Hello everyone,

General:
We seem to have settled into a good routine again – and Geoff keeps us informed of his various attempts to come to terms whatever traps life has in store for him.

Circulars:
My plan for circulars seems to be working. This will be the first time for three with the ‘b’ suffix. The third challenge has been set by John, but I am circulating it as he will be away on Alpha day. But a reminder for everyone to be prepared to circulate a piece of his/her own writing (I can exclude Geoff from this, because we know and enjoy his writing – but anything he’d like to offer in addition would I am sure be welcomed). Tara’s little story proved interesting – and she’s had a lot of feedback. a piece of their own writing.

New Judging System:
The new judging system seems to have worked satisfactorily – and it seems to have provided the difference in emphasis for the judging which members were looking for. Thus in the judgements I have received, the various distributions of marks received fell into the following categories.

4,1,1	none
3,2,1	7 judges
2,2,2	none
3,1,1,1	none
2,2,1,1	4 judges
2,1,1,1,1	3 judges
1,1,1,1,1,1	1 judge

Anthology:
I’ve currently had five contributions for the music anthology. Please can you think about it, and if you have anything to offer, let me know by the next Alpha day. The contributions can be short stories, articles, poems, even anecdotes, haiku (or even limericks!) so that we have a variety.

I’d like to put them in a book and send them out by conventional post (I’d like to use up some of the surplus cash I’m holding.

Website:
Keep looking at the Alphawriters.net website frequently. If there are gaps which you can fill, please send the details to sally. She’s done such a good job of the website, and it’s up to us to give her the information when we can.

Writers' log:
It’s good to see that members are active in general writing activity. I’m trying to increase my output this winter, but there isn’t enough time to do everything. I’m sure most of you feel the same.

Discussion topic:
I didn’t get any comments on the idea for novella stories of 15,000 – 20,000 words. If anyone has thoughts on the idea (I don’t expect it to attract as much reaction as telephone boxes), I’d be interested to hear them.

Last time I mentioned the 13,000 word story I wrote for Watchet’s VE celebrations. When I wrote this, I was a member of the Watchet local history society, and I wanted to link the Watchet of the present day with the Watchet of 50 years before. The only way I felt I could do this satisfactorily was by setting it in the present time, but referring to features of the past which are no longer there. The contemporary setting was emphasized by including conversations with real people in Watchet who were old enough to have been able to recall events from 50 years previously. Of course, I sought their permission to include them – but one person – the curator of the museum – actually suggested I enhanced what I’d written (about a fictional young lady in the war-time services) by saying that if he’d seen her around, he’d most certainly have tried to get to know her!

Finally:
Those telephone boxes. I’ve been in touch with David, and we agree there’s scope for a longitudinal exercise (something like the cliff-hanger), but we should get the anthology behind us before starting anything new.

Funny thing, though, I’ve just remembered that I wrote a story which depended on telephone boxes about 15 years.

I never knew that telephone boxes could be that interesting.

- Olaf