Many of you know that I rarely mention the C word until after bonfire night, but this workshop might be just what you need to survive the festive season. It's run in part by one of my mentees Lyn, and sounds just the thing for those in need of a seasonal survival strategy. 

How to Survive Christmas?
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A Writing for Wellbeing Workshop
Norwich Wellbeing Centre
 
Saturday 11th November - 10am - 4.30pm - £55
 
This is a one day workshop for those who want to approach and experience the Christmas and New Year holiday season in a more authentic way and free themselves from the expectations, constraints and pressures that may be felt during this time of year.
 
This is a workshop for those who want to benefit from exploring their thoughts and feelings about Christmas and the holiday season using expressive writing.
Facilitators: Jacqui Empson-High and Lyn Hazleton.
Booking and further information from Lyn on 07719 736600 or email lyn.hazleton@btinternet.com

You will have noticed that blogging has been put on the back burner for some time now. Editing my novel, teaching, mentoring and a major building project at Meadow Cottage have been my enjoyable time thieves. I have been working with one of my mentees, Mandy Rogers, whose forthcoming exhibition FRAGMENT opens in October at Nunns Yard, Norwich.(See the flyer for full details.) Working with Mandy has been a fascinating journey, because of our shared passion for writing and our background in art the sessions have been alive with flashes inspiration; acting as a guide to this exhibition has been a privilege. FRAGMENT will be intriguing and beguiling, I urge you to see it.

You can read Mandy's experience of the mentoring process below.

Scroll down to read details of my 'Prose in Progress' workshop Oct 28th Anteros Arts. Norwich. Limited places - book early.

Mentoring and Me by Mandy Rogers
 
Meetings with Patricia have helped me focus, prioritise, time manage and stay on track. The discussions we have had had revolved around preparing for a planned exhibition, in which I had set out to explore a relation between the visual and my recent ventures into writing. Patricia is an ideal person to help with this, as she is an artist and a writer.
​
As well as valuing her experienced and more detached eye and great practical help in establishing a framework and timetable for various tasks, my experience of our meetings was one of bouncing ideas around - a kind of collaborative journey, which felt exciting, and creative in itself. Patricia has been an affirming presence. She takes what I am trying to do seriously, does not allow self effacing apologies for the work, and gives clear constructive feed back about ideas and particular details of written work. This has helped me take it seriously, and to commit to the work, even when I am feeling very unsure about it. Patricia is also a mine of information about museums, creative resources and a very skilled writing tutor/facilitator. In short, these mentoring sessions have been immensely helpful.

Prose in Progress Part 1 - Saturday 28th October 2017 10-4pm Anteros Arts Foundation, 11-15 Fye Bridge St. Norwich. NR3 1LJ

A one day workshop for prose writers and multi-disciplinary arts professionals. Designed to empower writers and creatives to sustain longer projects over time, be they a short story collection, novel, memoir based fiction, art, illustrated fiction or a multi-disciplinary creative project. 

Prior to the workshop you will share your work with the group for discussion on the day. You will develop the tools and structures to take responsibility for your own autonomous learning and creative practise, through exercises, analysis and group discussion and form a plan and structure to keep the world at bay sufficiently to sustain creativity and consistently build your project to completion. There will be a follow up workshop in February.

Because of the focused nature of this workshop places are strictly limited to 8 participants.

Fee £65.00 - Booking essential and early booking advised. Email: mullinpatricia@gmail.com for booking information.
​

​ 
Two quite disturbing issues regarding writing and imagination were recently been brought to my attention, one by a student, the other in the press.

At my recent Prose Progression course a member of the cohort told me that they had come across a writer being heavily criticised for writing as the opposite gender. This it was considered an appalling subterfuge, in modern parlance sometimes termed ‘cultural or gender appropriation’.A few weeks later Anthony Horowitz claimed that an American editor has ‘warned him off’ including a black character as it would be ‘inappropriate’ as a white writer. The editor was from the US and I should point out that his publisher denies this was said. Horowitz responded ‘Taking it to its logical extreme all my characters will from now be 62 year– old white Jewish men living in London.’

When writing a novel, writers invent people, creatures, aliens and other worlds, it’s called making it up and it stems from cleverly employing ones imagination. I don’t think the majority of readers will be surprised to find that novelists make things up; when we embark on reading a novel we suspend our disbelief, just like going to the theatre or watching a film. I don’t know of anyone who believes that Maggie Smith has spent many years living in a van outside Alan Bennett’s home in North London.

