Change of name for venue

Please note, the Tam O' Shanter has been sold and the new owners have renamed it the Jolly Beggers

prize winners

Booker Prize winners last 10 years

2007: "The Gathering" Anne Enright
2006: "The Inheritance of Loss" Kiran Desai
2005: The Sea John Banville

2004: The Line of Beauty Alan Holinghurst
2003: Vernon God Little DBC Pierre
2002: Life of Pi, by Yann Martel
2001: True History Of The Kelly Gang, by Peter Carey
2000: The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood
1999: Disgrace, by J.M. Coetzee
1998: Amsterdam, by Ian McEwan
1997: The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy

Winners of the Guardian Prize

1997 Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces

1998 Jackie Kay, Trumpet

1999 Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed

with Our Families

2000 Zadie Smith, White Teeth

2001 Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan, or the Smartest Kid on Earth

2002 Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated

2003 Robert MacFarlane, Mountains of the Mind

2004 Armand Marie Leroi: Mutants

2005 Alexander Masters: Stuart

Nobel prize for Literature

2006: Doris Lessing (Zimbabwe)
2006: Orhan Pamuk (Turkey)
2005: Harold Pinter (Britain)
2004: Elfriede Jelinek (Austria)
2003 : JOHN COETZEE (South Africa)
2002 : IMRE KERTESZ (Hungary)
2001 : VIDIADHAR SURAJPRASAD NAIPAUL (India)
2000 : GAO XINGJIAN (China)
1999 : GUNTHER GRASS (Germany)
1998 : JOSE SARAMAGO (Portugal)
1997 : DARIO FO (Italy)
1996 : WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA (Poland)

Pulitzer Prize

Cormac McCarthy: "The Road" (2007)
Geraldine Brooks: "March" (2006)
Marilynne Robinson: Gilead" (2005)
Edward Jones "The Known World" (2004)

(the rest wouldn't copy in the right way: you'll have to look them up yourself.)

Winners of the Whitbread/Costa prize

Novel · 1997: Jim Crace Being Dead · 1998: Barbara Trapido The Travelling Hornplayer · 1999: Rose Tremain Music and Silence · 2000: Matthew Kneale English Passengers · 2001: Patrick Neate Twelve Bar Blues · 2002: Michael Frayn Spies · 2003: Mark Haddon The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time · 2004: Andrea Levy: Small Island · 2005: Ali Smith: The Accidental

Poetry · 1997 Ted Hughes Tales from Ovid · 1998 Ted Hughes Birthday Letters · 1999 Seamus Heaney Beowulf · 2000 John Burnside The Asylum Dance · 2001 Selima Hill Bunny · 2002 Paul Farley The Ice Age · 2003 Don Paterson Landing Light · 2004 Michael-Symmons Roberts: Corpus · 2005 Christopher Logue: Cold Calls

November Newsletter

Coventry Writers Group

Newsletter.

Tuesday 6^rd November 2007

Chair: Mike Sherratt, 34 Bexfield Close, Allesley Village, Coventry CV5 9BL (telephone 02476 – 405232. E-mail: michael.sherratt1@btopenworld.com

Secretary: Christine Rutherford 23 Frances Road Harbury Warks CV33 9JG

(tel 01926 613757 e-mail krismonsen@btopenworld.com)

1. Chair’s Notes –
1. Christmas dinner will be at the harvester in Allesley Village on Birmingham Road Friday 14^th December. Significant or insignificant others welcome. Please let Maxine know asap if you intend to go.
2. Poem about Coventry – free entry.
3. Literary Prizes – look at winners Anne Enright won the Booker, Doris Lessing won the Nobel. List of winners for approx. the last 10 years attached for your meditations. We need to know what is thought well of in literary criticism these days.
4. Bring and share nibbles next session 4^th December.

2. Apologies None
3. Correspondence/info/notes none as such.
4. Achievements
1. Maxine had Life Underground accepted for the Four Shires
5. Round table.
1. Phil shared some observations from his reader.

i. A 1^st book has to fit the publisher’s criteria exactly. Once you get established, you can be more adventurous.

ii. It must be marketable in WHSmith.

iii. Is too much information crowded together?

iv. The problem of pace is to slow down without waffling.

v. 3 rounded characters are probably the maximum you need.

vi. Point of view – is from one character all through, though the perspective can change in different chapters. There was some discussion on this.

2. Maxine is working on a feature article.
3. Chris has to get her courage in hand and send her book off before New Year.
4. Margaret has to finish hers by New Year.

