Author: publcicitysecretary
July 18, 2019 July 18, 2019 publcicitysecretaryLeave a comment
Our blog post this week comes from Portsmouth based Simon Sansbury. A member of the Portsmouth Writers' Hub, Simon is also part of Beacon Productions. If you have a drama, comedy or thriller you'd like to see produced either on screen or audio Beacon would love to hear from you – read on…
Beacon Productions is a not-for-profit group based in the Locks Heath area of Southampton. We've been running for over thirty years and currently have about fifty members aged between 18 and 79.
Over the years the group has produced numerous shows. The longest running of these being the science fiction show, 'The Adventures of Stephen Brown'. We've also produced soap operas, thriller series and short films.
Beacon Nonsense
Currently in production we have a drama serial based around a coffee shop '80 degrees', an escape room show 'Big White Doors', a gameshow 'Beacon Nonsense' and have just begun a legal/socio-political science fiction audio series 'Phipps Files'. As well as converting thriller series 'Ninth Man' for audio, we have a podcast and a couple of stand-alone audio dramas.
Zombies in a field – Day 66
Being a small group, our resources are limited and thus feature length films with a large cast, complicated set or location requirements present difficulties. But, set and location considerations don't apply to audio dramas.
Knowing how many characters a script has, what genders and ages they are, what locations or sets are required (for film) helps us decide what is practical. The simplest things of all for us to record are of course short stories which require neither locations, sets or actors.
All of the output we create is uploaded to our YouTube or Soundcloud. You can find out more about us on our website.
June 27, 2019 June 26, 2019 publcicitysecretaryLeave a comment
The Winchester Writers Fest, attracts attendees from all over the world and a week ago on Saturday, Karin and I met up with many of them. So, for the next couple of posts, the blog is going to branch out into our surrounding counties and hear some of their inspirational stories
CHINDI (Celebrating and Helping Indy authors) is a network of independent authors based in West Sussex. Running online and live events, sharing ideas, expertise and contacts, they encourage independent authors to follow their dreams by supporting them in the creation of excellent printed, 'e' and audio books, followed by marketing, promotion and selling opportunities.
Helen Christmas, member of CHINDI and author of five self-published romantic thriller suspense takes time out from event organising at the Festival of Chichester to tell us a little more about them.
CHINDI Members at the Southern Book Fair
It is CHINDI's belief that independently published books are as valid and exciting as those produced the traditional way; the authors have the same expectation and levels of excellence in production values and gripping content.
CHINDI works with retailers, media and event organisers to promote our member's books, working in harmony with traditional agents and publishers.
The advice on offer comes from authors who have been there, done that. Answering many and varied questions, the likes of: Where do I find a good proofreader? How do I produce an e-book? What the heck is an ISBN? We share what worked and what didn't through our private Facebook page CHINUP.
Members support each other through social media campaigns. We attend events, hold our own panel discussions and library talks, we regularly run competitions and blog tours too promoting our books. CHINDI has supported charities including Dyslexia Action, Words for the Wounded and Cancer UK.
A very enthusiastic group of authors, we encourage members to actively support each other as much as possible, whether that be simply reading each other's books and manning book stalls or joining in our events.
At the Arundel Festival
New members are invited to join the CHINDI Facebook group, Chinup, where we share resources, such as self-publishing tips, seminars and blogs, anything to help with promotion. We follow each other on Twitter too and have a CHINDI account which is an easy way to share content.
We occasionally have meetings by zoom online conferencing!
The benefits of being a member are numerous but here is some information from our website:
Profile on CHINDI Author Website,
Have your books listed by genre in our Readers Section,
Join our CHINUP Facebook page for online discussions, sharing promotions and networking,
Eligibility to upload own videos/book trailers to Chindi Youtube Channel,
Inclusion in media PR programme,
Speaking opportunities at events,
Sales opportunity at events and market stalls etc.
Access to database of writing competitions,
Inclusion in CHINDI quarterly newsletters,
Shared knowledge and experiences of the group,
Free feedback on proposed cover designs and early drafts (this is not a full proofreading or editing service but might suggest you need these)
Chindi is set up as a not for profit Community Interest Company. Fees go towards hosting the website, booking rooms, funding promotional material etc. Find out about membership and events at https://www.chindi-authors.co.uk/
The HWS stand spent last weekend at the Winchester Writers' Festival. The festival, if you've ever been, is one exhilarating time. Friday night is spent debating discussions, before thrashing out the open mike. See Damon's blog spot of April 29 Ends – Bar the Shouting in the Terrace.
