The Answer is a Hot Pen

Today 17 members attended maintaining the average attendance, so it shows that the members are not afraid of a "Hot Pen".

Nik introduced a potential new member, Mel, who gave a brief resume on her writing of short stories and poetry.

Nik also advised that he has taken out, on behalf of "the Circle" a subscription on a new magazine, "Telling Tales".

The word (s) chosen at random for this week's were "answer/answering". The time limit for producing a written piece on the word was ten minutes.

Maureen gave us a short story about the "murder" and subsequent burial of a small bird.

Christina provided two endings to her poem. The first being about a cat, the other about snoring.

Douglas told the story of an offer of money.

Heather narrated her story about inheritance but this was much more than money.

Pat returned to her favourite subject of dogs when the heroine's dilemna was solved by her pet pooch.

Jane gave us a tale where health and safety directives outweighed common sense.

Chris related a tale about the working of an answering machine.

Ann F told the story of an office romance that finally came to fruition.

Mary had written a piece about vengenance expounding the theory that "Hell hath no fury.....".

Jenny gave us a poem about professionalism.

Ian's piece was about his hero searching for his girlfriend to obtain an answer to his proposal.

Kelly's offering was similar to Ian's but was more about the technology of the answering machine.
Heinke's offering ended up with a discussion on pubic hair wigs. Yes, folks, pubic hair wigs!

Mel then gave a short, profound piece on dealing with the question.

Glyn's story was of a Nigerian con man arriving at his hero's door.

Nik's tale was of a reporter looking for his interviewee on her partner's allotment.

After the break, some members provided readings.

Glyn read his reworked version of "A New Life" which is a November competition entry. A few minor alterations were suggested which it was hoped would "tighten" the story.

Heinke told the story of a 7 year old child's holiday visit to Iceland. (The country, not the frozen food store). Imagery was good and the pace of the tale was good.

Mary's offering was a letter to a publisher and accompanying poem written by a potential poet who thought they were God's gift to poetry. This was not the way to go about having work published.

Ann F gave us a rant about one of her pet subjects - the use of foreign language words and phrases in books. Ann emphasised her point by using the very things she detests.

Heather's piece entitled "To see ourselves as others see us" related good comments about real people. Members thought this very good but suggested that a change in title was required.

Last but by no means least Douglas gave us the third part of his autobiographical time in Egypt.

Time overtook the meeting but it just shows that there is talent in "the Circle" that a simple word can conjure up so many images in a Hot Pen and that the general readings are also so diverse.

Roll on next week!!

Ian