Workshop Day at Quorn Hall

The second Kala Kahani writers' meeting arose out of discussions at the Inaugural meeting. Many participants have full time jobs or are students and their homes are quite widely scattered around the region, making travel time an issue. So it was decided that events should be held, as far as possible, at weekends to help everyone have an equal chance to take part. It was also noted that there was a variety of interests in the group, from poetry and novels to theatre and script writing. In view of this, it was felt that we should try and incorporate a number of different activities into our next event.
We met on Saturday 16th October at Quorn Hall in Leicestershire. This lovely old building is owned by Leicestershire County Council and has beautiful grounds bordered by the river Soar.
Our morning session was led by Rod Duncan a well known local writer, author of several crime novels. His session mixed relaxation techniques with exercises to get the mind focused and closed with a session of very practical advice and information on the thorny issue of getting published.
In the afternoon we were joined by Mark Goodwin. Mark is also a local writer and Community Poet and a very experienced workshop leader (as well as being an enthusiastic mountaineer - not that easy in Leicestershire!)
He led us into a very stimulating and challenging round of writing tasks and exercises and some really outstanding and beautiful work was written and shared, some of which will hopefully find its way onto this web site soon.
All in all the day was a great success and we are all looking forward to the next event, hopefully within the next few weeks.