Back to back workshops run all day on the Saturday, stopping only for a short lunch. But one-to-one appointments booked with any one of up to thirty agents, editors, writers and publishers continue throughout – there is so much to think about. And it's all nourishment for a writer's mind, inspiration stimulating the imagination. Its bliss! The fresh faces that started the day are, by tea-time blushed with unspoken ideas, itching to get onto the page. That's all before socialising once again at the sumptuous evening dinner.
This year a well-deserved memorial to our beloved Barbara Large, the founder of, not only the Hampshire Writers' Society, but the Winchester Writers' Festival too, took place in the on-campus chapel at six o'clock. It was somewhat satisfying to discover what a foodie Barbara actually was. Long live the Luscious Lasagnes!
The Winchester Writers' festival can be credited with the creation of so many new friends and contacts. A writer's life need not be so lonely after all. Travel, trips abroad and holidays were one mainstay of the HWS stand, intriguing stories were another and of course, vampires! Oh, and writing
All in all, twenty-five new names have been added to the HWS lists. Welcome all! We so hope to meet you again in September. In the meantime – stay right here!
"Being a writer is wonderful – it gives us carte blanche to get away with everything." Simon Hall, seven times published novelist, former BBC News Correspondent of twenty years and tutor at the University of Cambridge, tells the gathered members and guests at Hampshire Writers' Society's Tuesday night meeting.
Simon loves to 'people watch'; often from a spot in the pub in his beloved Cambridge. It is characters that drive his writing. Adam Breen and Dan Groves, even Rutherford the dog, the characters that he created for his TV Detective novels work together, not only literally, but together they form a crucial 'relationship'.
Dan Groves, the TV reporter half of the duo appears to have everything. He also suffers with depression which he calls "the swamp". Simon tells us that he has received many emails from men suffering the same affliction, saying thank you for giving the illness this coverage; it is good to know that they are not the only ones, the character of Dan is one that they can relate to.
Story telling is innate in all of us, he says. There's no secret to writing a story, there may even be a formulaic way to do it and plenty of stories start at the end – reverse chronology. Simon once killed off a character; something for which he, his editor and publisher received much criticism – in reality, the character would have survived. But Simon argued the necessity that she be "killed off" – Dan, having had three successes, was in danger of succumbing to delusions of grandeur; he had to be taught a valuable life lesson.
So, here Simon imparts a piece of advice – "Let the story find you. Use your characters and your experiences."
Research is done on-the-job. Simon recognises that it is important and suggests a researcher try to get as close to the original source as possible, because there you'll often find an interesting fact to support your research. For his new book which is out in September this year (as yet it has no name – The Editor is a popular choice – although, Simon likes to have at least three words in the titles of his novels) he spent much time researching the city of Cambridge, which of course he greatly enjoyed.
"Writers are a species apart." he says. It is a relationship, which is possible why everyone has their favourite authors – they can be relied on the to give 'value for money'. As such, Simon follows four unbreakable rules which he calls the Four S's
1 He steers clear of science. Except for on the peripherals – a crime novel will always need a little of science.
2 He skips on what he calls "slop", we would understand slop as gore. The reason for this is that he feels he could not write anything worse than the reader can imagine. Most people will say that their favourite scene in Hitchcock's Psycho is the shower scene. "You don't actually see the murder." Simon points out. The mind bridges the gap, your imagination does the rest.
3 He avoids swearing, using it only to keep the dialogue real.
4 He doesn't do sex. His first attempt at writing a sex scene was laughed out of the draft by his editor.
"Humour is ubiquitous in our society". he says. Humour is what keeps us going, it forms a bond between us. It is therefore omnipresent in Simon's writing. "Everyone seems to think that the past is terrible and that the future is scary," he tells us. Horrible things do go on and, as a reporter for the BBC, he has seen some of the worst. But, he truly believes that the majority of people are good.
