Yikes!

Write a novel of 50,000 words or more in thirty days. That's a minimum of (hang on let me get the calculator) 1,666 words a day for the next thirty days. Doesn't sound quite so bad if you put it like that but in the next thirty days I've got to.... no I'm not even going to think about that, I'm going to switch my laptop on sit in the corner of my sofa facing the window looking out over Clunbury Hill and allow myself the freedom to write.

I'm not doing this alone though. No thirty miles away in Telford scribbling away also is my dear friend and fellow Wrekin Writer Julie Phillips so wish us luck as tomorrow we begin our journey and please wish us well and all encouragement and support will be gratefully accepted.

To Julie, good luck sweetheart.

They're at it again

First the Shropshire magazines and now Link, the journal of the National Association of Writers' Group. In this month's issue Wrekin Writers' members feature several times. Our own Julie Phillips not only has a letter in it (page 2) but she also has an article (page 12) about the Writers' Bash that several of our members went to in July. Interesting point, about eight of us went but only Julie wrote about it and has had that work published. That's what being a writer is all about, seizing every opportunity. Well done Julie.

If you turn to page 18 you'll find an article on how to be succinct written by Simon Whaley (our excellent website co-ordinator). I'm not going to waffle on about Simon's article other than to say he tells us to keep it simple and enlightens us as to exactly what a USB Human Interface Device is. Intrigued - you'll have to read the article to find out.

And last but certainly not least (oh don't you love cliches?) our very own Sue Ross talks about Inkerstein's monster, the beast inside her that compelled her to write but who for so long she'd kept secret. Now she's liberated and can and justifiably call herself a writer.

Well done all of you. I wonder who's next?

Wrekin Writers target the Shropshire Markets

Julie Phillips had her article about the Horsehay Amateur Dramatic group published in Friday night's Shropshire Star.

Julie says on her blog 'I am estatic but still trying to get my head round the fact that I have got

into the Shropshire Star and it isn't a

letter! Or a story about my drunken behaviour after complaints from my neighbours (I am, of course, joking about the drunk bit - though I have no idea if my neighbours have ever complained about me!)

I've read the Shropshire Star for years but never thought I'd get a feature in there.
I very nearly didn't approach the editor with my feature proposal because I thought I'd be laughed out of the office!! But I did, so it just goes to show - nothing ventured nothing gained! So go on, give it a go - I dare you ;0)'

Well done Julie and if you want to read Julie's blog you can find it at

http://jlpwritersquest.blogspot.com/

and share her journey in the writing world.

And hot off the press this morning Di Perry has had an article accepted for the Shropshire Magazine. Di's reaction 'Oh my God!' For more information on Di's article - watch this space.

Well done Di

Di also has a blog, it's lovely. Read all about her girls at

http://insidethechickencoop.blogspot.com/

Missed opportunity

Following my attempt on Saturday to underseal my son's car with concrete, no 2 son is now kicking himself. Why? Because 'Nuts' magazine offers £100 for pictures of bad parking in their 'Bad Parking Corner' and although he had his phone on him, he didn't take a picture.

So contrary to popular opinion, there is at least one man who does read 'Nuts' magazine.

