The Writers Umbrella

The Writers @ Lovedean went to The Groundlings Theatre in Portsmouth to read in the Arts Festival celebrating Jonas Hanway birth. For those who don't know he invented the umbrella.

I had a great day, but I tend to enjoy things like this. I think it's because I've always been a volunteer I can see all the hard work put into organising an event like this. There are always those who just wander around the side lines making the occasional comment of how things could be improved if they did it, which they don't.

Today at The Groundlings there was a wonderful atmosphere. Singers and actors did their best to perform and we also got on that stage and did our best. And because I run the group I thought what the hell and I let my kids read their work to. They were still buzzing when they came home.

It's took a massive amount of time to sort out. I decided pretty early on that I did not want to spend all my time sitting on a stall and I'm working hard on looking at how social media can benefit groups and business. So I offered help to all my members but only three members took the opportunity to record their work to be played on a screen. I also took a snippet from the radio soap myself and Lynne Stone used to write for and and made a poster screen for the group. Unfortunately putting it onto a video was still outside my technical skills so my husband had to put it together. I sat watching him over his shoulder, but hubby is many wonderful things be he isn't a teacher. I don't think I would have done it if I knew how much time it was going to take. Posters and leaflets were made. My daughter had the idea to give poems away in a bag with our details on. It was a lovely thought but time consuming. Still it can always be used again.

I had to send emails and jolly members to come along but they did and they performed brilliantly.

I wanted the group to benefit from my social media training so I set up a twitter account and Facebook page for The Writers @ Lovedean.

The result - that same feeling I had when I set up the blog. I didn't get round to really thinking about what I was going to read. I didn't get round to making a little video short of my work. And when everyone else described feeling like they had climbed a mountain I felt like I could have done more.

Still a great day.