Hi Alphas,
We’re starting Alpha Season XIII today. We’ve got a lot of mileage behind us… an amazing lot, when you think about it. Right now I’m cutting the virtual Season XIII ribbon and popping the champagne bottles, and I can see the season ahead as a squeaky-clean, as yet unwritten blank page eagerly awaiting our creative talents to cram it full of writerly gems.
That’s my official opening speech. I appreciate the deafening applause that drowns out my words:
Welcome to Season XIII, Alphas!
Four months away from Alpha is a long time. I’m looking forward to your company and to getting immersed in an atmosphere where writing is our priority and our one common passion.
The main event during the break was the publication on the 1st of July of the Alpha Decade Book. It went through a two-year gestation period, but the resulting book is worth all the labour. I hope most of you have managed to get a copy – and enjoyed it.
I hope you’ve had a good break and that you’ve split the extra time equably between holidaying, writing and life generally. I look forward to that surge of motivation and inspiration once we get the Alpha season under way.
Alphaday 1 sets the ball rolling. Olaf will send out the brief for Challenge 1 and from then on there’s no stopping us.
I’ll be sending out the necessary information for this season in separate emails.
I’ve prepared the following:
- List and email addresses of Alpha members. (I’ll use the up-to-date address list for this email.)
- Calendar of dates for Season XIII
- Season XIII activities
- Notes re our challenge routine
Some of this will be familiar to most of you, but I have added and subtracted here and there, and I’d advise a read-through to refresh your memory.
Membership:
Most of you are returning after the break and I’m pleased to welcome our Alphas back and introduce you to our two new members: Dianne and Pamela. A very warm welcome to both of you!
Dianne isn’t a true newbie. Many of us remember Dianne from New Zealand who was a member for many years – and Log editor – before taking a break that somewhat exceeded the usual four months.
Welcome back, Dianne! It’s great to have you with us again.
Pamela is from Scotland. She’s a prolific writer in a wide range of genres and I’m sure we’ll benefit from her input into our activities. Welcome to Alpha, Pamela. I hope you’ll enjoy our company.
I’ll briefly introduce the rest of our group for the benefit of our new and nearly new members.
I’m Christine and I’m the group coordinator. It’s my job to make sure the whole thing hangs together and for that purpose I’m assisted by volunteers who’re in charge of various tasks. I’ve persuaded them all to send out emails to the group to present their special niches.
Olaf is the founder of the Alpha Group and he’s busy with PR and recruiting.
Rosemary is our web mistress. She’s got many other strings to her bow which I expect she’ll tell you about.
Sally, Morgen and Suzanne each have a special slot that they put together – with members’ contributions – every Alphaday. They’ll be in touch about how they want to run their slots this season.
Our rank & file members are lively contributors to everything we do. They also set challenges and join in discussions. They’re Chris, Lesley, Paul, Rose, Sarah, Stephen, Sue and Zena.
We’re a group of very different individuals with one thing in common: our passion for writing. We don’t have rules as such. We expect members to join in as much as they can in a positive spirit; show us what you can do and tell us what you think.
We’re proud of our cosmopolitan nature. At the moment the distribution is as follows:
England: 9 members
Scotland: 2
France: 2
Australia: 1
New Zealand: 1
Japan/Canada: 1
I wish you all an inspiring, productive and satisfying Alpha Season XIII.
I also wish you a very happy Equinox. Starting a new season on such a special day seems to me to augur extremely well!
Christine