I recently did a satisfying mental recap on our small, but successful informal ‘class’. The premise of the U3A is to share our joint knowledge and this seems to work very well on many levels, for we all have different experiences and lives.
With my mind on what we should tackle during the autumn/winter months ahead, I leafed through some of the past homework, which is always an enjoyable pastime. When we started up as a group, most of us were either writing poetry or short stories, with two members working on a novel and a memoir; but for class work, tackled fifty word stories and limericks. Both are fun to do and teach one to be succinct. I’ll share some examples in a future post.
In the autumn, we are all looking forward to literary challenges and to creating more magic with words for our own and readers’, hopeful, enjoyment. Members repeatedly surprise me with their excellent, literary poems and short stories. This is not empty praise! As with everything, one has to start at the beginning, and as time passes, those folk lucky enough to have a ‘feel’ or penchant for writing, grow through experience, practice, skill, or using their innate talent to the full.
Regular members: Sue King, Kathy Rollinson, Margaret Chapman, Natalie Sampford and newer members Jenny Kearney and Carol Drewry – good writers all – each has their own ‘style’ which is sometimes difficult to define. Sue’s sometimes unique turn of phrase can turn an ‘ordinary’ story into a special one, and she has a knack of introducing surprises in her choice of words, and slant on life. Kathy’s descriptive poetry is just that…her work lets your imagination soar… and she ‘paints’ easy word-pictures which delight. Margaret also has a distinctive ‘voice’ and can capture the mundane and make it special; as does Natalie – who writes with clarity, and her poems and descriptive pieces are often evocative, bringing echoes of other lives into your own. Jennie Kearney’s ’punchy’ work is familiar through attending poetry readings and belonging to the Torrevieja Writing group in the past. She tells it as it is…and her often cheeky limericks and amusing poems have left smiles on many faces! As for Carol Drewry, she too is a worthy writer and has had many, excellent travel and other articles published in a local magazine; as well as winning third prize in the popular Torrevieja First Short Story competition in 2005..
As a group, we intend to grow and write, read and learn, and then write, write, write; so watch this space!
Joy Lennick 