6. Readings
1. Pam’s poem A Coventry Girl Suggested she try to write in different forms, not rhyming couplets.
2. Mike: So very Like You.
3. Phil: A Photograph Remembered.
4. Margaret: Chapter 5 of Christopher from Vladivostok.

7. AOB The new owners of the Tam O’ Shanter have rearranged the premises, so it is harder for us to be somewhere quiet. Discussed a change of venue and discounted private houses as it discourages new members. Agreed to think about alternative venues.
8. Exercise for December / January – write a half hour play set in a kitchen/diner. It must contain some comic lines. 3 to 6 characters. The workshop idea from last month did not materialise.

Newsletter October 2007

Coventry Writers Group

Newsletter.

Tuesday 3^rd October 2007

Chair: Mike Sherratt, 34 Bexfield Close, Allesley Village, Coventry CV5 9BL (telephone 02476 – 405232. E-mail: michael.sherratt1@btopenworld.com

Secretary: Christine Rutherford 23 Frances Road Harbury Warks CV33 9JG

(tel 01926 613757 e-mail krismonsen@btopenworld.com)

1. Chair’s Notes – Maxine’s new email is maxineburns@sky.com without the capitals.
2. Apologies Mary Ogilvy
3. Correspondence/info/notes

· Friends Meeting House in Hill Street do a writing course under the auspices of Warwick University.

· Warwick Words Literary Festival Thursday - Sunday

· ***CHRISTMAS DINNER*** 7.30 Friday December 14^th Harvester Restaurant. Suitable for all, £13.00 Christmas menu with 3-4 choices for each course and a really good salad bar. £5 deposit PLEASE BRING SOME CASH TO THE NEXT MEETING!

4. Achievements
1. Ann: Dogs Monthly; Collectors Gazette; Telegraph; editing of the third book of her trilogy n its final stage of editing. Ann brought the ms and the corrections to show how it is done.
2. Brenda had a letter published in Warwickshire Life.
3. Mike won 3^rd prize in Scenes of Clerical Life competition. Chris R was meant to bring the judges comments but forgot them so they are attached with this newsletter.
4. Chris Jarvis wrote the ‘offstage’ scenes in The Holmes Service which was performed by the Wheatsheaf players.
5. Phil has spoken to a professional reader and a BBC producer, whom he met at the Festival of Science and both agreed to read his book.
5. Round table.
1. Roddy Doyle’s path to success is about his self-publishing victory in a book which is 75% dialogue, which proves the rules are always flexible.
2. Ordinary writing is not like literature and good writing is not written to a formula.
3. A writer’s journey might be as follows:

i. Normal world

ii. Call to Adventure

iii. Refuses the call

iv. Meets a mentor who persuades

v. Starts the adventure.

4. There is a balance between writing for one’s own pleasure and writing for a market. Discuss
5. Discussed our thoughts on Phil’s book and the comments of his Reader.

6. Readings
1. Mike’s prize winning story, The Vicar’s Tale
2. Maxine’s article: Slugs for Amateur Gardeners

c. Chris Jarvis – extract from The Holmes Service

4. Margaret: Blue Wayne.

7. Exercise for November The Photograph – this was the title of a national competition recently – can you find an original take on it?
8. Suggestion for the next meeting: we might work in groups to produce 3 half hour plays based in the same place with a maximum of 4 characters. You can download a script format free at www.celtx.com note the spelling – NOT celtex. It’s a big file and takes a few minutes to download.

Newsletter

CWG Newsletter

Tuesday 7^th August 2007

Chair: Mike Sherratt, 34 Bexfield Close, Allesley Village, Coventry CV5 9BL (telephone 02476 – 405232. E-mail: michael.sherratt1@btopenworld.com

Secretary: Christine Rutherford 23 Frances Road Harbury Warks CV33 9JG

(tel 01926 613757 e-mail krismonsen@btopenworld.com)

1. Chair’s Notes – none as such.
2. Apologies Chris Jarvis
3. Correspondence/info/notes
1. publications from Central Library including Raw Edge. – need SAE and would like submissions
2. Writers course at Coventry University: BA in professional and creative writing.
3. Free courses available - look at Coventry University and Warwick local government websites. General feedback from courses has been very positive.
4. Achievements
1. Ann: usual Dogs Monthly, feature in Rescue and Homing, Collectors’ Gazette etc.
2. Ann’s shop is up and running and includes a photographer and prints flyers and adverts – gave us all a flyer.
5. Round table
1. Where do you find a source for a story? One conversation led to Schindler’s Ark.
2. Does a hero have to follow a stereotype?
3. Writers’ Group exists to encourage new writing.
4. Pam talked of the difficulty of balancing writing and reading.
5. Philip’s presentation. http://www.coventrywriters/group.org.uk is a blog not a website. Members can put work there and others can comment on it. Mike or Phil will invite you to be an author on the site. Once you are registered, you can put writing, images and comments on the site. Phil to continue this next time as it generated a discussion on who, exactly, would be able to access it. Is open access a good thing?
6. Readings
1. Chris read 1^st chapter of Though the Sun Goes Down.
2. Geoff: My Guardian Angel – small, odd man in a café.
3. Philip: monologue from his book – a besotted girl’s impassioned plea to her man.
4. John: First Impressions of an Emerging Writer.
5. Mike: The Pain and the Ecstasy – a conman conned.
6. Chris: monologue Thoughts on Being Me – an elderly lady who is seen by others as an inspiration.
7. Mike’s prize winning essay on Silas Marner.

