Anderida Writers, who are celebrating a successful year, featuring increased activities, a best-ever attendance and a healthy bank balance of more than £1,000, are offering to help more writers.
At their AGM on April 15th in the Hydro Hotel, Eastbourne, chairman Tony Flood said that Anderida are continuing to give support and advice to published authors, those wishing to get published and those writing for fun. The club, which can boast of many published authors, including patron Tamara McKinley, poet Laurie Wilkinson and thriller writer Robert Crouch, encourage members and guests to read extracts of their work and have it critiqued at monthly meetings.
The Eastbourne group had benefited greatly in the last year from the sponsorship of vice chairman Nigel Gearing and by hosting a concert that attracted the biggest attendance in their history.
But Mr Flood pointed out that John Silverton, Francis Wait and himself were again taking on several roles, and he asked more members to get involved in future, including contributing regularly on Anderida’s Facebook page.
He said that inviting former Bachelors singer Dec Cluskey to give a concert in March attracted a full house of 81 people – a record attendance for any Anderida meeting. This brought a net profit of £104 as well as raising awareness of Anderida.
Nigel Gearing had generously sponsored a new short story and poetry competition to the tune of £225, and votes of thanks were given to publisher Nigel and best-selling author Tamara McKinley for judging the event.
The Anderida Accolade Award was later presented jointly to Nigel and Tamara for their outstanding services to the club.
It was proposed by John Silverton and seconded by Francis Wait that the judging of the new Gearing Trophy Short Story and Poetry competition be extended, with a third judge appointed. After Tamara objected, John and Francis said it was no reflection on her and Nigel, and the introduction of a third judge would widen the range of opinions. Tamara disagreed and after much discussion, John withdrew the proposal to ensure that Tamara would continue as a judge.
A proposal by Nigel Gearing, seconded by Tamara McKinley, was passed that the closing date for entries to The Gearing Trophy competition be brought forward to the first week in October and the winners be announced at the November meeting when they would receive their prizes.
It was confirmed that the usual Anderida Annual Short Story and Poetry competition, in which the winners are decided by members’ votes, will continue to be held, with entries read out by actors at the July meeting. Entry fees for this are £6, with full members able to submit two entries for £9.
The meeting approved both the current accounts and an amended profit and loss account for 2023-2024 showing an income of £1126 and an expenditure of £951, giving a profit for the year of £175 (not £345 as previously recorded).
Tony Flood asked members to support Tamara by buying her latest book With Promises To Keep, written under the name Ellie Dean. This is the 21st book in her best-selling Cliffehaven series and the paperback is now available on Amazon for the special discounted price of £5.50, with the e-version available at £2.99.
Tony also invited members to attend Songs & Secrets of Elvis, Marilyn and Kylie in which popular singing duo Stardust and himself, as an author, will be providing a mix of songs, revelations and amusing anecdotes at the Grove Theatre, underneath Eastbourne Library, on Saturday, May 10th from 2 pm.
The Stardust duo of Maria and Roberto will be singing and playing songs made famous by Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Kylie Minogue, either side of Tony giving revelations and amusing anecdotes about these legends and others featured in his book My Life With The Stars – Sizzling Secrets Spilled. Tickets cost £9.50.
Those present at the AGM were offered a complimentary copy of The Boxer’s Story by author, broadcaster and journalist Bob Harris. It is not about boxing, but an emotive story of life and death featuring a survivor of the Holocaust.
Officers elected were: patron – Tamara McKinley; President – Tony Flood; Vice President – Brian Capron; Chairman – Tony Flood; Vice Chairman – Nigel Gearing; Secretary – John Silverton; Assistant Secretary – Hex Austin;’ Treasurer – John Silverton; Assistant treasurer – Francis Wait; Competition secretary – Francis Wait; Assistant competition secretary – Tamara McKinley; Membership secretary – Francis Wait; Website administrator – Alistair Colley; Facebook page administrators – Tony Flood and Alistair Colley; Publicity and marketing officer – Tony Flood.
