The casualties of war are my specialty. As the daughter of a World War II veteran, I wanted to develop a scene from my draft memoir so that it reads as a stand-alone piece.
Margaret McCaffrey
Margaret’s essay ‘One Sacred Day’ was developed in response to a callout on The Human Writers for work on the theme of Anzac Day in Australia. The publication of ‘One Sacred Day’ on 25 April prompted her to then reflect on the nature of the eternal relationship between conflict and literature for a blog post on 22 June. Both the original piece and the blog post are well worth your time.
While spending time putting together our tribute to fellow Elwood Writer Jenny for Vision Australia Radio, creativity continues to extend in diverse directions for us all.
Helen is delighted to have her poem ‘Identity in Two Acts’ included in the latest edition of Unusual Work (#35) published by Collective Effort Press, editor πO (PiO). For more info and to find out how to order your copy of Unusual Work, just follow this link here – you will be adding your support to our vitally important small presses and publishers.
Judge Ann Bowman awarding Helen the Poet of the Month
Also, Helen was thrilled to be awarded Poet of the Month at the April Chamber Poets spoken word event held in Woodend, regional Victoria. The event was dedicated to commemorating ANZAC Day and celebrating International Haiku Day. Helen’s moving prose poem ‘The Diary’, about her grandfather’s experiences as a foot soldier in WW1, was followed by a poignant haiku – this reading encompassed both themes and clearly resonated with the audience.
We’re slowly coming to terms with the enormous loss of our very dear friend and writing colleague Jennifer Bryce, who died on 27 April.
Jennifer co-founded Elwood Writers with Barry Lee Thompson in 2007. She achieved so much in her writing career, and was published widely in Australia and overseas.
Elwood Writers soiree, St Kilda Library, 25 August 2018 (photo: Harriet Claire Tarbuck)
Jennifer has written a broad range of fiction, both historical and contemporary, spanning themes such as loss, love, grieving, war, and the environment. The strength of her vision was a key driver in the production of the Elwood Writers anthology Every Second Tuesday. 2019 saw the publication of her debut novel, Lily Campbell’s Secret, launched at Readings in Carlton by Toni Jordan. Jenny’s follow-up novel had been successfully pitched to a publishing house, and the manuscript was under consideration at the time of her death. You can read more about Jenny’s work in her bio from this website – just click on the link here.
We’re honoured to have been invited by Tim McQueen of Vision Australia Radio (VAR) to create a special tribute, and this will be broadcast in Tim’s weekly literary program Cover to Cover. We’re working on the material now, and will showcase a selection of Jenny’s finest work. We’ll record at the studios of VAR in Melbourne in July, and the tribute will air soon after that. Details to follow as soon as they’re available.
Jenny is deeply missed by all who were fortunate to know her. For us, she will forever be the beating heart of Elwood Writers.
Helen was browsing in Stoneman’s Bookroom in Castlemaine last week, and spotted something rather exciting. In the middle of the second shelf in the photo below is a copy of the Elwood Writers anthologyEvery Second Tuesday. Helen sent this pic to the group, and we ran our eyes along the shelves, absorbing the host of excellent authors whose company we’re keeping. And, thanks to the orange Transit Lounge logo on that singular green spine, we quickly spotted another reason to cheer, nestled quietly on the left of the top shelf: Barry’s Broken Rules and Other Stories. So it’s a double hooray! for Elwood Writers and its members.
Stoneman’s Bookroom, Castlemaine, Victoria (photo: Helen McDonald)
Thanks for your eagle eye, Helen, and for capturing the moment. And a huge thank you to Stoneman’s for supporting writers and writing everywhere.
In the literary world, being on the shelf is definitely a very good thing. Mind you, it’d be even better to be off the shelf and in the hands of an eager reader. Don’t forget to keep supporting your local bookshops and libraries. Especially the smaller independent booksellers who might be struggling a bit at the moment. If you want them to still be around this time next year, go and browse their shelves. And maybe take a punt on a book you might not otherwise have thought to read. Its author might turn out to be a favourite.
