Hot Pen Day

In the absence of Nik Morton and Rob Innis, Jane Hayter chaired the meeting.

HOT PEN DAY!!! - the word BUSINESS - time 10 minutes

JERRY - a story about the murder of a young woman.

ALAN - a humorous story about a car that would work while the driver slept.   The car was not a success.

LISA - Two female friends set up a business.  Initially a success, ultimately the venture failed.

DOUGLAS - tells a story of a row he has with a friend and learns soon after that the man has been  killed in a road accident.

JOHN M - Irish couple married for 12 years without having any children.   The wife is anxious to have a baby.  Discusses this problem with a friend who gives her some pills and months later the wife finds she is pregnant.   

MIKE - a non-fiction account of the five monkeys business principle where the behaviour of the animals is man ipulated.

ANNE F - a short story about a friend interfering in  the private life of a married couple.

ANN B - a short poem about her charitable activities.

MARY S - a poem concerning feelings about not getting involved with the problems of others.

MARY KM - Clever piece involving a play on the word "business"

ANN G - a tale about women gossiping about neighbours who seems to be living beyond their means .  Should they report them to The Social?   Decide its none of their business!

JANE - a story of her life in France when an official comes onto her property to measure the boundaries of her land and the legality or otherwisde of her swimmin g pool.  Decides he is just being curious.

GLYN -  woman searches for cat food in the Asian quarter of town as all the local shops are closed.

BRENDA - Carrie marries the first man who asks her, in order to escape from her boring life.

JENNY - her views about the ease with which individuals can set up a business on the Costa Blanca and then act without either morals or principles.

JOHN McG - Believable dialogue between a married couple who are on the verge of splitting up.

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A general discussion follolwed concerning the value or otherwise of "hot pen".A minority of people actively dislike the exercise, another group feel it to be of value, and a third group appear to have no views one way or another.

An idea was put forward that for the next "hot pen" (on the 29 December!!!)  members should bring in a photograph or small object, these to be divided within the group.

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MEMBERS' CONTRIBUTION S

JOHN McG -  an interesting story about a police officer making contact with a man attempting suicide and in fact guiding the man to safety.   Part 1.  The sequel to follow.

BRENDA - The ongoing story of Belle who is anxious to get out of her current relationship of seven years standing.    Is attracted to a man she has just met.   She goes to a party which is also attended by both men.   She introduces them to each other.   To be continued..........

GLYN - continues his story of army life with a wounded soldier returning from Afghanistan who is ostracised by his fellow soldiers as a result of his action in hesitating to kill a woman Afghan results in the deaths of five of his collegues.    More soon..........

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Anne Flynn

30 9 2010           

50 Stories for Pakistan

Rob Innis, Deputy Chairman TWC, has had his story accepted for the anthology '50 Stories for Pakistan' which is being sold to raise money for the disaster fund.

When he read the story, The Long Journey, to the group the feedback was positive and Nik Morton, chairman, commented 'One of your best ever pieces'

Well that was an astute comment - and let's hope the book is able to raise a lot of money for this worthwhile cause - more here

BIG TURN OUT AT TWC

There was a big turnout  (26.5) this week (the .5 was TJ who arrived a tad late but never mind)

After a hasty table rearrangement we kicked off with Brenda (being a left over) who gave us a thrilling extract from her novel – where poor Daisy met her untimely end.

John Mac read another of his rather revealing life episodes in which he had ‘an offer he couldn’t refuse’ for a curvy little blond. Helped my some relevant song titles an all together amusing piece ably assisted by Lulu and Diana Ross

Rosemary used this weeks theme (Autograph) for her tale about the family and its problems at dinner (where Christopher Timothy made a guest appearance) Lots of feedback and plenty of editing for Rosemary

Georgia read us 4 poems – which we all enjoyed, a break from our normal style.

Norma – tried her 150 word entry for a competition but we were left feeling that it had not quite hit the spot – more drama please Norma

John Major read his best piece left and left us hanging in suspense – a star in the making our John – great stuff

Anne Flynn amused us with her diary – which was an open book on Anne’s thought process which lead us all over the place – very amusing.

Mary read yet another story (she turns them out) but the group felt in needed more work but had potential with her protagonist unfairly locked away in a smelly Chinese jail – not nice.

