Write-on

For our meeting tonight we can look forward to a new song by Grit Metsch. The opening lines of ‘NEVER LOOK DOWN ON ME‘ draw us into Grit’s world, her passionate singing leaving an indelible mark on the listener. Don’t miss this opening anthem to our write-on session.

We are delighted to reveal new short stories by two recently joined members. Anyta Freeman‘s ‘I Only Stayed Once’ describes a young girl’s encounter with a traumatic incident. Josephine McCann‘s ‘Worlds apart’ contrasts the journeys of two girls from very different social backgrounds.

Kathleen Phelan‘s poems range from humorous to thoughtful and are always beautifully crafted. The poems of James Conway tend to the mystical and demand concentration from the listener, while being highly poetic. We can expect two very different but equally rewarding works.

As noted last week, Mary Rose Tobin won the Hanna Greally Award, and the presentation will take place in Roscommon this Saturday. Arrangements for attending this are on the agenda for tonight.

Our Write-On Group Meetings will soon be entering a new era. Frank Fahy has been presenting the sessions for several years, but now it’s time for the baton to be passed to fresh faces and voices. Over the past few weeks, members have been rehersing and training in mock Zoom sessions, so that a new compere can be expected to guide us through the sessions shortly. This transformation will be an important item in tonight’s discussion.

Finally, the deadline for entries to this month’s Mug of the Month competition is drawing near. The key words are WILD and WONDER, and the closing date is Sunday, 22nd October. Remember: a maximum of 50 words including the two key words are allowed; the text can be prose, a poem, a song, … and entries should be sent to annemurraypost@yahoo.ie.

Everyone is welcome to join us for a varied and stimulating meeting!

Programme

Song: Never Look Down On Me Grit Metsch

Short Story I Only Stayed Once Anyta Freeman

Short Story Worlds Apart Josephine McCann

Poem Facebook Grannies Kathleen Phelan

Poem Imbroglio James Conway

Discussion The Hanna Grealy Award – Life and Times of Jimmy Mullins All Members

Discussion Future Plans – Write-On Group All Members

The highlight of tonight’s meeting will be Mary Rose Tobin reading her short story, ‘Life and Times of Jimmy Mullins’, which has won her first prize in the prestigious Hanna Greally International Short Story Competition. Congratulations, and well deserved, Mary Rose! We are delighted that your talent and creativity has been recognised with this award!

Three very different poems await us, from the often humorous hand of Kathleen Phelan, the deeply philosophical and lyrical pen of James Conway, and the sensitive mind of Seamnus Keogh.

Joanne Dowling has revised Chapter 3 of her novel about the aged, independent farmer Patrick; we look forward to hearing the new version of this part of her book.

Finally, necessary changes in the structure of our Write-On meetings are on the agenda. All members are invited to take an active part in the discussion.

Viewers can look forward to another lively and rewarding evening with our writers.

Programme:

Novel extract Chapter 3 Joanne Dowling

Poem Oh yes! I Remember That Holiday! Kathleen Phelan

Poem The Bird James Conway

Poem The Hunter Seamus Keogh

Discussion The Hanna Grealy Award – Life and Times of Jimmy Mullins All Members

Discussion Future Plans – Write-On Group All Members

This is our second meeting with our compere calling in from Brittany. And we have an impressive list of submissions. Special interest will be focussing on entries from our new members Molly Fogarty, Josephine McCann and Anyta Freemann, which include a poem and two short stories. We look forward to hearing these, as well as the three poems by our established writers Thomas MacMahon, Geraldine Warren and Seamus Keogh.

Molly Fogarty’s extract is accompanied by a list of her questions, asking for listeners’ opinions on her handling of character presentation, POV and more. These are available on the Write-On What’sApp, and should lead to a fruitful discussion for all fiction writers in our group.

If time allows, we plan a discussion on the winner of this year’s Scottish Short Story Competition. The story is also available on the WhatsApp page.

And don’t forget! MOTM:

Key Words are WILD and WONDER. The Closing Date is 22 October 2023. Send your 50-word entries to annemurraypost@yahoo.ie

We wish everyone an enjoyable evening.

