I was delighted to hear earlier this week that I shall be reading at the Cheltenham Literature Festival again in October as a story of mine was shortlisted in the prose section of the Gloucestershire Writer's Network competition. The public booking opens this week and I shall be there for tickets for several events. However, I must say that I was rather disappointed when looking at the overall programme; quite a lot of the events appear to be simply opportunities for "celebrities" to showcase new books and the cost of some events is beyond me - much though I would like to hear the speakers, I'm not prepared to pay for the two course lunch or the "afternoon tea with finger sandwiches" that accompanies them. This is a literature festival after all!
A busy week with other things too. I spent a great afternoon at the P3 charity in Pitville facilitating a poetry class with some of their service users. We took "our names" as a theme and it was remarkable what came out of the exercise. Many thanks to Josh for inviting me and to the group for making me so welcome.
On Tuesday we had our Picaresque summer lunch at the home of one of our members in Stroud and, despite dismal August weather, had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Two of our group weren't able to join us but we raised a glass to them and look forward to getting back together in the coming months for more poetry writing and performances. I've found belonging to the group enormously beneficial - over the last couple of years we have all become close friends as well as fellow travellers on our poetry journeys and the support and encouragement I've received has seen me through some difficult patches. The same applies to my colleagues at the Catchword writing group in Cirencester. I know that writing groups don't work for some people but I'm certainly not one of them!
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