Report by Lisa Nightingale
Ends – Bar the Shouting in the Terrace
April 29, 2019 April 29, 2019 publcicitysecretaryLeave a comment
Author Damon L Wakes
The Winchester Writers' Festival sees visitors from all over the world drawn to its weekend of talks, workshops, and one-to-one meetings, and they pay a pretty penny to be there. But did you know that some portions of the Festival are open to the public 100% free?
Turn up on Friday 14th June, and you'll be able to enjoy the full range of evening events on offer, including an open mic where you'll have the chance to hear the work of local authors, as well as those from farther afield. And if you're feeling up to it, you can even share something of your own!
The open mic runs from 21:00 to 23:00 in the Terrace Bar Lounge, and is perhaps the best opportunity to meet like-minded writers at the Festival. After all, it's unlikely that anyone is going to spontaneously read out their work over lunch! It's also a particularly good chance to practice reading in front of an audience: an essential skill for book launches and other author events.
These free evening events are perfect for anyone already living nearby, offering a taste of the Festival's activities without any of the cost. If you'd like to read at the open mic, be sure to sign up as early as possible on the day as slots fill up fast. For those living in Winchester, it may be worth visiting the Stripe Building foyer to get your name down in the morning (and perhaps making use of the trip to look around the book fair while you're there) so that you're sure of a slot when you return. For those making a journey in, that likely wouldn't be practical but you can still get in ahead of everyone who signs up at the start of the open mic by putting your name on the sheet before the other evening events.
The Stripe Lecture Theatre
The other free offerings on Friday 14th are a panel on writing for children and young adults (in the Stripe Lecture Theatre) and a talk by three Salt authors celebrating the publisher's 20th anniversary (in the Stripe Auditorium). Both these events start at 19:45, so you'll have to pick your favourite!
If you find you enjoy the Winchester Writers' Festival open mic, you may also be interested in Poetry Platform, a similar event that runs on the first Tuesday of every month, 20:30 at The Railway Inn. Outside of Winchester, your other open mic options are Write Side of the Tracks (7pm on the third Tuesday of every month at Steam Town Brew Co in Eastleigh) and Write a Note (7pm on the last Thursday of every month at Caskaway, Southampton). These are typically billed as "poetry nights," but they're equally welcoming to prose writers and every bit as supportive as the Winchester Writers' Festival.
Post by Damon L. Wakes
https://damonwakes.wordpress.com/
Damon L. Wakes is the author of Ten Little Astronauts, Face of Glass, and over 200 works of flash fiction, which can be heard at events across the UK.
Going Incognito, a Tuesday Night Talk by novelist, TV Writer and Producer, Neil Arksey
Like all of us, Neil Arksey, novelist of mid-grade, YA and now dark adult crime, TV head writer, series producer and screenwriter, is in awe of Barbara Large's work in founding the Winchester Writers' Festival and the Hampshire Writers' Society.
A closet writer for years, Neil, the only Neil of his kind was successful in acting. But after falling asleep whilst leaning on a column at Shakespeare's Globe in the guise of Brutus, the fault of heavily overpowering pain killers he assures us, only to be awoken by a prod from Cassius, he decided a 'sitting job,' was needed. That was when Neil turned to writing.
Short stories were his choice to start with. One such story he sent to his nephew, Tom. On Tom's advice, Neil submitted it to Random House. Here, he gave us some advice not to take – borrowing a book from his niece's shelf, he copied the publisher's address onto an envelope, stuffed the ice-cream stained copy of the story in, along with a post-it note saying: "My nephew liked this, you might too," and sent it to Random House.
The problem was that Neil had unwittingly stereotyped himself. The view of his publisher was: "We own you and you are a brand." More stories like Brooksie, Neil's first novel, was what they wanted. MacB, Neil's third book which was a slight change was rejected.
At this point he was feeling a little vulnerable. Neil took the advice of a fellow author and sought out a writer's community. It was at an event held by Penguin, where he'd gone to hear one of his favourite authors, Melvin Burgess, speak, that he networked and found a home for MacB.
'How hard is it to be a writer?' Neil asked not just the present members and guests of the Hampshire Writers' Society, but of himself, when his novel writing still failed to pay the bills.
