We had our last regular monthly meeting on Thursday 28th August, 2014. We believe that the day and the time of our monthly meetings is no longer suitable and has led to few people being able to attend. We have decided to continue to meet on an informal basis to socialise and to discuss writing and future projects.
Our group has been united by email and we will continue to correspond and share news and information via the email. However we will also look forward to catching up for the informal meetings in future.
We continue to invite new members to join our community of writers. You can participate via email or if you would like to meet with us in person then that will give us an excellent opportunity to have one of our proposed informal meetings.
Friday, 29 August 2014
Sunday, 30 December 2012
UPDATE ON OUR GROUP'S ACTIVITIES
2013 is just around the corner which means that our writers’
group has been in existence for almost 8 years.
The membership has changed during this time as people come
and go but we have continued to have our monthly meetings.
As well as our monthly meetings and non-compulsory writing
assignments, our group has taken on a couple of projects which have been
completed successfully.
Below is a brief summary of what we achieved and, although I
will mention just a couple of names, I must point out that our projects would
not have come to fruition without the support and hard work of all our members
who happily volunteered their time, energy and creativity.
2011,
with a small grant from the Clifton Shire Council (now amalgamated into the
super-council that is Toowoomba Regional Council), we produced an audio CD
which features works from a number of our writers.
This project would not have seen the light of day if it hadn’t
been for the hard work and dedication shown by Dave Wellings
who arranged for the recording of the poems and short stories and he also found
volunteers to read the works.
17 things you must hear before CDs become obsolete ….
Kathleen Aisthorpe, a member with excellent graphic skills, was kind enough to create our CD cover.
17 things you must hear before CDs become obsolete ….
This CD is available to purchase ($5 AU plus postage) and if
you would like a copy then please contact us via our email address:
2012
saw the group take on a rather ambitious project with the help of a $500 grant
from the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba Qld.
The grant was for a community project and we decided to
write a play and produce it in the local hall during a major community event in
Clifton called the Clifton Country Week which occurs each October.
The community was asked to become involved by volunteering to
act or help out in the staging of the play.
We had 2 performances which were well attended and charged $5 for adults
to help cover costs and profits were to be distributed to a local charity.
Again we relied on Dave Wellings to spearhead
the project. Not only did he write the
play called “Watts Mine is Mine”, he also took on the
unenviable role of producer.
After much persuasion we were able to find some wonderful actors who were most generous with their time and patience.
We also had some very talented musicians from the area “The Barefoot Orchestra” to donate their time to entertain the crowd.
We were very fortunate to have the great skills of our local cartoonist and artist Al Benge who created 3 excellent scenes to use for the background of the play.
After much persuasion we were able to find some wonderful actors who were most generous with their time and patience.
We also had some very talented musicians from the area “The Barefoot Orchestra” to donate their time to entertain the crowd.
We were very fortunate to have the great skills of our local cartoonist and artist Al Benge who created 3 excellent scenes to use for the background of the play.
Again we would lik to thank Kathleen Aisthorpe for producing the above programme for us.
2013 will see our group busy putting on yet another play for the community. Again Dave Wellings has been busy writing the play and we were assured by our talented volunteer actors that they would love to become involved in any new play we were to produce.
I shall be back to report on our progress. Michelle.
Thursday, 1 September 2011
WE ARE ALIVE AND WELL JUST CONTACT US
Although this Blog has not been updated on a regular basis, it does not mean that our writers' group has ceased to be.
We meet each month at the meeting rooms of the Clifton Library and Community Centre which is something we have done since the founding of the group in 2005.
The aim of our group is to support local writers, to pass on relevant information, to offer helpful criticism when requested and to inspire each other to keep writing.
Our monthly assignment topics have produced some wonderful works. We try to add a brief and enjoyable writing exercise during the meetings and the results are very surprising and often amusing.
One of the positive outcomes of having this Blog drifting about in cyberspace has been the number of people who have contacted me for further information about the group.
I believe the reasons our group has endured are twofold.
Firstly, we charge no fees and it is not compulsory to participate in the written assignments.
Secondly, we use email to communicate to members who are unable to attend meetings. Written works and news are sent on to all members via the Internet.
Recently we have set projects for the group.
In October 2011 we will launch our audio book with stories and poetry.