Programme:

Introduction Welcome from Perros-Guirec Write-On Team

Story extract Now You Don’t Molly Fogarty

Poem Pastures New Thomas MacMahon

Poem I Long to Hide Geraldine Warren

Poem Discrimination Seamus Keogh

Poem TV Junkie Josephine McCann

Short Story Daffodils Anyta Freemann

Discussion Scottish Short Story Award – The Many Coffees of Marissa All Members

Our compere extraordinaire Frank Fahy is away on a well deserved holiday in France, but that doesn’t mean that he is off-screen! He will be operating from Brittany, and has warned us to expect some glitches, but also some surprises! Should contributions fail to complete the journey from this unusual venue, there will be co-hosts on hand who can also supply the material.

In addition, participants whose submissions have not been prepared in advance by Frank and Anne Murray will be asked to have their texts open on their own computers. They will be made co-hosts by Frank, and then asked to read their texts live. To do so, they will then have to click on the green ‘Share Screen’ button at the bottom of their Zoom screen and upload their submission (click on the symbol for the text programme at the bottom of their screen), so that we can all see it. In this way, we can present a lively and novel session, with everybody joining in the discussions on the items and offering advice and encouragement as is usual on Thursday evenings.

Most of the works on last week’s list could not be presented for lack of time, so that they form the backbone of tonight’s programme. In addition, a retrospective discussion on last Friday’s Culture Night, which premiered our wonderful film ‘A Tapestry of Words’, is planned. We can look forward to hearing about other events attended by members, and about reactions from friends and relatives to our own video. This is still available on YouTube if you enter the search words: A Tapestry of Words Write-On 2023.

Here’s to another stimulating and enjoyable Thursday Write-On session!

P.S. Works marked with an * needn’t be opened by the authors – they have already been prepared for presentation and will be shown by one of the designated co-hosts.

Programme:

Poem Confession Kathleen Phelan *

Poem My Little Beach Ciara Keogh*

Poem It Makes No Sense to Me Seamus Keogh*

Poem The Trail Phil McArdle*

Novel Extract (from) A Normal Couple Jutta Rosen

Short Story The Blue Cow Therese McMahon*

Story extract Untitled Molly Fogarty

Discussion Culture Night 2023 in retrospect All Members

Our monthly Mug of the Month Competition (MOTM) is scheduled a week earlier than usual, and we are proud to announce that eleven contestants are participating. With entries from some of our new members, we can expect a particularly exciting and varied selection of texts around the required words HIDE and STEAL. The winner will be found by means of our electronic polling system.

Prose texts this week include a new short story by Mary Rose Tobin, one of our founding members. Her stories often reveal the subtleties of human emotions, but as tonight’s story doesn’t yet have a title, we might be surprised!

We also have an excerpt from Jutta Rosen’s novel-in-progress about life in war-time Berlin, showing how war and a totalitarian regime can affect ‘normal people’.

A short story by new member Therese McMahon, which was presented last week, initiated a discussion which will be continued this week.

Poems by three established and two new members make up the poetry section of our evening’s offerings.

All in all – a diverse and stimulating collection of contributions are awaiting us this Thursday.

Finally, there will be last minute information and exchanges relating to our Culture Night presentation. Galway Culture Night is taking place on Friday, 22 September, and we are hoping for a large viewing of our 2-hour video about the Irish and international members of our group. For details of how to access this, see the Culture Night page on this web-site.

We wish everyone an enjoyable and profitable evening this Thursday!

Programme:

Competition 11x Mug of the Month Entries All Members

_____________________________________________________________

Poem Confession Kathleen Phelan

Poem Life Story Molly Fogarty

Poem My Little Beach Ciara Keogh

Poem It Makes No Sense to Me Seamus Keogh

Poem The Trail Phil McArdle

Short Story New Work (Untitled) Mary Rose Tobin

Short Story & Discussion The Blue Cow Therese McMahon/All Members

Novel Extract (from) A Normal Couple Jutta Rosen

Discussion Culture Night 2023 + Trailer and Table of Events All Members

Our session this week is influenced by the excitement in the run-up to Culture Night 2023, which will take place on Friday, September 22. Our members have produced a two-hour video of our activities, with short portraits of themselves and where they live, as well as extracts from their works. In ‘A Tapestry of Words’ you will be transported from Galway to Dublin, from Kilkenny to Germany, from Australia to the U.S.! The film can be viewed on YouTube on September 22 from 7pm GMT – for further details please see the Newsletter Page of this website.

