Reimagining

On a beautiful sunny day, it was hard to imagine what eight women in 1711 had to endure in Carrickfergus court. Not far from the current town hall the drama took place.

Yesterday, along with two writing pals, I attended a writing workshop as part of a fantastic new exhibition in Carrickfergus museum -  'Reimagining the Islandmagee Witches'.

Along with artefacts from the era are a virtual reality experience,  animation, graphic novel and video game.

It was good to reconnect with some writers and researchers I'd met before at previous creative writing workshops I'd attended in the museum and also to meet new writers and those who have researched and curated the exhibition.

Led by playwright Georgia Rhoades we spent most of the day focusing on our own stories and thinking  'what might have been....'  In advance of the workshop we had been asked to think about who we would write about. I had decedided to revisit a story I started to work on a few years ago based on one of my ancestors. Georgia introduced us to some tips and techniques to help us in the process. We had time to explore our characters, their stories and their problems and to write.

 I left Carrickfergus after a very enjoyable day, inspired to go back to my story again.

New school term

The start of September and the beginning of a new school year has been accompanied,  not for the first time, by the return of glorious sunshine.  We were back at Coney yesterday to start a new term of writing. After our summer retreat last month, we came back energised and enthused. While we may not have acquired new jotters and pens for the start of the new term, that didn't stop us.

I know I've got back to writing since the retreat and now we're into a new school term I'm excited about some writing projects I'll be working on over this term.

Over coffee, accompanied by delicious home made chocolate brownies and shortbread we caught up on news since our writing retreat and then did a couple of writing exercises to stretch those creative muscles. It would have been a perfect morning for yoga on the beach, but we chose to flex our creative muscles instead.

Fuelled by autumnal blackberry and ginger muffins we worked hard. I'm not sure if it was the ginger in the muffins, the warm September sunshine or the energy that is created when we gather, but I came away from Coney excited to be back writing.