Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.
Present: Adele, Gill, Harry, Ian, Jenny, Jill, Magda, Pip.
Apologies: Jan, Jill, John, Jonathan, Suzanne.
Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.
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Matters Arising
None
Members’ Readings
Harry — read an evocative poem: Lindisfarne Is Just Across about the holy island off the coast of Northumberland.
Ian — read from his recently completed novel: Anitra’s Petition.
Anitra has arrived on Mars. For her protection, General Nanoud flies her to Fort Rainbow underneath Nix City, the HQ of the Groubian Echelon, the airborne battalion of the Olympian defence force Olvoi. Anitra sees Olvoi men fraternising with the (all female) groubians: Nanoud explains that the groubians need friends – lovers indeed – should the gaian settlers ever try another pogrom. A young soldier asks Nanoud for an introduction to her guest. Nanoud curtly refuses, and orders him to keep silent about what he thinks he saw (i.e. a stellan).
Adele — read an entertaining article written for a creative writing class about her experience of having an MRI scan, and her stream-of-consciousness while locked into the noisy equipment. Ian was prompted to imagine a retro-futuristic torture scene.
Pip – has recently completed a draft of her memoir Caicos Moon, of coming of age on a Caribbean island. She sought members’ advice about the thorny problem of getting permission to use other people’s photographs, also how to go about self-publishing her ms in case she couldn’t interest a big publisher.
Magda – read a poem she wrote as a spiritual exercise. Members praised her powerful, sometimes violent metaphors, but some wanted more “coherence”, which a title alone could provide.
Jill – Hugh has taken over a tumbledown cottage in rural Wales, at the start of the Covid emergency. His work on taming an overgrown garden is lovingly and evocatively described. Eschewing TV, his GP mother needs to tell him about the start of lockdown, and what it is going to mean for everybody, and for him in particular. There phone call is interrupted by Hugh responding to screams from the cottage of a neighbour, Matt.
Jenny – continued reading from her period novel in-progress based on the historical figure of Mary Eleanor Bowes, the heiress of a vast fortune from the Durham coalfields. The action moves to Gibside in County Durham, to which Mary’s household has decamped in order for Andrew Stoney, Mary’s demon lover who has tricked her into marriage, to campaign for the recently vacated seat in Parliament.
The servants are talking about the state to which the household has sunk under Capt Stoney. Lizzie and Ruby wonder how it could all have been prevented. Ruby reveals that she and her ostler husband are shortly to leave the household, and take over a pub with a mining clientele. Ruby reveals her knowledge of how even women and children are compelled to work in the mines, which is what supports the lavish lifestyle of the Bowes household. Lizzie, dismayed, admits she had never given the matter any thought.
Gill – The party of witches are now in the Amazon rainforest. They have met Wizzle, a bobble (a diminutive wizened remnant of a fallen cherub) who can deal with the virtually unstoppable mole maggots.
Tommy is kidnapped by a cannibal tribe. Bob follows and gets into the bag with him. They emerge from their bag to find themselves in the tribe’s pantry, destined to become supper.
The meeting closed at 1:10 PM.
Links (in accession order)…
La Rosa Hotel www.whitbywriters.com/venue
Ian www.whitbywriters.com/ian-clark
Harry www.whitbywriters.com/harry-nicholson
Adele https://whitbywriters.com/adele-duffield/
Pip https://whitbywriters.com/pipyn-boult/
Caicos Moon https://whitbywriters.com/cacos-moon/
Jenny https://whitbywriters.com/jenny-burns/
Mary Eleanor Bowes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bowes,_Countess_of_Strathmore_and_Kinghorne
Whitby Writers Group 