In October 2012 we will produce a play, written by our members, with the help of volunteers and using the local hall. Any profits from the entry fee will be donated to local charities.
I will return with more information about both of these projects.
We meet each month at the meeting rooms of the Clifton Library and Community Centre which is something we have done since the founding of the group in 2005.
The aim of our group is to support local writers, to pass on relevant information, to offer helpful criticism when requested and to inspire each other to keep writing.
Our monthly assignment topics have produced some wonderful works. We try to add a brief and enjoyable writing exercise during the meetings and the results are very surprising and often amusing.
One of the positive outcomes of having this Blog drifting about in cyberspace has been the number of people who have contacted me for further information about the group.
I believe the reasons our group has endured are twofold.
Firstly, we charge no fees and it is not compulsory to participate in the written assignments.
Secondly, we use email to communicate to members who are unable to attend meetings. Written works and news are sent on to all members via the Internet.
Recently we have set projects for the group.
In October 2011 we will launch our audio book with stories and poetry.
In October 2012 we will produce a play, written by our members, with the help of volunteers and using the local hall. Any profits from the entry fee will be donated to local charities.
I will return with more information about both of these projects.
Thursday, 30 September 2010
TENTERFIELD WRITERS INK VISITS US
The Clifton Writers' Group meets once a month in the Clifton Library and Community Centre meeting rooms to discuss and practice the art of writing and also to support and inspire one another.
On Saturday 28th August, 2010, members from the Clifton Writers' group were very pleased to be able to host a get together with members from the Tenterfield Writers' Ink.
Below is a photograph of some of the members from the two groups in the Art Gallery of the Clifton Library.
This exciting opportunity arose when Drew Grozier (Clifton Writers' Group member) was in Tenterfield launching his book "Scotch on the Bitumen".
He met with members from the Tenterfield Writers' Ink and it was decided that the two groups should arrange a get together.
It took some months and quite a few emails back and forth before finding a suitable date.
Below are photographs showing the writers enjoying morning tea in the story reading area.
On arrival the writers had an informal morning tea in the sunny story reading area which gave them a chance to get to know one another.
The group then moved to the meeting room to begin the serious business of the day, that is, talk about the joys and tribulations of writing.
Lunch was held in the meeting room whilst examples of the writers' work were read aloud to the group.
It was a most successful day and firm friendships where forged.
There is a plan to meet again in Autumn 2011 but this time in Tenterfield where the changing colours of its glorious trees will surely inspire the writers and photographers within the group.
On Saturday 28th August, 2010, members from the Clifton Writers' group were very pleased to be able to host a get together with members from the Tenterfield Writers' Ink.
Below is a photograph of some of the members from the two groups in the Art Gallery of the Clifton Library.
This exciting opportunity arose when Drew Grozier (Clifton Writers' Group member) was in Tenterfield launching his book "Scotch on the Bitumen".
He met with members from the Tenterfield Writers' Ink and it was decided that the two groups should arrange a get together.
It took some months and quite a few emails back and forth before finding a suitable date.
Below are photographs showing the writers enjoying morning tea in the story reading area.
On arrival the writers had an informal morning tea in the sunny story reading area which gave them a chance to get to know one another.
The group then moved to the meeting room to begin the serious business of the day, that is, talk about the joys and tribulations of writing.
Lunch was held in the meeting room whilst examples of the writers' work were read aloud to the group.
It was a most successful day and firm friendships where forged.
There is a plan to meet again in Autumn 2011 but this time in Tenterfield where the changing colours of its glorious trees will surely inspire the writers and photographers within the group.
Sunday, 31 January 2010
WELCOME TO THE CLIFTON WRITERS' GROUP BLOG
Our group meets once a month and we encourage members to write through setting monthly assignments and also setting interesting writing exercises during the monthly meetings.
This blog site will feature some of the works from the members and we will also announce any news about our group.
If you wish to access further examples from our very talented writers then you can click on their names in the Links section on the right side of this page.
Some of our writers have published works and details about these books can be found on their blogpages.
Please feel free to comment.
This blog site will feature some of the works from the members and we will also announce any news about our group.
If you wish to access further examples from our very talented writers then you can click on their names in the Links section on the right side of this page.
Some of our writers have published works and details about these books can be found on their blogpages.
