First Meeting 2013

Will be on Wednesday January 9th at 11am at our usual location (See profile)

Happy New Year to everyone.

REACH OUT TORREVIEJA

The Reach Out Charity, currently supporting  200 families in the Torrevieja area, are very appreciative of the donation The Torrevieja Writers were able to make to them last week and ask for continued support in various ways over the coming months.  

At present the charity is based in C. Bella Antonia in town and has a drop-in coffee shop where people can get a hot cuppa along with help and advice from the many international volunteers on hand. The Reach Out Centre Manager, Sandra Stephens said, in a recent article in The Leader newspaper; "Many of these people were drawn to Spain in the boom times where there were many well-paid jobs. But then the recession hit and they suddenly found themselves without jobs."

The centre also provides food parcels for families - small boxes with a few of the essentials of life, such as dried, tinned or preserved foods, rice, pasta or flour, cooking oil, UHT milk, processed cheese, lentils, beans and chick peas and tinned meats or fish. Also provided are baby foods, nappies and other toiletries and toilet rolls, and these items are particularly needed at present.

The charity is planning a move to larger premises in the near future at which time they will open a workshop to repair and renew old, donated furniture to be sold to help finance the charity.

For the full story and contact details see: http://www.theleader.info/article/34768/reach-out-torrevieja/ 

From an email

Considering our attempts at writing erotica, I thought it would be a good idea to post this on our Blog. A friend sent it to me and it made me laugh out Loud - a Lot.  I hope you enjoy it.  I was also entertained by reviews done by men on Veet O hair removal cream - if you go amazon dot com and look at the reviews on this cream, you will find that there are some very descriptive accounts experienced.  Not that you would call erotic, but very funny.

The novel "Fifty Shades Of Grey" has seduced women - and baffled blokes.
Now a spoof, Fifty Sheds Of Grey, offers a treat for the men. The book has author Colin Grey recounting his love encounters at the bottom of the garden. Here are some extracts...
 
Fifty Sheds Of Grey
 
We tried various positions - round the back, on the side, up against a
wall...
but in the end we came to the conclusion the bottom of the garden was the only place for a good shed.
 
She stood before me, trembling in my shed.
"I'm yours for the night," she gasped, "You can do whatever you want with me."
So I took her to McDonalds.
 
She knelt before me on the shed floor and tugged gently at first, then
harder until finally it came.
I moaned with pleasure. Now for the other boot.
 
Ever since she read THAT book, I've had to buy all kinds of ropes, chains and shackles.
She still manages to get into the shed, though.
 
"Put on this rubber suit and mask," I instructed, calmly.
"Mmmm, kinky!" she purred.
"Yes," I said, "You can't be too careful with all that asbestos in the shed roof."
 
"I'm a very naughty girl," she said, biting her lip. "I need to be
punished."  So I invited my mum to stay for the weekend.
 
"Harder!" she cried, gripping the workbench tightly. "Harder!"
"Okay," I said. "What's the gross national product of Nicaragua?"
 
I lay back exhausted, gazing happily out of the shed window.
Despite my concerns about my inexperience, my rhubarb had come up a treat.
 
"Are you sure you can take the pain?" she demanded, brandishing stilettos.
"I think so," I gulped. "Here we go, then," she said, and showed me the
receipt.
 
"Hurt me!" she begged, raising her skirt as she bent over my workbench.
"Very well," I replied. "You've got fat ankles and no dress sense."
 
"Are you sure you want this?" I asked. "When I'm done, you won't be able to sit down for weeks."
She nodded.
"Okay," I said, putting the three-piece suite on eBay.
 
"Punish me!" she cried. "Make me suffer like only a real man can!"
"Very well," I replied, leaving the toilet seat up.
 
"Pleasure and pain can be experienced simultaneously," she said, gently
massaging my back as we listened to her Coldplay CD
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

OPEN  MIC

 

 

 

 

 

MONDAY 3RD DECEMBER

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHADWICKS BAR VILLAMARTIN

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.30 P.M.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prose: Poems: Song or just for a sit down and a drink

Books4Spain - Special Offers

Books4Spain is a great site for all types of books and ebooks about Spain both fiction and non fiction - currently lots of special offers.