Things don't always go to plan

Well not in my house anyway. The plan for today was to do the laundry, a necessity really because there was a guy hanging around with a Union Jack threatening to claim the lad’s laundry basket for England. Then I was going to tackle the ironing. Not a job I relish but something that needed to be done. As I said that was the plan.
No 2 son (I number them it’s easier) came home from work and asked if I’d drive no1 son’s car up to a barn in the middle of the rolling hills of the Clun Valley where he had a friend’s van that needed to be collected. Simple enough job, would only take a few minutes and then I could liberate the laundry basket. Oh how wrong I was.
First of all there isn’t a road up to this barn just a rough track, the emphasis being on the word rough, but we got there. No 2 tried to start the van but of course the battery was hopelessly flat but being an ex boy scout, well actually he was a Beaver, he’d gone prepared with a spare battery to jump start the one on the van. Me in the meantime decided to turn the car around ready to go home.
Turn a car round, easy enough job I’ve been driving for donkey’s years. I looked around and saw a flat area of concrete, damp with the rain but that wasn’t a problem so I drove forward, then put the car into reverse and started to go backwards. Suddenly the back end of the car went down, thinking I’d missed the concrete I put it into first and tried to pull forward. It didn’t work. So I tried again and still it didn’t work. Deciding there might be something wrong, I got out and looked. The concrete that I thought was damp with the rain actually happened to be freshly laid and was still wet. Panic set in as I yelled to no 2 who climbed out of the van, which still refused to start and came around to have a look at what was wrong. At this point I will spare your blushes as to exactly what he said but you can imagine. I think also panic had set in with him to, because the only way he could see to get the car out of the concrete was to tow it with the still refusing to start van.
But, I’ll give him his due and remember he was in the Beavers when he was six, he noticed a digger type thing with a big bucket on the front parked not far from no 1 son’s very stuck car. Climbing into the cab, he started it, reversed it, found a towing strap and pulled the car clear. The relief we felt was overwhelming. After parking the digger type thing back where he found it he turned his attention once more to the van.
Finally it started. ‘Right Mum you go ahead and I’ll follow you and oh by the way you’re paying to jet wash the car’, which at this point was covered in mud, concrete and other nasty things. I drove back down the track expecting to see no 2 following me. I didn’t. I got to the bottom of the track and waited but still there was no sign of no 2. Just then my phone went. The number flashing on the screen was no 2’s.
I answered the call. ‘Can you come back Mum? I’ve got the van stuck.’ My heart was rapidly sinking as I turned the car round and drove once again, up the track. There with the back wheel perched on the embankment was the van. Now this van is not a small van, but a dirty great Renault Master so what he expected me to do about it in a Rover was beyond me.
But Dan knew. The idea was to tow the van uphill with the Rover. I had my doubts which were confirmed with the burning smell of the clutch on the Rover and the van not moving. In the end we admitted defeat. I shifted the car while Dan went and got the digger thing with the bucket. Fortunately that made short work of moving the van. However, by this time the battery was flat and in the end, we left the van where it was, I came home and Dan went to get his mate to help him.
I’m pleased to say the wet concrete has been sorted, the car has been cleaned and the farmer, well he saw the funny side of it and laughed.
So my afternoon turned out not to be what was expected and to be honest I don’t want to go through it again, although as I said everything is now sorted. But it’s a bit like writing really. We sit down at our computer, a story already planned out and then maybe a character will take over and the finished product is nothing like we intended it to be. Do we go with it or do we stick to our original intentions? That’s up to the author but I often think that it’s fun to go with that character and in my experience it usually makes for a better story just like my afternoon. After all you’d really have been bored if I’d written about the various spin cycles on my washing machine, wouldn’t you?

Can men do it?

Can they write women's fiction?

Yes they can and just to prove it, check out this month's Fiction Feast. Turn to page 46 read and enjoy Wrekin Writer Simon Whaley's story 'Chief suspect Mickey Mouse.'

Well done Simon. I know it's taken Simon a long time to get a story in this magazine but determination, hard work and knowing his market has all paid off. A lesson for us all.

For more information on Simon and his work check out his website at www.simonwhaley.co.uk or follow his blog at http://simonwhaleytutor.blogspot.com

Wrekin Writers do it again.

Have you received your copy of the writing mags yet? If so have a look and see what members of Wrekin Writers have been up to.

Writing Magazine has a letter in by Julie Phillips about her experiences

with a local free mag.

Writers' News has a letter in written by Fiona Smith.

But we don't stop with the writing mags. The National Trust Magazine has a letter in by Simon Whaley and Angeline Wheeler has had a letter published in the Shropshire Star.

Well done Wrekin Writers.

The importance of getting it right

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on the evening of 25th June 2007. I do. I remember it vividly. My family were fleeing our home as the River Corve in Ludlow gushed into our house.

This picture was taken seconds after we got out and before the realisation that we were homeless had even dawned on us.

The following morning after a night spent crying, I went back to the house to get us some clothes for us all. My home was ruined, irreplaceable family photographs destroyed and our lives were in tatters. Everything we took for granted had gone and that night we had no idea where we were going to sleep. Desperately sad times that although we recovered from, doesn't take much to bring those feelings and memories back to us.

So imagine how I felt this week when the headline on the front of my local paper read 'Flood Warning Camera Plan.' The article went on to say that Ludlow Town Council had been awarded a £10,000 grant from the Environment Agency and they wanted to install a camera linked to a website to give flood warnings. Well excuse me but I thought that was a joke, after all the best way of telling if the rivers are going to flood is to note the excessive amount of water flowing through them and for that you don't need an expensive camera system.

The article also mentioned that another use for the camera would be so that water levels could be gauged to see whether it was safe or not to use the river for leisure activities. To me this was the local council trying to justify the expenditure of the cameras for leisure facilities by using the excuse that it was there as a flood warning system. I thought the whole thing was sick so this morning I contacted my local radio station and told them exactly what I thought and how I felt.

It turned out to be an interesting experience. Following my interview they had the town clerk of Ludlow Town Council on and she confirmed that the cameras were primarily there for the tourism and leisure facilities and she was sorry about what had been written in the local paper as it was not their intention to use the floods of 2007 as an excuse to buy the cameras.

So, yes I have written to the local paper and expressed my disgust at their article but oh isn't it so important to get facts right because incorrect facts can cause unnecessary distress. As writers we have to be so careful and for those who do any form of journalism always remember, report not distort the facts.