Hi Alphas,
Welcome to Alphaday 8, Season XIV. Our Alpha routine is rolling along nicely and I expect we all appreciate this regular immersion into our favourite escape from the drawn-out reality of grim February – into that which matters for us: our passion for all things writerly.
It’s the diversity of what’s meant by being a writer that I find especially fascinating. It covers everything imaginable, and that’s quite a big concept if you think about it.
We’ve put together an Alpha agenda for today that goes a long way towards exploring a wide range of what’s imaginable. Thank you to all of you for your contributions. We won’t claim that it covers ‘everything’. In fact we’re rather pleased to note that there’s plenty of material left for the future. ‘Everything’ is an infinite quantity, thank goodness.
Today’s agenda is as follows:
- This bulletin from me
- The results of the nostalgia challenge from Suzanne
- The collated contributions for the Open Page 2 from Christine
- The brief for Challenge 6 from Sarah
- A prompt for the next Alpha Log news from Sally
This should all dribble into your inbox in the course of the day. I think you’ll find it quite absorbing with plenty to stimulate your writing muscles and make you want to share some of your reactions with the rest of us.
There is no urgent Alpha news this time. I do get the impression, however, that the tail end of winter for many of us brings on a multitude of the less desirable manifestations of ‘life generally’. Troubles are there to try us; they’re even the sort of stuff that often nourishes the creative spirit. Silver linings are everywhere, aren’t they?
The only happy piece of general news that I can think of at the moment is that the European Parliament is working on sorting out the ridiculous inconvenience caused by messing about with the clocks twice a year. It seems likely that wars, discrimination, climate change and suchlike are problems beyond the powers of mere mortals. But at least they can restore a healthier balance between clock time and sun time. The resulting psychological benefits for humans and domestic animals are immense.
Of course the UK has opted out of influencing these important questions that concern us all. It might have been useful in certain cases for the Brits to have a say, but (shrug) there you are.
Christine