This from their site.-

'Books4Spain is an online bookshop specialising in English language books about Spain or books set in Spain.
Books4Spain has been established, by Rod Younger, an Anglo-Spaniard, in response to the explosive growth in online mass market “soulless” book retailers, such as Amazon, and the continuing decline of the traditional independent bookshop with knowledgeable staff and an interesting collection of books.
The site has been designed to re-create the experience, attractions and benefits of a traditional bricks & mortar independent bookshop but with the added convenience afforded by the Internet and technology to offer better choice, an easier way to discover books about Spain and to enable our clients to discover Spain and its rich history and culture through books.'

Also see their blog - lots of author interviews and other interesting articles about Spain.

Rob Innis, TWC member, has published an ebook - Spain Exposed, which will shortly be available on B4S in standard EPUB format for those who have a non Kindle ereader.

I am delighted that my contribution is included in Foriegn Encounters from Writers Abroad - The following is the official press release:-

Online writing group Writers Abroad are proud to announce the publication on Wednesday 24th October of their new anthology, entitled Foreign Encounters.

An encounter can be a chance meeting, a planned get-together or even a confrontation. This collection of stories, non-fiction articles and poems features a variety of foreign encounters: with family, friends, lovers, animals, cultures, or just with one’s own prejudices and preconceptions.

Foreign Encounters is the third anthology published by Writers Abroad, an online group of ex-pat writers.  All the contributors are, or have been, ex-pats living in places around the globe. Author Julia Gregson, a former ex-pat whose bestselling novel East of the Sun won the Prince Maurice Prize for romantic fiction, has written the foreword.

Following a call for submissions, Writers Abroad received 231 contributions of which they selected 95 for the anthology. They include 16 poems, 38 short stories and 41 non-fiction articles. Since Writers Abroad is a virtual writers’ group, all the work to produce Foreign Encounters has been done online.  

All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to Books Abroad, a charity which coordinates the donation of free books for schools throughout the world, believing that education is a crucial aspect of human progress. The charity celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and has supplied over 1,600 schools with desperately-needed books.

Foreign Encounters is available from Lulu, price €9.99 (approximately £8.00), from Wednesday 24th October, when this link will become live.


Notes for editors

• Writers Abroad was founded in 2009. It provides an online forum for ex-pat writers to exchange ideas, views and news on writing and to offer support and constructive feedback on each other’s work. Membership numbers are limited but ex-pat writers may apply to join if they are able to support the group’s initiatives and aims.

• For more about author Julia Gregson, see here 

• For more about Books Abroad, see here.

• Contributors live in, and have written about, more than 50 countries in every continent.


Rob Innis

OPEN MIC AT CHADWICKS VILLAMARTIN MONDAY 8TH OCTOBER 2012 7.30 AT CHADWICKS

A Reminder that it's Open Mic Night next Monday. There are a few new people coming so it should be an interesting night. An opportunity to read all your wonderful stuff out loud. You can't knock it till you've tried it. I love it. Margaret

OPEN MIC NIGHT!

READ YOUR OWN WORK

OR YOUR FAVOURITE

POEM OR SHORT STORY.

 

 
 

MONDAY 8TH OCTOBER 7.30

 

AT CHADWICKS VILLAMARTIN

 

COME AND CELEBRATE

IT'S YOUR 10TH OPEN MIC. 

AN ACHIEVEMENT

 

Angela Jackson - Spanish Civil war

Angela Jackson, an English doctor of History, kindly visited our group and gave an interesting talk on the subject of writing and publishing books a while ago.

She has recently published a further non-fiction book on the Spanish Civil War - "For Us It Was Heaven" tells the story of a young, upper middle-class nurse - Patience Darton- who in the 1930s who becomes dramatically caught up in Spain's civil war and the passionate political issues of her times, but whose intimate writings reveal emotions and attitudes that will strike a chord with most self-aware and determined women today."

