We had a brilliant salon last week with guest writer Zoe Gilbert at the helm interrogating the mystery and allure of folklore, fables and fairytales and discussing ways into writing new fiction.

Last Monday an audience of intrepid writers braved a dark, damp evening for our salon at the Tea House Theatre Cafe to discuss, There Will Be Blood: Writing Violence, with guest writer, William Ryan.

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past,” wrote F. Scott. Fitzgerald closing The Great Gatsby. The depiction of the past and the processing of memory appears to be catnip to writers. The topic drew a full house to the Tea House Theatre recently to discuss, All Is Not What It Seems: How Memory and the Past Drive a Narrative, with the short story writer and novelist, Claire Fuller.

A packed house of published and aspiring writers gathered to join in the conversation with our guest, Virago Press Chair, Lennie Goodings. We could not have wished for a more perfect speaker to illuminate what every writer needs to know about being edited and being published!

We have a new lineup of events arranged for the Autumn! As the weather mellows and we head toward the cooler months, join us at the Tea House Theatre Cafe in Vauxhall for one of our monthly writing salons. I’m also collaborating once again with writing teacher and experienced editor, Andrew Wille, to run some new masterclasses on craft at the London Bridge Hive. 

Last Monday evening, in the midst of a heatwave to rival the fabled summer of '76, we held our final salon of the season at The Teahouse Theatre Cafe. The tropical temperature didn’t deter our intrepid audience and they arrived in droves to talk, Writing Ghosts, with our guest, the novelist Jenn Ashworth.

Last Saturday we ran a new workshop, The Craft of Revising, led by Andrew Wille at the London Bridge Hive. Andrew put together an inspired program exploring various aspects of the revision process.  A vibrant and enthusiastic group of writers took part and the day was further livened up by the arrival of the author Michelle Lovric and later, Virago Press Chair, Lennie Goodings. 

Last Monday night our guest author, best selling novelist and creative writing teacher, Julie Cohen, treated us to a virtual master class in craft and technique as we discussed, Writing Relationships: Love and Other Bruises.

Following the recent royal wedding the Teahouse Theatre Cafe was still in a celebratory mood last Monday with red, white and blue bunting strung across the ceiling. Early evening sunshine streamed through the windows. The cafe hummed with a house full of expectant writers ready to explore The Power of Place with our guest, novelist, short story writer and playwright, Courttia Newland.

We have an exciting new workshop, The Craft of Revising, all planned and ready for Saturday, 23rd June. I'm teaming up once again with experienced editor and writing teacher, Andrew Wille, who'll be leading the workshop. There's also a Q & A session arranged for the afternoon with Virago Press chair, Lennie Goodings. Our venue, the London Bridge Hive, is a recently renovated space located three minutes walk from London Bridge Station - close to Borough Market and the cafes of Bermondsey Street.

Letting in the light seemed an apt prelude to our salon: The Agony and Ecstasy: Writing Sex in Fiction. We were expecting a full house and quite a few early birds had already arrived, eager to hear our guest, the celebrated novelist and poet, Michèle Roberts.

Spring is inching its way forward at last! I've been deep in dog-training mode with our retriever pup Alfie, who's now five months old. So I’m loving the longer days with the promise of summer ahead. It's also been a busy couple of weeks behind the scenes arranging new workshops and salons for Words Away and I'm really excited about what we have planned.

As pretty as it was to see London under a blanket of snow last week, I was pleased that the Beast From The East made a timely exit for our recent salon: Process and Practice: Exploring Poetry and Prose with Blake Morrison.

Last Monday’s salon with best-selling author, Louise Doughty, fell on a bitterly cold evening. I’d been lucky enough to do a masterclass with Louise last year and was looking forward to meeting her again, especially in light of our topic: How To Write Literary Thrillers and Create Compulsive Plots.

It might have been ‘Blue Monday', but we had a fantastic start to the Words Away year earlier this week with a sold-out salon, How Writers and Agents Work Together, with our guest, literary agent, Jo Unwin. It was our most popular salon to date and it began with a lovely sense of anticipation and excitement amongst the audience. 

I hope you had a lovely festive season or at least manage to survive it! There’s been no time for New Year resolutions here at Words Away Central as life has been turned upside down by the arrival of our new golden retriever puppy, Alfie. I’m going to be hunkering down for the next few weeks while Alfie settles in.

What can a prose writer learn from thinking like a poet? The poet employs metaphor, simile, sound, rhythm and precision of language to create intensity, mood and tone. In our salon with the poet Maura Dooley we discussed how these elements can be of service to the prose writer too...

I’m really looking forward to Monday 4th December, and our salon at the Tea House Theatre, Poetry for Prose Writers with Maura Dooley - it’s going to be a lovely way to finish the year as we gallop toward Christmas and 2018. Before we part ways for the festive season, I wanted to cast a glance back over the last month with a mini-roundup of what’s been happening - if only to figure out where on earth the last few weeks have gone.

‘Short or Long? That is the question,’ tweeted a member of the audience as we gathered at the Tea House last Monday night for a salon with the acclaimed novelist and short story writer, Tessa Hadley. Outside, Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens was shrouded in the autumn dark but inside the cafe there was a seasonal sparkle and cosy atmosphere as the last of the audience arrived. 

Jill Dawson's takeaway message for writers: What does fiction know or do that other art forms don’t know or offer? Fiction has it’s own magic. It’s an invitation between two imaginations - the writer and the reader. We turn to fiction for something that can’t be answered in other ways, to ‘feel something’.