Chapter 9: News

KATHERINE BEAUMONT'S BOOK 'BLISS, THE HUMAN CONDITION' PUBLISHED

New member Katherine Beaumont has co-written with Dr Sujit Chandratreya a book called Bliss, the Human Condition (2011), which came out in November in India. It is a biography of Chandratreya's journey from facts and figures man to reaching an understanding of the true purpose of life, under the tutelage of a master guru Chaitanya. The book also contains a 7-step technique for the layman (developed by Chaitanya) on 'how to' attain eternal happiness for themselves. Katherine has also had poems published by New Voices Press (Federation of Writers (Scotland)) in their anthologies The Second Tide (2010) and Tracks in the Sand (2011). [1st February 2012]

GREG FREEMAN RANKED 19TH BEST SMALL PRESS POET

Greg Freeman has had four poems published in three magazines: South, The Interpreter's House, and Purple Patch. He was also ranked 19th equal (with five others) by Purple Patch magazine in their list of 2011's Best Small Press Poets. [21st November 2011]

DIANA SMITH BEGINS ON-LINE SERIALISATION OF NOVEL

Member Diana Smith is writing a novel entitled Thirteen Months which she has taken the bold step of serialising on her blog, writing and publishing one chapter each month. 'September' has been published; 'October' will appear on 1st November. In this way, current events that impinge upon the story can be reflected almost as they happen. Click here to find it, then go and read it! [27th October 2011]

LESLEY SPENCER TO BE PUBLISHED IN 'YOURS' MAGAZINE

Member Lesley Spencer has sold a short story, Blind Date, to Yours magazine to be published in its 4th October issue. [21st September 2011]

THE QUIETLY PROLIFIC ALAN DALE

Member Alan Dale has sold two articles to Best of British magazine. Hellfire and Heliographs appeared in Feb this year, followed by Blueprint for Survival in June. He also had a feature published in the September edition of Professional Engineering. His work has appeared on-line on Suite 101 and Hackwriters (click to read them) and he has had numerous fillers and letters published in Readers Digest and elsewhere. [21st September 2011]

DAVE BIRCH: ELECTRONIC MONEY EXPERT

Electronic money expert and WWC member Dave Birch had an article on 'Bitcoins', an electronic money system, published by Prospect magazine issue 185 in July. Click this link for the article on the Prospect website. [20th September 2011]

KEITH JAHANS RELEASES SHORT STORY COLLECTION

Member Keith Jahans has published a collection of short stories, Crime and Passion, following his two novels. It is available in PDF, EPUB and MOBI (Kindle) formats through Keith's website, Peatmore Press. Click this link for more information. [20th September 2011]

MEMBER DIANA SMITH 'HIGHLY COMMENDED' IN NAWG ANNUAL WRITING COMPETITION

Congratulations to Woking Writers Circle member Diana Smith, writing as Diana Reed, whose poem Football on the Moon was Highly Commended in the Poem for Children Category in the National Association of Writers' Groups (NAWG) 2011 writing competition. The Circle is a member of NAWG and this entitles its own members to free entry of NAWG competitions. [29th July 2011]

MEMBER KEITH JAHANS PRESENTS AT WINCHESTER 3rd JULY 2011

Woking Writers Circle member Keith Jahans will present a workshop session on self-publishing at the prestigious Winchester Writers Conference on Sunday 3rd July 2011, 10:00-12:30. Keith will be explaining the "Nuts and Bolts of Self-Publishing" as part 2 of an overall workshop called "Self Publishing Explained". Click this link.

Anyone can publish, but do you want your work to be as good as that produced by the large publishing houses? Is it important that it sells? Modern digital technology makes it possible for writers to produce books of high quality as hardback, paperback, ebook, audiobook, podcast or online. This workshop looks at how you can get your manuscript ready for these formats if you wish to publish it yourself and the various POD (Publish On Demand) companies which can help you. We will look at marketing, costs, opportunities and pitfalls of self-publishing. Delegates are encouraged to bring samples of their work and share their experiences of the publishing world.

THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE AUGUST 2009 EDITION OF WRITERS NEWS

You might think that living in the Surrey commuter town of Woking would not be particularly inspiring for the creative processes. All those grey office blocks ... but members of Woking Writers Circle could not possibly agree with you.

