Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 6, Season XII. Welcome also into 2016. I’m sure your New Year’s resolutions are showing no signs of cracking so far, and I expect one of them is to achieve that writing goal which is dear to you, while another is to take a lively part in all Alpha activities.
May the year 2016 shape its course to fulfil your wishes, the private ones as well as those for peace in this troubled world.
We’ll do our best. The Alpha season is progressing well and I hope our efforts will provide us with plenty of inspiration and the motivating force to improve our writing and get it out there.
Our menu for this Alphaday is as mouth-watering as ever. We really do know how to tickle those writerly taste buds, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy what’s on offer today.
As follows:
- This bulletin from me
- The results of the ‘List’ challenge from Sally
- The collated entries for the ‘Dark and Stormy Night’ challenge from Suzanne
- The brief for Challenge 6 from Rosemary (already in!)
- The Alpha Log from Sally
- The Writers’ Reads from Morgen
- And maybe a showcase piece from Suzanne
That last item needs your input. As you know the idea is that every member contributes one item to the showcasing slot: ranging from, say, a 4-line poem to a novel extract and anything in between… a story, a review, an opinion piece etc. As writers you’ve all got something on file, surely. Dig it out, give it a spit and a polish and share it with the group. A writing group needs the sharing of work by its members. We’ve had four items so far… keep them coming!
Alpha news:
The Christmas Quiz was a hard nut to crack! But thank you all the same, Olaf, for giving us the pleasure of banging our heads against the wall – that does not exist – of our ignorance and incompetence. Zena, who came up with nearly all the answers, admitted it was hard work… indeed, indeed.
The Alpha Decade Book is getting very close to completion. I’ve now got all the bits and pieces in my files and just need to put the last two chapters together. I’ll then need a biog from each story contributor to add to the ‘credits’ at the end.
I’d be delighted if someone would volunteer to write an epilogue. Really delighted.
And of course I’d be very grateful for any comments on what I’ve missed or what else we could include.
General news:
Words, words, words! (Hamlet Act II, sc.ii, l. 195)
What new words entered the language in 2015? As writers we must keep informed, is that not so?
Politics gave the obvious ones like Brexit and Grexit; they’ll be with us for a while.
I rather like “Orthorexia: Over exercising combined with excessively healthy eating.” Everything in moderation is what I was taught.
Too many words seep out of the social media channels: “Twitterati: People who tweet on Twitter a lot.”
Apparently primary school children need to “assimilate texting, tweeting, messaging, blogging, posting, flaming, commenting, liking, Skyping, casting, vlogging, instagramming, podcasting, meming… amongst a host of other increasingly diverse ways of communicating and expressing themselves.” Don’t ask me what they all mean… apart from just a few.
Oh yes – the language of Shakespeare, “Words, words, words.”
Christine