Please feel free to comment.
Sunday, 7 October 2007
A DEAD LIBERTY by Dave Wellings
(The September assignment was to write a legend.)
Most successful entrepreneurs have a sense of opportunism that borders on cheek. In the late 1860s the construction of a railway line between Toowoomba and Warwick offered numerous opportunities. In addition to the vital transport for a growing sheep industry, the line brought with it a large work force which had to be catered for. Hastily built stores and unlicensed bars were established at every halt along the line. When the line reached the Clifton sheep station, an Irishman, James Mowen, built a slab hut from which he sold provisions and liquor to the railway “navvies”.
Seeing an opportunity in the expanding settlement, he decided to invest in Clifton. In 1869 he applied for and was granted a liquor licence and he built a hotel next to his store. A small plaque (appropriately across the road from O’Shanley’s Irish Bar) still marks the site of his original ‘Redbank Hotel’.
In response to increasing demand by migrants from overseas and the southern States, the government released parcels of Crown land across the Darling Downs and Mowen was quick to purchase a block in what is now the main street. He built the Clifton Arms Hotel and four other business premises, all of which he rented out. Such enterprise marked him out as an obvious person to approach when funds were required to build a Catholic church. He was appointed as joint-treasurer of the fund-raising committee and donated an acre of prime town land to the project. A small church was subsequently built near to the site of the present Catholic church.
He was a wealthy man when he died on 20th April 1897, at the time 600 pounds was a considerable sum of money and there were no heirs to inherit it. He had stipulated in his will that the money should be spent on a “grand monument” to be built over his grave. The executor of his will, John Logan, was an old friend and coincidentally a prime mover in fund-raising to build a new, larger church. The prospering Clifton township had long overgrown the original small church and John Logan was not slow to see the serendipity of his situation.
“When considering what form the memorial should take, it occurred to me that nothing would be more appropriate than a memorial church…”
Special dispensation was granted to have Mowen’s body exhumed from the Clifton cemetery and reburied at Meara Place and the present church was built over his grave – a grand monument, as he’d requested.
His name is immortalised in Mowen Street at the southern end of the main street which he had largely established – and in a more subtle way in the name of the church itself. James Mowen and John Logan may have fallen some way short of sainthood but when the fine new building was commissioned as the “Church of Saint James and Saint John” it was in recognition of their contribution.
It was a final touch of opportunism bordering on cheek and Mowen would have surely approved.
Dave Wellings ©
Most successful entrepreneurs have a sense of opportunism that borders on cheek. In the late 1860s the construction of a railway line between Toowoomba and Warwick offered numerous opportunities. In addition to the vital transport for a growing sheep industry, the line brought with it a large work force which had to be catered for. Hastily built stores and unlicensed bars were established at every halt along the line. When the line reached the Clifton sheep station, an Irishman, James Mowen, built a slab hut from which he sold provisions and liquor to the railway “navvies”.
Seeing an opportunity in the expanding settlement, he decided to invest in Clifton. In 1869 he applied for and was granted a liquor licence and he built a hotel next to his store. A small plaque (appropriately across the road from O’Shanley’s Irish Bar) still marks the site of his original ‘Redbank Hotel’.
In response to increasing demand by migrants from overseas and the southern States, the government released parcels of Crown land across the Darling Downs and Mowen was quick to purchase a block in what is now the main street. He built the Clifton Arms Hotel and four other business premises, all of which he rented out. Such enterprise marked him out as an obvious person to approach when funds were required to build a Catholic church. He was appointed as joint-treasurer of the fund-raising committee and donated an acre of prime town land to the project. A small church was subsequently built near to the site of the present Catholic church.
He was a wealthy man when he died on 20th April 1897, at the time 600 pounds was a considerable sum of money and there were no heirs to inherit it. He had stipulated in his will that the money should be spent on a “grand monument” to be built over his grave. The executor of his will, John Logan, was an old friend and coincidentally a prime mover in fund-raising to build a new, larger church. The prospering Clifton township had long overgrown the original small church and John Logan was not slow to see the serendipity of his situation.
“When considering what form the memorial should take, it occurred to me that nothing would be more appropriate than a memorial church…”
Special dispensation was granted to have Mowen’s body exhumed from the Clifton cemetery and reburied at Meara Place and the present church was built over his grave – a grand monument, as he’d requested.