Taking on writing for TV, Neil became a head writer. After a while he found that his own personal writing had taken a back seat; this was not what he wanted for his career. Teaching came next. A smattering of hours gave him enough to live on and he got back to writing.
Reading tomes of adult crime and using their techniques, Neil produced his much-loved dark adult crime fiction. 'It took much longer than writing middle grade,' he admitted. It needed drastically reducing. So, he re-wrote it.
The publishers were less than supportive. After fifteen years as a children's author they were not keen to remarket him.
'Do I really want to throw it all away and start again?' he asked himself. Well, thank goodness the answer was yes.
Neil bandied about and re-hashed a pseudonym, finally settling on: James Brodie. Looking on it as active research for his students, he set about submitting his novel to agents. The role of head writer had given him some much welcomed experience of sitting 'on the other side of the desk' where he was used to receiving up to eighty unsolicited scripts a week. Tailoring his synopsis and covering letter to fit each of a list of thirty agents, he made a start in October last year and submitted to one a week.
'Irritate them,' he says, 'you've spent so much time working on your novel, if you get even a glimmer of interest, send your work again. Even if you don't, send it again – what've you got to lose?'
The response he got was the same lack-lustre response that many writers receive. It wasn't until he'd somewhat alarmingly reached number twenty-three that he received some genuine interest.
Determined to play the game, Neil then contacted all those agents who'd requested the full manuscript only to brush him off and told them about the interest he'd had. Suddenly they all wanted him. After a 'feeding frenzy' as he called it, he selected an agent.
'I think,' he said, 'We'll leave it there.' We wait with baited-breath for the next chapter.
Snegurochka to Winchester
Dr Judith Heneghan, Creative Writing Senior Lecturer, Programme Leader for the MA Writing for Children and award-winning children's writer, has returned to the beginning. Her first contemporary fiction for adults, Snegurochka, has been published.
Snegurochka, an English mother's experiences in newly independent Kiev, is to be published by Salt with a release date of 15 April. Another first for Judith was seeing it for sale on P&G Wells' stand in the foyer at April's Hampshire Writers' Society meeting:'A very special moment for any writer,' she says.
It was at the Winchester Writers' Festival that Judith met her editor and publisher. A writer needs to be part of a community, a convergence of like-minded writers, a portal into the world of publishing. Hampshire Writers' Society is one such community and The Winchester Writers' festival provides another.
Recently retired as Director of the Winchester Writers' Festival, Judith intends to concentrate on the activity of actually doing the writing.
Sara Gangai will very capably follow in her footsteps, but before she commenced her talk to us, Sara paid tribute to Barbara Large, founder of both the festival and the Hampshire Writers' Society. 'Barbara's voice, with its feisty nature and inability to say the word "no",' Sara said, 'is a constant in my head, reminding me to be considerate, kind and inclusive to all writers.' A memorial service for Barbara will be held in the University chapel on the Sparkford Road Campus on the Saturday of the Festival. 'Barbara's spirit will be "chuffed" to be there,' Sara laughed.
The Festival will be held on the weekend beginning 14th June. Enterprising writers will be given the chance to build up a network of writing friends and contacts; 'People come from all over the world,' Sara advised us.
Friday sees two panels running along-side each other on both floors of the Stripe.
Let your hair down afterwards at the open mike in the Terrace Lounge right next to the Terrace bar before the knuckle down of Saturday begins.
The day begins with the plenary speaker, award-winning children's author, Katherine Rundell. Tickets for this event alone can be purchased. The rest of the day is filled with a variety of workshops, tea, cake and an on-tap agony aunt! Seventy or so industry specialists will be in attendance and the opportunity of a fifteen-minute, one-to-one interview with one or two of them will prove invaluable.
Sunday forms a writing workshop, 'a chance to put into practise everything that you learned on the Saturday,' Sara tells us.
Tickets are selling fast. The community created by the Festival will be abuzz with writers. It really is a must just to be around so many friendly faces. Please do come along – it will be wonderful to meet you.
Edward Docx – How to Write a Novel in Forty-Five Minutes
March 26, 2019 March 13, 2019 publcicitysecretaryLeave a comment
"Remember," says Edward Docx, journalist, playwright, writer for film, TV and Radio and of course, novelist, in fact, you name it, he's written it, "you have a duty to the fiction."
