18th July 2024 – Wylye Valley Writers

The readers at our 18th July 2024 meeting:

William read what he says may be the opening chapter of his next science fiction book, tentatively titled An Alien Spaceship Recovered.
William spent his early childhood and schooling near Salisbury and has lived in Steeple Langford for the last twenty-eight years.
William has always been fascinated everything to do with space and has been a life-long science fiction fan. He wrote his first book at the age of eleven about the Apollo ten mission, and he heard ‘the Eagle has landed’ late at night while on scout camp in Grovely Wood.
More recently he has written a trilogy of novels about the first voyage of humans to another star system, and discovered he wants to be a spaceship designer when he grows up.
As well as working on his next novel and contemporary short stories, he writes book reviews, to date having published around a hundred and ninety of them on the internet (WJGBookReview.com).

Julia read an extract from her novel Hear Me which is set in the time of Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as President of South Africa in 1994. The book deals with themes of racism, alcoholism, violence and loss, but above all, Julia describes it as a story about the love between three sisters
Julia became interested in theatre at school, which led directly to Drama school, then onwards to both stage and radio. A move into education followed – eventually becoming a school deputy head and then acting head.
Still educating herself, she studied an Advanced Writing course through the Open College of the Arts. She has a Masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh.
She is signed with a literary agent in regard to her novel Lieutenant Hotshot which she is hoping to republish soon with a new publisher. This was shortlisted and Highly Commended in the Yeovil Literary Prize. Her play-script adaption ‘War-child’ was longlisted in the Burntwood Prize 2019.
She has completed two middle grade novels which she hopes to publish shortly.
Julia’s latest project is a crime series set in Salisbury the first of which is currently with her publisher.

Simon read the first chapter of his novel All Out of Time. The extract was told from the point of view of a woman observing her husband who had built a golf hole in their garden.
Simon is a GP practicing in Whiteparish.
He is a member a Salisbury Writing Circle.
Simon has long loved writing, particularly the craft of story creation.
He says that he writes novels as entertainments, and they are a direct extension of play. Each story has a governing song and painting.

Lisa read an extract from her forthcoming novel Living the Legacy, which is the third part of a trilogy of novels set in Singapore at the time of Sir Stamford Raffles.
Lisa was born in Worcestershire but always, even as a child was fascinated by the Far East and has returned many times over the years, working, researching and living there very happily. Lisa remains captivated by the people, the food, the culture and the history of this gorgeous corner of the world.
Lisa has written all her adult life but until eight years ago, her writing had been entirely non-fiction or for documentary film scripts.
In each of the three books of her trilogy, Lisa traces the lives of individuals caught up in the issues of their times; warm characters with strong bonds of friendship and a concern for justice.

Jonathan read extracts from his diary which form part of Romy Wyeth’s composite military book Courage Above all Things. The diary was written in 2007 when he with his eldest son, joined by his brother and his two sons, made a journey to Burma, now Myanmar, in memory of their father/grandfather who was killed in 1944 fighting with the Chindits against the Japanese.
Early in 1972 Jonathan Yeatman-Biggs was invited to join a friend’s balloon expedition across the Sahara, and to write it up. His attempt was published the same year, then repeated two years later in paperback by Granada.
Years later, as a paper mechanic, Jonathan had a number of children’s pop-up books, that he designed published by Collins and others.

Photographs on this page by John Bruce lightanddarker.com