7. Exercise for September

Write a piece, any title, illustrating how to build suspense. Approx 500 words.

8. Exercise for October.

Find a scene from real life which could be the beginning or the end of a story.

Time Crystal Chapter 1

Following the feedback I got from last Tuesday's reading I restructured the first few chapters. Here is chapter 1. See Time Crystal to see more.


Any comments gratefully received and seriously considered.





“For God’s sake, Catriona, shut up,” Brigit snapped from the back of the BMW. “I’m trying to work.”


Catriona stopped singing Kieran Gamble’s latest song “Don’t worry my darling, My love will see you through,” and changed to humming it as she flicked her ginger hair out of her eyes and looked down at the Tribune de Geneve Sam had given her, the one with the picture of Kieran on the front, his dark smouldering eyes burning up at her off the page.

“Can you read any of it, Catty?” Sam said.

“I think it’s talking about the Eurovision Song Contest.”

“I thought it would be.”

She started humming “Don’t worry” again.

“It’s not a bad song, I suppose,” Sam said, driving passed the airport.

“Not bad? It’s fantastic! We’re bound to win this year.” She plugged in her earphones to play Kieran’s latest album. “The battery’s flat!” she sighed and looked out of the window. Sam was driving them up a long straight road out of Geneva. It had almost stopped raining and a froth of high spring cloud was gathering above the snow-capped peaks of some distant mountains that stretched right across the horizon ahead of them. She remembered what her best friend Aislyn had said when she told her she was coming to Geneva for the Easter holiday: “I suppose you’ll be going skiing,” as if skiing was some sort of punishment.

“Oh, by the way Sam,” Brigit said quietly. “I’ve cancelled your flight back.”

Catriona stopped humming, thinking perhaps she had misheard.

Sam leaned over to look at Brigit in the mirror. “Really? Cancelled the flight? Why’s that, my love?” he said calmly.

“I need you here. You were right, Sam. This job’s too much for me. You’re gonna have to stay and support me.”

There was a short silence. Catriona remembered how Sam had warned her Mother not to give up her job in Irish television to become the Irish Ambassador but she had been utterly confident she could cope on her own. Obviously in the past two months she’d found out he’d been right.

“I think Catriona should finish her school leaving cert first, don’t you, Bee? She’s due to start revising as soon as we get back. We’ll come back after the summer term ends, dearest.”

“No,” she snapped. “I need you here now, Sam.”

There was another embarrassed pause.

“I’d love to stay and help you, Bee,” he said, “but I don’t think my school would--”

“Your school?” Brigit’s tone was colder than the snow on the distant mountains. “Surely you’re not putting a class of eight-year-olds before the interests of Ireland are you, Samuel?”

“Of course not dearest, but--”

“Good because I called your school as well.”

There was an even longer pause.

“Did you dear?”

Catriona looked at him in bewilderment. How could he take it all so calmly?

“Yes. I said you’d broken both legs skiing and would have to stay here resting for the next three months at least. You can write to them later to hand in your resignation.”




Perhaps it was because Dr. Michael Riley had just had a good night’s sleep while Danny Kissov had been working on the ATLAS detector all night. Or perhaps Michael was luckier than Kissov. Or more prepared to accept the unexpected. Or brighter. In any case it was Michael Riley who saw the problem first.

It was obvious to Michael from the moment he walked into the long narrow ATLAS Control Room at six o’clock that Kissov was already exhausted. His eyes looked dull and large dark bags hung below them sagging over his sallow yellow cheeks. This was not surprising. For the past twelve hours he had been helping the scientists to bring up each of the sub-detectors one after another, difficult and intensive work, requiring enormous concentration under pressure. Dozens of visitors were crowded into the room peering over the shoulders of Kissov and the scientists.

