Welcome to Alphaday 6, Season XIV, the first in 2018. Happy New Year to you all! It seems rather a long time since our last get-together. I hope you enjoyed the break and made the most of it with seasonal fun and fruitful progress with your writing projects.
The Alpha season is ready to continue where we left off way back last year. We’ve picked up the threads and prepared an agenda that will stimulate your writing till you just can’t keep those fingers off the keyboard.
Here’s today’s agenda:
- This bulletin from me
- The results of the epistolary challenge from Morgen
- The collated entries for the journalism challenge from Sally
- The brief for Challenge 5 from Suzanne
- A prompt for the next Log from Sally
That should get us going again, I think.
Alpha news:
We welcome a new member into our group. Abigail has had novels, short stories and articles published and she’s keen to continue her writing. She lives in the Dordogne – which is not so very far from Suzanne’s Auvergne. Abigail is a pen name which I think is preferable to Sally I and Sally II.
I have included Abigail in the address list for this bulletin and will also send out a revised list of members with their email addresses.
General news:
What’s your guess for 2018? What are the big issues and how will they influence art? I think climate change will continue to be a major issue. (Is the air conditioning working where you are, Paul? Are you all right?) It will inspire SF writers and photographers and provide plenty of dramatic material. Brexit is good for children’s literature (cakes and sharing). The other big problem is human rights in general and the gender gap in particular. This will include professionals and their equal pay claims and work its way through a massive swathe of discrimination and abuse down to the most sordid and tragic cases. There are bound to be many artists who will use their talents to express their ideas and convictions. I look forward to whatever will take my breath away with its brilliance. Alphas?
Christine