A Cornucopia of Books, Cakes, Angels plus a Dragon-slayer
We arrived carrying books. Lots of books – hardback, paperback, fiction, non-fiction, crime, romance, sci-fi, young adult and children’s picture books.
AWC’s fundraising second-hand book sale, a real cornucopia of literary treats donated by members, kicked off at 7 PM. Early-bird browsers had plenty of time to have a good rummage and pick out their purchases. By the time the gavel bashed the table, opening our meeting, a tidy sum of money had already been raised.
As usual, on feedback evenings, the participants split into groups of three or four people, then got down to work, reading, quietly discussing and jotting down comments about the pieces of work submitted for critique until we stopped for tea…and cake.
Oh yes…cake. Creative Carrie was selling slices of her delicious home-baking to boost club funds. Naturally, we all took advantage of the coffee break to, not only feed our faces, but scan the book table once again, just in case we’d missed a book we might fancy first time around. Yet more purchases were made.
After the break, we regrouped to offer feedback on all the submissions which included a very effective concrete poem ( a poem written in the shape of its subject), an interesting piece of family themed life writing, a fantastical short story about two angels, a historical fiction, based on fact, set during the American War of Independence, a short story with a twist in the tale, and a fantasy flash fiction about a dragon-slayer.
There was plenty for the group to discuss and learn from: ‘show don’t tell,’ alternative history fiction, story structure, the importance of good dialogue, and satisfying endings.
Speaking of satisfying endings – we finished promptly at 9.30 PM.
And we left carrying books. Lots of books……
Linda Brown