In case you are particularly interested in watching any one contribution, below is a list of the times when individual writers appear in the video, identifiable by their place of residence. However, the rich diversity of poetry, memoir extracts, novel excerpts and songs offer a full evening of entertainment of a very high standard. So be prepared to settle back and enjoy the show!

19:00:00 President Michael D. Higgins
19:01:16 A Tapestry of Words
19:01:41 Galway County Council
19:02:14 Westport, County Mayo
19:07:00 Roundstone, County Galway
19:13:36 Galway City
19:22:50 Kilkenny City
19:32:03 Terryland Forest Park, Galway
19:36:15 Moycullen, County Galway
19:43:44 Queensland, Australia
19:47:28 Oughterard, County Galway
19:51:02 Connecticut, USA
19:54:38 Silverstrand, Galway
19:58:45 Maunsells Park, Galway
20:05:43 Dromahair, County Leitrim
20:14:31 Brandenburg, Germany
20:20:07 Dublin
20:25:38 The Burren, County Clare
20:30:26 Barna Woods, Galway
20:33:27 Barna Community Support (1)
20:34:27 Boise, Idaho, USA
20:36:00 Furbo, County Galway
20:43:10 Barna Community Support (2)
20:43:08 Love Songs
20:49:46 Most Popular Book in Barna?
20:51:38 Write-on Publications

This week's session offers a writing challenge involving character development for our members. We can look forward to no fewer than seven original poems, including one by our welcome new member Anyta Freeman. We are pleased to welcome another new member, Therese McManus, who is contributing a short story. In addition, discussions are planned on organisational aspects of our group.

We wish all viewers an enjoyable and profitable evening!

Programme:
Discussion: Character Descriptions - Open to all Members
Challenge 1: Writing Task based on Character Descriptions - Open to all Members
Story: The Blue Cow - Therese McManus
Poem: Poet On A Train - ANON
Poem: My Little Beach – Ciara Keogh
Poem: Missing My Home – Kathleen Phelan
Poem: It Makes No Sense – Seamus Keogh
Poem: Fragility in Life – Thomas MacMahon
Poem: Christmas in Renvyle - Thomas MacMahon
Poem: The Ritual - Anyta Freeman
Discussion: How to get more viewers to watch our Culture Night Event - Open to all Members
Discussion: Consider changing publication of Anthology to every two years - Open to all Members

Our session this week will be taken up by the Annual General Meeting 2023. The topics of the agenda include Business, New Books, the Anthology 2025, Literary Events, Tutorials for Upgrading Skills, PR, and any other topics that members might suggest. So it promises to be a full and interesting evening.

For the detailed agenda, please see the latest Write-On Newsletter, also posted on this site.

The competition for this month’s Mug of the Month (MOT) has started. Write a text of not more than 50 words (poem, prose, song …) which includes the words HIDE and STEAL. You may use other forms of these words (‘hidden’, ‘stole’ etc), and the title is not included in the 50 words. Closing date for entries is Sunday 24th September, and your texts should be emailed to annemurraypost@yahoo.ie. You can also record your text on your mobile and send Anne the recording via WhatsApp. We’re looking forward to a large number of entries, especially from our new members!

Have an enjoyable evening on Thursday!

We are delighted to announce the opening of yet another year of writing creativity under the wing of our Write-On Group. Have our authors been active during the summer break? Or have they granted their sources of inspiration a holiday, so as to be even more productive during the coming season? These questions will surely be answered in the weeks to come.

There are no presentations listed for this week’s session. Instead we will be introducing ourselves, welcoming and getting to know new members, as well as discussing how we go about producing our presentations, newsletters, and so on. And we will be sneaking a preview of our video contribution to this year’s Galway Culture Night on Friday, September 22 – rumour has it that it will be even more exciting and colourful than the excellent videos of past years.

The annual AGM is scheduled for next Thursday, 7 September. Members can suggest items to be included on the Agenda.

The Mug of the Month season is also ready to start, and Anne Murray will be announcing the two key words to be included in the text of max. 50 words which members can submit. The due date is the third Thursday of the Month, and the winner of the competition will be selected by all participants present on that day.

All these modalities will be presented and explained tomorrow, with room for suggestions and improvements. More than enough material to fill 120 minutes!

Have an enjoyable session, everyone!