Which is reviewed here

A recent interview with Angela is here

Angela's books are extremely well researched and written - available here

Rob Innis

Is Amazon Kindle publishing the answer?

The traditional world of book publishing is in a state of turmoil as the impact of reading books electronically (eBooks/eReaders) continues to grab a larger slice of the market.

Writers, fed up with being rejected or ignored by literary agents and publishers have turned to self publishing and are either producing traditional books or taking the ‘e’ route and publishing eBooks.

Independent booksellers are under siege from the big chains, which also need to rethink their sales strategies whilst the online sellers, notably Amazon, continue to increase sales and expand their operations in Europe.

The current financial climate has meant, for many, new books are now a luxury and overall sales are dropping – taken from a recent report on Spanish Book sales:

“In the past five years, turnover has decreased by 11.2% and the number of

copies sold has reduced by 20.3% ”

Several members of TWC have taken the self publishing route.

Whilst others are in the ‘pipeline’. Of course the easy bit is the writing (!) the tricky bit is the marketing to generate sales in a very competitive market place.

I am pleased with my own modest efforts and sales are steadyon the Amazon Kindle platform so I would recommend all budding authors to research this option if agents are not waving lucrative contracts under their noses.

Rob Innis

A Reminder that it's Open Mic Night next Monday.  There are a few new people coming so it should be an interesting night.  An opportunity to read all your wonderful stuff out loud.  You can't knock it till you've tried it.  I love it. Margaret

OPEN MIC NIGHT!

READ YOUR OWN WORK

OR YOUR FAVOURITE

POEM OR SHORT STORY.

CHADWICKS IN VILLAMARTIN

MONDAY 25^th  JUNE 7.30PM

ALL WELCOME: POETS, WRITERS, READERS, LISTENERS

AND SUPPORTERS!

A Recipe For Success – The Torrevieja Writer’s Circle

Another recent Torrrevieja Writer, John Major, is added to the Circle’s illustrious alumni with the publication of his new book ‘A Recipe for Disaster’ by Old Line Publishing. 

The book follow the travails of Joe Henry and his wife Susan who began their rollercoaster ride through life despite the objections of both sets of parents. Add their mismatched social and religious differences into the mix and you have ‘A Recipe for Disaster’. Their life is a journey filled with joy and laughter, with a side order of misfortune and tears. Set mostly in the Ireland of the 1960s and onwards, the Henrys are a unique and entertaining family that will provide you with hours of hearty laughter.

Says John – who, by the way, is writing under the pen name John Henry; “the Publishers are in Maryland and the book is available from them in hard cover as well as being downloadable via Amazon. They have been fantastic. They designed the cover, edited it, put it into print and e book format etc and it hasn’t cost me a penny!”

For more information and how to buy: http://www.oldlinepublishingllc.com

Under the Queen's Colours

Penny Legg, who visited our group a while ago, has just published her latest book - Under the Queen's Colours.

The contributors all served in the Armed Forces in the sixty years of Her Majesty the Queen's reign and their stories showcase the range of experience in this commemorative Diamond Jubilee publication.

It includes contributions from 4 members of TWC - Gerry Wright, Douglas Sidwell, Nik Morton and John McGregor - so well done gentlemen.

For more see either Amazon or Penny Legg's web site links above.

Rob Innis

Kindle Minted

When I was in the UK recently I purchased a Writers Forum magazine - they had published an interview with Kerry Wilkinson who, following successful eBook sales, has now signed a contract with Pan Macmillan. I wrote a letter for the WF letters page which has been published in their June edition (albeit with minor edits)

KINDLE MINTED

Having seen the internet headlines regarding Kerry Wilkinson’s success with signing a Pan Macmillan book deal following his amazing eBook sales, I was intrigued to read his interview (#126 May issue)  and learn the secrets of his success.

