Writers Train

WATCH THIS SPACE.

This will be a whopper of an event and not one to be missed. So get your glad rags out and be part of an event that will be a hoot.

QWC is delivering the 2009 Writers Train as a component of the Q150 Steam Train which will be leaving Townsville on 2 June and heading out on the Inlander Line to Mount Isa. This Writers Train is a tribute to the original Writers Train which travelled throughout Queensland in 1990 with authors such as Tim Winton, Janet Turner-Hospital and Nick Earls. We aim to connect, share and engage with people within each regional centre and will be posting a digital journal of the trip on ABC's Radio National social networking site, pool.org.au.

More info can be found on the QWC website:

http://qwc.asn.au/ProgramsEvents/Programs/Q150WritersTrain.aspx

We have programmed three authors who will be delivering author talks, schools presentations or readings in each town. The authors are:

Matthew Condon, currently a feature writer with the Courier Mail's QWeekend Magazine and well-known author. Matt's most recent bio can be found here: http://www.randomhouse.com.au/Books/Default.aspx?Page=Book&ID=9781740510325

Gregory Rogers, an award winning children's book author and illustrator. More information on Greg can be found here: http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=312&author=230 and here http://margaretconnolly.com/?p=654

And Belinda Jeffrey. Belinda's first book, Brown Skin Blue, will actually be published through UQP on 1 June so your dinner will be her launch celebration! More information on the book can be found here http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780702237133

Here is the new Logo. Wits held the competition and Kerry Ashwin was the winner. Her logo was enhanced by Lynn Scott-cummings with the Gecko. If you think of the tenacity, stick-ability, and sheer luck of a gecko on the ceiling you get the idea that a writer looks at life from a different angle and has that lasting effect! Be prepared to see the logo on all our correspondence, and soon to be anounced merchandise.

Presidents report.

AGM PRESIDENT’S REPORT

A special thank you to all members; WITS would not exist without you to share your writing along with your hopes and dreams. To those of you who’ve had other commitments that have kept you from joining us on a Wednesday night, feel free to email what you are working on or have completed and we can read it out for you at a meeting or just offer comment if that is what you choose. Or simply keep us up with what you’re doing by sending a post to the blog site.
Once upon a time back in the good old days, writer’s groups were just that- a bunch of people who got together to share their work and ideas. Now the threat of litigation has seen incorporation become an essential part of NFP organizations. It is part of the role of committee to ensure that as a body we have procedures in place to offer protection. Like it or not this is the 21st century and we have to take the bad with the good.
I’m pointing out the obvious here but I think we all need to recognize that committee positions are honorary and that we are all firstly writers. We have volunteered to keep things running smoothly and at the same time make sure that WITS provides its members with every opportunity to be as good and successful a writer as you can be, but your help and support makes the job so much easier. Each person who has served on the committee over the years has contributed to what we are today.
I would like to offer special recognition to the committee members who stepped into the breech last November. With the support of the two remaining committee members we have achieved a lot in a very short time.

THE COMMITTEE FOR 2009-2010

PRESIDENT: LORI HURST
VICE-PRESIDENT NIKESH MURALI
TREASURER STEPHEN RYAN
SECRETARY PETER HURST
NEWS EDITOR KERRY ASHWIN

Welcome to the committee Nikesh and Stephen. Kerry Ashwin has simply swapped hats.
The news editor’s job is an especially important one. Kerry Parke did a brilliant job on the newsletter for three years and was there at the initial creation of our blog site. (I believe she is now attending blogaholics anonymous) . A’Mhara, who is an absolute whiz, took over the site and added her own special blend of expertise and creativity. A’Mhara thanks so much for all the time and effort you put in. Job well done. Maintaining the blog site, which has become the face of WITS, in a professional way, takes skill and dedication and Kerry Ashwin will manage it beautifully. The blog will be the means through which WITS not only keeps members in touch with what we are planning and have achieved, it is also a national pipeline.

WE WANT YOU TO BE PROUD TO SAY I AM A MEMBER OF WITS, A PRESTIGOUS WRITER’S ORGANIZATION.

In the coming year we aim to use the pool of talent available through WITS to go from strength to strength.
Looking back over the past few months:
From Justine Wilkinson’s Strategic Planning Workshop our Action Plan has evolved. Thank you Peter for all your efforts in getting the initial ideas into ordered form. Nikesh has already set up an Events Calendar and we have an exciting year ahead. We will also continue with our knowledge sharing workshops which have proved such a success.
Sylvia Kelso’s Fabulous February Fantasy workshop was just that: Fabulous.
The Chronicles of T’ville, has been published as an e-book. If you have not yet downloaded and read the anthology it is well worth making the effort. The Professionalism and talent displayed by the writers involved has certainly helped to raise WITS profile.
NOWRIMO – WITS novel writing month is progressing nicely.
Congratulations. To all those who have accomplished great things in the past year, I’m not about to list them- Congratulations.
A writer’s life is depicted as isolated and lonely, but for most of us writing is part of who we are. So I say to you on those days when you are convinced that you should take up knitting or go dig a deep hole and sit in it, take heart you are not alone. Your writing buddies are here for you. Just knowing that, makes the road a lot less lonely.