For a start, Woking was the setting for possibly the world's most famous sci-fi story, The War of the Worlds, by HG Wells. So it's no surprise that a number of the group's members - some pictured here around the Martian sculpture in the town - are keen on science fiction and fantasy, and have had stories on the subject published.

But don't go away with the idea that extra-terrestrials are their only passion. There is also a strong strain of poetry - both stand-up (performance) and sitting down - running through the group's healthy membership, as well as a penchant for brisk, humourous short stories.

Members themselves include a former BBC radio producer, several English teachers, a criminologist, an actor, a technology journalist, a newspaper sub-editor, a microbiologist, and an animator. There have been a number of successes in local poetry competitions, and other poems have been published in magazines and read on BBC Radio 4. One member, Diana Reed, ascribed the publication of her narrative poem in the Welsh poetry magazine Roundyhouse to a group homework topic. Another member, Keith Jahans, has recently launched a paperback edition of his novel Cogrill's Mill. This year group members have found a new outlet, with a productive link-up with the local hospital Radio Wey. We await news of the improved recovery rates of patients after listening in to the group's work!

The Woking Writers Circle prides itself on its sociability as part of its support and encouragement of each other's writing. There is a monthly meeting on a Thursday evening to hear and discuss work, another breakfast meeting once a month in a local café to talk about everything under the sun, as writers like to do, plus regular all-day or lunchtime writing workshops. There are also occasional barbecues and the odd murder mystery evening! The group always welcomes new members, although it has had to introduce strict time limits on reading at its meetings to allow the voices of all members who want to read to be heard. You can find out more about the circle and view some examples of members' work on its website at www.wokingwriterscircle.org.uk, which was launched just over two years ago.

The group was very sad to lose one of its key members, Richard Mann, who died earlier this year. Richard, whose particular literary passion was ancient Greek myth and philosophy and who published novels on the subject, took great pleasure in the expansion of the circle in recent years. He is still very much in all our hearts.

COGRILL'S MILL

Woking Writers Circle member Keith Jahans launched a paperback edition of his novel Cogrill's Mill on 1st April 2009. It is available at local bookshops including Corbett's in West Byfleet and Corfe Books in Addlestone. It can also be ordered from any bookshop and direct from Peatmore press at peatmore.com . Keith, a microbiologist who retired from his work at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency at New Haw last year, first published in 2005 Cogrill's Mill under his pen name of Jack Lindsey as an e-book. He said: "This was received positively and gained some good reviews. Buoyed by these and recognising that the electronic publishing format was still in its infancy I chose to embark on this paperback edition." Published by his own imprint, Peatmore Press, Cogrill's Mill is described as a humorous tale of treachery and intrigue, featuring romance and murder, beautiful women, scheming villains, a dog that inherits a fortune and a cat that does not exist. Through his experiences with Cogrill's Mill Keith has gained a lot of know-how in self-publishing and has plenty of tips for others thinking of doing the same. "I am always willing to share my experiences and offer advice with anyone wishing to follow the same route. You can email Keith at keithjahans@peatmore.com

PODIUM 2008

Woking Writers Circle launched Podium, its 2008 anthology of members' work, with a public reading at the Woking's Lightbox museum and gallery on March 2. It was fitting that it was also Mothers Day, as Podium had taken its team of editors about nine months to produce. The event itself was masterminded by our chairman Liz Lennie, coordinated by Diana Smith, and compered by Dermot Hoare. Many members read from their work that is published in the anthology. Those who read included the above, plus Liz Ramsdale, Ian Hearnden, Amanda Briggs, Elle Georgiou, Greg Freeman, Richard Mann, and Martha Amos, whose performance poem, I'm In Love With An Engineer, won the Slam poetry prize at the Guildford Book Festival in 2007.

WOKING AND WEST BYFLEET POETRY COMPETITION 2008

Woking Writers Circle members Sharyn Owen and Derrick Sheehan came first and second in the adult section of this competition with their poems Waiting For Spring and Too Many. The competition was organised by Maureen Osborne, and judged by Maureen and local author and songwriter Jonathan Steffen. The awards were presented at a packed West Byfleet library on Sunday November 2. All the prize winners were briefly interviewed by the judges, who provided comments on the work of those who were highly commended as well. Greg Freeman of the Writers Circle was highly commended for his poem, The Refugees. It was a heart-warming occasion with a real community feel, and hopefully Maureen will organise another next year. Click here to read the poem by Sharyn and here to read the poem by Derrick.