December 2015 The National Association of Writers’ Groups

WRITING STAND-OUT STORIES by Eileen Herbert-Goodall As a writer, the number of contests I’ve entered far exceeds

my commendations. That’s par

for the course, because while I

really want recognition for my

work, I understand I’m

surrounded by a plethora of writers chasing exactly the same

thing. This makes it tough for

emerging writers to stand out in

the field; still, it’s entirely

possible. Below, I share a few tips that you might like to

consider when crafting your

next competition entry.

Attention to Detail and the

Importance of Editing There’s a reason why I’ve put

this point at the top of my

priority list: attention to detail is

critical. Your story might

possess intriguing characters

and a cracker of a storyline, but if it contains careless errors, it

simply won’t make the cut.

However, it’s important to note

that grammatical mistakes are

sometimes used as a literary

device (known as a solecism), which can contribute to a

narrative’s voice and/or create a

stylistic effect. Consider the

following example from Langston Hughes’ short story Thank You, Ma’am:

The woman said, “What did you

want to do it for?”

The boy said, “I didn’t aim to.”

She said, “You a lie!”

The “error” in the last line has

been made deliberately because

… Continued on page 2

Link Magazine

In this issue

Writing Stand-Out Stories

Editorial

NAWGFest 2016: Our Re-

branded Festival of Writing

Thora’s Thoughts

New Sponsors

Bardstown Writers

December

Tribute to Patron of NAWG

Poetic Forms

The Write Path 2015

Uneasy

A Talking Workshop with

Beryl Kingston

MacGuffin – A Digital Publishing Platform

What a Surprise!

The National Association of Writers’ Groups

2

WRITING STAND-OUT STORIES (Continued)

Hughes wants us to hear the

dialect of his female character;

he generates an effect that adds to the narrative. If you can hone

a similarly unique sense of

voice, all well and good – this

approach might lend your piece

a winning edge. Generally speaking, though, grammatical

blunders need to be expunged

from your work if you’re to

stand out from the pack. So do

yourself a favour and edit your

narrative thoroughly. To achieve an incisive edit, put your story

aside for a few days. Upon

returning to it, you’ll be more

objective and hopefully better

positioned to ‘kill your darlings’. This approach, famously

espoused by William Faulkner,

involves removing any

superfluous parts of a story,

despite how much you may have

fallen in love with them.

Engaging Characters

Compelling Characters are the

heart and soul of great fiction.

Flannery O’Connor reminded us of this when she said, “…you

don’t write a story because you

have an idea, but because you

have a believable character.”

The strong gravitational pull of

believable characters is due to the fact that they allow readers

to empathise with their

circumstances. It follows that

you needn’t depict a fearless

hero who can slay dragons in order to achieve powerful

characterisation. On the

contrary, it’s often the truly

vulnerable, flawed, all-too-

human characters who

successfully lure readers along. In one of my stories, The Boy,

which won the InkTears Flash

Fiction Competition for 2014,

the main character is recovering

from serious illness. He exhibits courage, sensitivity, and

patience, while longing to be free

from the confines of hospital.

The excerpt below demonstrates

my efforts to draw upon setting

(particularly the natural environment outside his

window), as well as the boy’s

perceptions, in order to instil his

character with depth and

believability:

The boy stared hard, then breathed out; it was still there –

a nest perched on a ledge of the building opposite, its frame of sticks and leaf litter jammed into a concrete corner. In the wind it shivered, threatening to fall down onto the street. The bird that lived there was an eagle; it had a wing span stretching nearly four feet across and feathers the colour of a gathering storm, all white and grey. Occasionally, he saw the bird looking his way, watching him

with black eyes that caught the sunlight. His imagination afforded them time alone together, and it was then that he'd let the bird perch on his forearm. They'd be out in fresh air, perhaps in a park filled with pine trees that swayed gently, whispering in the breeze.

