Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 6, Season XVIII. By the time we’ve moved on to year 2022 and you’ve completed all the tasks set for next Alphaday we’ll be halfway through this season, our 18th. I think we’re working well as a group and benefiting from the input from such a wonderful variety of writers.
As you know we’re having a festive break to allow for the traditional celebrations that occupy us at this time of year. I wish you all a merry time with family and friends and let’s hope the year 2022 brings good news of all sorts to everybody.
In the meantime we’ve got a busy Alphaday prepared by everybody in the form of your input, and by our willing members in the form of presenting the treats of the day. It looks as follows:
Alphaday 6, Season XVIII agenda:
- This bulletin from me
- The brief for Challenge 5 from Francesca
- The collated entries for the Aristotle challenge from Stephen (already out)
- The feedback for the photo challenge from Suzanne
- Alpha Log 3 news from Phil
- A Writers Reads prompt from Christine
You’ll probably be pleased there’s an extra week to take all this in and get ready for next Alphaday. Enjoy it all!
Alpha news will be delivered by Phil today in our third Log of the season. We look forward to hear what’s happening in your writing lives.
General news: It’s Christmas and I was amused when I stumbled over a news item about a bishop who was severely reprimanded (though not exactly defrocked, I don’t think) for telling children that Santa Claus didn’t exist.
Surely it’s wrong to deprive children of a belief in a benign character whose existence is proved by multiple sightings and a full stocking on the morning of Christmas Day. What might be the effect on their trust in grown-ups?
At about the same time I also listened to a radio interview with a famous theatre director. When he was asked what he aimed for when staging a performance, he replied that he wanted to make something real that doesn’t exist. On stage King Lear is real and so is the angst in, say, Strindberg’s plays.
It made me think that maybe that’s precisely what we’re all trying to do with our writing. Whether our genre is dystopian, romance, fantasy or history doesn’t matter. What’s on the page is real even though it never existed.
Children’s imaginations supply them with stories that are as real as if they were performed on a stage. I wonder what the bishop believed in … even if it didn’t include Santa Claus.
Have a wonderful Christmas!
Christine