Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 9. Spring has definitely sprung here in the northern hemisphere, and those of you who’re not part of it, I think, are missing out on this feeling that everything is accelerating… including the Alpha season. There’s so much going on, so many matters germinating in this propitious atmosphere that we need to pay attention to so that our writing can reap the full benefits.
Today’s agenda is as rich and varied as ever, as follows:
- This bulletin from me
- The Log from Margie
- The results of the dictionary entries from Rosemary
- The collated entries for the dialogue challenge from Suzanne
- The brief for Challenge 9 from Clare
- The ever growing list of showcase pieces, also from Clare.
We’re already about to call upon our muses for inspiration to write our 9th and penultimate challenge. It’ll require skills that differ widely from those we needed for inventing new words or for writing pure dialogue. The challenges are our ‘gym’ or ‘fitness centre’ where we can flex those writing muscles that perhaps aren’t used every day.
The Log, on the other hand, is where we report on our progress with writing projects that we’re currently engaged in; or the projects we’ve chosen to work on in the hope of getting some recognition. It’s also a place for airing thoughts about how to go about the business of writing. We enjoy seeing what other members do. It motivates us and provides ideas for new ventures.
And then there’s the Showcasing where we present a piece of work that we’d like to share with the group for some reason. I’m very pleased with the success of this activity this season. We’ve had some interesting and varied contributions, and they’ve given rise to some good discussions.
Alpha news:
We’ve got a new member for our group. Janet lives in London and most of her writing is academic. She wants to write more creative fiction and I’m sure we all look forward to her contributions to Alpha activities.
Janet will mainly be an observer for the remainder of this season. She will take a full part in next season’s Alpha activities.
We’ve had problems with changing and adding new email addresses. The ‘reply all’ facility is excellent, but when we’ve had changes we risk missing out those members who have – carefully and repeatedly – announced such changes. Establishing a group and keeping it updated is the best option. You should also delete addresses that are no longer in use from your list.
General news:
International Women’s Day passed without much hullabaloo where I am. I did see a list of ‘women who have changed the world’ which included an interesting surprise. Ada Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of Lord Byron, was listed as the world’s first computer programmer. She was a mathematician and worked out the first algorithm to be used on Charles Babbage’s computer (they worked together). Her name is still applied to a modern programme.
She died young leaving huge gambling debts. Apparently her mathematical genius had failed to come up with that perfect method of predicting the fall of the dice. At least she tried and we all know that’s the main thing.
Sadly, it is not always straightforward to know exactly how to apply one’s genius to the right object.
Christine