Minutes of the meeting at La Rosa Hotel on the above date.
Present: Adele, Ian, Jan, Jill, John, Magda, Michele.
Apologies: Gill, Jenny, Jonathan, Suzanne.
Topic: Members’ work-in-progress.
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Matters Arising
(None)
Members’ Readings
Jill — continued her family saga about living off-grid in rural Wales. The daughter of the previous heroine inherits a rundown cottage, of which she takes up occupation during the covid emergency, effectively imprisoning herself there. She responds to a scream from a neighbour’s cottage, to find someone dead in the barn. Another neighbour, a young man, also responds to the scream, and introduces himself. Then he returns the way he came, by jumping over the hedge.
John — continued reading from his novel in-progress, retitled Exposed. A man is given a camera and is determined to make professional use of it. He takes pictures of attendees at Whitby’s Gothic festival, featuring five subjects who each provide a range of poses. His first subject is a jackal-headed Anubis, wearing modern dress. The second is attired as Jack Skellington. The hero contacts them subsequently to show them the photos. Four of the subjects reply with enthusiasm. But the fifth does not reply to repeated emails, which strikes the hero as mysterious.
Magda — read an evocative poem The Changing of Days, evoking a nature scene with ancient trees hung with ivy. Then she continued with her exploration of dowsing (for water sources), and the ambivalence displayed by those who come in contact with it. One acquaintance told her “I don’t believe in dowsing, but my wife does it for a living.”
Adele — read an essay: Eyes: the Window to the World. In it she examines the role of sight in a normal person’s life, and how this differs from that of someone blind from birth, or someone who has recently lost their sight. She poses the question: which of your 5 senses could you do without?
This prompted a lively discussion among the attendees, some insisting on retaining sight, others (with musical talents) opting for hearing. There are professional percussionists who are profoundly deaf, who effectively “hear” with their feet.
Jan — is co-authoring the memoir of a friend called Alice (unable to write for herself), who with her husband and two toddlers lived off-grid in a tiny French village near La Rochelle. They repair a derelict cottage to make it leakproof, but their electricity comes from an extension lead plugged into a point in a neighbour’s barn, and is mainly used to mow the neighbour’s lawn on an au-pair basis. She describes the attitudes of the neighbours, and the freedom (within set bounds) of their children to wander about the village at will. This too provided members with much to discuss.
Ian — read from his novel in-press: Anitra’s Petition. Anitra has arrived on Mars to present her petition for human rights in the Court of the Goubernator. Hermes reveals to his father the Goubernator that he has fallen in love with Anitra, a potentially massive conflict of interest. His father resolves (or maybe exacerbates) the conflict by appointing Hermes “Fanbearer behind the Throne” for the duration of the hearing.
TMG (“The Master’s Genes”) is on the point of withdrawing its opposition to Anitra’s petition, but Dr Galax, head of the Vratch (the medical police) secretly contacts Petra, TMG’s Chief Legal Counsel, inviting her to resign from TMG and act for the Vratch with redoubled vigour. Going against her conscience, Petra accepts Galax’s offer for the power and influence her new post will give her.
The meeting closed at 1:00 PM.
Links (in accession order)…
Contact https://whitbywriters.com/contact/
La Rosa Hotel www.whitbywriters.com/venue
Ian www.whitbywriters.com/ian-clark
Anitra’s Petition https://whitbywriters.com/anitras-petition/
Whitby Writers Group 