Now reader, I hope that you won’t be too shocked to learn that my writing often contains people that I have imagined, people who are not myself, or like me in any way. Some of them are also children, I have been a child, some are very elderly, I am not yet elderly, some are men, I have never been a man. Others come from cultures unrelated to my own Scots/Irish/English heritage. Some of them are bad, they do dreadful things and one short story character in particular is a misogynist and consequently this has been hard to place and I am quite certain that this is because he has unpalatable character traits. Which brings me to another point, it is often thought that the writer shares the opinions of their characters, they do not, writers are quite capable of convincingly portraying unpleasant folk with great truthfulness this is one of the reasons we enjoy reading.


 
Ex-Cathedra is the name chosen by many of my former students from the Norwich Cathedral courses who went on to form their own writing group. They have recently published this splendid collection ‘Ten Minute Tales’ specifically written for those suffering from dementia and those that read to them. I was cautioned by one of the writers as the stories ‘…had to be ones that would not raise anxiety often associated with dementia…hopefully there is enough range to engage reader and listener, rekindle memories and promote conversations.’ Well there certainly is; WWII land girls, the abdication and recovering from grief through travel are just some of the stories that will engage readers and those reading to them, as will the scattering of poetry and photographs that aid memory.
​
My mother suffered from vascular dementia in her latter years and a book with short stories of restricted length, some poetry and illustrations would have been perfect for her. All the proceeds from the book are going to the Alzheimer’s Society. I will be donating my review copy to the local Docking care home. Perhaps some of you might purchase a copy and donate it to someone suffering with dementia or to your local care home, helping those affected and the great work of the Alzheimer’s Society in one modest purchase. Oh, and do tell your friends. Details of how to purchase a copy are at the foot of this post.
 
Ten Minute Tales — Graham Porter writes on how this project was realised.
 
Imagine the surprise of discovering that a drawer full of dross is really a drawer full of gems.  That was very much the experience of Norwich writers’ group Ex Cathedra recently. Every week, Ex Cathedra members bring a short written piece to their meeting and share it with their fellow writers.  It’s occasionally a poem, but usually a story.  So, over the years, all the group members have accrued a store of flash fiction, not quite knowing what would become of it.
 
Then one of the authors encountered a neighbour living with dementia and discovered that her reading of novels had been curtailed by the inability to retain characters and plot from one read to the next.  Thus was spawned the inspiration to select and edit the best of the group’s poems and flash fiction into an anthology, specifically aimed at those living with dementia.  Norfolk County Council’s Public Health Team and the Library Service were supportive in trialling some of the material at Care Homes and Cafés, and with financial assistance for the initial publication.  Thea Abbott, of Smokehouse Press was brilliantly helpful with editing and formatting, and on 15th May this year Ex Cathedra published Ten Minute Tales.
Ex Cathedra have their roots in a creative writing course at Norwich Cathedral between 2008 and 2010, tutored by none other than Patricia Mullin.  When the course was completed, several participants remained together and started their own group, choosing a name that reflected their origins.  Five of the seven authors of Ten Minute Tales took part in one or both years of Patricia’s course. 
 
The authors:
Shirley Buxton; Brenda Daggers; Lea Jamieson; Stuart McCarthy; Graham Porter; Avril Suddaby; Valerie Turner.
 
Profits are being donated to the Alzheimer’s Society and below are the ways of purchasing a copy.
 
The most cost-effective way for the charity is to purchase direct from The Smokehouse Press @ £7.50 plus postage (Jarrolds of Norwich have a few copies). ISBN 978-0-9576335-6-8 You need to click at the end of the blue link below to get it to take you directly to the company.
thea@smokehousepress.co.uk     The Smokehouse Press

​Two quite disturbing issues regarding writing and imagination were recently been brought to my attention, one by a student, the other in the press. At my recent Prose Progression course a member of the cohort told me that they had come across a writer being heavily criticised for writing as the opposite gender. This it was stated was an appalling subterfuge, in modern parlance sometimes termed ‘cultural or gender appropriation’.A few weeks later Anthony Horowitz claimed that an American editor has ‘warned him off’ including a black character as it would be ‘inappropriate’ as a white writer. The editor was from the US and I should point out that his publisher denies this was said. Horowitz responded ‘Taking it to its logical extreme all my characters will from now be 62 year– old white Jewish men living in London.’

When writing a novel, writers invent people, creatures, aliens and other worlds, it’s called making it up and it stems from cleverly employing ones imagination. I don’t think the majority of readers will be surprised to find that novelists make things up; when we embark on reading a novel we suspend our disbelief, just like going to the theatre or watching a film. I don’t know of anyone who believes that Maggie Smith has spent many years living in a van outside Alan Bennett’s home in North London.

