This is an article published in the Winter 2017 edition of the Hayling Island U3A newsletter...
The year began well with a full complement of writers in the group. We can accommodate a maximum of eight authors due to limited space at our host's house and we had been short of two members for some time.
We now are forging ahead, sharing our writings and our opinions and thinking about new projects. At the end of November there is a Portsmouth Writers' Hub 'Dragon's Den’ event in which budding authors will be invited to pitch their novels in the making. Literary agents and editors will be in attendance and will give job offers on the day. One of our members will be taking up the invitation, so we wish her well and think she is very brave!
For our October meeting, I had invited a published author to come to talk to us. She had managed to change direction from writing non-fiction to writing novels and has been very successful. Her talk was fascinating and she was keen to hear what we were doing and listen to some our work. She recommended various digital 'tools' to help writers organise their work - one she was particularly in favour of was a programme called 'Scrivener' and she also directed us to a website called 'Literature and Latte'. We were all inspired to think more about publication.
At the moment we have two names on our waiting list but unfortunately no vacancies. I shall advertise on the website if there should be a vacancy in the future.
Maggi Bridgman