The Writers' Group introduction thread.

[mikomi]

Hello everyone.

 

I was a very late starter to reading books ,i never had the time or patience to read one and it was only due to illness and my wife getting fed up with me

moaning about being bored that she went out and bought me the Kray Twins biography and i was hooked.Writing was something totally different i used to write short stories for /with my young sons and then let them fill missing bits ,alas computers came along .

 

I write about anything that comes to mind and at the moment i am having a go at writing a sitcom which is along the lines of Last of the summer wine ,why mainly because of the shows innocence and is probably one of TVs sitcom classics's.I look forward to the grand opening i am sure it will be fun .

[hockeybear]

Hi, I can't remember a time when I didn't have a book to read. The first ones I recall were the famous five and secret seven books, I could lose myself in the pages and I was there, a part of the adventure. Later I moved on to comedy, Peter Tinniswood, Spike Milligan etc. Now almost all of the fiction I read are horror, my favorites being James Herbert and Laurell K Hamilton.

I have never had any interest in the "classics", I find them written in a language that isn't relevant to the age in which we live, the storys are good as I enjoy the tv adaptations of Dickens, I just cannot read the book. As for writing, the only thing I have written is a shopping list but I liked making up silly stories for my daughter at bedtime and so yes I want to give it a go and with everybodys advice and critisism maybe I could produce something worth reading.

Dave..

[redrobbo]

It's long overdue - and to be honest, there's very little time left now following the recent announcement that Sue Lawley is leaving the programme! Although I am still debating what my 8 records will be, when she does eventually find the time to ring me, I do know what book I want to read on my desert island!

 

Back in 1963, it was a difficult book to read, especially for a lad of 14. I'd had a rudimentary secondary school education, and was about to leave school with no academic qualifications. I wasn't a member of the village library - that building was not somewhere my parents ever thought to encourage me to visit or join. No, it was a book I found in the school library. It wasn't even fiction. Maybe that's why I found it hard to read. But I persevered. I finished reading the book, and just after my 15th. birthday, I also finished my schooling, and started work in a dead end job.

 

When the first general election of 1964 was declared, my old Sunday school teacher encouraged me to go to the old school hall and listen to the hustings, where I heard this man speak. His name was Trevor Park. He was the Labour candidate for South-East Derbyshire, my home area. He talked about his vision of a society where we continued learning long after our formal schooling. He spoke of a society which cherished reading and the acquisition of knowledge. He talked of a generation of post-war children who were being consigned to marginal employment due to a lack of educational qualifications. Trevor, I realised, was speaking about me.

 

I was both enthused and confused. I was one of the village thickies. I'd failed my 11+. I hadn't gone to grammar school. My Dad had told me he wasn't letting me go down the pit as he'd done when he'd left school, and so I'd got a clerical job, and my parents were proud of me. But, there was this nagging doubt. After all, I'd read this book. I'd read this book and I'd understood it. It was all about pollution, and how small particles of poison get washed into the sea, and how fish eat these minute particles, and store them in their bodies. Then how men catch the fish, eat them, and become ill. It had big words in it, but I had understood it. Was I that thick after all? There was only one way to find out. I enrolled for night school GCEs.

 

I cycled the 7 miles straight from work to college a couple of nights a week, where I was introduced to a world of Dickens, Bronte, Shakespeare and even poetry for a year. I started visiting theatres in Nottingham and Derby and saw plays. I even joined the village library. I got my first GCE after a year of studying, and at 16, I joined the Labour Party.

 

Five years later, I'd accumulated enough 'O' & 'A' levels from night school classes to go to college full time. Later still I undertook a mature training course and qualified as a social worker.

 

Trevor died a few years ago. I came across his obituary in The Guardian. He was my inspiration. He had galvanised me to achieve better things for myself. But a book had first helped me to understand the world a little better, and to help me realise that I was capable of learning and advancing myself. So when Ms Lawley finally makes that telephone call, I'm going to be ship-wrecked with "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson.

 

I eventually became a social work manager, though no longer working due to ill health problems. I'm now 58, and in the last 3 years I've twice been elected to the city council. No guesses for which political party, but I like to think that Trevor would have been proud of redrobbo.

 

Got to go now folks as the phone is ringing. You never know......it could be Sue!

[Guest]

I've always loved books and libraries. Some of my very earliest memories involve my mum taking me to the children's section, upstairs at Park library. I think I still have the little cardboard tickets somewhere back at home.

 

I'm a compulsive book hoarder, reader and occasional writer. The subject matter is varied, though I do freely admit to hoovering up the low-brow stuff such as Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs et al. I adore crime fiction; my book shelves are heaving with Agatha Christie's works, along with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin and Reginald Hill.

