Hello everyone,

Panderjam:
Sally received an email (and she referred them to me) from a group operating a website under the name of Panderjam.com who are trying to encourage writing for the retired but not retiring. I think they’re aiming for the 70+ age group to recall experiences of their younger days as a kind of social/historical record. They’ve only just started, but it looks as though it could have some interesting contributions. So when you get to 70+years, you can think about contributing (I’ve done that already). You might like to look at it website, (even if you aren’t old enough).

My former Circle:
Sadly, the hotel in Watchet where my former Writers Circle held meetings was burned down last week. A simple irony is that the fire is believed to be the result of arson - but the bar was decorated to a Sherlock Holmes theme. I wonder what he would have thought?

The ownership of writing:
Last week, I attended a talk during which a very unusual story about a Prisoner-of-War dog was read. The dog, Karl, (he was a dachshund) was smuggled into a Japanese prison with his owner – and he may have been the only dog who was actually a Prisoner-of-war. But the prisoner (who was one of the fortunate men who survived the infamous Burma Railway) told all the stories about his experiences to his immediate family, which included his sister. They tried to persuade him to write them down, but he steadfastly refused. So his sister collected them together, and wrote them using the dog as the first person. She then sent them to a publisher, but under her brother’s name, and it was subsequently published with him as the author, which he wasn’t, strictly speaking.

Regular Challenges:
Challenge 3 should now have been completed and sent to Margie.
See the Challenges page for details of Challenge 4 and for the results of Challenge 2.

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

Membership of Group Projects:
This has come up through the discussions. It is entirely up to members whether they complete regular challenges or contribute to any group activity. But having said that, the whole point of Alpha is to share the enjoyment of writing, and the regular challenges are there just for that: I think everyone would agree that they have learnt something useful from them, and certainly enjoyed some very good pieces of writing indeed. However, while all members must have the opportunity to join in any activity we create, they must also have the right to opt out. In that respect, it is always helpful to know that you are opting out, whether for a project or for any of the regular challenges.

Discussion:
What themes are possible for a collection of writing? It’s worth opening a discussion. If we do proceed – and your views are valuable for this - let’s get some suggestions for themes (one each to start with) and circulate it with THEME in the subject box. This was Chris’s suggestion, so I’m happy to let him collect and sieve the suggestions to come up with a final choice (you don’t mind, Chris, do you?).

But in the discussion, we can also consider whether a collection of writing will contain all kinds of contributions (stories, articles, poems) – or do we just want a collection of short stories? – which we might get if we chose a theme like “A Little White Lie”, while a theme of “A Big Lie” might produce only articles on politics!.

That's all for this month. I have enjoyed reading all the emails which have been circulating, and I think we have all especially enjoyed Geoff's writing.

Best wishes to you all

- Olaf