'First Tuesday' Open Meeting 6th May

'First Tuesday' Open Meeting 6th May 2-4 pm

"99- But No Flake or Ice Cream"

Chris Fewtrell

Chesterfield Library

'First  Tuesday' Meetings are held every month except August and are suitable for anyone  who is interested in discussing and undertaking practical exercises in creative writing - prose or poetry

They are held in the Meeting Room Lower Ground Floor - Next to 'Browser' Cafe 

No booking necessary- just turn up

Moorside Dorothy Cooke Goes Global

Hot on the heels of the production of 'Cheerleaders' in Nottingham you get another chance to see it. Only problem is it is in Australia!

Well done Dorothy.

Verse letter to Shanta Everington – 'Drowning in Cherryade', a Chapbook of Poems reviewed by Richard Dillon

We haven't met, in the narrow 'how d'you do'
sense (a teaser: can you think of who
I stole that from?); we know each other's names
from work (oh, that would be Clive James).
So, having volunteered, the penny's dropped:
that when your little Chapbook gently plopped
into our house a privilege unfurled -
a chance to journey through another's world!
For which, my thanks are due, as lesser things
to start, the book's design-imaginings
are wonderful: its cherry cover, its font,
its size, the sense it's as you want.
But what we write is where we stand and fall,
a page of white an inner-city wall:
I mean, your setting has an urban feel
(of shops, of things, of cafés, fashion-spiel,
etcetera), and though I recognise
such streets from once-upon , to these old eyes
they're just the seeds that zest the oil,
and not enough to mean a meal will spoil.
What draws me in, your writing's verity,
is what I feel when catching memory
like this: 'I wish I could reach in...' -
the photograph motif, the friends, the kin,
the you of then, of then, incarnate then;
the cheek we stroke, never mind 'again'.
There's more. The livid lot between what is
and was is represented here by fizz,
or lollipops, or pink, and how such fluff
translates to, frankly, sanguinary stuff
is hard to say, but in the portal shift,
the violence in someone random's gift,
the psycho-vigilance we navigate when young,
the hair, the lips, the sharpening of tongues,
are in our lives the way they're in the air,
local habitations, present fare.

In short, I like your book, would recommend

its sweet intensities to writer, friend
and all with eyes to see and mouths to speak
who love a witting phrase and pared technique.

I have a review copy of the book - if you want to read it, just ask.  Shanta's website is at

http://www.shantaeverington.co.uk/

Richard

BRUSHSTROKES by Heather Shaw

PREDICTIVE TEXT

‘I know exactly what it’ll be like,’ Rosalind said. ‘I should never have agreed to go.’

Celia looked up from the blouse she was ironing. ‘Typical you,’ she said through a hiss of steam, ‘getting there before you’ve arrived.’

‘Well, there’s some chance of a handle on the future,’ Rosalind said. She steepled her fingers. ‘The past plays tricks. What’s past help should be past grief’.’

‘Shakespeare.’ Celia’s tone was dismissive. ‘Isn’t it time you stood up to him? Anyway, what did he know about re-unions?’

‘I’ll never get the clothes right,’ Rosalind said. ‘What do escapees from the third-age ghetto wear in public?’ She shuddered. ‘It’ll feel like hunting in packs with opinions more instant than coffee.’

‘You’re not above an instant opinion yourself,’ Celia said. She stared over the ironing board at her sister. ‘Try not to let that shell get too thick.’

‘I don’t know you mean.’

‘Oh I think you do, love.‘ Celia poured water into the iron. ’You’ve been curled inside it for two years now, Rossie – since Hugh.... That shell of bereavement smothers the real you. Come back to us soon. ’

It wasn’t the mention of her husband but the childhood nickname that had Rosalind forcing back the tears.

‘Go to your reunion,’ Celia said. ‘Please.’‘It’s not exactly a reunion. Just a get-together with the other students on the online course, a meeting.’

‘Good idea.’ Celia grinned. ‘Travels end in lovers meeting.’

‘Journeys,’ Rosalind said, ‘It’s journeys. Journeys end in lovers meeting.’

‘There you are then.’

Their laughter was the shorthand of siblings, a shared memory with no need of words.

You can read the rest of the story and discover what happens when Rosalind joins the re-union, in BRUSHSTROKES a collection of short stories by Heather Shaw

Published by Pewter Rose Press. 

Available from Amazon – paperback or ebook.

 amazon.co.uk Brushstrokes-Heather-Shaw

First Tuesday' Open Meeting 6th May

First Tuesday' Open Meeting 6th May 2-4 pm

"99- But No Flake or Ice Cream"

Chris Fewtrell

Chesterfield Library

'First  Tuesday' Meetings are held every month except August and are suitable for anyone  who is interested in discussing and undertaking practical exercises in creative writing - prose or poetry

They are held in the Meeting Room Lower Ground Floor - Next to 'Browser' Cafe 

No booking necessary- just turn up

The Wisdom of Words