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Thames Valley Writers' Circle News
April 2012
25 April	The results of this year's Arthur Redway Memorial Competition were announced last night: First: Les Cooper with Why I married Sonia I Shall Never Know Second: Chris Mundy with A Long Spoon Third equal : David Burnell with Sunset Boulevard and Les Williams with Practically Perfect.
19 April	Congratulations to Sally - her first novel, "Breaking Tracks" has been accepted for publication - see Successes
12 April	Les won't be able to attend the next two Circle meetings - which means that he can't act as the post box for votes in Arthur's competition. Dick has agreed, however, to take the e-mail votes from anyone who can't attend the meeting on April 24th.  His e-mail address is:  sawdonsmith@hotmail.com
March 2012
11 March	The first entry for Arthur's Memorial Competition is here for all to read!
8 March	For those who rushed out to buy a Reading Chronicle only to find them all gone - here's Dick's write-up that you missed!
February 2012
22 February	In judging this year's One-Act play Competition, David Casals said: "The quality was, as always, very high and it was not easy to make a decision." As usual, he wrote a few lines about each of the entries, but modestly cautioned that, "like all opinions, it is just one man's point of view." And the winners were... 1^st All My Worldly Goods by Les Williams 2^ndBody in the Bath by Barbara Smith 3^rd Blood Pearl by Gerry Robinson
10 February	Elizabeth appeared on BBC Radio Berkshire today (Friday), talking about romantic places to visit in Berkshire on Valentine's Day. She was interviewed by Nicki Whiteman instead of Anne Diamond, who was held up by the snow. (What a good job John Humphrys wasn't available!) Click here to hear a recording...
January 2012
26 January	Mary has written a report of last Tuesday's meeting at which Barbara was presented with her prize for winning the first NAWG open short story competition. Click here to read it.
20 January	Jan’s play "Line Dancing" that she wrote for last year's one-act play competition, was one of the ten finalists in the national Pint-Sized Play Competition. A video was taken of its performance - and there is an excerpt on Youtube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHGS5DwDgR8
19 January	We have received a 'thank you' certificate from the Duchess of Kent Hospice in Reading, acknowledging that we have so far donated £163.76 to their funds. The money was raised by the donations for second-hand books which we have on sale at our meetings once a month.
December 2011
17 December	Congratulations to Barbara - she has won the first NAWG Open Short Story Competition with her story "Assipattle." Pam Fish, the Chairman of NAWG, will come to the Circle meeting on 24^th January to present the prize (a £250 cheque!)
14 December			The cup for member of the year 2011 was presented to Neil. Click here to read Mary's write-up of last night's Christmas meeting.
November 2011
7 November				The winner of the Guys and Ghouls competition was Neil, second was Les 1 and third was Chris. Read Dick’s write-up: HALLOWEEN TALES IN THE DARK
October 2011
8 October	Congratulations to Claudette – her play ‘A Job Application' is one of the 12 finalists in the Ovation Theatre Awards 2011. See: www.ovationtheatreawards.webs.com The play will be staged at the Ovation Awards Event at Square Chapel Centre for the Arts in Halifax, West Yorkshire, on Saturday 12th November. Good Luck!
6 October	There was a large audience last week for our Guest speaker: Mike Walker on Writing for Radio. Mike has no fewer than three Sony Awards and a Bafta to his credit as well as the Royal Television Society gold medal for an educational TV series. The list of his work is far too long to show here – visit his site. “A memorable evening with a master craftsman.” Click here for a report by Dick.
September 2011
15 September	We may not have won – but we did get a Runners-up certificate.
4 September	The news from Nottingham is not too good! Neither we nor Reading Writers won the NAWG Anthology competition. It was won by the East Dulwich Writers group. Nor was there any luck for Les in the Crime Short Story class – but he is to be congratulated on reaching the short list of the most popular of the competitions.
2 September	Congratulations to Barbara - her story The Maiden's Choice has been accepted by My Weekly. It will be published in the issue dated 24th September.
August 2011
10 August	LOCAL WRITERS’ GROUPS BATTLE IT OUT FOR TOP NATIONAL AWARD! Two writers’ groups based in Reading have both been short listed for NAWG’s annual anthology award, The Denise Robertson Trophy. Reading Writers’ entry is Another Light Raid which contains poetry, fiction and non-fiction from sixteen members. Local thriller writer Patrick Lennon has written an introduction in which he says, ‘This shows that Reading is a fine place for writers to live and it contains some of the best writing going on in Reading at present’. Thames Valley Writers Circle entry Pick and Mix has 18 pieces of prose, stories and articles, 28 poems and a Sudoku, from 19 contributors including overseas members. It has already won one national anthology award, the David St John Thomas Charitable Trust / Writers’ News award earlier in the year. The judges were especially keen on the variety of the contents and the mix of contributors, describing it as ‘originality with style’. We will have to wait until 3^rd September for the winners to be announced at the NAWG annual gala dinner in Nottingham, but if you would like to judge for yourself you can purchase the two anthologies. For Another Light Raid go to www.lulu.com/spotlight/readingwriters and for Pick and Mix e-mail Joyce
1 August	The results of this year’s Iain Pattison judged Short Story Competition are now shown on the Competitions page with a link to a write-up by Dick. My apologies for the five week delay!