The boy’s observations

concerning beauty and freedom are contrasted against his sense

of constraint, emphasising his

vulnerable state. My depiction of

the eagle’s nest is meant to

further complement the boy’s

fragility. If I hadn’t portrayed my character in this light, then

readers wouldn’t feel much

empathy towards him. This

brings me to an important point

– get readers caring about your characters and you’ll be on

track to creating an exemplary

piece of fiction.

Delivering Substantial Themes

One of the most exciting things about being a writer is that you

get to choose what themes shine

through in a story. This decision

will often be shaped by your

target audience, although it

never really works that way with

me. Instead, characters tend to

show me elements of theme as

they act out their situations, choices, behaviours, etc. In any

event, most outstanding stories

contain substantial themes that

resonate with a wide range of

readers. Let’s put it this way:

you can choose to write about the type of dress your

character’s going to wear to her

up-coming prom, or you can

depict her struggle to recognise

herself as beautiful in the said dress. The latter angle is

potentially compelling because

readers will care more about the

outcome, particularly in terms

of the girl’s emotional and

psychological evolution. By exploring an issue of substance,

you’re more likely to engage

your audience.

Carefully crafted themes are not often explicitly told; rather, they

tend to bleed through to a

story’s surface. Hemingway, who

was a master of under-

statement, explained this

literary effect as follows:

“If a writer of prose knows

enough of what he is writing

about he may omit things that

he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough,

will have a feeling of those

things as strongly as though the

writer had stated them.”

Hence, what’s known as Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory,

whereby most of what a reader

picks up in terms of theme is

understood to be submerged.

Achieving this effect is easier said than done. It takes practise

and a certain knack for

illuminating aspects of the

human condition in order to

successfully prompt readers to

make meaning via what remains unsaid within a narrative.

Comparable skills are on fine

display within Rachel Dunlop’s

… Continued on page 3

LINK Magazine December 2015

3

WRITING STAND-OUT STORIES (Continued)

piece, Lessons in Horticulture,

which won the Flash 500 First

Quarter Round for 2014. The thematic substance of her story

is captured from the outset, as

demonstrated by the following

extract:

Don’t plant things in the wrong place. For example:

Don’t plant a Japanese maple tree just outside the back door where you can see its heart-red, flame-red, blood-red leaves in the low autumn light, just because he said he loves maple trees. One day he’ll leave you, and you’ll grow to hate that tree in its heedless insistence on being beautiful.

If you take Dunlop’s words at face value, she seems to be

advising readers about where not to plant a maple tree. Of

course, the story’s subject

matter is far more sophisticated

than that. By warning about the

follies associated with planting a

tree in honour of someone you’re enamoured with, Dunlop

highlights the pain and

disappointment often

encountered in romantic

relationships. Furthermore, by

using the life cycle of a tree as a metaphor for the stages of

(unrequited) love, she taps into

universal themes that will

resonate with a broad audience.

The ability to weave universality

through narrative is an important skill to master,

because it allows readers to

connect with your fiction. As F.

Scott Fitzgerald once stated,

“That is part of the beauty of all

literature. You discover that your longings are universal

longings, that you're not lonely

and isolated from anyone. You

belong.”

There are many technical

components – such as point of

view, voice, setting, plot,

structure, purposeful dialogue,

and even formatting – that need to be well-tended if you’re to

succeed in the highly

competitive field of creative

writing. Nevertheless, I’d argue

that by paying attention to

detail, demonstrating effective characterisation, and developing

thematic substance, you’ll

undoubtedly edge closer to

writing a winning piece.

Eileen Herbert-Goodall holds a

Doctorate of Creative Arts, which she earned at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Along with a colleague, she runs the Field of Words writing and editing website. She has had many pieces of non-fiction and short fiction published, and is presently working on a collection of short stories.

EDITORIAL

A note from Danny

MacCullough:

Members might like to know

about CUT. It is a website that takes short stories in an e-book

format. Currently I have three stories on the site, The Girl On The Train, I Can't Tell A Plant

From A Weed and Nightmare. All

at the massive cost of 99p each!

