{"id":537,"date":"2017-04-27T14:10:25","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T13:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/?p=537"},"modified":"2017-04-27T14:10:25","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T13:10:25","slug":"alphaday-11-season-xiii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/alphaday-11-season-xiii\/","title":{"rendered":"Alphaday 11 &#8211; Season XIII"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hi Alphas,<\/p>\n<p>Welcome to Alphaday 11, Season XIII. We\u2019re slowly winding down now and can begin to look back on a busy and eventful season with a focus on all things writerly. Did it live up to expectations? I\u2019ll be asking for your feedback and overall impressions soon. As writers I believe we\u2019re only too aware that perfection is the elusive goal we all aim at, knowing that we can always improve. Excellence is different, quality is achievable, and mediocrity is an unknown commodity. You\u2019ve all helped shape this season into the experience it\u2019s been for us; an enjoyable one on the whole, but we\u2019re open to new ideas; we need to evolve and introduce changes to make Alpha even more enjoyable and stimulating for us and for our writing.<\/p>\n<p>More of that later. For now let\u2019s make the most of this Alphaday. You will notice that there\u2019s one item missing from the agenda. The next challenge brief won\u2019t be revealed till the first Alphaday of next season. That gives you ample time to devote to your personal writing\u2026 depending of course on all sorts of factors of which I know nothing!<\/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 Scenery challenge from Suzanne<\/li>\n<li>The collated entries for the Quotation challenge from Zena<\/li>\n<li>A Writers\u2019 Reads prompt from Morgen<\/li>\n<li>Log News compiled by Sally<\/li>\n<li>A Showcase piece presented by Suzanne (would be nice!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That looks like a very promising Alphaday full of stimulating treats that will keep us busy thinking and commenting for a while.<\/p>\n<p>I have no particular Alpha news to share with you. Olaf has been busy recruiting new members for next season and he\u2019s been contacted by some interesting applicants who will undoubtedly impress us all with their fresh and original input.<\/p>\n<p>I have mentioned previously that Olaf needs a helping hand with his Alpha task of recruiting. It\u2019s a simple routine procedure that anyone with an interest in Alpha and a kind thought for Olaf could offer to help out with. Hands up, volunteers!<\/p>\n<p>General news:<\/p>\n<p>Elections all over the place. Democratic. Manipulative. How easy is it to manipulate people these days? Still, there is no other way, so let them get on with it.<\/p>\n<p>I noticed that Paula Hawkins, author of <em>The Girl on the Train <\/em>has just published her second novel <em>Into the Water. <\/em>The reviews aren\u2019t flattering. Apparently she has 11 characters, some in the first person, some in the third person. The result, they claim, is confusing as it\u2019s hard to distinguish between them. (Reminds me that we had 11 candidates for the first round in the French presidential elections. Hard to distinguish between all that lot \u2013 well, sometimes!) Most reviewers consider it a disappointing novel (poor woman!) but they still expect sales to be massive because of what one person described as \u2018Residual name recognition\u2019. Now that\u2019s an interesting concept. I\u2019m afraid I\u2019m sometimes guilty of \u2018Residual name recognition\u2019 when I absent-mindedly skim through Amazon lists of books recommended \u2018for me\u2019. Now I suddenly feel very guilty about looking more closely at a title because there\u2019s something familiar about the writer\u2019s name. I think I\u2019m easily manipulated and I resent that.<\/p>\n<p>Christine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi Alphas, Welcome to Alphaday 11, Season XIII. We\u2019re slowly winding down now and can begin to look back on a busy and eventful season with a focus on all things writerly&#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-537","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\/537","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=537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alphawriters.net\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}