Now reader I hope that you won’t be too shocked to learn that my writing often contains people that I have imagined, people who are not myself, or like me in any way. Some of them are also children, I have been a child, some are very elderly, I am not yet old, some are men, I have never been a man. Others come from cultures unrelated to my own Scots/Irish/English heritage. Some of them are bad, they do dreadful things and one character in particular (a man guarding a rare stamp) is a misogynist and consequently this, has only ever been shortlisted in a competition and I am quite certain that this is because he has unpalatable character traits. Which brings me to another point, it is often thought that the writer shares the opinions of their characters, they do not. But writers are quite capable of convincingly portraying unpleasant folk with great truthfulness, which is one of the reasons we enjoy reading. 
 
Ex-Cathedra is the name chosen by many of my former students from the Norwich Cathedral courses who went on to form their own writing group. They have recently published this splendid collection ‘Ten Minute Tales’ specifically written for those suffering from dementia and those that read to them. I was cautioned by one of the writers as the stories ‘…had to be ones that would not raise anxiety often associated with dementia…hopefully there is enough range to engage reader and listener, rekindle memories and promote conversations.’ Well there certainly is; WWII land girls, the abdication and recovering from grief through travel are just some of the stories that will engage readers and those reading to them, as will the scattering of poetry and photographs that aid memory.

My mother suffered from vascular dementia in her latter years and a book with short stories of restricted length, some poetry and illustrations would have been perfect for her. All the proceeds from the book are going to the Alzheimer’s Society. I will be donating my review copy to the local Docking care home. Perhaps some of you might purchase a copy and donate it to someone suffering with dementia or to your local care home helping those affected and the great work of the Alzheimer’s Society in one modest purchase. Oh, and do tell your friends. Details of how to purchase a copy are at the foot of this post.
 
Ten Minute Tales — Graham Porter writes on how this project was realised.
 
Imagine the surprise of discovering that a drawer full of dross is really a drawer full of gems.  That was very much the experience of Norwich writers’ group Ex Cathedra recently. Every week, Ex Cathedra members bring a short written piece to their meeting and share it with their fellow writers.  It’s occasionally a poem, but usually a story.  So, over the years, all the group members have accrued a store of flash fiction, not quite knowing what would become of it.
 
Then one of the authors encountered a neighbour living with dementia and discovered that her reading of novels had been curtailed by the inability to retain characters and plot from one read to the next.  Thus was spawned the inspiration to select and edit the best of the group’s poems and flash fiction into an anthology, specifically aimed at those living with dementia.  Norfolk County Council’s Public Health Team and the Library Service were supportive in trialling some of the material at Care Homes and Cafés, and with financial assistance for the initial publication.  Thea Abbott, of Smokehouse Press was brilliantly helpful with editing and formatting, and on 15th May this year Ex Cathedra published Ten Minute Tales.
Ex Cathedra have their roots in a creative writing course at Norwich Cathedral between 2008 and 2010, tutored by none other than Patricia Mullin.  When the course was completed, several participants remained together and started their own group, choosing a name that reflected their origins.  Five of the seven authors of Ten Minute Tales took part in one or both years of Patricia’s course. 
 
The authors: 
Shirley Buxton; Brenda Daggers; Lea Jamieson; Stuart McCarthy; Graham Porter; Avril Suddaby; Valerie Turner. With the support of Norfolk County Council Public Health Department and Norfolk County Council Library Service.
 
Profits are being donated to the Alzheimer’s Society and below are the ways of purchasing a copy.
 
The most cost-effective way for the charity is to purchase direct from The Smokehouse Press @ £7.50 plus postage (Jarrolds of Norwich have a few copies). ISBN 978-0-9576335-6-8

​www.thesmokehousepress.co.uk

Newsflash:  For Sale
I have to empty my dilapidated studio which is being rebuilt and I have an extraordinary range of eclectic items for sale, from an Adana letter press with type, to Byko sets and a whole lot more in the household range. So to pick up a bargain please go to:
www.patriciasbeachhut.com  and click on the For Sale page and scroll down to view until you come to the final item a shoe last.
 
May Blog

It is the season for writing competitions with several closing dates looming in the coming days and weeks.
It can be difficult to decide which story to match to a competition, and checking out the judge doesn’t necessarily help, given that your stories first obstacle is the small army of dedicated readers. They filter the entries for the judge and it is impossible to predict their tastes. Added to which one has to juggle a story that may have been entered into a competition that is somewhat vague about the period when the shortlist or winners will be announced.  