To put a book on the site one

has to create a cover for the

book as well as a picture of the

subject. More details can be

found on the CUT website – http://www.cutalongstory.com/

A Plea From the Editor:

Please could I again ask that

when you submit material to

Link you format it as little as possible. Do not indent

paragraphs, do not use bold or

italic script or put titles entirely

in capitals. Use Times New

Roman 12-point, double-space

the text and separate

paragraphs with a double

return. (None of this applies to

poetry – I shall endeavour to

retain the poet’s chosen format as far as I can).

Work that is highly formatted

takes time to “undo”.

Unformatted material can more

quickly and easily be incorporated into the Link PDF

file which goes to the printers.

I’m afraid to say that highly

formatted work will be returned

to the author from now on with a (rather prickly) request to

abide by the notes above.

Caption Contest:

See the picture of yours truly

snapped at a meal in an Indian restaurant after the recent

NWUK Book Fair in Nottingham.

This is just a bit of fun – no

prizes, just some funny, witty

and non-insulting quips please.

Copy deadline for February Link is 3rd January.

Finally, I and the Committee

would like to wish everyone a

Merry Christmas and Happy

New Year.

Steve Bowkett

The National Association of Writers’ Groups

4

LINK Magazine December 2015

5

Scary isn’t it? We’ve only just

got over one festival and the next one is waiting in the wings.

But, the festivals are the very

core of our association. The

event which everything revolves

around, starting with the

competitions which are announced with the entry forms,

enclosed with this Link

Magazine.

As you will see, we have a new category, Comedy Writing, and

we are going to dedicate the

trophy to David Nobbs. Also, for

the writing by children we have

decided to include both Poetry

and Short Stories. This is a category that needs more

entries, so hunt around your

young relatives for a future

trophy winner. Also, we have changed the Story for Young Adults to Short Story for Teenagers, aged 14-16.

We have not yet settled the next

festival’s workshops, but I can assure you that we have some

very good names on our list. So

be patient, all will be revealed

early next year. One item that I

can reveal is that Gervase Phinn

will be speaking after the Gala Dinner. Those of you who

remember his last visit, as I do,

will be eagerly looking forward

to hearing him again – he was a

wonderful speaker.

There will be a slight rise in the

cost of the 2016 weekend but

there is still time for NAWG

members to pay a deposit of £20

before the end of the year, to receive a further £20 discount,

when they book for a full

weekend. This will give you £40

towards your final costs.

Also, do you remember the letter

from Daniel Beaumont, in the

October Link? How many of you

have, taken up his suggestion and started a savings scheme to

ease the cost of the festival? I

thought that was a brilliant

idea.

We are going to introduce a Festival Voucher. You may buy

vouchers in multiples of £20.

You will be given a unique

number, to track your payments, which you can cash

in when you finally book. Why

not ask for one for your

birthday? Full details will be in

the February Link.

But, most importantly, put the

date in your diary:

* 2nd – 4th September 2016 *

It will be, as always, an event not to be missed.

NAWGFest 2016: OUR RE-BRANDED FESTIVAL OF WRITING Jottings from Pam Fish

NAWG Contact Information Our email addresses: CHAIRMAN: chairman@nawg.co.uk SECRETARY: secretary@nawg.co.uk

MEMBERSHIP: membership@nawg.co.uk TREASURER: treasurer@nawg.co.uk

WEB ADMINISTRATOR: web-admin@nawg.co.uk FESTIVAL BOOKINGS: booking-festival@nawg.co.uk

PUBLICATIONS OFFICER: publications@nawg.co.uk LINK EDITOR: editor@nawg.co.uk for submissions to Link or newsletter, and if you are interested in our Critiquing Service

100 COMPETITION: comp-100@nawg.co.uk OPEN COMPETITION: comp-open@nawg.co.uk

PAM’S PEOPLE COMPETITION: comp-pamspeople@nawg.co.uk

Postal address for all NAWG correspondence (unless otherwise stated):

NAWG, c/o 65 Riverside Mead, Peterborough, PE2 8JN. Mail for the Link Editor should be marked as such; other mail will be distributed to other Committee members as required.