See writing as a spell that you cast on yourself every day, even if it is for a short time, soon it will ensnare little snippets or excerpts of "gritty realism" from the daily life that surrounds you, you can then wantonly incorporate them into your writing.
Edward took off his "Anxiety Rucksack" and "left it by the door" advising us all to do the same. Take all those ridiculous anxieties, the likes of: am I as good as "Tolstoy"? No. Stuff them in the "Anxiety Rucksack", take it off, leave it by the door and then write. Writing is an anxious business and if we allow ourselves to be corrupted by such uncontrollable anxieties then we will not get that novel written, in 45 minutes or otherwise.
So, over the next 45 minutes we writers had honest conversations with ourselves about:
Point of View. What are the pros and cons to using 1st person, 3rd person (God) or 3rd person close?
"First person can be a prison," be mindful of your protagonist looking over the other characters' shoulders, reading their emails or eavesdropping on them. If you choose to play God, you must be aware of your peripheral character's ability to sustain interest. With third person close; "tone bleed" can break the spell and the reader realises, disconsolately that this is, after all just a story and the author is just telling it.
Plot and character. This brought Edward to the 1st optical stimulus of the evening – a simple graph with character and plot sitting at either end of the axis. "Understand where your novel sits on the graph," he tells us.
Some novels are narrow on character and wide on plot and others are vice-versa. A writer shouldn't be afraid to scrimp on one, say character, in order to expand on plot. The wrong mix and you may end up with a lumpy novel. Look for a mix that will reach your reader.
Design your cast. Very important, especially if you're writing for TV or film, Edward advises us; "Whenever you get stuck, just go back to "Shakespeare" because he knows what he's doing."
Here, Edward fell back on "Hamlet" for help. And he produced the second visual stimulus – a spidergram. Hamlet with his many emotional dimensions is the body, the supporting cast, even the grave digger sitting on each leg, pulling each different personality out.
Make your characters sufficiently different such that they pull the protagonist apart, thus creating drama. Without this, the character becomes flat, uninteresting.
Totally inhabit your characters even the uncomfortable ones. The skill is, to write characters that we are not happy with!
"Jane Austen's" writing did not only answer the obvious question, but the deeper one – can the protagonist not only choose her own man, but ultimately, her own destiny.
Consider the MDQ. The MDQ? Edward explains: the Major Dramatic Question, at least that is what they call it in Hollywood. There is no right or wrong way to approach the three-act structure of your novel, but one way that that seems to secure success is to insert the mdq early on in the first act. Ed himself, admits to trudging through an "impressive amount of turgic nonsense," to get to the answer.
"Try to write on the tide of your talent – when its coming out of you, commit to it," he says. "You can improve on bad writing – you cannot improve on none."
50 drafts is what Edward docx writes. 50! The first few are big adaptations, then there is the grammar, the repetitions, the walk through with each character, then the 'word' draft and so on. So, here he imparts the advice that he was given – "The only draft that matters is the last draft."
And always be courteous to your reader, your audience. A screenwriter is always asking, where are your audience now? Think of them as guests at a party. Will they want to stay and chat to you? Try not to confuse them.
Yes, Edward plans and plots, but not to such an extent as to curtail the creative process. If a character comes along that he wants to spend more time with, then he will do that. This may get cut in a later draft, but at the time, that hadn't been planned.
As for technical support, Ed cannot praise Final Draft enough. His sister cannot praise Scrivener enough – he just hasn't got to grips with it yet!
"Manage your time," he says, "you must have tense hygiene!"
Christine Hamill
'Time's running out,' was Christine Hamill's thought when she was twenty-five, 'better get that book written.'
In her mid-forties she was diagnosed as having breast cancer. Amid torrents of tears, she thought, 'time really is running out.' and "B is for Breast Cancer: From anxiety to recovery and everything in between – a beginner's guide", was written during treatment.
Christine wanted to convey the irony of many of the situations that arose from her diagnosis and treatment, filling the book with humour. Her retort to those who, horrified said, you can't do that was: 'Well, I'm the one with breast cancer.' Still, you'd have to be a raving lunatic not to take breast cancer seriously, she says. It is funny though, the way a fully clothed doctor will expect you, while semi-naked and having your breast handled, to hold an intelligent conversation.
