Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.
Present: Adele, Harry, Ian, Jan, Laura, Magda, Michele.
Apologies: Gill, Jenny, John, Jonathan, Kaz, Pip, Suzanne.
Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.
Matters Arising
Adele has received feedback from Antony Bellekom on the last meeting, at which we hosted Dogwood Theatre Productions for a play reading of their work in-progress: Honestly. They found our feedback extremely useful.
Members’ Readings
Harry — continued reading his 1960s seafaring memoir, Sea Wife, handing out copies to read along. This extract entitled Meanwhile… is a time-capsule of the 1960’s, featuring the Cold War background of the narrative.
Laura — reading from her diary, described her encounter with the literature surrounding the Turin Shroud, a venerated object claimed to be the burial shroud of Jesus. She outlined the chief evidence for its authenticity (radiocarbon dating; pollen studies), and opined that the people who accepted its authenticity had religious motives. She then opened the question to the group, which provoked a lively discussion ranging wider than the topic in-hand.
Magda asked whether the alleged forgers had strong financial reasons. Ian confirmed the Shroud’s murky history, plus the preponderance of questionable relics in the 13th and 14th centuries. Meanwhile the Catholic Church sits on the fence.
Michele — read a further instalment of her novel in-progress: The Undesirables, set in Southern Africa during the Boer War of 1898-1902.
The war may be over but much bitterness remains, especially in the heart of Nils, Anna’s brother. She travels by train for a joyful reunion with her brother, which rapidly turns sour when Nils learns that her fiancé is one of the hated British. He violently assaults her and she robustly defends herself, escaping back to the railway station.
Ian — handed out copied and read a revised version of his short story: Face 48, first published in VOLCHIN & Other Stories, and read in-part at the last meeting but one. It was originally written in 1985 shortly after the start of the Medjugorje apparitions, and published in its original version by his son Max in VOLCHIN.
Ian had totally forgotten that he had submitted the story to various online writers’ critique groups in 2007 and had completely revised the story as a result. The latest version is on our website.
The tale concerns a newly-qualified psychologist (the 1st-person narrator) who for her MSc dissertation ran a facial identification experiment on subjects drawn from the population of Marian visionaries. The results of her investigation are unexpected and unwelcome, supporting the hypothesis that a significant number of subjects saw the same person, reified in a computer-generated image referred-to as Face 48. Subsequently employed as a counsellor in West Hartlepool, the narrator encounters a disturbed teenager who resembles Face 48. The story chronicles their disastrous relationship.
Jan — read a ghost story with a difference. Henry, cremated, has returned from the dead in a remarkably substantial form. Just as his wife and friends are getting used to having him back again, he disappears once more, this time for good.
Jan has been successfully using a chatbot called Grok, a generative AI competing with ChatGPT, and enthusiastically recommends it.
Whitby Writers Group 