There is no easy way around this, sometimes one is permitted to submit simultaneously, so long as (should your submission be shortlisted or placed elsewhere) you inform and withdraw your entry immediately. This can leave the writer with a difficult choice, as some competitions carry more clout than others. Deciding where to enter and when is therefore tricky. I think you have to go with your gut and also you need to have a range of short stories in you writing portfolio; stories of varying word lengths with a variety of topics and variation in voice, subject matter, pace, setting and style.

One of the things I enjoy about writing short fiction is that unlike a novel it does not demand an ongoing commitment to. Plot, characters or setting, you can ring the changes. Short fiction gives the writer an opportunity to flex their writing muscles and experiment.

In May I am booked onto a Norwich Writers Centre course lead by Joe Dunthorne. I see attending courses as part of my professional development, a chance to refresh, hone and reboot my writing skills. I also like being taught for a change. It is an opportunity to write out of the box, nudge the bad habits out of the way and challenge my comfort zone, hopefully finding new, progressive and diverse pathways.
In the meantime I’m checking my Mslexia diary for those closing dates and matching stories to competitions with an eye on placement and timing.

Please see below for information on the Pensthorpe poetry and fiction day workshop, which is booking briskly.

 
Recently a writing student asked me if she ought to use a nom de plume, I said I could see no merit in it, especially as she has a good name. Sometimes writing students, frequently women, think this will afford them some advantage. Perhaps, they suggest, a pen name that is gender neutral or even suggestive of a male author will help them get further with an agent or publisher. Generally I find that their writing betrays their sex anyway and so this gender change might only be of benefit should they write masculine style thrillers, science or erotic fiction – E. L. James comes to mind as originally Erika Leonard née Mitchell (Fifty Shades of Grey).

It is true to say that certain authors have altered their names or used initials rather than first name, as in J.K. Rowling, but this is generally at the behest of their publisher and perhaps the marketing department, who think that the public aren’t ready for an author of science or dystopic fiction who is a woman, although clearly Margaret Atwood managed; Atwood prefers to call such writing, Speculative Fiction, as in fiction that could happen.

Journalists sometimes use a pen name Cassandra for instance (The Daily Mirror) is William Connor. Also screen writers, Michael Crichton is in fact John Lange and certainly John Le Carré has more of a ring to it than David John Moore Cornwell. Matrilineal surnames, adjusted surnames based on the mother or grandmother’s maiden names are common. My father, being Scottish, has his mother’s maiden name (Raeburn) is inserted as a middle name, a tradition passed down to the second son, the younger of my two brothers has this too. Actors adopt stage names if their own name proves too difficult to spell, another more famous actor shares the same or similar name, or it simply doesn’t have the right ring to it. Since the 18th Century hundreds of angling authors have adopted pseudonyms — I cannot begin to think why — were the fish likely to object?

There have been times in our troubled world when having an obviously foreign–sounding name was frankly a danger and so these were westernised. Émigré’s often altered their names to a more colloquial spelling for similar reasons. Leslie Charteris (author of Simon Templar) was half Chinese named Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin; prejudice also has a lot to answer for.

In the Sunday Times Magazine last weekend there is an article on Elena Ferrante ‘Step Forward Elena Ferrante’ by Michael Sheridan with additional reporting by Wolfgang Achtner, it seems the bestselling Ferrante author is in fact a little–known Italian translator with a desire for the quiet life. Since the unmasking of Anita Raja from Rome, as the author, speculation and rumour now suggests that more than one author is at work. Readers continue to be fascinated with authors assumed names and persona, Joanna Rowling tried to hide her authorship as Robert Galbraith, when she changed tack and wrote a very different novel from the Potter series; she was exposed early on and the subterfuge failed. Then there is the couple Nicci Gerrard and Sean French who write as one, under the pseudonym Nicci French, the really noteworthy issue is how they actually manage to pull off such a collaborative feat!

The only alteration to my name has been on divorce, to take back my full name, Patricia. Prior to that it had often been shortened to Pat, which I came to dislike and I think the appearance of my full name on spine and cover looks better, and also sounds better. On marriage (I kept my professional name after being advised by my illustration agent not to take my husband’s name ) reverting to my given name marked my return to my fully independent self after a difficult period in my life; in doing so I feeI I have reclaimed my identity.

Here are few more interesting alterations.
 
P. L. Travers                Helen Goff 
Mark Twain                  Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Gore Vidal                   Edgar Box
Ellis Peters                  Edith Pargeter