Our current participants include both amateurs and published authors who describe unique stories for an audience that is wider than their friends and colleagues in their field of work. Career professionals, retired people, and those who want to capture an experience or a contribution that they have made during their life are welcome to come along and get feedback from people who are interested in their writing. We help writers complete their story and nurture their discipline to reach a publishable standard. We give feedback to emerging writers who can put a narrative through feelings, facts, and figures to create a story that would appeal to a general audience. We critique the writing – not the writer.

We all attended Alan Mill’s year long novel writing course in 2011 and thereby share a common language and serious commitment to writing. Our aim is to write the best that we are able, encourage and support each other, celebrate the achievements and milestones, and enjoy the journey with hearty chuckles along the way.

We are a friendly group whose members conscientiously and constructively critique each other’s writing. Several members are prize winners. Rowena Harding-smith has won the Sisters In Crime Scarlet Stiletto Award (2018) and Vickie Laveau-Harvie has won the Stella Prize (2019). Ian McArthur has been shortlisted for the Varuna Publisher Introduction Program Fellowship (2019). Our group purpose is to assist all members to achieve their writing goals through constructive criticism and social support.

Our group is a mixture of men and women of varying ages producing a variety of writing forms. We enjoy meeting new members and reviewing different works including novels, poetry, children’s books, short stories and memoir. Our meetings aim to provide a stimulating and friendly environment in which works may be tested, critiqued, enjoyed and perhaps, improved. Through variety we hope individual writing will be invigorated and strengthened. We like to see an enthusiasm for writing from new members and for them to join in our considerate approach in reviewing member material that is presented to the group.