them were very interesting to read.

Longitudinal experiment:
Click here for details.

Group Creative Writing:
Click here for details.

Discussion:
At the last Alpha Day, I asked for comments about "Inspiration - Where are you in your stories?"
Some of these are now being contributed under the subject box CREATIVITY. It's understandable that with the website discussion, this side of our activity has been pushed back, but it is important that we keep clearly in mind our "raison d'etre". So far, I've only seen 4 comments: I'd like more.
One of our members has written a short story which has been offered for circulation and comment: I will circulate this when we've had more comments on CREATIVITY.

Best wishes to you all

- Olaf