Note: If you require a reply to a submission by post, please include an SAE. If you would like an acknowledgement of receipt of an email, please check the “Request Read Receipt” tab in the Tools menu.

Please contact our advertising agent, Wendy Kearns, for full details of advertising rates in Link Magazine and for advertising/sponsorship opportunities for the NAWG annual conference. Tel: 01392 466099. Email: advertising@nawg.co.uk.

DON’T FORGET TO VISIT THE NAWG WEBSITE REGULARLY: www.nawg.co.uk

The National Association of Writers’ Groups

6

THORA’S THOUGHTS

Dear Steve,

Enjoyed reading the August edition and the opening article, Writing Wrongs by Brad Ashton,

was fascinating and brought

back so many memories of the

TV shows which we used to watch. I remember going to see

Gervase Phinn some time ago

and one of his opening comments

was that at a previous show a

fellow got up and walked out as

soon as Gervase appeared. Why? He thought he would see Rickie

Gervais. But it all goes to show

how these artists can ad lib when

needs be.

Once again Danny MacCullough and his School Sports Day One-liners made me laugh. Keep ‘em

coming Barry!

The Locked Drawer by Dick

Sawdon-Smith was excellent, as was Teresa Moody’s The Auction Room. I agree with Pam Fish

about going to the Festival to

meet old friends and new, always

a pleasure.

Reading through the 2015 NAWG

Competition results, I notice

Hexham Writers have 7

mentions. Well done, Hexham!

Burton Writers have 5, Llanelli 2,

and our Friday Writers 1 viz., Olive Holland with her Villanelle

is amongst the final four. She is

going to the Festival with her

daughter, so I hope she is

successful I would have loved to accompany her, but at 97 ‘The

spirit is willing but the flesh is

weak.’

What a lovely idea having

scones, strawberries and cream for when Lady Emma and Lord

Fellowes come to the tea

reception. I believe Devon and

Cornwall have different ideas as

to which way strawberries and

cream are placed on the scones…

Well done, Team!

It was interesting to hear Olive

Holland’s report of attending,

with her daughter, the Saturday evening at Warwick University.

She was very impressed with

accommodation, meals and the

Spark events (restricted to 4mins.

Good idea!). She forgot to bring

her certificate for being in the final four for the Villanelle, but

we hope she will show it to us at

a future Friday Writers’ morning.

Thora Beddard

NEW SPONSORS by Pam Fish

CMP (UK) Limited are NAWG’s new sponsors.

A quick note in the October Link Magazine told of how, because of

the demise of Berforts, we had

lost them as our sponsors. Those

of you that have had any

business with them must

remember Dale, who has attended most of our festivals,

and was our main contact with

the print firm. Bob was the

“helpful man” in the printing side

of things who hurried our printing, particularly the printing

of Link, through the factory.

I recently received this press release from Dale:

Dale Burgess and Bob Cleverly (pictured) have moved. Following Berforts falling into administration and subsequently making Dale Burgess and Bob Cleverly redundant, we have both been fortunate enough to get snapped up by CMP (UK) Ltd.

Having opened a sales office in Luton, to complement our book production facility in sunny Poole, in Dorset, we wanted to make you aware of our new company and facility.

We hope that we can be of service to you with any book printing enquiries you may have, and would be delighted to hear from you: dale@cmp-uk.com (01582 635556) bob@cmp-uk.com (01582 635565) 690 Capability Green, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 3PE.

CMP have offered to take over

the same sponsorship that we

had before, and I in turn would

like to recommend them for any

print jobs that you may require. CMP have recently printed The Write Path 2015, in record time,

and as anyone who already has

a copy will tell you, it is an

excellently printed book. A

credit to them.

