Inkerman Writers
a showcase of our work
I'm coming ... Out of the Shadows
'Out of the Shadows', is not only a good title for the Inkerman Writers latest anthology, but also I thought an appropriate title for this blog post. I'm already looking forward to reading the whole collection when I have my copy of the anthology and it will take pride of place in my study alongside 'Christophe's Farewell and Other Stories' and the 'Talking' CD, 'The Last Waltz'. Alongside the Inkerman Writers' efforts is 'Whitby Abbey - Pure Inspiration' an anthology which includes 'Decision at the Abbey', my first short story competition winning entry.
I enjoy our regular sessions as a group and I believe they strengthen us as a group and as individual writers, giving confidence to the aspiring short story writers and novelists among us. Until 2011 I thought of myself as a fledgling short story writer. I'd only been writing poetry for a year at that time too. In November 2011 I enrolled in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and completed a cohesive novel in first draft in 30 days. It was hard work, but it served to teach me that if I applied myself I could write a novel.
In February 2012 I set out to write a novel, using a cast of characters I'd agonised over for a couple of weeks. I didn't start writing until I had them profiled on paper and established in my mind. It took four drafts before I published as an eBook on Smashwords.com. My reasons for using that site were mainly that it allowed the book to be downloaded to a variety of platforms from one file - and also because I had learned all I had about formatting from their system, developed by Mark Coker.
To paraphrase and cut a long story short, my novel was introduced as 'Ten Days' on Smashwords. I downloaded it onto my Kindle - and the result was that I spent two months investing more time in my story. In April 2013 the novel was reborn as '10 Days in Panama' and published using Amazon KDP for Kindle.
Although my aim is to become a successful novelist, I don't believe in get rich quick schemes so I tested the waters by setting up a four day 'FREE' promotion on Amazon. My book was downloaded 100 times in the UK and 1000 times internationally. It now has two reviews inside the cover and reviews published on both the Amazon.co.uk site and the Amazon.com site.
What have I found most difficult about the whole exercise? Coming out of the shadows I believe would be a good way of expressing it. I have had to become my own publicity machine, which although I have self-confidence, it's not a natural thing to do. From being a non-user, I now utilise social media and the worldwide web as much as possible.
The link to my debut novel: 10 Days in Panama
Tom Benson - Creative Writer and Freelance Artist: http://www.tom-benson.co.uk/
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About
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
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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