Nobody greeted him as Michael walked beside the frosted window that stretched down one side of the room, passed the ten scientists permanently based in CERN. That was normal. He did not form friendships readily. Indeed he actively discouraged them. Even the visitors ignored him, as if he didn’t exist. He avoided eye contact as he walked passed them to his desk near the emergency exit at the far end of the room and prepared himself for the morning’s work.

Just before nine o’clock a message flashed up on Michael’s screen.

Message from dkissov
Are you ready to bring up the Muon Spectrometer now?

Michael clicked on Reply and typed Yes. All the other sub-systems were already live. They only had to activate Michael’s Spectrometer and ATLAS would be ready to start collecting data. He and Kissov worked together to bring the Spectrometer on-line, communicating electronically and without a spoken word passing between them. It was almost fully powered when, just after nine-thirty-four, Michael saw something odd happen. He was using a Trigger and Data Acquisition System window to monitor the flow of data when he noticed the rate of data production suddenly and dramatically increase. Instead of getting around 200 events per second the Spectrometer began generating over 12,000. This rate lasted only for a few milliseconds and might not have been very significant had the rate returned to normal, but it didn’t. It came down off the peak and settled out at around 2,000 events per second, ten times more than expected.

Michael stood up and looked over the top of the three large computer screens on his desk. Kissov was talking to the new Run Co-ordinator, Seline Soubise, who had just arrived to take over from him. He obviously hadn’t seen the problem. If he had there would have been pandemonium. Michael quickly sat down. He was intensely curious about this unusual and unexpected phenomenon and decided to investigate the cause without saying anything to Kissov, guided by some physical insight which warned him to act cautiously. He opened an Athena command window and began searching the transient data store for high energy events then used Mercator to visualise the particle tracks for each event. It took him only a few seconds to find what he was looking for. At 09:34:23.27.729 a thick black track had curved down across the inner parts of ATLAS, spawning secondary particles as it went, finally stopping inside the beam pipe near the intersection point. Michael stared at it, unable to believe his eyes, his mind racing.

How to Post

Members of Coventry Writers' Group who want to create new posts on this blog, for example to publish their work so others can comment, will need to register. Contact Mike or Phil via email and they will sort it out for you!

I sent out invitations to all members with email addresses today, 11 August.

Publishing Audio Files

This post explains how to publish an MP3 audio file. I assume you have already created the file (perhaps by recording your work on a computer). Please do not publish work for which you don't own copyright. The main steps are:

1. Upload the MP3 to the web
2. Create a post in this blog
3. Link the post to the MP3 file.

Let's go over these steps in detail.

1) There are several sites you can upload MP3 files to, but some of them (such as Wiki Upload http://www.wikiupload.com/ don't seem to work). So I added the file to a Google Group, which allows you to upload up to 100 Megabytes of data. I used the CoventryWritersGroup group (http://groups.google.com/group/coventrywritersgroup). (You need to be a member before you can upload files.) I uploaded the file Test mp3.mp3.

2) To create a new post in this blog you need to be an author, that is a member of the group invited by one of the other members. Sign in, which takes you to the Dashboard, then click on New Post. Add a title.

3) I linked the post by entering the following HTML.

You may need to allow your browser to run an active-X control to run this MP3 player. <embed src="<a href=" type="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></embed>http://coventrywritersgroup.googlegroups.com/web/Test%20mp3.mp3</a>" width="280" height="24" type="audio/mpeg" allowscriptaccess="never" autostart="false" loop="false">

Notice that before you can enter HTML which works you need to click on the "Edit HTML" tab near the top of the page. When I do that and paste in the HTLM code I get:

You may need to allow your browser to run an active-X control to run this MP3 player.

Now I click on Publish Post. Note that you can make the MP3 player start automatically by changing to autostart=true.

Member Profile

This posting keeps details of members of the Coventry Writer's Group.

Just click on Comments and add your details!

Meetings

Coventry Writers' Group meet

in the Robert Burns Room
Tam O'shanter Burns Club
Hertford Pl,
Coventry,
West Midlands,
CV1 3JZ, UK
024 76220929

on the first Tuesday of every month. The room has a bar where refreshments can be purchased . Meetings start at 7.30 pm and run for approximately three hours. There can be anywhere from 15 to 20 people at a meeting.
We have a variety of writing talent within our group, a lot of whom have work regularly published.

The group has been in existence for over 50 years.

Contact details:

Mike - Chairman Sherratt
34 Bexfield Close, Allesley Village
Tel: 02476 405232
Email: michael.sherratt1@btopenworld.com

Secretary: Christine Rutherford
23 Frances Road
Harbury
krismonsen@btopenworld.com