100 WORD

MINI-TALE COMPETITION

Don’t forget – if you feel a one-hundred word mini-tale coming on, you don’t have to wait until next year’s festival. Write it down now and email it to: comp-100@nawg.co.uk for the chance to win £75. Only £3 to enter. Full details online: http://www.nawg.co.uk/3805/ We are only 12 entries short of 100 for our second round, this time judged by Dave Simson. So who is going to get the £75? It won’t be you unless you enter!

LINK Magazine December 2015

7

BARDSTOWN WRITERS

Bardstown Writers’ recently

released second anthology has a

distinctly spooky theme. Called Chilled to the Bone, it is a book

of creepy stories and poems and

was launched at Waterstones

bookshop in Stratford-upon-

Avon just in time for Halloween.

Some of the anthology’s seventeen contributors were on

hand to read tantalising extracts

from the book and all copies

were sold out within an hour.

The cover was designed by Grace Kemp, a winner of a

competition organised by

Stratford-upon-Avon College.

Bardstown Writers have been

meeting for almost five years. The group was formed to lend

support and encouragement to

writers who are working towards

publication. Some of the

members already have their

books published, some write

articles and others pen fiction of

all genres. It’s an eclectic group

but one that is enthusiastic and hard working. Their book

showcases the many talents of

the writers.

Chilled to the Bone is on sale in

Waterstones, Stratford-upon-

Avon from 30th October and

available to order via the

Bardstown Writers’ group

website.

For further information about

the book and the writers’ group

visit:

www.bardstownwriters.btck.co.uk

DECEMBER Variation for letter ‘e’

by Marta Cash

Wailing, December rummaging through the reeds:

A deserted deer haunting among the rivulets and herons

are sticking voiceless against the rusty weeds.

Wailing December rummaging through the reeds

with dried elven fingers chasing memories of the beams

those like belemnites crouching beneath the seeds of melons,

Wailing December rummaging through the reeds:

A deserted deer haunting near the rivulets and herons.

The National Association of Writers’ Groups

8

Lord Denis Healey, Baron Healey of Riddlesden in the County of West Yorkshire, CH, MBE, PC, FRSL.

Patron of the National Association of Writers’ Groups. 30th August 1917 to 3rd October

2015.

The son of an aspirational

engineer who became the head of a technical college in

Keighley, West Yorkshire, Denis

was educated at Bradford

Grammar School. He won a

scholarship to read Greats at

Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned a double first.

His service in the Royal

Engineers was honoured by an

MBE in 1945.

Denis was still in uniform when

he gave a left wing speech to the

Labour Party Conference in 1945.

A telling quote was, “I was determined to do my best to

stop a Third World War.” This, I

feel, must have been a reason

for his decision to pursue a

career in politics rather than academia.

The focus of his life was service and he was a Member of

Parliament for 40 years,

supporting moderate policies of

the Labour Party.

He served as Deputy Leader,

Shadow Foreign Secretary and

Shadow Chancellor of the

Exchequer before becoming

Chancellor in Harold Wilson’s Government and then Secretary

of State for Defence. He was the

Member of Parliament for Leeds

until 1995.

Baron Radice, also a patron of NAWG, said, “He had the

qualities and experience to be a

great PM (but) he was a bit of a

loner, which probably explains why he didn’t get the

leadership.”

Tim Healey felt that his father

was happiest as a problem solver, heading a department.

Lord Neil Kinnock, former

Labour leader said, “Denis had

high intellect, great personal

charm and a sense of humour that was rumbustious and,

when needed, lethal.”

Edna May Edmunds, daughter of a crane driver, became his

wife in 1945 and they were

almost inseparable until she

died in 2010. They had three

children, Jenny, a retired teacher, Tim, a writer and

broadcaster, and Cressida, a

therapist.

Denis retained a keen interest in the arts, particularly in Opera.

He was an amateur

photographer and painted fine

watercolours ... I found an interesting website on his work.

He played piano and he wrote,

as did Edna who was a Booker

Prize Judge. A quote from Denis

Kaufman that gives a feel for the

backdrop to Healey’s life is that he stressed the need for

politicians to have a “hinterland”

of interests outside politics. He

certainly had that.

