Edinburgh Writers' Club

Programme 2011-12

Our opening speaker is Glasgow crime novelist Alex Gray. The chance to fulfill Alex’s long-held ambition to write came when illness forced her to give up teaching English. She joined a writers’ workshop and is still an enthusiastic participant. ‘I wrote a crime novel because I like to read them,’ she says. Now she has published eight novels featuring DCI Lorimer ‘the most dynamic Scottish detective since Rebus’ and evoking Glasgow from the grandeur of the university tower to the gritty reality of the backstreets.
Her latest title is Sleep Like the Dead.

As well as writing for the National Theatre of Scotland, Edinburgh-based playwright and director Zinnie has written for the National Theatre, London,
the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Court. Her work includes Solstice (2005), Midwinter (2004), The Chain Play (2001) and Further than the Furthest Thing (2000). She also writes for BBC’s Spooks.

As a child, Alison was fascinated by the Shipping Hall and Lighthouse Gallery in the Royal Museum, Chambers Street, Edinburgh, little knowing that one day she would be responsible for the material in it. Now Principal Curator, Historic Scientific Instruments and Photography, at National Museums Scotland, she drew on the Museum’s archives, and on the artefacts themselves (some of which were donated by the Stevenson family of engineers) to write Northern Lights: the Age of Scottish Lighthouses, published to celebrate the 200th anniversary this year of the building of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. She will talk about writing and researching Northern Lights.

Deadline for the Poetry Competition (no theme; 40 lines max, 2 entries allowed)

From Love Poems to Bus Passes. Come on a journey with Stewart Campbell following in Boswell’s steps – by bus – and taking in the love poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson along the way. Stuart Campbell has worked as an English teacher, advisor, communications lecturer, education manager, and is now a mental health trainer. He has published two books, Boswell’s Bus Pass and RLS in Love, and has also written for the Guardian and for Scottish Book Collector.

Deadline for Drama Competition (one-act play, or Act 1 20-55 minutes, 2 entries allowed)

Dennis has been a teacher, a joiner’s labourer and, in his youth, a chicken catcher. Nowadays he’s too old to catch chickens and too wise to be a teacher. He has been a columnist for the Scotsman and is currently in psychiatry – on the nursing side. He has had two collections of poetry published by Curly Snake Press – Two Clocks Ticking (Winner of the Saltire First Book Award 1997) and Smoke & Mirrors (2003).

John has had a long and distinguished career in broadcasting and theatre. He was nominated best actor by The Stage in 1995 for The Bloody Heart, a play about King James II. He has played Robert Louis Stevenson across the world from Edinburgh, the Cevennes, San Francisco and Samoa. John was especially proud to be involved in Home, the award-winning production which successfully launched the National Theatre of Scotland in March 2006, in Lerwick, Shetland, his birthplace.

Deadline for General Article competition (no theme, max 1200 words, 2 entries allowed)

Venue to be confirmed. Food, wine and raffle - a chance to get to know one another.

Keith Charters is the author of the enormously popular ‘Lee’ books for young readers, published by East-Kilbride-based Strident. He is a frequently requested presenter, usually visiting over 150 schools throughout the UK and Ireland every year. One memorable event saw 1500 schoolchildren attend a launch over two days. His latest book is Lee on the Dark Side of the Moon.   

Olga has been a journalist since graduating from the University of Aberdeen. She began her career with the Aberdeen Evening Express before becoming the first Scottish correspondent for the Times Higher Education Supplement. She was Scottish editor for 19 years before going freelance in 2009. 

Deadline for General Short Story competition (max 3000 words, 1 entry only)

Bring work-in-progress: a poem; a scene from a drama; a short story (up to 2000 words); a scene from a novel (up to 2000 words). No identification. Pin a blank sheet of A4 to the front for other members to write their comments. Also bring one piece of Flash Fiction, up to 150 words, on the theme of Crime. These will be read out after the break. Members will vote for their first, second and third favourites anonymously and small prizes will be presented on the evening. This was a popular event last year, with 19 flash fiction entries.

Jill is a mother of two bouncing boys - her main day job! - but at night, she puts on her fiction hat and turns all editorial. She has been fiction editor of The Weekly News for eleven years now, a job that kind of crept up on her, but it's a path and adventure she’s keen to continue with. The Weekly News is described by DC Thomson as ‘a unique publication which bridges the gap between local newspapers, Sunday tabloids and women’s weeklies’. It has a circulation of around 45,000 copies. Three stories are published in each edition.

Deadline for children's story competition (age 9-12, max 1000 words, 2 entries allowed)

Alex is an experienced freelance voice coach, specialising in accents and dialects for film, television and theatre. She also does voice coaching for pre/post production work and preparation for auditions; and has worked with authors before their appearance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. This workshop aims to help authors to read and perform their own work in front of an audience.

Genre night, hosted by EWC committee members. Bring several copies of pieces you wish to work on (short story, children’s story, poem, part of a novel, article).

Deadline for Adult Novel Competition: Synopsis plus first 10,000 words, 1 entry allowed. Any theme.

Aileen is a writer and illustrator, best known for her series of books about Maisie the kitten, beginning with Maisie Comes to Morningside. Maisie has fans all over the world – as a reviewer on Amazon said: ‘Every child should know who Maisie the Cat is, and what she got up to in her childhood in Edinburgh!’ Several Maisie stories were turned into an animated series called Meeow starring Stanley Baxter.

Readings by members, 5  minute pieces, always an entertaining evening.  Bring along a poem or extract from  story/novel/article – perhaps  one  that has been placed in an EWC competition  but not previously read out.

Montrose-based Chris Longmuir is a short story and article writer as well as a novelist. Her first novel The Death Game was one of the twenty winners of the international Crème de la Crime competition for unpublished crime writers. In 2009 she won the Dundee International Book Prize with her crime novel Dead Wood. The Night Watcher, another crime novel, which won the Pitlochry Award at the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference in 2001, is now available on Kindle, as is a historical saga A Salt Splashed Cradle.