Happy Days
February 22, 2022
You know what it's like when you decide to have a tidy up and throw out the things that you no longer need. You end up going through everything, reminiscing or rediscovering old loves. I finally got around to sorting through my handwritten drafts and notes for the Exiles of Ondd series, and found early incarnations of the novels, several deleted scenes, characters and discarded plot lines that I really did not want to put in the recycling bin. I even found an Iyessi lullaby that I'd forgotten I'd written. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with them, but they might appear in future blogs or Facebook posts in some form or other.
That was not all I found, however. I hate wasting perfectly good paper, so most of my early drafts are written on the back of old manuscripts. In this instance, I found I had been using copies of work that had been submitted to the annual Cassandra SF workshop. It gave me a jolt to realise that it must be 40 years since Bernard Smith and Steve Austin set up the writers' group in Northampton.
I'd never attended anything like it before, and was really nervous. We were a bunch of SF and Fantasy fans and aspiring writers, who not only talked about the genre, but aimed right from the start to produce a regular anthology. As time went on, the group produced several: Cassandra SF, Crystal Egg (for children), Dreamwine (SF poetry), and a newsletter.
Although there were rarely more than half a dozen of us at meetings, Cassandra SF soon attracted members from all over the country. In fact, the annual weekend workshops drew people from far and wide including students, scientists, experienced writers and newbies like me. The workshops were always chaired by a well-known author. Ian Watson, Bob Shaw and Gary Kilworth all took on the role. Each participant submitted a story in advance. These were distributed to everyone, so they had a chance to critique them and provide constructive feedback at the workshop itself. It was nervewracking, useful and great fun.
Several of Cassandra's novice members are now highly regarded published authors including Charles Stross, Simon Ings and Steve Bowkett. I haven't done so badly either, with Discord's Shadow receiving a nomination for Best Novel in the British Science Fiction Association Awards 2021.
I still have all my copies of Cassandra, so of course, I shall have to read them again. Ah, yes! Happy days!
That was not all I found, however. I hate wasting perfectly good paper, so most of my early drafts are written on the back of old manuscripts. In this instance, I found I had been using copies of work that had been submitted to the annual Cassandra SF workshop. It gave me a jolt to realise that it must be 40 years since Bernard Smith and Steve Austin set up the writers' group in Northampton.
I'd never attended anything like it before, and was really nervous. We were a bunch of SF and Fantasy fans and aspiring writers, who not only talked about the genre, but aimed right from the start to produce a regular anthology. As time went on, the group produced several: Cassandra SF, Crystal Egg (for children), Dreamwine (SF poetry), and a newsletter.
Although there were rarely more than half a dozen of us at meetings, Cassandra SF soon attracted members from all over the country. In fact, the annual weekend workshops drew people from far and wide including students, scientists, experienced writers and newbies like me. The workshops were always chaired by a well-known author. Ian Watson, Bob Shaw and Gary Kilworth all took on the role. Each participant submitted a story in advance. These were distributed to everyone, so they had a chance to critique them and provide constructive feedback at the workshop itself. It was nervewracking, useful and great fun.
Several of Cassandra's novice members are now highly regarded published authors including Charles Stross, Simon Ings and Steve Bowkett. I haven't done so badly either, with Discord's Shadow receiving a nomination for Best Novel in the British Science Fiction Association Awards 2021.
I still have all my copies of Cassandra, so of course, I shall have to read them again. Ah, yes! Happy days!
Posted by K. S. Dearsley. Posted In : FantasyFiction
