Network News: Central North

The critique group

Normally news of us comes from Liz Miller and will continue to do so. However, the dates of our critique groups have fallen all wrong for her just lately so this is a quick fill-in from Gill Hutchison.
I don’t want you to think that here at Central North we don’t take our writing seriously – we do. However, we’re all in various stages of recovery from our meeting on September 28th; a stunningly ribald crit group considering we were within the hallowed walls of the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. Why? 

Well, our leader and guru Addy Farmer had accidentally managed to pen something along the lines of 50 Shades of Grey meets Little House on the Prairie. Should we mention our “minor reservations” with the activities of the characters, or should we not? Of course we did! Our wonderful Addy was soon rolling in the aisles with the rest of us. She could afford to - having also invented an other-worldly villainess who is clearly the love-child of Lord Voldemort and Miss Trunchbull, only spookier, she was still onto a winner.

Sobriety returns!

We were brought back to sobriety by our first taste of the wonderfully polished and lyrical prose of Brian Gray (publ: King Midas and Other Tales) in “Unsung Moon”, and by our very own flower child, Norah Pellatt with one of her Blam! Splat! off-the-wall offerings “Why has my dog got horns?”
However, it was a memorable meeting, ranking up there with the one where Suzanne and her husband had spent half an hour wrestling on their front room carpet “helping” Sam Hawksmoor (The Repossession) to determine whether it is in fact possible to shoot yourself through the head with a double-barrelled shotgun whilst being attacked by a Rhodesian ridgeback...
Our final two meetings of 2013 are on October 12th and November 16th also at the Museum of Lincolnshire Life. We have a crit slot up for grabs at each of these meeting, so if anyone out there likes the sound of us, please make contact!

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 Gill joined SCBWI in February 2006

Her contribution to the world of writing up to that point had been yearly school shows, press reports for my sport of tenpin bowling and songs for her comedy folk band.

Gill enjoys everything about SCBWI, from the critiques and workshops to the friendship and support within our Central North group – and of course the wisdom of guru, Addy. She won Sarah Frost’s July 2013 “Slushpile Challenge” with “My Mum’s bigger than your Mum”.