His name is immortalised in Mowen Street at the southern end of the main street which he had largely established – and in a more subtle way in the name of the church itself. James Mowen and John Logan may have fallen some way short of sainthood but when the fine new building was commissioned as the “Church of Saint James and Saint John” it was in recognition of their contribution.
It was a final touch of opportunism bordering on cheek and Mowen would have surely approved.
Dave Wellings ©
FORGET-ME-NOTS by Dave Wellings
(August's assignment was set by Gloria who selected an opening sentence onto which we must add our own 500 or so words to create a work of either fiction or non-fiction. The opening sentence reads:
"The lot of us met on Saturday afternoon as arranged.")
The lot of us met on Saturday afternoon as arranged. The regulars, the ones who cared enough to bring a bunch of flowers.
“Nothing flashy,” The Colonel had insisted, “We don’t want to attract the wrong kind of attention.” In The Colonel’s mind there was more stigma attached to flashiness than to sexually-transmitted disease, He wasn’t actually a colonel: he’d been pensioned off from the army with the rank of captain but he did little to discourage the use of his nickname.
Jason’s bouquet was what The Colonel probably had in mind – large showy red tulips which clashed with his maroon and gold scarf. It was windy up on the hillside overlooking the town but a football scarf and beanie looked out of place at a graveside. Jason was on his way to a match and was too young and gauche to consider such things.
Norman wore a beige cardigan under his navy blazer and he raised his brown trilby hat in respect as he placed his tasteful violas on the grave.
“It was her greatest fear, that she would be forgotten, that her life had meant nothing more than a few moments of gratification to those of us in need.”
“It was more than that,” said Graham who, like most of us, was on the wrong side of middle-age. “It was a useful life; she was a caring woman, a compassionate woman.”
“And a good listener,” added Ted who had missed having anyone to listen to him since his wife had died five years earlier.
Jason looked up, puzzled perhaps at the revelation. “I never…Some of us…It’s not always…I never know what to say to girls. She gave me my first – experience.”
We all nodded; we had our own reasons for knowing her and out reasons for regretting her passing, quite suddenly, a brain tumour, twelve months to the day.
With his need for military order, The Colonel arranged the flowers, tall tulips at the rear and the others in descending order of size to form one poignant tribute. The he stepped back, stood briefly to attention and spoke for us all: “Gone – but not forgotten.”
Dave Wellings ©
"The lot of us met on Saturday afternoon as arranged.")
The lot of us met on Saturday afternoon as arranged. The regulars, the ones who cared enough to bring a bunch of flowers.
“Nothing flashy,” The Colonel had insisted, “We don’t want to attract the wrong kind of attention.” In The Colonel’s mind there was more stigma attached to flashiness than to sexually-transmitted disease, He wasn’t actually a colonel: he’d been pensioned off from the army with the rank of captain but he did little to discourage the use of his nickname.
Jason’s bouquet was what The Colonel probably had in mind – large showy red tulips which clashed with his maroon and gold scarf. It was windy up on the hillside overlooking the town but a football scarf and beanie looked out of place at a graveside. Jason was on his way to a match and was too young and gauche to consider such things.
Norman wore a beige cardigan under his navy blazer and he raised his brown trilby hat in respect as he placed his tasteful violas on the grave.
“It was her greatest fear, that she would be forgotten, that her life had meant nothing more than a few moments of gratification to those of us in need.”
“It was more than that,” said Graham who, like most of us, was on the wrong side of middle-age. “It was a useful life; she was a caring woman, a compassionate woman.”
“And a good listener,” added Ted who had missed having anyone to listen to him since his wife had died five years earlier.
Jason looked up, puzzled perhaps at the revelation. “I never…Some of us…It’s not always…I never know what to say to girls. She gave me my first – experience.”
We all nodded; we had our own reasons for knowing her and out reasons for regretting her passing, quite suddenly, a brain tumour, twelve months to the day.
With his need for military order, The Colonel arranged the flowers, tall tulips at the rear and the others in descending order of size to form one poignant tribute. The he stepped back, stood briefly to attention and spoke for us all: “Gone – but not forgotten.”
Dave Wellings ©
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