Wow!What a wonderful six months we’ve had since we launched this website!
As Editor, I’d like to say a huge thank you to the group’s loyal members for the energy, creativity and enthusiasm that they have poured into their contributions for the Friday meetings and ultimately this website.
The Group’s loyal members
Those core members are, of course, Ramor Craigie whose keen eye and deeply abiding cynicism about la condition humaine, honed from his years on the rock face of being a Beara Hotelier, is to be found liberally sprinkled into so many of his stories.Mags Cahill from Caheragh, and Carmel Walsh (the acceptable face of Rosscarbery) have been rocks of reliability in terms of attendance and consistently creative output – closely followed by our new star Silke O’Reilly, the sheer thoughtful quality of whose writings have been quite stunning.Richard Knight has produced fast-paced and honest work that always makes us laugh as might be expected from a man whose wit was honed in Liverpool and sharpened in Ballydehob.Last but by no means least are our two other new girls Eileen Moynihan and Joan Davis, both of whom have entered into the spirit of our Challenges and done so with verve, style, mounting confidence and progressively improving technique.
The Blow Ins page
The basic philosophy of the West Cork Writers has always been inclusive rather than exclusive, open rather than closed, so perhaps it was inevitable that we would want to share the fun of the Challenges with as many people from as many places as possible, and so the ‘Blow Ins’ section was put into this website just in case anyone from outside Ireland wanted to join in the game and become honorary West Corkers.
NONE of us expected what happened next!Mike Crowley from northern California kicked us off first with a blinding noir-ish story that set the bar impossibly high – or so it seemed - but then Blow In Mike was joined by new Blow Ins Jimmy Doyle from Los Angeles, Clark Heinrich from Santa Cruz, the enigmatically dubbed poet Doctor Concrescence, Gwyllm Llwydd from Portland, Elros Tuominem from the Basque Country, Tomas Brawley from Rhode Island and John Archdeacon from San Jose – quite a few of these talented writers giving us several contributions of consistently high quality!
The West Cork Irregulars
The Irregulars page was set up for those writers living in Ireland who couldn’t make the Friday meetings but who still fancied the idea of joining the Challenges.Whilst this page hasn’t yet attracted the numbers that the Blow In section has – special thanks are due to the mysteriously pen-named John Simonity who kicked it off as well as to Silke – who so took to the writing that she then became a full member of the group!I live in hope that there might yet be new writers out there who will yet join the ranks of the Irregulars.
Whither the Website?
Where to next?Obviously we would like to continue along the path we have already established and we have had several enquiries from people expressing a keen interest in joining in our writing Challenges – both locally and from around the world.
That said, the site has become something of a victim of its own success in that it has involved far more time & work (all unpaid) than was originally envisaged. Importantly, as your editor I never wanted to go down the route of charging our writers and becoming yet another creative writing ‘money-maker’ – we might want your talent, your enthusiasm and your creativity but not your cash!
Fortunately, we have recently had indications from West Cork Arts Centre – who have always generously provided us with space for our Friday meetings – that they might be able to help us keep the adventure going.Watch this space to see if we are successful.
The Corky – An Unquiet Revolution
A full description of the Corky (County Cork's answer to the Limerick) will be published on these pages within a few days: a landmark moment for those of us lucky enough to witness the miracle of its birth. Everyone will be able to recall reading their very first Corky I have no doubt – and it is to be hoped that a goodly number of you will be inveigled into writing some Corkies of your own and thus becoming at one with the Brave West Cork Pioneers of the NEW ART FORM.And then – God help us - God help us all.
