I have revived my interest in Twitter (you can find me @gailaldwin) and I’m now seeing the benefits of using hashtags. This is a way to find likeminded people on social media and the current hashtags I’m using frequently are:
#dorsethour – a chance to touch base with others who are passionate about Dorset. Online every Monday from 7:30pm – 8:30pm
#Devonbookhour – chat about books online each Monday from 8pm-9pm
#Tuesnews – lots of members of the Romantic Novelists’ Association use this hashtag to share information on Tuesdays
#women_writers – highlight the achievements of women writers by using this hashtag
#digitalinclusion – came across this hashtag as part of the digital story project where I made the two-minute film Journey
#womenintranslation – find out about notable female authors whose work has been translated. Also see #WITmonth held in August which celebrates women in translation
For further information on how to make the most of hashtags see Neetsmarketing.
The Wimborne Writing Group went on a summer outing this week to the Blandford Fashion Museum. Tucked away behind the market square in a delightful Georgian house, the fashion collection of the founder, Mrs Betty Penny, forms the basis of the displays. I loved looking at garments from the 1960s and 1970s and remembered owning dresses with Laura Ashley flower prints. My favourite exhibit was a mini dress and hot pants set made from lime green cotton with white trim. It was sleeveless with off centre decorative lacing on the skirt in matching white cotton.
Sarah Barr who leads the Wimborne Writing Group, provided some prompts for writing as we browsed the displays. She suggested we find an outfit we liked and to imagine:
who the owner would have been
what they were like
their name, age and occupation
Why don’t you have a go at writing a short piece of prose by using Sarah’s prompts and applying them to this lovely exhibit?
1960s Mini Dress and Hot Pants Set
Get in touch if you’re willing to share your story.
I was fortunate to be invited onto Hope Radio’s Livewire programme to talk about my participation in the Reading on Screen workshops which resulted in the production of my digital story titled Journey. Kimari Raven hosts the weekly show which showcases creative talent in the Bournemouth area. The live show is aired each week on Wednesdays from 7-9pm. It was a great experienced to be interviewed by Kimari who creates a relaxed environment in which to talk. I was pleased to be on the show with another guest, the hugely talented singer and songwriter Tim Somerfield. It was great to learn about Kimari and Tim’s experiences of writing lyrics and to begin to see similarities in the process with writing prose and poetry. I felt very privileged to be sitting beside Tim as he performed his songs live on radio.
Tim Somerfield
This was my second interview on radio following an earlier recording on UK Talk Radio with Jonathan Hines. You can read about that experience here. It is fascinating to be in a recording studio and a pleasure to share my love of writing.
I enjoyed an absolutely excellent time at the first Flash Fiction Festival held in Bath over the weekend 24-25 June. The programme included two workshops each day and I was lucky enough to attend sessions offered by Kit De Waal, David Gaffney and Tania Hershman. Another session was led by Jude Higgins and Meg Pokrass with two winners from the Bath Novella-in-Flash competition. This proved to be a very interesting session which has started me thinking about a new project. For a Novella-in-Flash, each chapter is contained in a piece of flash fiction. This must be shaped in such a way that it can be read as a stand alone piece while at the same time supporting the story arc of the novella. Sounds complicated? It is! Thank you to Charmaine Wilkerson and Ingrid Jendrzejewski for their helpful tips and advice on how this can be achieved.
Saturday evening provided the opportunity to launch the National Flash Fiction Day 2017 anthology titled Sleep is a Beautiful Colour which is packed with amazing flash fiction stories. I’m looking forward to delving further into my copy having heard some wonderful flashes as part of the launch. I particularly like Stephanie Hutton‘s Geology of a Girl, a superb micro-ficton.
You may remember a recent post about a three-day workshop offered at Bournemouth University. Attendance enabled me to create a digital story about my reading journey. It was a fun experience where I learnt a great deal about editing audio and video. To read more about the workshop, click here. The end product, a two-minute digital story titled Journey is now available. Although there are plenty of things I would like to change if I got to work on this digital story again, you can have a look at the story by clicking here.
On Saturday 10 June, I joined sixteen other writers attending Rob Casey’s workshop at The White Room, in the Chapel in the Garden, Bridport. The building is set back from East Street and provides a delightful oasis on a busy market morning. We had such fun trying out ways of how-not-to perform and of course, there were plenty of tips and advice to get the delivery right. Rob had us working in small groups to share ideas and generate writing for development. It was great to hear other people’s work and learn from an experienced performance poet.
Rob is one of the founders of the Apothecary Open Mic, poetry and spoken word event that is held regularly at the Beach and Barnicott in Bridport. For more information see the Apothecary Facebook page.
I was invited by Jonathan Hines to join him for an interview on UK Talk Radio to share my experiences as a writer. The office and recording studio are located in Poole and following a drive through the rain, I arrived. Jonathan is very personable and soon put me at ease. I chatted with him before the recording began and then he started on the questions. It was a lot of fun – and a great opportunity to talk about my writing.
The interview is scheduled to be aired again on Sunday 11 June 2017. If you’d like to listen, click here and tune in around noon.
Jonathan is looking to work with more authors so if you would like to take part in this series of interviews, please email jonathan.hines@uktalkradio.org to express your interest.
Chudleigh is a small town in Devon situated between Newton Abbot and Exeter. Each year the Chudleigh Writers Circle organise a programme for the literary festival. This year the festival takes place on Wednesday 5 July. In the morning, there is a workshop titled Metaphor and Similes which will be led by Jackie Juno (author, poet and Grand Bard of Exeter). Lunch is available in the marquee but must be booked in advance. In the afternoon, South West Writers Networking takes place and involves two panel talks:
The Art of Writing with Georgia Hill and others
The Craft of Publishing with Debbie Young (ALLi) and Margaret James
There is also an evening event with Teresa Discoll (author, journalist and TV presenter) and Hilary Bonner (crime novelist best know for her psychological thrillers).
I will be attending the morning session, so if anyone who wants a lift from Dorchester, please let me know. Full details of the programme can be found on this link.
Examples of my short fiction have appeared in The Best of CaféLit 2012and The Best of CaféLit 3. Now the publisher, Chapeltown Books, has agreed to publish a collection of my flash fiction. Paisley Shirt takes its title from a flash fiction story about a surprise relationship in middle age. The Paisley Shirt collection will appear alongside other flash fiction collections published by Chapeltown Books including January Stones 2013 by Gill James and From Dark to Light and Back Againby Allison Symes.
Apothecary is a monthly spoken word open mic session held at the Beach and Barnicott in Bridport. Run by Rob Casey, Ged Duncan, Tom Rogers and Sophia Moseley, it offers the opportunity for a range of writers to share their work in five-minute slots. Click on the link below to hear me reading my short fiction titled Burnt Toast.
The next Apothecary night will be held on Wednesday 10 May 2017. Get there by 7pm for a 7:30pm start to secure your place to read. Enjoy other Apothecarian readings by watching Apothecary Cure on YouTube.
