Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 9, Season XV. Moving on in full flow and ready for another influx of writerly goodies. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it because I believe our group’s true worth lies in this: we don’t teach – we learn. There’s so much to take in from such a varied group of writers where everyone joins in with their different voices.
Today’s agenda is as busy as ever. I hope you’ll benefit from the wealth of fresh input which will give you plenty to mull over – as follows:
- This bulletin from me
- The results and feedback for The Open Page 2nd edition from Ros
- The collated entries for the tourist article from Sally
- The brief for Challenge 7 from Zena
- A Writers’ Read prompt from Morgen
- A call for Log entries from Sally
All that will flutter into your inbox in the course of the day. Enjoy!
I have no special Alpha news for you. I’ll go with the cliché and optimistically venture that no news is good news. Optimism is good for you.
General news is – well the same never-ending saga, now turning into farce. Jean-Claude Juncker said: ‘historically, geographically, culturally and financially Great Britain belongs in Europe. Quite so.
WM in their latest competition supplement proudly declared that they’d vastly increased the number of competitions to enter by including international ones – that being a euphemism for US competitions … with high entry fees.
I have to confess that – culturally – I feel that my writing is too deeply steeped in my European heritage to be suitable for the US competitions. They have their ways, I have mine, and it’s not only the spelling and vocabulary. Some of their criteria are beyond my understanding. What is ‘middle grade fiction genre’? is there a lower and upper genre? How does one interpret ‘sensitivity to place and desert literacy’?
There are some Australian and Canadian comps as well – often restricted to local writers. The prize in one Canadian competition is a house in Alberta. Sounds good?
My final treat for you is not about competitions; it comes from a US music review but might as well have been literary: ‘… goes for panspermic, melanphoria aesthetic, and more.’
Actually I rather like the word ‘melanphoria’.
Christine