There is consistent hype about fully using all of the electronic tricks (Facebook, blogs etc) at our disposal to market our books. However Kerry freely admits that he did ‘Very little indeed’ in the way of marketing.

I did think his strategy of writing a series and making the first one virtually free was a clever marketing ploy and all, initially, without the help of agents.

His last response advising writers to get on and self-publish because if you are good enough you will get noticed is a valuable contribution to the great current traditional versus self-publishing  debate.

Well done, Kerry Wilkinson. Obviously a good writer and a clear thinker who deserves success.

(end)

Well maybe my own modest eBook efforts will not lead to a Pan Macmillan contract but never mind - at least I have a new Moleskine notebook to look forward to for getting my letter published.

Rob Innis

Kindle vs Library Card

I am quite a lover of technology as most of the group know - also I have recently published a Kindle eBook

but I love this:

I would love to give the originator a credit but I found it in the Bookstore Guide newsletter - and they did not provide the origin.

Enjoy.

Rob Innis

29th February, a full house again

Hot pen.  Everyone brought in a picture or object and swapped with a neighbour.  As usual the writing was varied and imaginative.   This is just a flavour.

·         Mery had a button, she wondered if it was from a call girl’s gown.   Every time she slept with her man a button was sewn on to her gown, which made it very heavy.

·         Cheryl got a picture of a South American lady, and drew a verbal picture of beautiful countryside, people with protruding bellies and no clothes but a sense of belonging.

·         Jane was handed a picture of a chap cutting bread.  The group of travellers went to see the chief who drank a bottle of beer now and then, no-one else was allowed to drink.

·         Ann had a card saying welcome to your new home.  She saw a mouse in her new home and thought, I’ll soon show you.  She brought in a cat but it turned tail and ran when it saw the mouse

·         Christina was given a picture of a mosque.  ‘Dear mum, I am getting married here next week, Asif loves me and I will be following the Muslim faith.   I enclose return tickets and love you always.  Asif has given his approval for me to send them to you. ‘  Oh oh.

·         Alan, who had been given a baby picture, said that very young children are wonderful once they have stopped being shit factories.  How true.

·         John had a bracelet.  While out walking Frank found a bracelet, there was movement in the undergrowth, a man’s head poked up.  You should never get caught with your trousers down, and how could the girl explain the loss of the bracelet!

·         Gerry had a black and white photo of a boy with roller skates. His dad left yesterday so he was the man of the house and had to prove his manhood.  He looked down the hill and launched himself forward. He felt exhilarated as the scales of boyhood peeled off, the wind revealing the young man underneath.

·         Douglas had a picture of a lady with hypnotic, multicoloured hair.  She was about to be attacked by a mugger in a dark alley.  She looked into his soul, the man stared back in fear, and he turned away and ran for his life.

·         Heinke’s picture of a cat in snow made her think that the snow was the cat’s boyfriend and she was enjoying herself frolicking in him.   

·         Ian’s picture of two men standing beside a statue of a soldier made him think of the anniversary of the ceasefire.  A toast was made to absent comrades, it was decided it should become an annual event so that their members will not be forgotten.

·         Betty was given a paperweight with flowers embedded in it.  I am a botanist and want to find the orchid that is depicted in the glass, so must climb the 3,000 feet mountain.

·         Avril wrote a poem, about nature and surf and all sorts of things. Blimey a poem in just 10 minutes.

·         Sue had a photo of a family group in Matalan car park.  What good value but you buy a lot of stuff you don’t need.

·         Geoff was handed a figurine of an angel.  An angel of heaven had introduced him to heaven a few times; he was just about to tell us what she did for him but alas he ran out of time.

·         John’s picture reminded him of a story by Ronald Searle, ‘Down with skool.’   It was about punishment with a cat of 9 tails, which is not thought to be PC today, more’s the pity.

·         Ann was handed a broken box spanner.  The boss gave me a spanner; I had been taken on for work experience at a garage but was being used as slave labour.  When the mechanic went to lunch I fiddled in the engine and loosened a nut which broke the spanner, the boss fired me on the spot.  Result!