Lori

Annual General Meeting

WITS invites all members and prospective members to the AGM on Wednesday April 8th

SAME TIME - SAME PLACE
RIVERSIDE GARDENS - 7.30PM

NOMINATIONS:

PRESIDENT - Lori Hurst
VICE PRESIDENT - Nikesh Murali
SECRETARY - Peter Hurst
TREASURER - Stephen Ryan
MEMBERS INFORMATION -

As well as the all important election of Office Bearers, this will be a social night. A chance to get together and chat informally. If you have a piece of writing or exciting news that cannot wait to be shared, the floor is yours. (Please limit to ten minutes)

Come along and raise a glass to all the successes of the past year and in anticipation of what this coming year will bring.

If you can, please bring a plate of nibbles to share. WITS will provide drinks.

Specusphere

The Specusphere is a hub of interaction between writers, artists, fans, publishers, producers and thinkers who have a passion for speculative fiction in Australia. Speculative fiction encompasses fantasy, science fiction, horror, magic realism and more.

The Specusphere webzine includes essays, thoughts and experiences on and about spec fiction, interviews with authors, short fiction, poetry, reviews and articles on writing, editing and publishing.
Click here to read Webzine #06 or here to find out how you can submit to Specusphere.

The Tide of Life

The life of man can be explained, it seems

as being similar to a tide and the sea.

A parallel can be drawn, this means,

between the oceans of the world, and me.

Life starts out with the infant's first breath

As the new tide starts with water's turn

Building life slowly so far from death

Experience and knowledge, so much to learn

With boundless enthusiasm of the child,

Tide rushes into each entrance and shore.

Investigating and analysing each feature un-filed.

Swirling and twirling, searching for more.

Turbulence and trauma of the growing inrush,

Restless adolescence changing the score.

Rationality and reason abandoned, faces aflush.

Waves, bursting and breaking over rocky shores.

Quietly flowing into spaces, seeking involvement.

Adulthood arrives providing welcome relief.

Nature and relationships and total commitment

Expanses and environs filling, contacts less brief.

Romance and marriage top the agenda

Hugging the earth with love's sweet embrace

Clinging to each shoreline, feature of splendour

Wherever the seawaters swirl, rip and race

With maturity comes Man's ultimate perfection

The tide is now high and peaks at its crest

Traffic is busy, ships and boats coming and going

Swimmers and surfers there's no time to rest.

Life seems so busy with tide at high levels

Endless responsibilities pulling all ways.

Constant demand and pressure dishevels

No sign of relief at this time of day.

With the tide turning to the outward repletion,

Time to reflect on achievements now past.

Retracting waters revealing jobs completion.

Exposing the tide's efforts, time racing so fast.

The end is in view, tide ready to change

Time to review the efforts now done

A measure of tide's success to arrange

How does it justify the race it has run?

Life cycle is completed and now looking back

All that is left of our tides mighty furore

Is a single line printed in a used Almanac

And smooth damp sand on a forgotten shore.

So think about your one and only life tide

And how you will live it on god's sweet earth

Don't waste a minute of the gift of the ride

And think on how you will judge life's worth.

By Peter Hurst

WITS NoWriMo - Plotting & Research

If you're participating in the WITS NoWriMo challenge in April (or even if you're not), the following links to articles on plotting and research might prove useful:

• Your Novel Blueprint - by Karen S. Wiesner
• Plot Planner Exercise - Writer's Digest
• Plotting your Novel - by Stella Cameron
• How to plot your novel from start to finish - by Callan Souza
• Plotting your Novel - Creative Portal
• 8 ways Research can Kill your Novel - by Lisa Gardner
• Research that Novel - by John T. Jones
• Starting your Research - by Cybele (there is a great list of links on this page)

Remember Witties, if you would like to participate in WITS NoWriMo your time is running out to sign up. Just send an email to witsnq@gmail.com or have a chat to us at Wednesdays meeting.

10th Anniversary National Playwright Competition 2009

Are you a budding playwright? Dust off that old play you've had sitting in your bottom drawer or whip up a new one, because the Boroondara Theatre Company wants you to enter their National Playwright Competition.
There are no restrictions on topic, theme, gender or basis of play and entries can be lodged at any time up until the 30th June 2009.
Go to the Baroonda Theatre Company website for more information.

LiNQ 40th Anniversary Celebrations

The James Cook University, School of Arts and Social Sciences invites you to attend the 40th Anniversary Celebrations of the Literature in North Queensland (LiNQ) journal.

March 20th, 12.30pm - 1.30pm

Click on the image above for more information or email lindsay.simpson@jcu.edu.au

Meet the President

A bi-monthly report from WITS President Lori Hurst

Some dedicated souls no doubt wrote on regardless during the Christmas break, but for the rest of us mere mortals our first WITS meeting for the year was an oasis, after the barren weeks of non-writing.

Kerry Ashwin & Nikesh Muralli gave us a kick start with a mini workshop on the nuts & bolts of writing, editing & publishing. Writer’s groups offer a good dose of reinforcement, motivation, encouragement & inspiration but then each of us as individuals has to provide the dedication.

Our thanks to Justine Wilkinson from Townsville City Council, for making the time to...

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