Whether you buy or borrow your next book, happy reading.
Back in November, Margaret wrote a very interesting blog about procrastination on her website. It’s a fresh and alternative look at an issue which is said to dog many writers. But rather than being troubled by procrastination, Margaret suggests that we might take comfort in the words of an Irish poet, and embrace or reframe the phenomenon.
… David Whyte says that procrastination for writers is really about them finding a way through. ‘Before a book can be written,’ he says, ‘most of the way it cannot be written must be tried first … in our minds, on the blank screen, on the empty page … or staring at the bedroom ceiling at four in the morning.’
The Procrastination of Writers, Margaret McCaffrey
The post concludes that procrastination is fine, maybe even necessary, as long as the writer doesn’t lose sight of the original idea that drove them to the page in the first place.
It’s well worth reading Margaret’s post in full, and you’ll find it via the following link:
‘The Americans’ – the fourth story in Broken Rules and Other Stories – is an homage to the annual summer holidays I used to take with my parents when I was growing up. We would spend two weeks every year in a seaside location, usually in the UK. For many years Bournemouth, on the south […]
Elwood Writers met yesterday for its regular fortnightly workshop, and Barry reminded us that he’s exploring the background to each story from the book in turn, which means the next under the microscope will be ‘Gray’. We look forward to hearing how this one came about.
If you’d like to read all four posts so far in this series, you’ll find them together at this link here.
Congratulations to Helen on having a selection of haiku published in a recent bumper edition of The Local. You’ll find Helen’s haiku in Local Lines on page 76 at the following link:
The Local is distributed throughout the Central Highlands including Daylesford, Hepburn, Trentham, Kyneton, Malmsbury, Lyonville, Glenlyon, Tylden, Newlyn, Blampied, Creswick, Clunes, Blackwood, Woodend – and everywhere in-between.
“In March 2016 I wrote a short blog post for the Elwood Writers website, part of a series of contributions from each group member about our various writing methods. My piece looked at some of the reasons I write short fiction, the way I write, and how I structure my working days. I revisited the […]”
Click the link below to read the rest of Barry’s post:
It’s good to know that old blog posts don’t go away, and can sometimes even be revived if they’re still relevant and interesting. There were five articles about writing methods and processes written by group members for this website in March 2016. It might be worth bringing some of the others up for air over the next few months. Something to consider and discuss at the next Elwood Writers meeting …
As writing can be the place where we humans reveal the deepest part of ourselves … having a person or people we trust to witness our process along the way is a precious gift.
from ‘Friends Who Write’.
We’re quite surprised to realise that we haven’t published a blog post since December last year, and it’s already almost March! Where does the time go? We’ve all been busy with our own individual projects, but now that the fortnightly group meetings have begun again after the summer holidays, Elwood Writers is eager to get back into the blogging swing.
And so, without further ado, let’s go. And what better way to start than with a short reflective essay that Margaret has written on writing groups and friendships, published last year in Working Writer, a bi-monthly publication from the US. In the essay, Margaret talks about her personal experience as a member of Elwood Writers: what the group means to her, and how it’s impacted her work. It’s a terrific piece, and you can read it for yourself by clicking here. We hope you enjoy it.
Now that we’re off and running, there’ll be another blog post along soon. See you there.
The Best Of Cover To Cover 2022: on Vision Australia Radio over two weeks from Monday to Friday at 1:00pm (AEST) 26 December to 6 January. That’s ten of the best episodes from this year.
We don’t know for sure which day the Elwood Writers ‘Adelaide’ program will re-air, but a little bird tells us it might be Thursday 29 December.
To avoid missing out, make this a literary holiday season and listen to all the broadcasts. What better way to transit from one year to the next than by immersing yourself in stories and the soothing sounds of spoken words.
Listening details and further info can be found at the link below:
Elwood Writers 