Alpha Bulletin 4, Season XIII.
Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 4. I hope you’re enjoying the richness and diversity of Alpha activities. There’s a lot to keep up with and we rely on our members to make it interesting and stimulating – as they never fail to do. Our special tasks team has been busy again, preparing the agenda for this Alphaday with contributions, challenges and calls for input on various themes from all of you.
You can expect the following mouth-watering treats in this day’s agenda:
- This Bulletin from me
- The results of the Literary challenge from Sue
- The collated entries for the Diary challenge from Morgen
- The brief for Challenge 4 from Rosemary
- The Log from Sally
- A Writers’ Reads prompt from Morgen
- A Showcase piece from Suzanne *
Nothing special, as you can see; just the usual for an Alphaday. But once you start biting into it, you’ll soon find yourself absorbed and eager to join in discussions of the many topics raised. Come to think of it, there may even be those who have already voiced a complaint in Sally’s Log that Alphadays can be ranked with a number of other disturbances that explain why you still haven’t finished or got round to writing your novel or whatever. That, of course, is unfortunate as our raison d’être is the exact opposite; in other words Alpha is here to motivate you to write, write, write.
* Alas! All these writers and they’ve got nothing to show us! Do have a rummage around wherever you keep you writings. Suzanne needs a plentiful stock to choose from. And we’d like to see your work and give you some feedback.
Alpha News:
We’ll say goodbye to Dianne after her brief visit back in the fold. We’d been looking forward to renew our previous acquaintance, but we all have our faults and Dianne prefers to concentrate on her writing outside Alpha. These things happen, and although it’s regrettable we wish you lots of success with your writing in the future, Dianne.
Members will be asked to remove Dianne’s name from the address list and I’ll send out a revised list of members’ names and email addresses tomorrow.
Do you remember…?
The next Alphaday is the last one before Christmas. We’re having a 4-week break for the festivities until we start again on the 12th of January 2017. There’s one very special Christmas tradition that we Alphas have been enjoying – and dreading – since times immemorial. I am, of course, referring to Olaf’s (in-)famous Christmas quiz that only mad people and geniuses can solve, and yet Alphas have been known to spend the entire holiday groaning about the clues they’ve “nearly” worked out!
I do believe there’s another one of those coming your way, Alphas. You have been warned!
General news:
Or should that be World News? Even if you’re not one of those who dutifully read the papers or watch the news to keep up with it all, you can’t have missed the strange and cataclysmic events that shook the world after our last Alphaday. It’s not even over yet. Writers of fantasy and dystopian literature all over the world have just been handed an amazing boost to their imagination that could take them to some weird and wonderful places.
I’m mentioning this because I’m working my way through an anthology of fantasy (and other odd genres) short stories that certainly conjure up some new and unusual ways of running or mastering the world with flying monsters, folded realities and titles like Heavy Metal… up at which I’d normally turn my nose.
A snob? Me? I’d protest (“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”) and claim I prefer other forms of literature and that’s my right. However, I already realised the foolishness of my aversion (sheer laziness?) when I read Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials. And it’s happening again. Some of these stories are spell-binding (!) and thought-provoking. The colourful settings are fascinating and there’s a great deal of humour around.
The point I’m trying to make has nothing to do with politics. I’m just encouraging you to give un-tasted literature a go. At least with books you’re free to return to your favourite dish afterwards. I’m pleased with my experiment.
Christine