Today I wanted to let you know about a great place for writers to gather – Hags, Harlots and Heroines.

It was founded a couple of years ago by Laura Wilkinson, when two friends challenged each other to write a story about a famous woman in history.

As Laura says, “Like a virus it spread around the office and soon we were all at it. We were amazed to find how many great stories there were already out there, just waiting to be discovered. The lives of women in history have – with some glorious exceptions – been largely ignored. For us, as women blessed by having the freedoms and choices of those born in the latter half of the twentieth century, researching and writing about their lives had an added significance: here were women who had come before us, pioneers who had ventured into new and uncharted territory.”

Since their site has evolved into the current snazzy incarnation, which includes forums, membership, hints and tips, a blog … You can join here and create your own page – go see!

I got an email from Bob Stein yesterday telling me about this ‘experiment in close reading’ at http://www.thegoldennotebook.org/, starting on November 10th. I quote:

Seven women will read Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook and carry on a conversation in the margins. The idea for the project arose out of my experience re-reading the novel in the summer of 2007 just before Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature. The Golden Notebook was one of the two or three most influential books of my youth and I decided I wanted to “try it on” again after so many years. It turned out to be one of the most interesting reading experiences of my life. With an interval of thirty-seven years the lens of perception was so different; things that stood out the first-time around were now of lesser importance, and entire themes I missed the first time came front and center. When I told my younger colleagues what I was reading, I was surprised that not one of them had read it, not even the ones with degrees in English literature. It occurred to me that it would be very interesting to eavesdrop on a conversation between two readers, one under thirty, one over fifty or sixty, in which they react to the book and to each other’s reactions. And then of course I realized that we now actually have the technology to do just that.

Having never read a Doris Lessing book (I know!) I’ll be taking part in this – I’ve just ordered my copy from Amazon. If you do want to read the book online, the whole text will be available – just visit the site here for more information.

Dave Bonta at the marvellous Via Negativa is hosting this month’s ‘Festival of the Trees’. He had to explain the idea of blog carnivals to me, which is a blog event similar to a magazine which happens regularly and consists of a blog article with permalinks to other blog articles on a particular topic.

The main Festival of the Trees site is here, and last month’s issue is here. My modest contribution is a photo my partner took when we were on holiday in Dubrovnik earlier in the year, and a couple of poems about trees. I hope you enjoy the rest of the carnival at Via Negativa.

*
Red Tree

It’s just a tree most of the year
but in October it cracks open like an egg,
becomes the colour of fights, of lips
men would kill to kiss.

The leaves are lit up from within
and bursting with banquets,
chandeliers, all-night dancing.
Unable to bear their own brightness

they let go of their twigs too soon.
The tree can hardly wait to be red again.

*

Autumn

It is cold. I sit in the centre of a circle of nuns. They are lying
under the grass, their heads or feet pointing towards me.

Each sister is marked with a stump of stone. A silver plaque
shows her name, how long she had, when she was taken by God.

Off to the left are trees, and to my right four fat pheasants
are wandering around the convent gardens. Further away

the hills are under mist. I think a fire is gently crackling
somewhere hidden in the trees until I turn and really listen.

It is the orangey leaves – they are glancing off each other
as they fall, snapping, pattering and landing with a whisper.

There are four more stones a little way from the others.
Here, holes were dug for Annie, Irene, Frances and Joan,

all of them children. Sister Elizabeth had ninety-six
chances to hear this burning. Annie had ninety less.

“Your Messages” is a writing challenge that Lynne Rees and Sarah Salway set last year, which culminated in an event at the Poetry Cafe. This year they’re doing it again:

Every day during the month of November 2008 we will post a writing prompt of exactly 30 words and you’re invited to respond, via the comments box, with your own original piece of writing which may be either exactly 30 words or 300 words long.

Their site is here – it looks like it’s going to be fun. And if by any chance you have any spare short pieces of writing, you know where to send them…..