{"id":78,"date":"2016-08-21T21:03:07","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T21:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nethergatewriters.org\/?p=78"},"modified":"2021-03-12T10:54:15","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T10:54:15","slug":"wittering-from-the-webmaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nethergatewriters.com\/?p=78","title":{"rendered":"Wittering from the Webmaster – 17th August 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our chair, David Carson, was on holiday and couldn’t make this week’s meeting, so it’s up to me to provide the notes this time.<\/em><\/p>\n

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David wasn’t the only one who couldn’t make it along on a fine summer’s night – but there were seven of us who did. I’ll resist the urge to compare us to Snow White’s dwarfs though, mainly to avoid having to decide which of us is Dopey!<\/p>\n

Abby was in the chair, and there were a lot of items to discuss on the agenda she’d drawn up. In business following on from our last meeting, Roddie indicated that he would be in touch with Dundee Literary Festival towards the end of the year to discuss our participation for 2017, and we also discussed how many of us had already signed up for the University’s evening classes for the upcoming year. Rosie indicated that she had been in touch with the Scottish Association of Writers and is awaiting word back, and Aileen volunteered to look into the possibility of a place at the Ex Libris Book Fair.<\/p>\n

We then discussed possible content and design ideas for our advertising flyer, with emphasis on what the purpose was – was it to attract new members, or to publicise the work of our existing group? Other suggestions for types of promotion were things like bookmarks and beermats containing extracts of our writing. Separately, the idea of a podcast containing readings was also raised.<\/p>\n

Abby also raised the idea of using prompts to produce small pieces of writing during our meetings. This could help to produce items for the website, and was also discussed as possibly being of use if we were able to secure a place at one of the upcoming Petcha Kutcha nights. Abby has contacted the organisers and is waiting for a response.<\/p>\n

For the second half of the night, we moved on to discussing the work which people had sent round. Roddie had submitted two poems, the first of which was ‘A Dance Called America.’ Inspired by his reading of the book of the same name by James Hunter, it reflected upon the Highland Clearances, the genocide of the Native Americans and how the displacement of people around the world continues into the present day. It was enjoyed by all, and lead to some interesting topical discussions.<\/p>\n

My own piece, Behind Closed Doors, was next. A study of domestic abuse, it’s still a work in progress, but the first part received the response ‘That was horrible – but I mean that as a compliment!’.<\/p>\n

Rosie then read her two 50 Word Stories for the Scottish Book Trust’s monthly competition. The first was from the point of view of a modern mobile phone, lamenting the fact that was rarely called upon to do anything as simple as make a telephone call. The second highlighted the danger of missing out on things in the real world by being too distracted by your phone. Both raised some smiles, and Rosie has decided to submit the second for the competition.<\/p>\n

Abby’s ‘Jam’ has been a long time in the making, possibly longer than the brambles for the jam making process so concisely yet eloquently described in this short poem that we all liked very much. Abby is considering it for submission to Zoe’s ‘Journeys’ web project.<\/p>\n

We finished up with ‘The Neurons and The Tay’, Roddie’s wine-assisted reflections on the river that pervades so much of life here in Dundee, and it was well received. Roddie had included footnotes for some of the technical terms, but it was thought these may not be necessary, instead leaving the reader the joy of discovering these for themselves.<\/p>\n

David will be on holiday again next time, so it’s Roddie’s turn in the chair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our chair, David Carson, was on holiday and couldn’t make this week’s meeting, so it’s up to me to provide the notes this time. David wasn’t the only one who couldn’t make it along on a fine summer’s night – but there were seven of us who did. I’ll resist the urge to compare us… Read More »Wittering from the Webmaster – 17th August 2016<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meeting-archive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t