We were meeting at one of our group’s lovely homes, and typical me, although I’ve been there several times, could I remember where it was? No I could not! I was on the right road, but none of the houses – although familiar, shouted out that this was where she lived and where she was entertaining ‘Writers in Stone’ – our group. I rang Fenja who I know would be there, she sighed in an understanding and kindly way and came out on the street to wave at me. When I was a child I remember seeing the film, ‘The Absent-Minded Professor’, and although I’m definitely not a professor (unlike my uncle Sidney R. Elsden) I am definitely absent-minded.
Anyway, I arrived at the right place and joined my writing chums to share what we had written on the subject of ‘arson’. I shared my experiences of it yesterday, two occasions where a school I taught at suffered a fire deliberately set, and a favourite place in Bristol which had a dreadful attack, the Underfall Yard. I’d been thinking about what to write for a while, and although there were plenty of ideas, nothing seemed to set into a particular shape. Then from nowhere came a thought of someone standing looking through an imposing wrought iron gate at a large house, almost a mansion, which was now a smouldering ruin. A security guard approached and the someone explained that they had once visited the place, and how sad they were to see it devastated. I set to and started writing.
I have to say my contribution was rather feeble compared to my friends. A clever story about a wife’s revenge on a cheating husband – although her involvement in a deadly house fire wasn’t revealed util the end, a schoolgirl with malign intent, a weekend away in a holiday cottage in Wales, two idiots whose prank went dreadfully wrong – and four others, which no doubt in a year’s time will appear in our next anthology. We began to talk about the possibility of having a writing/book festival in Weston-super-Mare again. I was lucky enough to be involved in the first one right from the planning stage, and to a lesser extent with a couple of others, and have also been a participant in the Burnham-on-Sea fest for a couple of years. So the idea of reviving the Weston fest was very exciting – especially as our group has some very strong members who have also had write-fest experiences, plus others who would be amazing in a forthcoming event!
Altogether it was an excellent meeting, with exciting plans to ponder on – and I remembered where I parked my car (well, I did have to do a detour to find it but I was in the general location!)
Lois Elsden 