Dear friends, visitors and fellow readers and writers, welcome to our Walton Wordsmiths website.
Now that summer is upon us we are all out and about more, but the magic of Zoom means that, wherever we are, we can still meet in cyberspace once a month and share our news, our writing experiences, good and bad, and our manuscripts. Here is the magic! Ann joined our Zoom meeting from a boat at Henley on Thames, I joined from a caravan in Arundel and Howard from a cottage in Somerset. Writing is brilliant from that point of view, you only need an active, creative mind, inspiration – that elusive quality that comes and goes – and a pen/pencil/computer – and you can write anywhere about anything. Total freedom! We are hoping to meet in person in the Autumn.
We are all focusing on the SWWJ Summer/Autumn competition at the moment. The theme is BAGS. You can interpret the theme any way you choose – from a favourite handbag to a school satchel, travel luggage, paper bags, plastic carrier bags, even bags under the eyes! I was quite excited to hear about this theme as I only recently realised, having opened my wardrobe one day, that I have a bag ready packed for every activity in my life, from invigilation (one of my part time jobs) to swimming. The maximum word count is 500 and the closing date 15 October 2021, so we have plenty of time.
On a personal note, I have submitted the ms for my novel The Asymmetric Man, which has been fifteen years in production, to SCRIPTORA. After a marathon roller-coaster of emotion from creation to submission I must now be patient, something which doesn’t come easily to me.
Happy summer!
Alex Rushton