His sense of fun and clever wit

was legendary.

The Healeys’ support for the arts

included NAWG for which we are grateful.

It has been a privilege to have

him as a Patron and our

thoughts are with his family.

POETIC FORMS by Daisy Watkin

Down the ages poetry has mostly been written in some sort

of recognised form or metre, of

which there are many. NAWG’s

Formal Poem Competition is

always popular so that a column

on the various poetic forms should be interesting. Each

topic is a large subject so that in

a column we can only scratch

the surface.

First, I’ll look at a continuing

source of controversy that never

seems to die away, that of

rhyme. Many people still think

that poetry is something that

rhymes. It is not, poetry is a quality of the words. Rhyme is

one of the tools a poet can use

in creating it. There are a great

many poetic tools, as many as

the paints and the brushes of an artist.

Irish poets were early users of

rhyme and they may have taken

it to Europe by Medieval

missionary monks, after Iona was founded in 563AD.

The earliest existing rhyming

English poem (the English

language began around 600AD) is The Riming Poem. It is written

in Old English (Anglo Saxon)

and is from the mid C10th

Exeter manuscript. This is the

only profusely rhyming poem in

Old English and it retains alliteration and the caesura,

which were an essential part

… Continued on page 9

TRIBUTE TO PATRON OF NAWG By Anne Steward

LINK Magazine December 2015

9

THE WRITE PATH 2015 The Write Path 2015 is now

available. All pre-orders have

been posted. If you ordered one

at the festival and have not yet received it please email me,

pamfish@ntlworld.com , as I was

the one who posted them out.

Further copies may now be

obtained from our publications

administrator, Elizabeth Guyver. An email with your name,

address and telephone number

to publications@nawg.co.uk

should do the trick to reserve a

copy for £6.00, post free.

There are now three ways that

you can make your order.

1. Send a cheque made payable to NAWG to Elizabeth at 195

Westmount Road, Eltham Park, London, SE9 1XY.

Include your full postal

address and an email

address, if possible.

2. Order online and use PayPal

to make the payment.

3. Order by email and send a

BAC payment, payable to

NAWG, to: NatWest,

Washington Town Centre Branch, NE38 7SG; sort code

60-22-52; account no.

80275877. Please use the

reference: Anthology (your

name).

Please let pamfish@ntlworld.com

know when the transaction has

been made.

POETIC FORMS (Continued)

of Old English poetry (a caesura

is a pause). A line from the

poem reads, “Lisse lengdon lustum glengdon” (1).

Rhyme really began in the

C11th as complex rhyming lines

in monastic Leonine Latin verse (Leonius was a monk), where it

also occurred inside the line,

“Recta remuneret, anxia liberet,

aethera donet” (2). Rhyme acted

here in a similar way to the

caesura of Old English verse, “Nu scylan hergan hefenricaes

uard” (3). Around this period

Latin hymns began to rhyme,

probably for musical and

mnemonic reasons. Because it was about the same time, rhyme

is said to have come to England

with the Norman Conquest.

It was Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-

1400) who popularised English rhyme. His poetry was inspired

by Italian poetry which he

studied when he was an

ambassador in Italy. The Italian

language lends itself well to rhyming. Italian poets, like

Petrarch a contemporary of

Chaucer, wrote in rhyming verse

using the Italian vernacular

language rather than Latin. On

his return, Chaucer wrote rhyming verse in vernacular

English.

Rhyme is not essential to

English poetry as Milton convincingly showed.

Of Man’s First Disobedience,

and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste

Brought Death into the World, and all our woe.

(Paradise Lost)

Yet rhyme can be a great

addition to poetry as

Shakespeare demonstrated.

Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes:

Nothing about him that doth fade,

but doth suffer a sea change

Into something rich and strange.

(The Tempest)

These are two of the greatest

English language poets. Rhyme

shouldn’t dominate poetry as in,

“The cat sat on the mat”, but be a subtle embellishment:

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

(18th Sonnet, Shakespeare)

(1) “Your generosity will always

stay brilliant servants.”

