January 2012

MEETING NOTES

JANUARY 8^TH 2012

Welcome

We welcomed a new member to the group; Hilary, who sat with us and listened to what we had written.

1. Attendees

Mildred	Barbara	Chris	Muriel
Jayne	Diane	Nigel	Maggie
Ed	Hilary	Cliff- Chaired	Joanne

2. Previous Prompt

The Prompt from last time was derived via Secret Santa. For this we each placed newspaper cuttings which we felt could be used to inspire someone to create a piece of writing. These were placed into an envelope that was sealed and placed into the centre of the table at our Christmas Party in December.

As always people did not have to use the prompt should they decide not to.

Name	Prompt Used?	Piece
Joanne	Yes. Christmas card from Social Landlord, published by The sun, 11 December 2011.	Article. ‘Social Housing’. This spoke of how the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and Welfare Reform Bill 2011 have shaped social housing and those tenants claiming benefits.
Mildred	n/a	Poem. ‘On going Blind’Inspired by Anthony Nauman’s book ‘Flame in the dark’. This is about seeing certain colours, not being able to see people’s responses, and the difficulties going blind can create.
Diane	Yes.	Script. ‘Untitled’. Described the scene whereby a wheelchair bound lady gets ready assisted by her sister and goes out for the evening. Her sister had arranged male companionship too, who arrived not long after, and who discovered that the sister was babysitting in that house.
Muriel	Yes. Missing man discharged from hospital early.	Article. ‘Missing man discharged from hospital early’. This explained the original article in detail. It also compared the living conditions of the dog in kennels to the man’s when he arrived home. Whereby he had no food in the cupboards, went out to get some, forgot his keys, and then went missing.
Nigel	Yes. Christmas Mass 1818, Austria.	Poem. ‘Holy silence’. At St. Nicholas Church a mouse put the organ out of use on Christmas Mass. To prevent silent singing the organ player created a guitar song called ‘Silent Night’.
Chris	No.	Non-fiction/true-life piece. An original and entertaining piece. This piece is not described as Chris may send it off to a competition.
Barbara	Yes. This is about the envelope that had a ‘Tick’ and a ‘Cross’ on it.	The tick and cross were analysed, examined, compared and their usages discussed. After much entertaining debate, of which Barbara had conducted much research in the library, it was convincingly decided the cross is more favourable than the tick.
Ed	No.	Poem. ‘The good, the bad and the truth’. Lots of work to do, some of it not done and then the two compared. Verse. ‘Barking mad’. A dog, who barks, makes a mess, hates the author who hates the dog, yet they are neighbours.
Jayne	No.	Acrostic Poem about books and each person reading them.
Cliff	No.	Story. ‘Christmas reunion’. Preparing the menue for a Christmas family banquet. Unfortunately due to ‘life’s adventures’ the banquet turns into a family meal for five people who honour their absent friends.

3. Events

● Stockport Library National Library Day. For this we are displaying some of our work on the theme libraries. Jayne needs to receive your submissions by 27 January 2012.We have a workshop on the 11 February. For further information see Jayne’s Newsletter.

● Cheadle Library is holding a ‘meet the authors…’ on Saturday 4 February. This is at 4.30-6pm. Booking essential by phone: (0161) 217 6009 or email: learners@stockport.gov.uk In the email subject line please write ‘Eyes on the prize’.

● World Book Night is on 23 April 2012. Unfortunately we missed the applications for this. People will be handing out fiction books to people; some are classics some new. For further information visit: http://www.worldbooknight.org/ We would like to know if we could do this exciting event as a group next year.

4. Free Writing

Pictures in the art gallery were used as inspiration for this free writing session. We could write about the picture, as if we were in the picture, or anything else about the picture.

Name	Type	Piece
Muriel	Article. Picture: Seaside scene with harbour.	‘Seaside scene with harbour’. River Mersey is our seaside scene in Stockport.
Nigel	Poem	‘Baring all’. People staring at him in the picture. Nigel cooking food for tea in the picture.
Chris	Article taken from a pencil drawing.	‘Sleeping twin bodies’. The portrait was peaceful, showing closeness and friendship. This reminded Chris of the shared cots in hospital for twins.
Barbara	Article inspired by the Lowry picture ‘abandoned’.	‘Abandoned’. The piece questioned why was the street abandoned? And why did Lowry consider it to be abandoned?
Ed	Poem. All of the pictures.	‘Pictures in an exhibition’. This piece described how the scenes are hung, what they contained and the images the pictures give.
Jayne	Poem. A house by the sea.	This spoke of the desire to have a house by the sea. How this desire if accomplished would create contentment. This contentment would result in time being forgotten due to the nice sea noises. However when the noises became a violent storm causing damage that the feeling of contentment would be spoiled.
Cliff	Story.	‘In a building in a picture’ describes how the building became a prison that he left as soon as he was old enough. Yet when older he returned to the building.
Joanne	Story. Collection.	‘Picture perfect’. Described the soft wood frame and how when inspecting the picture you would see Joanne. She is standing on the veranda of the cottage; taking photographs of you as you wander pass her. This is in addition to her photographing all life forms passing her each season.
Mildred	Poem. Inspired by Seascapes and the David Hockney exhibition in London: http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/hockney/	‘Seascapes’ explains their dynamism due to them containing water. This is seen in the seasons too except it isn’t quite as obvious in sunny countries as it is in the UK.
Diane	Article.	This portrayed the feelings of panic when one has lots of commissioned work to undertake yet the mind is blank.