November 2022 Meeting

 Hightown Writers Workshop Meeting

Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Meeting in Peepo's Spirit Room Bridgnorth

Chair:  Adam

Present: Jennie, Marie, Adam, Alex, Sue, Liz, Irena, Stuart, John

Apologies: Tony, Martin, Jayne, Andy and Kath.

We arrived around 7pm and began our meeting by 7.30 which gave us a few extra minutes of workshop time – which we needed! Business came first:

1.       Our Christmas Meal. On Tuesday 13th December. Peepo’s have asked us to order in advance as we will be a big party.

Please look at their menus and then send your order to hightownwriters@gmail.com

Evening Meal Deal from 5pm (sunday from 6pm) | Peepo Pizza Bridgnorth

Festive Specials Menu - (peepopizza.co.uk)

WINTER 'Cost of living crisis' OFFERS - (peepopizza.co.uk)

2.       Our Christmas meal bookings confirmed from Stuart, Sue, Alex, Adam, Irena+1, Liz+1, Jennie+1, Marie+1, Tony+1 and (tbc) Martin+1 and as everyone is welcome they may be others. Please let hightownwriters@gmail.com know what you want to eat so the kitchen will be ready for us.

3.       There will be no other meeting in December so if you have Christmas or New Year seasonal writing you would like to share on the blog do send it in to hightownwriters@gmail.com. (Thank you Kath for your Christmas Eve contribution! We so enjoyed hearing it again at the start of the meeting and it set a high standard for others to follow)

4.       The next workshop meeting will be on Tuesday 24^th January 2023 at 7pm for 7.30. Alex will chair.

5.       December – January writing theme will be ‘Winter’.

Adam had been following events marking the 100^th anniversary of Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in November 1922 so he began the workshop with an Egyptian themed word maze. The nine words we volunteered for inclusion were: pharaoh, treasure, sand, Rameses, Nubian, Nile, Horus, tomb and pyramid. As always, we came up with an imaginative range of ideas. Jennie described the moment Tutankhamun’s tomb was opened and the sight of the treasure within; John, Marie, Irena, Sue, Stuart and Adam’s writing were all modern settings: visitors to the lands of the Nile. Irena summoned her inner Agatha Christie when her protagonist’s companion, Clara, not only failed to board their Nile cruise boat but also had her very existence thrown into question. Foreign treasure seekers: tourists and archaeologists, found themselves in sticky situations in John’s, Marie’s, Adam’s and Stuart’s accounts – especially when the god Horus entered the picture and Stuart’s piece echoed Stuart’s disapproval of our modern, morbid preoccupation with the ancient dead. Sue found herself in London at the Egyptian inspired musical The Prince of Egypt whilst Liz and Alex imagined themselves back in ancient times; Alex’s Rameses pondered the future of his soul and the afterlife as he looked out over the pyramids whilst Liz described the arrival of the Hebrew slave Joseph in imperial Egypt.

Moving seamlessly on to the October-November writing topic, Treasure, we began again with Kath’s contribution which Alex read aloud on her behalf. It was a richly detailed description of the autumnal treasures to be found along the beautiful walking routes around Barmouth. Kath painted vivid pictures of everything she had seen which hardly needed adding to – but she has shared her photos on Facebook, and they confirm the beauty we had all imagined in our minds through listening to her words.

Stuart’s extract from his Iron Age saga conjured up the metalworker’s forge at night where ‘cooking with rocks is best done in the dark hours.’ His atmospheric depiction of his chest of raw rocks from all over the Celtic world which turned into treasure kept us spell bound – and we all, well most of us, learned something new; that the ancient Celts measured the start of the new day from sunset, meaning that ‘days’ in that bygone era, began with the night!

Marie, Sue and Jayne both reflected on the real treasure for most people which is their family. Marie’s story of a treasured, old shell box, a seaside souvenir from a long ago outing with a much-loved grandfather which had accompanied its elderly owner into a retirement home, prompted some surprising confessions from the old lady’s daughter.

Sue’s autobiographical account of trip to Aberdeen to hear her daughter sing in a musical during which she encountered surreal, early hours of the morning city-nightlife followed by the unexpected arrival of her son from Manchester, magical theatre and the sparkling beauty of the rail ride home proved to be one of her happiest, most treasured memories.

Jayne’s poem which she sent in also reflects on her greatest treasure, her family.

Irena’s first-person narrative, Resurrecting Trash, traces the thoughts of a survivor of an abusive relationship where she had been demeaned and deceived by false sentiments, and fake jewelry, but who is able, as she sits on a park bench, to recover, nurture and treasure the courage and self-esteem she needs to move on.

Jennie had visited Nanteos House, in Wales, and fascinated by a photograph of the Naneos  Cup in the hallway, had researched the history of this ancient artifact which many treasure as the original ‘Holy Grail’.

Liz borrowed from Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of Man to write a poem exploring how the idea of ‘treasure’ changes at different times of our lives.

In his romance, The Sun Goes Down At Lands' End, Adam’s American protagonist tells us about his treasured Sara, a black-haired beauty, whom he met at Lands' End and courted whilst on holiday in Cornwall but who mysteriously disappears.

Some of the writing on the Treasure theme will be published on the blog in early December and some in early January. Members present and absent were encouraged to share their work on Treasure, Christmas, the New Year and anything else they would like to. The meeting ended with Liz thanking Alex, Irena, Jennie and others for invigorating the blog recently with their thoughtful comments. Much of what we write can be better appreciated when read a second time around!

Adam brought the meeting to an end at 10pm.