NEWS INDEX

Free spirit Coral
Swansea writer Coral Leend whose second novel is published by Robert Hale wrote short stories for many years, selling around 80, mainly to women’s magazines, before turning to novels.

Plonk travels
Member Jacquelynn Luben has written at least 50 short stories, many shortlisted in Writers’ News, and now a novella, A Bottle of Plonk, published by Goldenford Publishers

Life ashore and afloat
When Dubliner Jimmy Logan retired in 1998 at the age of 60 he took up bridge and singing but it was another class that introduced him to a new passion: short story writing.

Champagne moment
With seven non-fiction titles under her belt, subscriber Deborah Durbin, Bristol, was keen to try her hand at fiction writing. Nine months later, Pink Flip Flops & Champagne was at the printers.

Island opportunity
Short story writer and Frome Festival literary organiser Alison Clink is still pinching herself after the recent offer of a job on the Greek island of Zakynthos where she will be helping to run a book club

Step back in time
An enthusiastic participant of the Writers’ News Talkback website discussion group, Stanley Evers, had his latest book published with the backing of his local church.

Dawn's helping hand
One year on from her first sale, Dawn Copeman has had 30 articles accepted for publication and become a contributor to two websites.

Maggie goes from strength to strength
Maggie B Dickinson features in the latest anthology published by US e-zine Absolute Write.

Campfire tales
Longtime member Maggie Craig has set up a website ‘by book lovers for book lovers’.

Star poetry
Lancashire member, Norman Johnson is fed up with prejudice against rhyming poetry.

Great writing year’
A short story win and magazine publication motivated Bradford writer, Elizabeth Hopkinson, to carry on.

Matthew at double
A relative newcomer to writing, Matthew Ravden managed to secure an agent and a two-book deal.

Fast work
Dave Haslett reveals how top writers complete a manuscript in days, rather than months or years, in his new book.

Debut tale from Pam
Good news from subscriber Pam Fudge, whose first book is to be published by Transita this April.

Magnificent seven
It is not easy to write when you live with a debilitating condition but one member has written seven ‘self help’ books since ill health forced her to give up teaching.

Crime novel hat-trick
Ex-journalist turned author, Nick Fletcher, has published his third crime novel featuring an ex-journalist turned private detective.

Poetry in print
Subscriber Carol Midwood has found a publisher for her first poetry collection, a decade after she completed it.

Stagecraft secrets
Playwrights who despair of having their work performed might well take a leaf out of Welsh subscriber Roger Pinkham’s practice and mount their work themselves.

Thrill of success
English may have been her best subject but Angela Cunningham was advised to take up farming when she left school.

The craft ark
Freelance craft writer Lynne Garner has written seven books and for twenty magazines over the past eight years but nothing prepared her for the work involved in her new venture.

Two-book deal
Children’s writer Fiona Higgins, Kent, has signed a two-book deal with a top publisher.

Workshop dates
Buckinghamshire subscriber, Jan Moran Neil, has seen life from both sides as a professional writer turned creative writing teacher.

Joy for Jeff
Since winning the WN Adult Fairy Story competition in 2004, Jeff Gardiner has had nine stories published in anthologies and magazines.

Adrienne’s Transita Home
Irish-born subscriber Adrienne Dines, 46, has found a home for her writing with a fiction imprint aimed at women aged 45 or over.

Textile tales
Writers’ News Home Study co-ordinator Rachel Bellerby has had her first book published, a history of textile mills in and around Bradford.

Ripping yarn
Liverpool children’s author Alec Sillifant, who started out with humourous picture books for little ones, has a new book out for slightly older children.

Tips on writing poetry
Subscriber Judy Karbritz hopes to demystify writing poetry with her latest book, Pots, Pans & Poetry.

Writers’ group has Internet roots
A chat on the Writers’ News website discussion area, Talkback, led to the formation of a writers’ group in Peterborough.

Tales of life
Intrepid doctor Emily Joy, aka Gail Haddock, wrote her first book, Green Oranges on Lion Mountain, about her desire to save the world, save her soul, save lives, lose weight and find a man.

Bitten by writing bug
She may not have produced anything more than a melancholic poem in her teens and early married life but subscriber Margaret Walker has certainly made up for it since.

Celebration in verse
Writers' News subscriber, freelance journalist and poet Sarah Leavesley has produced a collection of poetry to mark her sons’ thanksgiving service.

Don’t give up
If your manuscript has bounced back with a ‘thank you but no thank you’ 59 times and you feel like giving up, Leeds writer Gillian Rogerson urges you not to.

Hazel’s help in the classroom
Subscriber Hazel Bennett distils over 30 years’ classroom experience into her guidebook for teachers.

Leeds writing group
An enthusiastic amateur writer, Sara Burgess, Harrogate, made the most of her position as a bookseller to start her own writing group at the Borders branch in Birstall, near Leeds.

Final Proof
It is easy to be naive when you start trying to get your book noticed, according to WN subscriber, Debbie Edwards.

Experience of life is vital
Writers need experience of life, says long-time subscriber Sarah Pat O’Brien, whose memoir has been published by Simon & Schuster.

Lyrical venture
Although it meant taking direct responsibility for writing, production, marketing and sales of her book, and funding it herself, Beverly Maiden was undettered in self-publishing her debut poetry collection.

World of workshops
Bringing an international flavour to Members’ News, a member who divides her time between Santiago, Chile, and Toronto, Canada, writes to tell us of her foray into the world of writing workshops.