·         Chris was given a photo of John McG and other young airmen frolicking naked beside the sea, hiding their family jewels with various props.  John McG was the one hiding his bits with a large flipper!  Boasting again! 

Gerry read out a story about confession.  John went into church, if you did not go to confession you had a mortal sin on your soul and the only solution was absolution. He had a knot in the base of his stomach, he knelt down, yes my child, bless me father for I have sinned, my last confession was six months ago.  I hope I won’t be banned from the church.  The priest said, God can forgive everything, trust in him.  John continued, it happened 2 weeks ago, it was a warm summer evening and my wife was wearing a short dress, she bent over to get something, I was taken by a fit of passion and made love to her.  There was surprise and disappointment from the priest, Is that all you did?  She is your wife, she was consenting in the act and so it is not a sin.  John said that is a huge relief father because we have been banned from Tesco.  Brilliant.

Next week the subject is GAMES.

Cynthia

I NEVER IMAGINED THAT SPRING FLOWERS COULD CAUSE SO MUCH MISERY!

22^nd February.

There was a good turnout, we get bigger every week. 

Heinke asked people to support the Vivace concert at the Teatro Circo on 17 March at Orihuela, when they will be performing Carmina Burana, tickets are 5 Euros. The town hall in Orihuela Costa is running a bus to the concert.

The theme this week was Spring Flowers

Margaret’s story was entitled Death by Blossom. Gwen resided in Spain but lived life as if she was still in the UK, as was reflected by her office type clothing.  She decided to take her dogs Duke and Duchess out for a walk in the citrus orchards. She inhaled the scent of the blossom and felt intoxicated.  The lightheadedness made her veer off the road into a ditch and the dogs ran off.  ‘The scent of blossom was heavy in the air.’

Comments: Very good characterization.

Geoff’s tale was about Mr Wordforit, who had the most extensive collection of collective nouns in the UK.  His story contained a proliferation of collective nouns, some of them unknown to me, like

Ÿ  a bouquet of pheasants

Ÿ  A clique of photographers

Ÿ  A scoop of journalists

Ÿ  A flash of paparazzi

In the end Mr Wordforit was overwhelmed by an avalanche of collective nouns, which wasn’t a barrel of laughs for the rescue team, so he decided to concentrate on verbs. As usual extremely amusing. 

Alan wrote a piece of tongue in the cheek journalism about a local function he had recently attended. The meal was late, they didn’t win any raffle prizes, they were entertained by a songstress who had to pitch her voice up to compete with the chattering hordes at the tables, but apart from that it was a good event. Rupert Murdoch is setting up another newspaper Alan, any good at hacking?

Gerry gave us the start of something he is working on. ’No-one had seen the Mustang pull into the 24 hour parking block.’  There was a sickly smell coming from the car; a logo indicated it came from the Lone Star State of Texas.  It had been there quite a long time before the attendant forced open the boot to find a headless body, then the detectives arrived to investigate.

Comments:  ‘A fist of foul air’ was very descriptive.  We guessed too early that there was a body inside the car so the impact was lost when the boot was opened.  It took too many words to set the story up.  Gerry appreciated the comments, which will help him to refine and continue the story.

Brenda had written on the theme of Spring Flowers. Mother Nature is working her magic creating the beauty of a bluebell wood. The narrator, who thought her name might have been Margaret, had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Picking bluebells aged 14 years she had been disturbed by a man with blood on his hands.  To stop her telling anyone about his poaching he had buried her alive, but she is not lonely, she can feel the earthworms and hear the beetles, she knows it is spring because of the bluebells swaying in the breeze and she is happy in her magic wood. 

Comments:  Brenda painted a brilliant picture of the scenery and the wild life. It was questioned whether she would know her name or not but as she is now just a body she is a nonentity without name. It was reminiscent of the start of Lovely Bones and we all wanted to hear more. Brenda apologized that she cannot write about nice events!

