Hello everyone,

General:
Di’s Challenge 8 results (due out today) will be interesting. I’ll add a comment of my own in respect of my entry – the first in the list (why am I always so near the top of the list?). Much of what I wrote is fiction but, as always, there are a few grains of truth. I thought Di’s choice was a bit restricting because I just couldn’t remember anything at all about my first day at school – just a few general things like playgrounds being separate fopr girls and boys. Then I remembered being given a slate: I wanted that slate (although I’d been taught a little about how to read and write at home). That slate was important to me, and I think we were the last class given slates (probably they were only to draw on, anyway). But musing a little further, going from being given a slate when starting school to co-ordinating an email-based writers group is a long and curious journey!

Membership:
As a result of the two late in the season applications for membership, I think the time has come for looking crucially at the number of members we have. I had previously fixed 18 as the maximum, which we reached when Les joined. On the other hand, when there is real interest, I don’t want to discard it for a very simple reason: not everyone is able to continue membership year after year, and so I want the two new members to see and hear how we operate. Joining a group is a two way thing: we have to appreciate new members, and they have to like the way we operate. So that’s why we have added Patrick to the list, and the other new member I told you about at the weekend is Maya: so please add Maya to your email list.

We will have to look at membership numbers during the summer and be certain what we are going to do because our latest recruits have approached us a result of Googling: type in ‘small writers groups’ and we come up in the first list: perhaps others may do this too, so we may have more requests.

Both Patrick and Maya have, at my suggestion – written a response to Challenge 9, and Rosemary is circulating them with all your entries. However, they won’t rank for marks, but any relevant comments like (I’d have given this a mark if it had been a contender) might be appropriate. They have also had a go at judging Challenge 8, and I’ll quote their marks below: they won’t count in our assessments, but you’ll see that they want to participate.

Assessments:
I feel that our system of judging is going well, but Sally’s runaway win for Challenge 7 set me thinking “How likely is it that an entry can gain 19 marks from our small group?” So I put on my statistician’s hat and wrote a computer program to simulate the allocation of marks in the way that we have been doing. I am attaching a short paper to describe what I’ve done, but don’t think you won’t understand it: you will. I’ve kept all the formal computer simulation out of it, and just described the elementary statistical concepts with the interpretation of the results of the simulation.

You may be interested in it, and want to offer comments.

This week’s Challenge:
Rosemary has set us a tough challenge 9: I will really look forward to reading all the entries. I’m sure it has taxed all of us for ingenuity! You’ll see entries from Patrick and Maya: I encouraged them to do this to get the feel of Alpha.

Tara is setting the last of the season today.

Telephone Story:
I’ve heard from David that this is progressing nicely, and has now reached Chapter 7. I understand that it promises to produce an interesting final story. It’s a great idea.

Leaderboard Update:
Quickly including the results which David has sent around, Sally gets 3 points for her superb Gwendoline: David, Clare and Zena get 2 points each and Betty 1 point. I thought it was a brilliant piece, Sally, and what’s more, I’m pleased to see that there’s so much agreement amongst members. What’s interesting to note is that despite Sally’s runaway win, no entry failed to get recognition: that’s an indication of a general high standard.

The leaderboard now reads:

Zena	21 points
Sally	21 points
Clare	17 points
Geoff	16 points
Rosemary	16 points
David	14 points
Christine	14 points

Note: I’ve just upgraded last month’s leaderboard: I’ll check if there are any mistakes later this evening.

Discussion topic:
There seems no more being written about elisions. However, the topic of emotional writing seems to be popular, combined with a bit of sexism.

Do women writers (and readers) subscribe more to highly emotional writing? I honestly don’t know, but I think we have to be careful what kind of emotion we’re talking about. Soft love stories? Feelings aroused under dread of something happening? Or simply the emotions stirred by reflection on circumstances? Or should we have a challenge of some kind during the close season to satisfy the matter?

I don’t write or read love stories: in a way, they seem like an intrusion into private matters, but they might be a side issue to the main theme or genre. But the other two categories I find enjoyable.

Other emails
I have had a number of emails (I don’t usually get ordinary spam) which are people in underdeveloped nations who are asking me to guarantee they are who they are: if I do that, I will get a 20% share or thereabouts of the million pounds or so that they’re going to get. These only crop up on this address, which I only use for Alpha. Does anyone else get them? I’ve had two this morning.

Best wishes to you all.

- Olaf