Mid October Meeting Minutes

Hightown Writers Workshop Thursday 12^th October 2023 at 7pm at The Crown

Present: Martin, Irena, Jennie, Alex, Adam and Liz

Apologies: Kath, Andy, Ann, Sue, Tony T, Tony H, Marie, Paul

The meeting was devoted to issues arising from the production of our tenth anniversary publication.

1.      We could not decide which of the 24 suggestions for a title to choose. In the end it came down to a vote between two. The vote was a draw so it was decided to make it a wider vote of all members and ask them to send in their choice as soon as possible. The choice was between our working title, "Write On! Celebrating 10 Years of High-Town Writers" and "Hightown Writers: A Decade of Stories and Verse" 

2.      Martin focused our minds on alternative publishers to Bookmundo (which is print on demand) and the potential of widening our audience through various digital platforms including his own which is presently being redeveloped. He made a suggestion which everyone liked about linking one of our publications – assuming this one gets to see the light of day – to a local charity as a fundraiser. Much food for thought there. We decided to investigate what ‘Canva’ (which Irena also advocated) has to offer and using alternative PDF presentation to the ‘Word’ template supplied by Bookmundo.

3.      We noted that not all members were able to download the draft circulated before the meeting – in one case because the server ‘tiscali’ said the file was too big. We will endeavour to rectify this.

4.      We discussed the cover design and Martin mocked up a new one which we liked. He offered to develop it which was welcomed by the meeting.

5.      Only two members had sent in short (fewer than 100 words biographies) a renewed appeal would be made for those to be sent in by Saturday 21^st October. If insufficient biographies are received we will review this section.

6.      Book content: The book is structured, almanac style, into a collection of writing for each month of the year. Jennie suggested presenting the contents of each month in the title page for each month. We agreed to do that.

7.      We then decided on the themes for each month which are:

·        January - Change

·        February – Love

·        March – Survival

·        April – Elsewhere

·        May – Life

·        June – Sentiment

·        July – Memories

·        August – Summer Days

·        September – Crossroads

·        October – Transformation

·        November -Remembrance

·        December – Goodwill

8.      Most of the content has already been shared on our blogspot and Alex suggested that some new writing be produced specifically for the book. It was decided to ask members to contribute something new to fit into one of the above themes. We probably have enough material for January and March (March deals with the 2020 pandemic and lockdowns) and could do with some more for May, June and December. It may also be that some of the existing selections are edited out or moved around – the themes are intentionally fluid! So PLEASE get writing either poetry or short prose (+/- 1,000 words) fiction or non-fiction.

9.      We welcomed permission to use Val Pedrick’s and John Bowler’s artwork in the book. To keep the cost manageable, we decided to only use colour on the cover. The illustrations inside the book will be black and white. Some photographs work well in black and white, some do not – and the same applies to drawings and paintings. We still need illustrations to break up the text and would appreciate members sharing any pen and ink, pencil sketches or other artwork that would convert into black and white that we could use in the book. Not just High Town Writers but also High Town Artists perhaps 😊

10.   The meeting finished at 9.45pm

11.   Deadlines for biographies, artwork and fresh contributions to the book are Saturday 21^st/Sunday 22nd October in order to be able to present a fresh draft for the next meeting.

12.   The next meeting is on Tuesday 24^th October in Peepo’s at 7pm

Chair tbc

The writing theme for October is:

 Write a piece inspired by the following:

There is a crowd of people. So many that there is barely room to move and people are crushed up against each other…