The Write Girls came together as a team of enthusiastic creative writers. "Born out of a workshop run for the International Women's Club (IWC) Cape Town, by the multifaceted Priscilla Holmes, a published author herself." Career orientated, their writing has become an all-encompassing hobby.
They meet regularly to hone and polish their talents. An assignment, or theme, is given each month. Short stories are written, each one is read out loud and there is constructive criticism. Exercises are given and written 'on the spot', there's a great deal of laughter and fun, and some real talent is generated.
They have published two titles so far, The Man with the Blue Eyes and Women Like Us. They will be posting their collective writing experiences and short stories on their blog.
http://thewritegirls.wordpress.com/
Priscilla Holmes
I'm a published author, with a background in training and development, so I thought I was qualified to start a writing group. It's been a wonderful surprise to see the way the group has flourished and developed. There's something incredibly exciting about realising that you are helping people to shape their talent and express themselves. Hearing the buzz and hum of writers swapping newly learned techniques, and coming up with sparkling new ideas, has been a fun and positive journey for me. I have been writing since I was a child and love to create new worlds and exciting characters that just seem to take me over! To me, writing is an exhilarating step into another world. I couldn't live without it in my life.
Susan Herrick
I was born and lived in Johannesburg until we moved to Cape Town in 2008. Initially I was the only South African in the Write Girls Group. I worked in the book world for twelve years and I love everything about books. This led me to try my hand at writing. The elusive word is always there beckoning me on. I enjoy the writing process and feel there is still so much to learn. It is an adventure of self-discovery. The camaraderie within our group is something special.
Erika Hauptmann
I am German and a species with aerial roots. When life took over, the world was mine, continents of it, for decades. I have moved from place to place with my feet on the ground, but not in it. Over time Jane Austen, Somerset Maugham and Gustave Flaubert became closer companions than Goethe and Schiller. When twilight set in, and when everything was done, life needed to escape from memory to words on paper. It needed to be kept alive and shared. That's when writing began and became release and joy, and promised to open ways for new discoveries..
Caroline Gilbert
I was born in Durban, to a South African mother and an English father. I was educated in England. I have lived in Hong Kong, Singapore, France, England and South Africa. I wanted to write creatively because I love to read and most of my life I have written letters to friends and to my parents. Now I send long e-mails to friends, all around the world, but I still write aerogrammes to my mother – who refuses, point blank, to become computer-literate. I read virtually anything, except science fiction, and always wondered what kind of style I would write in – to my astonishment, Priscilla says I have a chatty style…..!
Carole Armstrong-Hooper
I am English, married to a German and after almost 25 years marketing in the corporate world I now run a small "Boutique Hotel" in Cape Town. I have always enjoyed reading and a school girl reciting Wordsworth's "On Westminster Bridge" led to descriptive writing. I know there is a book in me somewhere. Will it be about cats? Perhaps a detective novel? Or who knows a hotel saga. I certainly have a lot of characters for material.
Valerie Sandilands
Books have always been one of my passions. I count myself fortunate that my chosen career was to teach English to children in high school as this meant I was paid to indulge in the delights of both reading and writing. Some years ago, together with a friend, I wrote and published three study guides on novels. South African born and bred, I have lived north of the Vaal River until recently when my husband and I decided on a whim to exchange the long view of the highveld for the long view of the sea and came to the Cape. Now being a member of The Write Girls I am discovering both the pleasures and the rigours of writing fiction. Lucky Me!
Lynn Rowand
Fact or fiction. What should one write? Being pragmatic, I found fact easier to pen. But I discovered fiction offers more. It offers escapism - something we all long for. During my lifetime I have escaped into the art world, into the tennis world, into the riding world, into the gran world and into the writing world. Now I, along with The Write Girls, hope to create our own escapism by writing about it. One never gives up when writing. It is an all-encompassing passion which can carry one through the highs and lows of life. After all, that's what living on planet earth is all about.