The Dreaded Hot Pen Strikes Again!!

Could it have been the lovely weather that lured members off to sit in the sun? Or could it have been that Wednesday was the regular HOT PEN DAY? Perhaps it was simply that the last meeting was bursting at the seams so "only fifteen" members appeared a bit thin on the ground when, in fact, it´s quite a respectable attendance.

The meeting started with a demonstration by TJ of his new aquisition, the Ebook from Amazon, Kindle. He´d only just got it so wasn´t sure of all the functions but was obviously a converted
Ebook man. I must say, it looked very neat (fits into a jacket pocket) and can increase print size to something akin to the bottom line on the optician´s chart, which suits me just fine. It can hold masses of books (did he say 1500?) so if that´s right, it would cover my holiday reading adequately. Only snag was the cost, around 200 dollars, so I´ll wait till the price reaches my level, but for those of you with a generous budget, it´s the perfect Christmas gift.

We then went on, led by our illustrious chairman, to do a very useful exercise in editing. The piece was from a recently published item which really shouldn´t have seen the light of public day. However, it sufficed to help us all see what sort of things we should be looking out to avoid in our own writing. Good exercise, Nik.

After the break we finally got on to the meat of the day, the HOT PEN (!!!+? ¤!!!).

The words chosen were Saw and Found.
After 10 minutes of feverish activity, we listened to the results.

Lisa kicked off with a good piece, except for the fact that, absentmindedly, she had forgotten to include her chosen word!

Gerry produced an amusing poem - SEE BELOW.

Heather wrote a piece about how she found her husband at a car boot. ( She didn´t say whether or not he was a bargain).

Ann Flynn described a woman observing a shoplifter.

Chris wrote about a young boy finding a bloody saw in his gran´s basement.

Ann B´s poem told of a Scotsman´s pound note found by an Englishman.

Maureen Moss´s piece was about kids disobeying parents

Ian told of a woodcutter finding a racoon in his shed.

Henke, as is her wont, went over the top with her description of a warring couple who decide to divorce and divide the house by cutting it in half with a chainsaw!

Alan, new to the hot pen exercise, declared he hadn´t really understood what to do and wrote a very short, factual piece. Now you know, Alan, with Heinke´s example in mind, the sky´s the limit!

Glyn´s piece centered on a businessman in Thailand looking for an evening´s entertainment.

Finally, Nik wrote about a man entering No Man´s Land to infiltrate athe enemy´s secret bunker. It sounded like the beginning of a rattling good thriller.

It never ceases to amaze and impress, how varied and interesting the results are even when we all have the same starting point.

With that, another very pleasant and instructive meeting was over.

Hasta la próxima vez! Chris J
Gerry´s poem follows

It´s Wednesday morning and here we are
Just a few minutes out of the bar

It´s hot pen time and I´m searching around
The word is Saw.... or is it Found?

It could be Found, not neccessarily Saw
I´m totally lost and very unsure.

Perhaps by the end I´ll have made up my mind
But as time goes on I´m in more of a bind.

I must move fast, I mustn´t linger
When I used a saw last, I cut my finger.

It bled like crazy, blood all around
A bandage, a plaster, not one could be found.

So I think I´ll plan slowly and maybe then
I think I`ll get better at wring Hot Pen.