(The Riming Poem)

(2) “Reward the right, set the

worried free and grant

eternal life.”

(Bernard of Cluny)

(3) “Now sky praise heaven’s

keeper.”

(Caedmon’s hymn)

UNEASY

by Ed Blundell He swung the axe straight at my head,

"That's it." I thought, "I'm surely dead."

I watched the razor edge sweep near,

Convulsed with terror, sweating fear.

Closer and closer yet it came,

Held by the terror with no name,

Doomed to die by the axe's stroke,

It was a dream and I awoke.

I know, I know this poem smacks

Of bathos and a trite climax.

When writing please remember friend,

A dream's a wimpish way to end.

The National Association of Writers’ Groups

10

Beryl Kingston’s first novel was

published in 1985 and became a

best-seller. She’s followed it with

many more: family sagas,

romances, and historical novels

with various settings. She also

has the knack, it seems, of

entering a room like a

freshening breeze. Never mind

that there were only three

occupied chairs at our library

meeting, Beryl was clearly not

downhearted.

Right then, she asked us, what

sort of character would we like

to build? A villain? Certainly!

Personally, I like to build

upwards, after deciding what a

character might wear in the way

of shoes. Most of all, I like to fix

a name ... my fingers searched

anxiously for that pen and

notebook all writers are

supposed to keep handy. But no

names yet, and no notebooks

either, Beryl told us cheerfully.

Because we’re not going to write,

we’re going to talk.

Which is what we did, non-stop,

for the rest of the workshop.

Truthfully, I’m not certain where

the words came from. With

Beryl’s guidance, they simply

bounced into being. At first

between two, then among the

three and the four of us until, as

the words brought more and

more ideas with them, then took

off and ricocheted around the

walls. Bit by bit they grew our

character.

We decided from the first our

villain would be female. We

discovered where she came from

and (bankers being popular

villains of the moment) how she

became part of the financial

world. Then it was time to get

down to detail.

What does she look like?: tall,

not pretty but striking. Smooth,

olive complexion. A cool gaze not

easily forgotten. A chipped front

tooth, damaged in a childhood

scrap.

What are her family

connections?: From a poor,

honest, but sadly restrictive

background. She’d once had a

devoted, but working-class,

lover and lost him as her

ambition kicked in. Now has

very few friends, but some stay

close – even when she’s less

than scrupulous about keeping

to the rules.

What qualifications does she

have and how did she get them?:

Clever, determined and confident

– glass ceiling ... what glass

ceiling? She’s hardworking and

contemptuous of any attempts to

keep her in her place.

What is she like?: Unsenti-

mental, perhaps aloof, but also

far too clever to appear

completely unfeeling. She has

also long offered secret support

to an animal rescue centre.

(Some uncharacteristically

softer feeling leaking in from the

past?)

Suddenly, she comes into focus.

Long, honey-blonde hair, and

wearing ... let’s see, an

understated, softly self-

patterned silk blouse, perhaps?

Teamed with black patent-

leather shoes and palazzo

pants? (I’ve only half an idea

what this last item of clothing

actually looks like, but they

sound slinky!) She’s wearing a

pickerel smile and passes by in

a waft of expensive perfume. By

this point my character lives, so

no matter what image others are

imagining, I’m pretty sure I’ve

met her ...

Also she has the possibility of a

name. Melissa ...? I really like

Melissa. Villains should have

charm (of course, or how will

they ever soften up their

supporters at the start of their

infamous careers?). But is Mel

just too sweet? Well then, what

about Deborah, meaning a bee?

Sweetness, with a sting. Perfect.

A villain almost ready to appear

in a tall tale near you in the

future. Great workshop.