"B is for Breast Cancer" is an A-Z of everything you might experience whilst being treated for breast cancer. D being for diagnosis, Christine read us a very comical excerpt. C is for crying, which she admits she did so much that a nurse told her "she was taking the cancer diagnosis badly." !!
Book two, "The Best Medicine" is not biographical, although it does mirror the situation that Christine and her ten-year old son found themselves in. From the point of view of the boy at the heart of the story, "The Best Medicine" tells how he feels that Mum is getting too much attention when he is dealing with such 'big' school issues as bullying and girlfriends – or lack of them! Christine read an excerpt where, Philip conducts a bare bottom poetry appreciation.
Each book took six months to write, but both took a while to get published. Originally "B is for Breast Cancer" was published on the internet which led to its being voted Ireland's book of the year. Christine then put it in a drawer.
The Best Medicine went the same way winning awards such as the Lollies and the Haringey Children's Book Prize. But it was turned down by so many publishers that the agent sent it back. Undeterred, Christine knew it had to be good and took it to a small, independent publisher who took it on. "The Best Medicine" has since been published in more than six countries including the US and Canada, won further awards and rave reviews from best selling authors and comedians.
Judy Waite Creative Curiosity
Judy Waite, award-winning writer of over fifty Children's and Young Adult fiction titles, began her talk to the Hampshire Writers' Society with a tribute to Barbara Large, who was our friend, founder, inspiration and a great ally within the publishing world.
It was at the Winchester Writers' Conference that Judy, a novice, found not only access to specialist workshops, but also the confidence to take Barbara's advice: "Keep writing."
It was a crazy time, Judy says, as she was working as well as writing. Time, she agrees, is one of the writer's great enemies. Once published, she enrolled on an MA in Creative Writing. A bit back to front; but she still felt unsure when talking about how to write.
Judy was not just here to talk to the Society though. She treated us, the gathered members and guests, to an interactive exercise, introducing an envelope, sheet of spare paper, pencil and candle for each of us.
"If you're trying to get a child to write a story," she told us, "don't get them to tell you it first – they'll think, job done!"
Encompassing a wide age range, Judy has written for four-year olds, "Mouse Look Out" , and fourteen-year olds, "Game Girls". She writes trade fiction, research and rigour books which are usually aimed at older boys. Educational books, like "Jamboree Storytime Level B: I wish I Had a Monster", are mostly for schools and are commissioned, but still publishers of these are always pleased to hear from authentic authors.
Judy also writes High Low books, like "The Street", a collection of short books aimed at older children who have difficulty reading – perhaps English is not their first language or they are dogged by dyslexia.
'Where do you get your ideas from?" is the most common question that Judy is asked. Ideas are all around us, she says, suggesting that we use the pen in front of us – imagine that pen full of optimism, wonder and energy to write ethical, positive works, in the wrong hands. Or the pencil on the desk – what is its one true desire; could it be, to be a crayon?
"So that's how your mind works," a student commented. That started Judy thinking that of course, all writers may indulge in creativity, but not in the same way. We write from the heart, she enthuses, not the head. It is neither easy nor natural to write with your head saying, I write like this, because this is what the publishers of my chosen genre require.
Judy's teaching was a resounding success, but at the time, she felt as though she was "standing on the top of a hill on a windy day, throwing her ideas into the air". This was when Wordtamer was born. Judy was commissioned to put all her ideas into a book.
Her teaching takes the form of: de familiarisation, character connection, free-writing (the Freudian method of helping shell-shocked soldiers to cope with what is going on in their heads), the silent zone and visualisation. These all were incorporated into the continuing interactive exercise.
The most interesting of Judy's methods is Active Research – she once had a character who spent some time in prison "…so I decided I'd better get arrested." she said. This, after having auditioned for a position in a boy band and visiting Cardboard City, London. Judy is not our only author who indulges in active research – remember Karen Hamilton's Characters on the Couch, Penny Ingham's archaeology?
"When I'm asked to write a story, my mind goes blank," one of her reluctant writers said. Five weeks later, that same child wanted to be a writer, because thanks to Judy Waite, he was no longer "blank in the mind."