Alpha Bulletin 5, Season XIII.
Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 5, the last Alphaday of 2016. It’s that time of year when there’s too much clamouring for attention, and we Alphas try to sneak off for the more important things every now and then… like keeping up with our writing and getting ready for the next Alphaday.
As usual you’ve been busy supplying writerly goodies for us to share today… that’ll be our Alpha pre-Christmas stocking (surprisingly acceptable to all and sundry incl. Wiccans, Druids, Heretics and radicalised agnostics!) bulging with goodies and so irresistible that we’ll open them all today.
Here’s today’s agenda:
This Bulletin from me
- The results of the Diary challenge from Morgen
- The collated entries for the Novel Synopsis from Rosemary
- The brief for Challenge 5 from Christine
- A Writers’ Reads prompt from Morgen
- The Log from Sally
- A Showcase piece from Suzanne (fingers crossed!)
- The Alpha Christmas Quiz from Olaf
As you can see, there’s a once-a-year item on the agenda today. Olaf has concocted yet another delightful / fiendish Christmas Quiz for us to enjoy getting our teeth into… or tearing our hair out over. He’ll explain that there’s a Leaderboard point for the winner.
In the meantime Olaf and the special tasks team and the rest of the group for their challenge entries, comments and other contributions deserve a round of applause. Thank you all!
Alpha News:
We are pleased to welcome Steve into our group. Steve lives in Michigan in the cold and blizzardy north of the US. He has a variety of writings on the go and is looking forward to getting involved in our Alpha activities, just as we’re looking forward to getting to know him through his input.
Of course we now have to make a careful distinction between Steve, our new member, and Stephen, who’s by now one of our stalwarts. With a bit of attention, that shouldn’t cause any problems.
Sadly, we’ll have to say goodbye to Pamela. Reading through her schedule of projects for the coming year I fully understand that she needs all the time she can muster – and more – to cope with it all.
We enjoyed your input while you were with us, Pamela, and wish you all the best with your exciting plans for the future.
Steve is included in the address list I’m using for this bulletin. I will also (again) issue a fully updated membership list which I’ll send out separately. Please, could you all make the necessary adjustments.
Other than that I need to remind you that if you check your Alpha Calendar, you’ll see that we’re having a four-week break for the festive season. We’ll stay in touch as I haven’t a clue about how to ‘lock the office door’ and we have plenty to discuss until Alphaday 6 on the 12th of January 2017.
General News:
The solstice will happen on the 21st of December. That’s good news for those of us who live in the northern hemisphere and who long for the days to lengthen. If you don’t live too close to the arctic circle in the southern hemisphere, you may not consider it too upsetting for your life style.
The solstice is celebrated by most of us in the course of the festive season. It takes many forms, some of them with traditional religious celebrations that are deeply rooted in our culture. Whichever way you celebrate, I hope you have an enjoyable festive season.
Christine