All Blog Posts (222)

A plea for support...

Hi

This is from Paul Harman...



Darlington for Culture

Dear Supporter

The meeting on Thursday 18 November was an overwhelming success with so many people in favour of setting up a Community Interest Company to run the Arts Centre. The Cultural Parliament idea also has support.

Many people said that the Council should continue to give financial backing. We think so too. We hope the Council will change its mind. Please make your councillors aware of your… Continue

Added by John Dean on November 21, 2010 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Future of the Arts Centre

The public meeting to discuss plans to create a community interest company to run the Arts Centre will be held at the centre on Thursday November 18 at 7 - please attend if you can.

Added by John Dean on November 9, 2010 at 4:00pm — No Comments

More musings on publishers

Following up on my musings about the battle to get published, I came across an article on the Times Online website, run by that great London paper. I think it offers encouragement to all writers.



Published two years ago, it reported that UK writer Catherine O’Flynn, whose first novel was rejected by 20 agents and publishers, had won the 2008 First Novel Prize at the Costa Book Awards.



It added: “ Catherine O’Flynn, 37, joined the likes of H. G. Wells, William Golding,… Continue

Added by John Dean on October 18, 2010 at 2:47pm — No Comments

Working towards that breakthrough

Hi guys

After a few questions from writers with whom I am involved, I penned this blog for my other sites. Thought it might interest..





Over recent weeks, I have been asked quite a few questions about the state of the publishing industry so here is an attempt to answer some of them. I know the UK publishing industry best but I imagine that similar considerations prevail around the world.

Yes, there have been changes due to the difficult global economic conditions and… Continue

Added by John Dean on October 18, 2010 at 1:54pm — No Comments

OBERHAUSE TRIP CONTINUED

At last I’ve got round to continuing my blog. I’ve not had time to edit it so I’ve just typed out my notes as they were written.

Friday 10th September…

Continue

Added by Bud Craig on October 4, 2010 at 3:43pm — No Comments

Writers celebrate successes

PRESS RELEASE





A Darlington-based writing group is celebrating a remarkable year of successes.



Inkerman Writers comprise authors who attend, or used to attend, creative writing courses at Darlington Arts Centre.



In the group’s most recent success, Bud Craig, who lives in the Darlington area, travelled to Oberhausen in the Ruhr region of Germany having reached the final of the International Short Story Competition.



Run out of the Ruhr, the… Continue

Added by John Dean on October 4, 2010 at 12:20pm — No Comments

OBERHAUSEN TRIP

On Friday 10th September 2010 I will be flying to Oberhausen in Germany (capital of culture this year) for the awards ceremony of an International Short Story Competition based in the Ruhr region. For…

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Added by Bud Craig on September 9, 2010 at 7:30pm — No Comments

Memoirs competition

Guys

This may interest some of you



Memoir Writing Competition

Closing date: 30th Nov 2010



Send us an extract from your own life in 1,000 words or fewer. Your mini-memoir can be on any subject – childhood, war, travel writing, family, school, work, community projects, political activism, the story of your allotment or anything else you can think of that's happened to you in your life. It can be as dramatic or as low-key as you like: just make sure that it grabs… Continue

Added by John Dean on July 27, 2010 at 10:35am — No Comments

New term

Just a reminder that the Autumn term starts in the week beginning September 13.

Added by John Dean on July 26, 2010 at 4:13pm — No Comments

Videos

Might have lost videos with the changes to Ning's network - Mike and Clive are going to try to upload them again but we may have to live without films (or spend $20 a month, which is a no no)

Added by John Dean on July 22, 2010 at 3:00pm — No Comments

Success for Libby

Congratulations to group member Libby Thompson for winning the recent globalwriters.net flash fiction competition with True Love.

Panel members, chaired by publisher Gary Shove, said of the story: “The quality of many of the stories was very high indeed and coming up with a winner was very difficult. However, in the end we selected True Love because there is not a single wasted word in telling a story that keeps the reader engaged and has a truly shocking twist at the end.”

Other… Continue

Added by John Dean on July 14, 2010 at 9:22am — No Comments

Mike's film

One of the things that members of Inkerman Writers like doing is making films and if you go into our videos section you will see the film made by Mike Webber and his talented cast.

Added by John Dean on July 7, 2010 at 8:52am — No Comments

Award for Barbara

We are really chuffed that Barbara Myers, one of our members, has won an adult learning award.

The North East Adult Learners’ Week Regional Awards were announced as part of the recent Adult Learners’ Week, with two accolades coming to Darlington.

One of them went to Barbara, who was highly commended in the individual award category.

She started attending informal learning events and activities through Darlington Borough Council’s Community Learning Service in 2008.

This gave… Continue

Added by John Dean on June 16, 2010 at 9:24am — No Comments

Party Box

A few words about the video that you can watch on this site. Three years ago, Inkerman Writers worked with North East film-maker Clive Tonge on a short film. The catalyst was a national competition run by BAFTA and backed by telecommunications company Orange and for a while Party Box led the national voting - truly exciting times for all of us.

For the second phase of the competition, a regional shortlist was drawn up and Party Box was on it but after a very hard-fought and enjoyable…

Continue

Added by John Dean on May 27, 2010 at 2:30pm — No Comments

Anthology selling well

Inkerman Writers' first anthology is selling well.
Featuring work by 26 of our writers, A Strawberry in Winter can be bought by going to www.blurb.com and keying the name of the book into the search box at the top.

