Top Tip: Write about Reading
Write about Reading is the top tip for this month. To the left are some of the books I have read recently. They are a mixture of short stories and poetry to fit in with the time span that I have to commit to reading at the moment. For those of you who enjoy poetry I can recommend Anne Caldwell’s Talking with the Dead and for fiction readers, The Thread by Victoria Hislop. My other recent reads are Songs of the Dying Earth, a collection of short stories by leading sci-fi writers in honour of Jack Vance (I picked these as a way back in to Jack Vance’s Tales of the Dying Earth which I couldn’t get into first time round) and The Historical Crime Fiction anthology which was chosen because I rarely read from the Crime genre and wanted to expand my reading horizons in that direction.
I believe that writers should read as widely as possible in order to learn from a whole range of different authors and disciplines. With this in mind I have designed a course for the W.E. A. entitled ‘Read to Write’. The course starts on Wednesday 26th September and runs for 10 weeks from 10a.m. to 12 noon. The aim of the sessions is to encourage participants to read more widely in order to acquire new writing skills and techniques. Together, we will explore the masters of crime, science fiction and fantasy, poetry and romance, as well as finding out what makes a ‘classic’. The venue is Darlington Fire Station in Park Place, Darlington. There will be an Enrolment Day at Bondgate Methodist Church Hall, Darlington on Monday 3rd September from 10.15-12.15. The course costs £54 and further details are available from Kate on 07530 219 803.
