Hello everyone,

General:
Writing Courses:
I have received two descriptions of courses which just may interest you.

1) Radio Writing Day, Saturday 28 April at Exeter University, 10 am - 5 pm. It'll cost £30 unless you can get concessions, but it looks well constructed, with good workshop sessions. Consult www.exeter.ac.uk/sall/centres/cwa . Exeter is a nice campus - but is that important?

2) Creative Writing Celebration Week. Three two-day courses offered 16/17 June, 18/19 June and 21/22 June from 10-4 each day. There's a whole set of free workshops on Wed 20 June. The cost is £32 for each course. Full details are given on the website www.lancs.ac.uk/depts/conted. (Lancaster is a nice campus, too!!)

Competitions:
I don't usually refer competitions to you, but I've had a pile of leaflets about the Bridport prize. This is the biggest prize in the short story calendar, and the toughest. 5,000 words max, and first prize £5,000. Full details on the website www.bridportprize.org.uk Winning the Bridport prize was the first step in the career of Helen Dunmore. Sets your sights high!!

"Interesting":
Several of you responded to my request for timing of the reading of the passage where all the words had simply the initial letters correct and the centre letters were mixed (or anagramised, if you want to create a new verb). I found the range of times, from just under a minute to almost 3 minutes quite interesting. It would be interesting to do this with a longer piece, and compare times with that taken to read it as it was originally written. Thank you to those who responded.

Timing:
We've slipped a bit in timing of some of the deadlines, so I'd like to get us back on track. The idea of Alpha Days was that they replaced the meeting dates of conventional circles. The challenges are set then, the entries file is sent out on an Alpha Day and the assessments are due back on the next Alpha Day. I know that I'm a bit guilty in letting things slip, but perhaps we could all keep a firm eye on dates. We'll definitely watch it next year, too.

Judging:
I've had more comments on judging, and I think that the system is evolving into something a little more satisfactory. I'll put the ideas together in Alpha day 11 circular.

For the Future:
As it seems likely that we will progress into another year, then I will make a more determined effort to get two or three new members. I would like to put a cap on the number as 18 - is that about right? I will also make an effort to get members from overseas, too, especially New Zealand, Canada, U.S.A and South Africa as these are English speaking countries, but as long as a person can write in English, then there is no bar. Margaret has offered to explore another avenue. Thanks to all of you for your comments on this.

I have thoughts and ideas about the way we could operate for next year including the judging) but I'll put the whole plan to you in the next Circular.

Regular Challenges:

Challenge 7:
You'll all have had the results from Sally. The idea was to finish a short story of mine, where I had chopped off the last bit. There were some interesting entries, and I put comments regarding my views on all entries. However, my original entry which was included, was not the best in anyone's eyes! I got 5 runners-up, though.

When I wrote the story, I set myself the task of evolving a story whereby an illegal immigrant really had no option but to become a legal one. I had thus to create a situation in which there was no real choice at all, and it was my idea merely to point this out. I didn't want another conflict, so it was intended to be a shut-down. My title for the story when I wrote it was simply, "No Going Back". Actually, I still think mine was the best, but probably because the whole story was written with this ending in mind, while all of you were given the 80% and had to fit your own ending. It does show how stories can change and move in character when the original constraints and motives are removed.

The results of the challenge translate in to points as:

Winner: Chris, 3 points
Margie and Di 2 pts plus a *, Clare 2 pts, but no *.
If I give Sally a *, then I can give myself one for the original ending, So I will! - and of course, 1 point each for the other entrants.

Totals of leaders so far (after 7 challenges)

Note: Geoff has pointed out to me that I missed a bonus point for him, so I have included it in his score.

	Points	Stars
Zena	13	4
Chris	13	3
Clare	12	3
Christine	12	2
Sally	12	2
Margaret	10	1
Geoff	10	1

Challenge 8:
I have only had assessments from 7 members. The closeness of the assessments is very noticeable, and probably proves this was the hardest to judge of all. In fact it is so noticeable that we have a tie for first place at the moment.

I know that several of you haven't been able to do the assessments this time, but please, if you haven't sent your assessments to me by the time you read this, please do so right away. The voting is so close that if two more members voted, any one of seven (of the eight entries) could be the winner, and any of the eight could be second!

I won't divulge the way other people have voted yet, but I will close the voting list tomorrow night, and I will send out the list of winners and comments on Saturday.

I am now going to create a new file for my story, with all the phatic entries included, and see how it reads then!

Challenge 9:
Geoff is now putting the entries into one file and sending out to everyone.

See the Challenges page for details of Challenge 10, and the results of previous challenges.

Group Projects:
Click here for more details of the group novel, and of another idea from Chris for a group writing project.

Discussion:
I hinted that we might have a discussion about the difference between writers and authors. Clearly author is a much higher rating, but where is the line between them drawn?

I've just read a couple of paperbacks, and I'm attaching my reviews to this email circular. I'm particularly looking at them for enlightenment on this subject.

John Grisham is an established writer, and his books sell by the million. He is clearly an accomplished writer, and highly readable, yet his books will not live in my memory, and that surely is a required quality of books written by an "author". The other book I read, by Tess Gerritsen, is a much better book in my opinion: more demanding, and I will remember it for a much longer time. It doesn't yet qualify her to "author" status, but she's a lot nearer it than John Grisham.

So I see writing ability - the sort that holds you to a book is the essential requirement for a writer. Writing volumes which hardly anyone reads, or has to plough through, doesn't even do that. Amongst writers, those who qualify for the "author" status must also have at least one of the following attributes in their books:

1) The text must display a significant talent for description of both action and place,

2) The plot must be ingenious and not resemble a rehash of other ideas,

3) The story should include the writer's detailed knowledge of a specific topic/interest, to demonstrate a command of the content which the reader does not have.

4)The whole book should be capable of remaining in the reader's memory for several years.

If I can then look at the two authors in the light of those attributes, I find that Grisham satisfies 1), but probably neither 2) nor 3) and certainly not the overall requirement 4). Gerritsen, on the other hand, succeeds in 1), 2) and even 3), although time is needed to assess the overall requirement. So Grisham is a writer, but given time, Gerritsen may be regarded as an author.

A word about the plot of Grisham's novel. It seems that many who write in this strange world of espionage, counter-espionage, often seem to be constructing their plots like a set of Lego. The building blocks are there - and every writer puts them together in different ways, and ends up with a construction which they hold up, and say "Look what I have created!". Of course, it's an interesting creation, and one admires it as one admires a child's manipulation of Lego, but is it more than that? The fact that Grisham writes about various bodies who have international hit gangs etc., leaves me cold: if it's meant to introduce the reader to international spy and assassination bodies, I'm afraid it just doesn't succeed.

So I have started comment on this: what has anyone else to offer?

Best wishes to you all

- Olaf