City Voices Stoke - 10 Year Celebration

On 2nd April this year I went to my first meeting of the City Voices Stoke Creative Writers Group, of which I have since become vice chair. It was really weird how it came about. Someone at work, who has the local paper every day, told me she had read about them, and asked if I had heard of them. I had not - amazingly, since they have been going now for ten years!

I contacted the Treasurer and Media Manager, June Palmer, one morning on Messenger, and made arrangements to attend the next meeting. I went along.... and loved it so much that now they will never get rid of me! They were so welcoming, as they are to every person who comes through their door, and the members are an eclectic bunch of all ages and writing styles and abilities. Everyone is welcome and encouraged. Such a refreshing attitude!

As luck would have it (for me!), a member of their committee recently resigned or retired from their post as Vice Chair, and since I got on so well with everyone, I was asked to stand for the position, which I did. Due to the lack of any other candidate volunteering themselves (LOL), I made it onto the committee - but it doesn't matter how you get there, it just matters that you do!

The group meets every two weeks, which in my opinion is the perfect schedule. Just enough time in between to work on anything you started at the meetings, not too long a gap so you lose touch (or the plot!) plus it is not too intrusive on your life. Also you don't feel that you have to miss too many - a two week holiday means only missing one instead of two meetings, which is great. I have been so productive since joining (more of which soon) and find the meetings a wonderful mix of group chats, workshops and special guests.

On 6th August I held a Flash Fiction Writing workshop, which was a great honour and thrill. I will be blogging about that soon.