John went back into history to the time of the mods and rockers.  He was a mod and he had a Lambretta called Bubbles. He overtook a car as he was late for college. Bubbles fell on her side and he ended up in the gutter.  The police arrived and he was fined £10 and received 2 points on his license for driving without due care and attention. Being the suave mod that he was, he was too cool to wear his crash helmet; it was a fashion item dangling from the luggage rack most of the time. He told us about Slab Square in front of the council building in Nottingham which had stone lions in front.  Apparently the lions would roar if a virgin went past. ‘A quiet place Slab Square!’  He gave some old man in a car a V sign who turned out to be his father, not a good idea.  He somehow survived and still has an old Vespa called Bubbles 11. You seem to have had a few contretemps with the police John! Very amusing as always and evocative of that age, which seems like only yesterday to me!

Betty had written on the theme of spring flowers. A mother looked at her daughter with pride, her eyes brimming with tears. In the physio room the girl made her first step forward. She was determined to walk unaided at her marriage in 8 weeks’ time.  It had been a great shock to her mother to learn that her daughter had lost her legs in a train accident which had changed their lives. She brought the wedding dress to the hospital for her daughter to try on.  The dress went down to the floor and covered her new artificial legs.  She punched the air.  ‘With a bouquet of spring flowers it will be my perfect day.’  A lovely tale of triumph over adversity, very nicely written.

Heinke – this psychedelic story is about people who live in bubbles in the sky (I think!?).  Polystyrene and Polyester share a room. They didn’t know whether to have the stem cell soup or the collagen stew. Everything was made from animal or human extract.  The inspector came to inspect and was told to feck off.  The people on the ground are trying to hit the bubbles with stones.  Heinke really believes in the world she writes about, which is a bit worrying!  Innovative and amusing. 

Avril also wrote about spring flowers. She managed to name every spring flower known to man.  We could visualise the scene of the bluebell woods unfolding before us and it made us pine for life in England when spring arrives (but not for long). Very evocative.

Maureen gave us an interesting report of a trip to Poland.  She was dressed up like the Michelin man in sub zero temperatures.  The buildings were charming; it felt like a set from the film The Third Man.  There were medieval markets and quaint churches.  They visited a museum showing the Nazi atrocities.  The river contained thousands of ashes of victims.  They visited an Irish bar at night (as you do).  The next day they visited Auschwitz. ‘The air was like razor blades’ it was so cold.  They visited the salt mines which included a church and a sea. 

Comments: The piece was very atmospheric, the group wanted more description about the salt mine.

Ann also wrote about spring flowers.  It had been the coldest winter on record.  They had decided to leave their stressful lives and move to the country.  They bought a disused property in Galloway which was 5 miles from the nearest village and renovated it.  It was too good to last.  Ann’s cancer had returned and was inoperable.  She passed away and he retreated into his shell. He took a walk to the village, stopped by a tree and could see yellow heads of daffodils pushing through the piles of leaves.  He began to cry, ‘Ann would have said that life goes on, pull yourself together, you have to live for Ann.’ Very touching.  As Mary said, ‘I never thought that spring flowers could bring so much misery.’

Thank goodness Jane had a happy poem about spring flowers.  Lines included: I know a place where bluebells grow, I know a place where violets hide, I know a place where primroses peep.  In my heart they will dwell.’  Beautifully told.

Jenny’s poem was very short but to the point about almond blossom and broom in the April sun.

Alan updated us about Spike.  I was getting a bit worried about him.  Spike told us about Christmas and New Year in his household.  He now has a friend Kitty who lives with him.  Spike behaved himself and didn’t cock his leg at the Christmas tree.  He nipped out to see Fifi, the French poodle.  (No doubt we shall hear more about her, the hussy).  He and Kitty felt like plonkers in their sweaters and boots.  Comical as always.

Next week it is hot pen.  Bring a photo or a card or an object with you.  These will be passed on to someone else to write about.

Spike and Kitty

Cynthia