Magical memories
Another international subscriber, Pam Laird, North Shore, New Zealand, is celebrating the completion of her book after 25 years of preparation.

The Hidden Art
How are you supposed to get your children to eat the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day? ‘Quite simple,’ says subscriber Karen Bali

York Writers
Over the past 25 years, members of York Writers have seen over 1,000 items of their work in print.

The world of Charlie
Working writer and part-time creative writing tutor Patti Hales has written a string of stories, features, a full-length serial and several six-part series, all published in UK women’s magazines.

Charity booster
A short story written by Hertfordshire subscriber Matthew Cox has been published in an anthology to raise money for SightSavers International.

Fiction successes
Welsh-Canadian subscriber and established non-fiction writer Carol McCuaig allowed herself five years to try her hand at writing fiction.

Conference delights
The 25th Annual Writers’ Conference, Winchester, guaranteed a superb weekend, writes subscriber Brian Lux.

Double delight
Durham author Roz Southey celebrated a double win after hearing that one of her short stories had won two prizes at the DSJT/Writers’ News Awards

Island discoveries
Peter Breakwell’s book A Walk With Aphrodite is his account of a 450-mile charity walk to raise funds for Cyprus’s General Hospital.

Course booster
Devon writer Doreen Hughes caught the writing bug last year, planning to take her writing more seriously.

Publication finally comes true
Margaret Pelling says sometimes you have to go round the houses to discover the one thing you were put on this earth to do...

Celia's collection joy
We watch with interest the revival of the short story and were delighted to hear that Newcastle subscriber Celia Bryce, an advocate of the form, is to have her first short story collection published next month.

Football flashback
Nobody alive today in England can remember a professional football game during the 19th century and little first-hand knowledege is available about the level of skill or attitudes towards the Association game during the Victorian period.

Power of online friends
With e-mail-based writers’ group Alpha Circle completing its cycle, member Zena Grant, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, describes how important the group has been to her.

Pointing ahead
It all started for Salisbury subscriber Pam Pointer, with an article in her local church magazine but things really took off when she decided to self-publish a book of short meditation pieces, some of which had appeared in church magazines and the diocesan paper for which she writes a regular column.

Appeal to rail writers
A long-term subscriber with a track record of published articles on trains, Clem Huzzey, Stoke Heath, wondered why he doesn’t read more news from other railway writers in Writers’ News.

Debut novel for Wally
At the age of 60, Harrow member, Wally Robson, has written his first novel, not based on his own adventurous life but post-apocalyptic children’s book.

Beacon of light
Life as a lighthouse keeper was a harsh, spartan existence spent battling the elements and adhering to strict routines.

All together now
Writing can be a lonely job, according to Hampshire member, Helen Witcombe, who reached out to others ‘struggling to make it in the world of publishing’.

Bitten by writing bug
As e-mail-based writers’ group Alpha Circle nears the end of its trial year, member Sue Jones, Shavington, Cheshire, reflects on what she describes as an entirely enjoyable experience.

Initiative for youngsters
Freelance writer Chris High, a Writers’ News subscriber, has created a new writing competition with the hope of transcending borders and encouraging youngsters to engage in writing.

Motivational matters
After Diana Cambridge answered two questions about motivation in the same edition of her Helpline (Writers’ News, June), subscriber John Cosgrove, Troon, Cornwall, stumbled on another suggestion of how a writer forced himself to buckle down.

Poets at the double
Lancashire duo Just Poets, WN subscriber Norman Warwick and his writing and performing partner Pam McKee, are to feature in a Macmillan anthology after being spotted in the pages of Writers’ News.

Publishing double
We last featured author Jay Mandal, who has written over 100 short stories, in Writers’ News May 2003. Since then he has published a new book Precipice with BeWrite Books and his collection of short stories Slubberdegullion.

Love of Staffordshire
Self-publishing author Jean Wood channels a love of her Staffordshire home into her latest book, Through Rose Tinted Spectacles.

Four-book deal joy
When ex-firefighter, Tony Paul, started writing two monthly columns for the practical art magazine Leisure Painter, he had no idea that it would lead to a book deal, let alone a four-book series.

Tyke Script venture
When a journalism job went ‘belly-up’ and left Bradford scribe, Mark Cantrell, with some unexpected time on his hands, he launched Tyke Script, an open-ended anthology of writing which features examples of his work.

Poetry anthology
Richmond, North Yorkshire, grandmother, Daphne Clarke, upgraded her writing class end of term assignment into a small anthology of poems about childhood.

Dream holiday prize for Maurice
A Nottinghamshire pensioner, whose biggest previous writing success was a novel about the 1926 miners’ strike that earned him £500, won a £10,000 holiday after following up a lead in Writing Magazine.

Step back in time
The author of self-published novel The Farthing Mark, a story about a rural community on the South Downs of England set at the end of the 19th century, has a special interest in the late Victorian era and its social conventions.

Persistence is key
Undeterred by rejection, West Yorkshire member, Shirley Heaton, continued to explore new avenues for her work and was eventually rewarded with an offer of publication.

Writing from the front seat
Much of 2004 was a good year for Devon member, Margaret Powling.

Highland adventure
Highland Rebel, a historical romantic adventure novel, by Scottish author Loren Teague, now resident in New Zealand, has been contracted for publication by Whiskey Creek Press, an American publisher based in Wyoming.