Benson O’Donnell is the new facilitator for the Author-rised writers group at the Parkes Shire Library.
The 1st of February was the first Author-rised meeting for the year, the first Author-rised presented by me (Benson O’Donnell, bookish and brave Library tech) and the first Author-rised in the ‘decatholonic’ celebration of our amazing writers group taking root at Parkes Library.
It was a great showing for our first meeting, with eager fledgling writers keen to make plans for the year. First on the agenda was a writing roster for the year. This gave each writer wanting to submit a piece of writing for the newsletter or The Parkes Phoenix a more generous deadline than just the next meeting. The end goal of all this planning will be a book filled to the brim with contributions from the Author-rised group. A worthy tribute to mark our 10-year milestone.
After separating to write, we joined again for a great showing of diverse creativity. Starting with Heather’s musing on the different ways of families, Margaret’s poetic memories on the river, Peter’s captivating world building in his newly minted sci fi world, Kerry’s linguistic delight of ‘she was not usual’, and Laura’s continuing adventure of a rugged rural life. We ended the night with Graham’s presentation on a book he has put together for 125 years of Bogan Gate. This 500-page tome consists of local poetry, yarns and never before published histories of the Bogan Gate township. It sounds like a fascinating read and I can’t wait for the library to get their hands on it.
For everything we have planned for the year to come there truly is no time like the write time and if you have a story itching to get out, we would love to see you, the first Tuesday of the month.
By Benson O’Donnell