Category: Margaret McCaffrey

American Writers Review Contest: Enter Before August 1

Buy Now, Regret Later – a literary contest

A timely reminder from Margaret that the closing date for the American Writers Review literary contest is creeping up. The theme: Buyers’ Remorse. This year’s judges come from Elwood Writers – Margaret and Barry can’t wait to read your entries. The contest closes on 1 August.

You’ve a bit longer if you want to send a regular submission to the journal: they can be sent for the editorial team to consider right up to 1 September.

If you haven’t started on a submission or even thought about it yet, there’s still plenty of time remaining. All the relevant links are in Margaret’s blog post, above.

Happy writing, and good luck!

EW

A ‘How To’ re-post for late November

How to Write a Book in Five Easy Minutes*

As we move towards December, when the end of another year will be within touching distance, I’m again feeling that time marches on faster and faster and faster. I once met someone who claimed to know the secret to slowing things down. Make a cup of tea, they said. That was it, no elaboration, and I didn’t probe. I think I see where they might have been coming from. Like the watched pot never boiling, the carefully crafted and considered cuppa never cools. Maybe.

Anyway, with time at a premium, this September post from Margaret McCaffrey seems particularly apt. Five minutes to write a book. Tell us more, Margaret. Oh, hang on, does that asterisk point the way to a disclaimer? No, apparently not, it’s marking a shout-out to the film that suggested the title for the blog post. I’m going to make a cup of coffee (I don’t like tea) and dive into the post and learn the secret to writing that five-minute book.

Nevertheless, for a few glorious moments in my quest for sightedness, I’d experienced that rare writerly feeling of accomplishment. And it had all been so easy.

Happy reading and writing and tea or coffee drinking. Or whatever your poison is.

EW

‘Waiting for Beckett’ finds a home

The Synchronicity of Submissions

Margaret McCaffrey of Elwood Writers recently posted a short piece on her website about the turn of events that led to her essay ‘Waiting for Beckett’ being published in oxygen6, the October 2023 edition of oxygen magazine (ISSN 2653-0376). Margaret’s post, linked above, makes for an interesting read about the small coincidences and chance remarks which can direct or lead us to fortunate places – it includes a link to the journal’s website, with an email address for subscription enquiries.

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.

http://www.greentreepublishing.com.au

oxygen is produced by Green Tree Publishing, a small publishing house that treads an independent path and is well worth your attention. You’ll find info about their other publications and initiatives, as well as subscription and purchase details, at their website – click here.

Small independent presses such as Green Tree Publishing bring tremendous diversity to the literary landscape and wider world – we all benefit hugely by celebrating and supporting them when and where we can, even if that means simply visiting their websites and taking an interest in what they’re up to.

Have a peaceful weekend. Happy reading.

EW

A literary gathering

On Saturday 2 December, Margaret McCaffrey hosted a small literary gathering at her home – she’d invited fellow Elwood Writers Helen McDonald and Barry Lee Thompson to join her, and to read short pieces of their work. Margaret wanted to dedicate the afternoon’s event to Elwood Writers co-founder Jennifer Bryce, who died earlier this year.

Mindful of the health and safety of her guests, Margaret kept the numbers low (and the windows open) – the event was lively and entertaining, and copies of the new edition of 20 Artists, featuring all three members of Elwood Writers, were available, hot off the press, having only been released the day before.

The readings included poetry and haiku from Helen, short fiction from Barry, and memoir from Margaret herself. Tony Thomas was invited to read from Jennifer’s body of work, and he presented a short piece from her trove of oboe-themed stories, as well as an extract from Lily Campbell’s Secret, Jenny’s debut novel. The only thing missing was Jenny, but it felt as if she were there, watching, smiling; at times, if you listened carefully, you’d swear you could hear the sounds of her beloved oboe …

At this week’s Elwood Writers meeting, the final of 2023, it was agreed that the event had been a success, and more importantly had rounded off the year in a hugely positive way. Thank you to Margaret for asking us along, and for inviting us to read from our individual work. It was clear that a lot of thought and preparation went in to the very elegant afternoon – it shone through and was much appreciated.

It’s given us a taste for public readings again, and we discussed how we might take that forward. The last Elwood Writers public soiree was held at St Kilda Library on 25 August 2018, over five years ago. Where does the time go! Perhaps it’s time to start thinking about another event in the not-too-distant future. Anyway, we’re sure to return to this topic when we reconvene in February for our first meeting of 2024.

The holidays might have begun for Elwood Writers, but this isn’t our last blog post of the year. There are one or two more to follow before 2023 is out.

For now, have a peaceful weekend.

EW

oxygen6

Congratulations to Elwood Writer Margaret McCaffrey, whose piece ‘Waiting for Beckett’ is published in the latest issue of oxygen.

Poetry can be whatever we need it to be. It can be a place of peace. It can be a place for breathing in the oxygen of new ways of looking, new ways of feeling, new ways of understanding.

from oxygen website

It’s a wonderful piece, Margaret – great to see it in print.

To find our more about Margaret’s work, visit her website, here.

Have a safe and peaceful weekend, everyone.

Happy reading.

EW

Margaret muses on writing friendship

We six friends shared our Melbourne convent days together, later taking a deep dive into the buzz of early seventies’ London. 

‘Writing Friendship’

Earlier this year, The Human Writers published a story by Elwood Writer Margaret McCaffrey about her friend Jane – or, more particularly, about her friendship with Jane. A short time later, The Human Writers asked Margaret to record an audio of ‘For Jane’ to feature on their website.

Margaret then wrote a blog post about about how ‘For Jane’ came into being. The post, ‘Writing Friendship’, takes her relationship with Jane as a focus, reflects generally on the nature and peculiarities of friendship, and is rich in wonderful observations and references about writing and friendship. Here’s a quote from sculptor Louise Bourgeois that strikes a particular chord with us:

We either die of the past or we become an artist.

Louise Bourgeois

Maybe by sitting in our spaces, clicking away at our keyboards, drinking too much coffee and occasionally fretting about how the current book or story or essay or blog post or what-have-you is faring, we can take comfort in knowing that at the very least we’re staying alive. And perhaps we might be making a friend or two along the way. And maybe that’s really all that matters.

You can read ‘Writing Friendship’ below – be sure to check out Margaret’s story ‘For Jane’ while you’re there:

 Writing Friendship

Happy reading, listening, and writing!

EW

Soldiers and Poets

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.

Anzac Day for Writers

Thanks to Margaret for sharing her experiences and thoughts on this important theme.

Peaceful reading, everyone.

EW

Margaret talks ‘procrastination’

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 Procrastination of Writers, by Margaret McCaffrey

Thanks for the reassuring words, Margaret. And happy reading to everyone!

EW

Friends Who Write, by Margaret McCaffrey

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.

A belated Happy New Year.

EW

‘Friends Who Write’ is published in the Jul/Aug 2022 issue of Working Writer (Vol. 23 No. 4).