July 2011
29 July	Elizabeth’s fourth Regency tale 'The Rake's Challenge' is published today. More details on her blogspot
28 July	Les has had his short story short-listed for the Yeovil Literary Awards. Is there no end to all this good news….?
28 July	The minutes of the AGM are here for all to read!
28 July	Our Anthology, Pick and Mix has been short-listed for the Denise Robertson Group Anthology Category in the Annual Writing Competition. The winner of the Silver Trophy will be announced at the Award Ceremony which takes place during the Gala Dinner 7.30pm on Saturday 3rd September at Nottingham University.
26 July					On Sale Now! The Arthur Redway Memorial competition 2011 All the entries for this year’s competition in print. Only £2.30!
16 July	Jan’s play 'Line Dancing' has been selected from the shortlist as one of the ten winners for performance at the final. Those ten will be performed (i.e. read aloud) in some pubs around Wales.  Finally, they will be read at another pub in Wales, where the audience will vote for the winner
12 July	Jan’s play “ Line Dancing “ that she wrote for this year's one-act play competition, has just been short-listed for the annual Pint-Sized Play competition. See: www.pintsizedplays.org.uk/index.php?n=2011-shortlist
9 July	The AGM will be held on Tuesday 26 July. (Click here for the agenda)
June 2011
7 June	The AGM will be held at the at the end of the summer term - either 19th or 26th July. If there are any matters you wish to have raised at the AGM, please let a member of the committee know by 29th June.
May 2011
16 May	Write your Memories - as part of the “Caversham 100 Years On” festival - a workshop to introduce you to writing Click for details
11 May	Congratulations! Today, at the Writers News annual prize-giving, our  Pick and Mix anthology won the 2010 "Anthology of the Year" award together with the "Winner of Winners" award (i.e. best of all categories Fiction, Non-fiction, Children's, etc.).
April 2011
26^th April	Once again we are proud to have Iain Pattison - author, journalist and creative writing tutor to judge our next short story competition. There is no set theme, but members have been shown six objects, and are asked to choose one object as a peg for their story. Entries will be read in June (probably over two weeks), and the winners will be announced at the end. (see Competitions) You may be interested to know that Iain is holding a week's course on short story writing in Perpigne, France from July26^th to August 2^ndDetails can be found at: www.perpigneholidays.co.uk
17^th April		Our Anthology, Pick and Mix has been short-listed for the Writers' News Anthology of the Year award! The results will be announced on Wednesday, 11^th May.
13^th April	This year's Arthur Redway Memorial Competition produced some excellent stories and most people had to debate long and hard before awarding their votes. The winners were: 1^st Chris Mundy: The Runes of Rohenna 2^nd Neil Somerville: Shhh 3^rd Sally Johnson: The Touch and our congratulations to all those who sent in an entry.
March 2011
16^rd March	In rounding off his workshop “Guest Appearances” last night, Neil showed the members present a letter sent to the Circle by Mark Le Fanu, General Secretary of the Society of Authors. The letter is very complimentary about the Circle and Barbara in particular. Read it here
6th March	Mojib will be in Waterstones in Reading on Saturday April 9^th signing copies of his novel, “A Call of Fate” which was published last month. Broad Street between 11:00 and 2:00 and in The Oracle from 2:00 to 5:00 “A Call of Fate: An adventure through the psychological maze of true-to-life, modern love and romance…”
February 2011
24^th February	Richard is having a book signing for his Oz book, In the Hot Seat, at Waterstones Broad Street on Saturday, April 2nd As this is the day before Mothering Sunday, he thinks it might be a good time for buyers looking for something for Mum! Click here to listen to his interview on 3AW (Melbourne’s talkback radio station).
19^th February	The picture shows the launch of our latest anthology 'Pick and Mix' with a presentation of a copy by Chris Mundy to the Charities Director, Mark Goff, at the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Firfty pence will be donated for every copy sold to the Robbie the Robot Appeal at the Royal Berks. Chris's husband Doug, was recently successfully treated for prostate cancer by Robbie.
17^th February	We had an enjoyable evening with some good plays and as always, a superb cast. The winners, chosen by David Casals, were: 1  Barbara with A Spell in a Cell 2  Gerry with Death on Mount Olympus
11^th February	Elizabeth was on BBC Radio Berkshire this morning (Friday) chatting with Anne Diamond about 'A romantic day out in Reading'. Click here to hear it!
8^th February	Claudette’s play “To Have or Not To Have” is being performed at The Dogstar, 389 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, SW9 8LQ (“the cornerstone of Brixton’s nightlife”) on Feb. 22, 23 and 24 at 19:30. Tickets: £6 (50p per ticket is going to Amnesty International)
January 2011
26^th January	ON SALE NOW for only £3.50! Pick and Mix - Our 2010 Anthology 50 pence from each book sold will be donated to the RBH’s “Robbie the Robot” Appeal.
25^th January	Richard will be signing copies of his book In The Hot Seat, his Aussie tale in Waterstones, Broad Street, Reading on April 2, from 10.00 am to 4.00pm. He’ll be there signing (and selling) his book and talking to anyone who is interested in Australia…
18^th January	The winner of the Homework competition was Les Williams with a tale of a school reunion. See Homework
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