 

At the moment, I'm re-reading 'Wuthering Heights' and (yet again) 'Greenwitch' by Susan Cooper. Next on the list will be 'The Smile of a Ghost' by Phil Rickman, which I've been intending to read for ages.

 

As for the writing... it goes in fits and starts. Lately, I've been reading more about how to write, rather than getting down to the writing itself. I tend to write for children, though I have been known to dabble in other genres. Not many folk have seen what I write. I'm not too sure how I'll take to the prospect of fellow forumers scrutinizing it either. Maybe I'll be an interested observer for a while...

[NEKRO138]

Hi, my name is Nekro138. After leaving uni, me and some mates were going to start a film production company, not for a job, just for fun. After getting a decent job, I couldn't find the time to shoot stuff anymore, so I had some weird scripts that never got used. I am going to make some of these into short stories for this group. My stuff is mostly comedy horror. Or just comedy. Or just horror! I love reading short stories. Stephen King's are very good. I like the Graveyard Shift and Skeleton Crew books.

[Sir_Nigel]

So how does this work then? Do we just start a new thread with each piece? Will there be a categories for different genres? Do people want constructive feedback? Can we post stuff now?

[shoeshine]

So how does this work then? Do we just start a new thread with each piece? Will there be a categories for different genres? Do people want constructive feedback? Can we post stuff now?

 

At this moment Wheezy, the exact format has not been ascertained. I am not too familiar with the software used on this Forum, but I know someone who is and I will seek clarification regarding use of Threads etc.

 

Some may wish to have constructive feedback, others may not.

 

Please do not upload work to the site at the moment. All will become clear within the next few days, after the main parameters have been determined and the final software has been put in place here...then it's "off we go".

 

I intend to start a new Thread on here later today asking Group Members to assist peterw and myself by inputting their ideas/preferences on various matters.

 

Meanwhile, since you are new to Sheffield Forum, would you like to tell us all a bit about yourself (excluding personal information of course) on this thread and your own interests/preferences in literature?

[cosywolf]

My turn!

 

Reading: I could say so much, it would bore you to death. Suffice it to say my house is made of books, I read them by the armful, and if nothing else is available I will read the back of the toothpaste/shampoo packaging (for the millionth time - or failing that, my husband's FHM, dear lord...).

 

Writing: Ummm...I bought a laptop 2 years ago, scrimped and saved and didn't eat, lol. To this day I think my husband wonders if it comes before him in the family heirarchy (I refuse to say, on the grounds I'm currently happily married and would like to stay that way ). I got it to replace the four hundred and fifty million notebooks full of writing I was running out of space for/losing/misplacing/having trouble editing. I started aged....no idea, and have never stopped since, lol.

My head is constantly full of stories and characters, they plague and harass me, keep me awake, jump out and insist on being dealt with when there are far more important things to do. On the plus side, I'm rarely bored;).

 

However: I have always been intensely private about my writing, keep the stories for myself, don't bother trying to please anyone else...it's my own personal library inside my head, after all. So I reckon I'll start with some stuff I did as an English degree student one hundred thousand years ago, and see where we go from there.

I'm really, really looking forward to reading other people's work, I'm sure it'll be a great atmosphere here, supportive and bursting with creativity.

[buck]

Computers seem to have a mind of their own, and only get worse the more you update them. I was well into a discourse on myself when this one decided I'd said enough. It's bad enough when the microwave beeps at you because you didnt remove the melted ham and cheese sandwich on time, but this is beyond civility.

Anyway to finish what I was saying, I, like some of you, was born in Sheffield which had and I hope still has one of the best public library systems in the country. Nearly as good as it's wealth of indoor swimming pools, but that's another story. I joined the navy at 17, and served for 18 years. After I left the service in 1968, I lived back in Sheffield for a couple of years until itchy feet on both my wife and I put us aboard a BA Boeing 707 bound for Montreal. To cut a long story short I have been "over here" ever since.

My travels have taken me to a very big chunk of the earth, most of it at other people's expense. I've experienced hurricanes, two earthquakes, blizzards, a tornado, and combat in Korea and Egypt, as well as a fire that destroyed my apartment. So the biggest problem for me is what to write about. It may be fiction or reality but it is likely to be somewhat autobiograaphical, cos thats what I know best

[pattricia]

My favourite author is Allan Bennett.(Have I spelt that right?) Thats the only trouble with joining a writing group , I think we will have to watch our spelling more.! Ive always read,as a child I read "under the covers" of my bed,as we couldnt afford to have the light on too long.Cant ever remember being bought books, only "The Dandy" and "The Beano" which we absolutely loved.I dont read much these days(as I havent got the patience)but I read a lot of neswpapers, and Sunday supplements,which give you an overall look at the world.I love writing letters,and used to go to a writing group at Stannington College.I think this is ideal,the way,Joep, and Shoe have set this all up, and its right that we should all post about each other like this while we "feel the ground"