Hello everyone,
General:
For the time being:
It is nice to read of members' activities - and I like Margie's experience with spider discoveries. Please keep up comments like these: they all go with David's problems, Geoff's disasters etc to weld us into a strong group.
We haven't heard from Catherine for quite a while, though, and she's missed some challenges. So Catherine, where are you? - we want you back!
Contacts:
I've just had an email from Laura - and she's well and wondering what we're all doing. I'll expand on this in a later email to you all.
For the Future:
Now we have passed the halfway point of the season, I want to float a few ideas about continuing for another season. I feel that we have got to know a lot about each other, and we do very much respect other members' views of writing arising from what we do, and I would miss that if we just said, "That's it!" But, on the other hand, I am getting older and I am having more difficulty in fitting everything that I want to do in.
If someone wants to take it on as a leader, then please let him/her do so.
Failing that, however, might I suggest that members take charge for just one Alpha Day (and its natural follow-up). For instance, if say, "Jim" took charge for the first A.D. he would set the challenge, collect the entries and distribute them for judging. He would also set a topic for discussion. Then "Amy" would take charge for Challenge 2, and set another topic, or perhaps develop the previous one.
If we stick to 10 challenges, then that will occupy 10 members. So we also need a "sweeper" to collect all the results of the challenges together, and perhaps set the topic and collect entries for the group project (or anthology) if we have one.
I still favour the idea of Alpha Days at 3-week intervals: it seems about right, and it suits me particularly well personally.
If any of you want to pass comments about this, please put NEXT SEASON in the subject box. If you think 3 seasons is enough, don't be afraid to say so.
I will be away for at the next Alpha Day, March 8th, so I would like someone to send out the details ALPHA DAY 3.9a, which I will prepare beforehand. Any offers?
Regular Challenges:
Challenge 5:
You will all have received the results of Challenge 5 judging from John (including Christine's!!) and I have studied these, and have decided on the following points.
Winner: No. 1 (Chris) with 5 bests and 2 next bests
Second: No. 6 (Margaret) with 2 bests and 4 next bests
Third: No. 7 (Ann) with 1 best and 5 next bests
Fourth: No. 12 (Zena) with 1 best and 5 next bests
Fifth: No. 8 (Sally) with 1 best and 3 next bests
Chris gets 3 points, Margaret*, Ann, Zena and Sally get 2 points, and all others get 1 point with Clare gets a * as well. What was encouraging is that every entry got at least one "next best". What is less encouraging is that very often the day after I have sent my assessment off, I feel quite differently about them. The next day after I sent mine to John, I looked at them again, and thought I ought to have judged No 9 best instead of the choice I made. The next day, it was No 6. I suspect that many of you go through the same thoughts.
But looking generally at the marking, I would like you all to give 4 next bests when you make your judgements. Three of you only gave 3 next bests, and a fourth might well have made a difference.
This was a tough one to judge, and I applaud your answers. The problem is always with local regional newspapers is that the headline usually reflect what goes on rather more than the national ones do. The actual headline for this article in the West Somerset Free Press was simply
The next topic is more wide ranging, but has anyone any useful comments about writing for children? All my contacts in infant schools will probably tell you that there is more poor writing done in this market than any other. They tell me that the trouble is that writers turn to it because they think it's easy, but it really does need experience in teaching to succeed. Experience of one's own children is just not enough
