{"id":403,"date":"2016-01-28T10:23:06","date_gmt":"2016-01-28T09:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/?p=403"},"modified":"2016-01-28T10:23:06","modified_gmt":"2016-01-28T09:23:06","slug":"alphaday-7-season-xii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/alphaday-7-season-xii\/","title":{"rendered":"Alphaday 7 &#8211; Season XII"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hi Alphas,<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to Alphaday 7. Is this the culminating point of the season? With 6 Alphadays either side of us and the gradual build-up of activities from the beginning mirrored by the trailing off at the end, I suppose it could be. It depends how you draw the graph. I prefer to see it as an eager climb up to a plateau with such breath-taking scenery that we stay there in awe for as long as we can before reluctantly climbing back down the other side.<\/p>\n<p>Whichever way you look at it we\u2019ve now reached this season\u2019s half-way mark.<\/p>\n<p>Some Alphas have been busy preparing an agenda crammed full of writerly treats. I\u2019m sure we all appreciate their efforts, because what would our Alphadays be without these delights? At the same time we acknowledge that without everyone\u2019s entries and contributions the treat bags wouldn\u2019t have much to offer. So there\u2019s applause all around and it\u2019s a pleasure to see that you enjoy the fun\u2026 and pick up useful hints as writers!<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s agenda is as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This bulletin from me<\/li>\n<li>The results of the \u2018dark and stormy night\u2019 challenge from Suzanne<\/li>\n<li>The collated entries for the TV advert challenge from Rosemary (in your in-box!)<\/li>\n<li>The brief for Challenge 7 from Chris<\/li>\n<li>The Writers\u2019 Reads slot put together by Morgen<\/li>\n<li>The Alpha Log edited by Sally<\/li>\n<li>A showcase piece (if we\u2019re lucky) from Suzanne<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>How\u2019s that for something to stimulate our writing muscles? Or to make us punch away at our keyboards in delighted agreement or strong protest? Discussions are always welcome distractions.<\/p>\n<p><u>Alpha news:<\/u><\/p>\n<p>We have a new member. <strong>Irene<\/strong> will be joining us from today and I\u2019ve added her email to the address list for this bulletin. Irene lives in Wales and is keen on expanding her writing experience and joining in with Alpha activities.<\/p>\n<p>I will also send an up-to-date list of all members and their email addresses.<\/p>\n<p><u>General news:<\/u><\/p>\n<p>I do like the big book awards with all their pomp and circumstance rewarding writers whose output has gained recognition after all the hard work. The Costa Prize covers a full range of writing and there are six categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry, Children&#8217;s Book and Short Story.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also the <strong>big <\/strong>cheque (\u00a325,000) for the Book of the Year. It was awarded for a children\u2019s book, \u2018The Lie Tree\u2019 by Frances Hardinge.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m rather impressed that Lesley picked the winner of the First Novel as her favourite book of the year in our latest Writers\u2019 Reads slot. \u2018The Loney\u2019 by Andrew Michael Hurley. Well done, Lesley! Will definitely read it.<\/p>\n<p>All short-listed short stories are available to read or listen to on the Costa Prize web site. You can also access those from previous years if you like. I take that as a proud statement that they\u2019re happy with their judges and the choices they made \u2013 and I approve of that.<\/p>\n<p>If those big tax evaders like Google et al did something along those lines I think the money would be better spent than on taxes. They can afford it and it would do their image a world of good.<\/p>\n<p>So there you are: dream on! At least that\u2019s the kind of news that generates happy dreams.<\/p>\n<p>Christine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi Alphas, Welcome to Alphaday 7. Is this the culminating point of the season? With 6 Alphadays either side of us and the gradual build-up of activities from the beginning mirrored by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alphaday-bulletins","tag-alphaday-bulletins-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}