Nik off on holidays for 3 weeks (lucky him) Rob in the hot seat now…….

posted by Rob Innis

Email from Geoff Lowe

Hola Ian/Nik/Rob

I always enjoy the weekly reports of Circle meetings. They help me to keep in touch - even though I haven't been back to La Torre for a long time. We moved from Hull to Grassington in the Yorks Dales last November and we've been busy re-furbishing and getting involved in local activities here. (And we missed at least one planned trip to La Torre due to volcanic dust cancellations).

Anyway it's good to see the group thriving, and with several new members - one of whom may be Stan (I can't recall meeting him). I notice with interest his interest in Kingston-upon-Hull. As I also have strong Hull connections (I was born there), it would be nice to have his contact e-mail, if that is possible. Or please let him know my contact e-mail.

Please give my best regards to the group. Hope to see you again, perhaps in October.

All good wishes

Geoff Lowe

Dogs, Diaries, Dementia and Days Out

A great attendance this week of initially 19 members until the break when TJ jioned the group.

This week's theme was a beginning: "The storm had knocked out the electricity......"

Rosemary kicked off with an excerpt from a book that she is in the process of writing entitled "John, Dementia and Me". This dealt with her dealing with the onset of dementia in her husband although it was not known at the time. The excerpt concentrated with the anxieties that she went through. Variousquestions were asked and suggestions made  to improve credibility.

Mary S gave a very humourous account of a day out at a garden party at which she had to force herself not to get too "squishy". She did hoewever still enjoy the day.

Mary K's effort was a competition entry of a maximum 150 words which had to contain the word "set". Again suggestions were made to improve the piece. Jane totally misheard the criteria and thought the word to be contained was "sex".

Maureen read out a very much abridged version of a previous account to South America. This was a very descriptive piece which is to be published in an ezine.

John McGregor's tale was called "37" but possibly should have been called "The Coming of Age" as this was a sexy story of a man celebrating his birthday. Again this was a very funny item with lots of good phrasing and the use of comparisons.

Alan gave us an excerpt from "Spike's Diary" and was about Spike recovering from a broken leg and having to cope with a new dog on the block. Again very funny with some unusual use of words.

Stan's effort "Not for the Faint Hearted" could have been renamed "Spooky" as he recalled being at a rehearsal for a wedding and encountering a strange apparition in the church. This was a very atmospheric piece.

Gerry's item was a tale from the old west about an apparent hobo returning to a small town after 25 years. It was thought that the story line was intriguing but required more description.

John Major read out a prequel to a story he had read a few weeks ago. This item was called "The Two Trainers" and dealt with a visit from head office in England to a branch in Belfast. Told in John's inimitable style he had everyone in stitches at his heroes antics.

Brenda was last with a short reading from her novel.This was an intriguing piece with some good visualisation although it was felt that perhaps some more detail could enhance it. It was also suggested that the opening paragraph should be dropped as it did nothing for the story.

Ian C

Echoes of Another Time

20 Members of the Circle were in attendance this week.

Michael advised that he had contacts through family with film makers and that if anyone had scripts or novels that were worthy of film, he would put them in touch with each other.

Rob apologised if anyone had received spam mail allegedly from him. This was not the case and he advised the members on how to stop hackers getting email addresses.

John McGillvarystarted this weeks readings with a love poem entitled "Davy".

Stan gave us a very pictorial guide to Kingston-upon-Hull. Obviously a city close to his heart.

Nan read out two poems "Something out of Nothing" and "Distribution" both of which were unusual to say the least.

John Major took this weeks theme an told us of troubled times in Belfast. This was very atmospheric with a lot of good phrasing.

Norma narrated a piece on the use of "Blackberry" in conjunction with her work as a councillor. Douglas suggested that the piece of equipment would be better named "The Raspberry".

Mary K took this week's theme and related in verse life gone by.

Pat gave us a reworked version of a story about a woman writing three different letters of goodbye before committing suicide.

Jane provided a new episode of her life in rural France with a story entitled "The Master Plasterer" in which the main character arrived late, ate long lazy meals, slept, then left early, all at his clients expense.

Douglas gave us his review of Heinke's book "Camping With Wolves". Not only was this a favourable review it was also a rant at the number of errors in the book, none of which were Heinke's. Explanations were provided as to how the errors occurred and that these had now been corrected.

John McGregor's piece entitled "What's Your Handicap?" was a story about his first game of golf which just happened to be at Gleneagles. Written in John's own inimitable style this was most enjoyable.


Ian C