Thank you, Beryl Kingston!

http://www.berylkingston.co.uk/ https://berylkingstonblog. wordpress.com/

A TALKING WORKSHOP WITH BERYL KINGSTON by Penelope Alexander, Associate Member

A MESSAGE ABOUT LINK

from Wendy Fleckney

Some contributors to Link may wonder

why their piece doesn’t appear in the

magazine for some time. On behalf of

Steve, the magazine’s editor, and

myself, who puts it together, I would

like to explain.

Every two months, Steve sends me

everything he has received for

inclusion in Link and, necessarily,

some items have to be prioritised –

editorial, membership business,

competition news, etc.

I then turn to everything else, and it

is for no other reason than available

space that I have to choose what

goes in; all submissions that get past

Steve have earned a place, but

sometimes they just don’t fit! Be

patient – your piece will appear …

eventually.

One tip: shorter pieces of writing are

easier to place.

I’ll also use this message to call for

more fillers. I’m sorry they’re not

always attributed, but they are very

useful – please keep them coming!

LINK Magazine December 2015

11

Independent publisher Comma

Press have built a digital platform for short stories, poetry

and essays in text and audio form. It’s called MacGuffin, and

anyone can publish work on it,

so long as they upload a reading

along with their text.

It hosts samples of fiction and

poetry by established Comma

writers (including David Constantine, Jane Rogers, Gaia

Homes, Joolz Denby, Adam

Marek and Hassan Blasim),

along with work by authors

published by Carcanet, Valley

Press, Peepal Tree and Bloodaxe, amongst others.

There’s also lots of content that

independent authors from

around the world have uploaded

themselves.

MacGuffin is available as a

website and apps for iPhone and

Android. It’s built to be really searchable – the tagging system

means you can easily find

content according to theme or

genre, or even by length (it’s

perfect for commuters looking for something to fill their

journey). It’s also got some really

handy analytics, showing where

content is being read or listened

to, and even the key drop-out

points where readers quit before the end – which can provide

authors with useful insights for

self-editing.

MacGuffin is free to use for

readers and writers. As such,

it’s not really the place to publish a full length work like a

novel, but it is a great place for

a sample story, poem or essay

(Comma don’t ask for exclusivity

– it can be published elsewhere, in print or online), which you

can link to a point-of-sale for

your book, or to your website.

Spoken word groups have

started using it to showcase the work of their authors, uploading

recordings of live performances

(search #badlanguagemcr in

MacGuffin for a good example).

Other authors record themselves at home, using a

smartphone.

You need to create an account

to use MacGuffin, but it’s quick

to do and hassle free. The website’s at www.macguffin.io.

You can find the apps for iPhone

and Android by going to the

respective App Stores and

searching “MacGuffin Stories”.

MacGuffin is a non-profit project

supported by the Digital R&D

Fund for the Arts. Writers

publishing work on MacGuffin

retain copyright, and can unpublish at any time.

http://macguffin.io/

http://macguffin.io/

+44(0)7891 582529

macguffin.io

@TheMacGuffin

The MacGuffin Blog

MacGuffin is a digital R&D

collaboration between Comma

Press (lead partner),

fffunction.co and The

Manchester Metropolitan

University. MacGuffin is supported by the Digital R&D

Fund for the Arts.

Comma Press is a Company

Limited By Guarantee (run on a

not-for-profit basis), Company Number 6390368.

WHAT A SURPRISE!

I recently went to the London

Olympia show for over fifty-plus

and I opened the magazine and

discovered that I’d won the true

story writing competition. I had

a double-page spread in the magazine and I claimed my prize

money from Dr Robert

McCaffrey, so we had a good

day. It was interesting watching

people read my story whilst they waited for other events to begin

– sort of a captive market.

Now, I’ve just heard that I’m in

the final five for evearroyo.com

international competition, so if you would like to vote for the

best story that would be

appreciated. I wrote story B.

Pamela Strange Indie author/publisher

Pen name: Isabella Rose

MacGUFFIN – A DIGITAL PUBLISHING PLATFORM from Jim Hinks, Digital Editor

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

T S Eliot The one steam of poetry that is continually flowing is slang.

G K Chesterton

The National Association of Writers’ Groups

12