Added by John Dean on April 29, 2010 at 9:56am — No Comments

Guess who got the sack from work experience?



Nursing wasn't my first choice for a career. Initially, I wanted to be a nun (not sure why), but then changed my mind when mum told me that I wouldn't be able to live at home. I wanted to play hockey for England, but when I got no further than the trials to play for Yorkshire, I was devastated and thought my life was at an end. After I got over that, I decided that I wanted to join the police force (at the time, I saw myself as Emma Peel meets Dixon of Dock Green), but alas, I didn't…

Continue

Added by Kath Radford on April 22, 2010 at 8:01pm — No Comments

Inkerman Writer has crime novel published



Inkerman writer Richard Nicholson has had his first crime novel published as part of the Internet revolution that is sweeping the publishing industry.

The Poisoned Well, set in a fictional village in the North Yorkshire National Park, is being sold as a downloadable e-book on the fiction4all.com website. Visitors to the site are able to download the book for…

Continue

Added by John Dean on April 15, 2010 at 4:35pm — No Comments

Writers’ group goes into print



Darlington-based Inkerman Writers have launched their first anthology.

The group, who attend writing classes at Darlington Arts Centre, have produced A Strawberry in Winter, a collection of short stories on a range of subjects, featuring work by 26 writers.

If…

Continue

Added by John Dean on April 15, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Lifetime's experience inspires first published crime novel



Darlington author Kath Radford has had her first crime novel published.

Beyond Belief, a crime story in which a killer strikes in a busy general hospital, is published by Legend Press.

Born and raised in Yorkshire, Kath Radford initially trained as a nurse in Darlington before joining the Armed…

Continue

Added by John Dean on April 15, 2010 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Walking



Walking has always been a big part in my life. It all started in the late sixties when one of my school teachers took us for a hike in the Cleveland Hills. The heather-painted moors infected me with a bug that I have never been able to shake off.



As a young teenager, I spent a week Youth Hostelling in the Lake District. It was the first time I'd been apart from my family. My parents had bought me a new pair of shiny, leather hiking boots and a rucksack. I felt as though I…

Continue

Added by Kath Radford on March 31, 2010 at 5:52pm — No Comments

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DfC

The Inkerman Writers are members of Darlington for Culture (DfC), which was set up  in 2010 to help save Darlington Arts Centre from closure.

Its members include representatives of arts and community groups.

DfC was established after the centre’s owner, Darlington Borough Council, announced that budget cuts meant that it would have to withdraw its subsidy from the Arts Centre.

Although the centre closed, the organisation remains active - more at www.darlingtonforculture.org

 

Publications

Welcome to the site created by the Inkerman Writers to showcase our work.

Based in Darlington, North East England, and having celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2013, members have enjoyed success in a variety of arenas, including winning, and being shortlisted and highly commended, in short story competitions, having novels published and publishing the short story anthology A Strawberry in Winter, which can be obtained by visiting the website www.blurb.com

The group's second anthology of short stories, Christophe's Farewell and Other Stories, can be obtained, cost £4.95 plus postage and packing, from

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/2173759/4a79a32f5cf205f6bfd37b6f1df30e33900a5ab0?utm_source=TellAFriend&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2692827

The Inkerman Writers latest book, Out of the Shadows, which was launched as part of the 2013 Darlington Arts Festival, is on sale. The book can be ordered direct from

http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4204019-out-of-the-shadows

The group also produced The Last Waltz, a double CD of short stories, available by contacting deangriss@btinternet.com, cost £5 plus p and p.

Several of our writers wrote original one-act plays in a collaboration with the Green Theatre company, which were performed at Darlington Arts Centre early in February, 2012.

 

Darlington-based Inkerman Writers have produced their latest anthology of short stories, Inkerman  Street, based on the demolition of a fictional northern street and the stories of the people who lived in it.

The book, which features a variety of stories ranging from horror to comedy, was launched to a large audience at the Darlington Arts Festival Literary Day on Saturday May 26 and begins like this:

Inkerman Street is still and graveyard-hushed tonight, the terraced houses cold behind boarded-up windows, silent sentinels among a sea of wasteland. No one lives here now and tomorrow the bulldozers will move in to flatten the houses to make way for the Council’s Grand Plan.

“Although the people are long gone, the houses still have life. Peek into one of the bedrooms and see on the wall a painting of a seaside scene, brightly-coloured boats bobbing in the harbour, fishermen pipe-smoking in the noonday sun and seagulls wheeling high above the choppy waters. In the roaring silence of the night, you can hear the screeching of the birds and taste the salt air, acrid and herring-sharp at the back of your throat. It is an illusion; the bedroom is empty and the blooms on the faded wallpaper have long since wilted.

“The air in the houses is musty with neglect yet but a few months before, these were bustling homes filled with frying bacon and steaming irons, whistling kettles and playing children. The houses witnessed all these scenes for more than 150 years. Behind their curtains were enacted a thousand stories but tomorrow they will be destroyed because Inkerman Street is the last of its ilk.

“Now, on the eve of the street’s death, the people who once lived here have returned, gathering solemn and silent in the mist, the ghosts of the past come to pay final tribute….”

The anthology can be purchased at http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/7524452/bae89c993c98ec8c8b37b12d6b9b37ecced5dec3

 

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