One of the best things any writer can do to inspire their creativity and hone their craft is to join a writers’ group. Little else gets the creative juices flowing and the pen scribbling like surrounding yourself with other writers and assigning yourself a task with a deadline. Not only can this spark great ideas, but you never know where they will lead and the success that may follow.

This is what happened to Dawn Knox, a member of the Basildon Writers’ Group. For one such meeting, Dawn crafted a humorous story of Derek, a socially inept man who blunders his way through a speed-dating session, consistently offending all the women he meets. The story was well-received by the group, and Dawn liked the two main characters so much that she decided to use them in another story. Thereafter, she took one or more people from the previous story and wrote them into a new tale to present to her group each month. Eventually, she had enough to submit the entire series to the CaféLit website.

Thus, from a short story exercise from her writers’ group, Dawn had manifested a book, The Basilwade Chronicles, which is available to purchase now. It just goes to show what writers inspiring writers can do for our individual creativity and success. The chapter I am delighted to tease you with this week was read out on a local radio station by John Guest, and the recording is embedded below. The book’s colourful and charming cover is by Neill C. Woods.

Also, this week, we have a poignant, raw poem by Barbara Campbell. Underlying Causations is a tribute to the ongoing problem of racial inequality that exists around the world, including in the UK and the USA. The poem highlights how the pandemic has brought into stark vision the socio-economic and health disadvantages facing BAME populations, while the Black Lives Matter movement has illuminated the systemic racism that societies all too often pretend does not exist. I had hoped to publish this poem a few weeks ago, when the weekly theme was more appropriate to the subject matter. Sadly, the content of the poem remains all too relevant.

Keep on writing!

Dan (Associate Editor)

 

The Basilwade Chronicles by Dawn Knox

(C) Dawn Knox & Chapeltown Books, 2020

The Basilwade Chronicles is available to purchase here. You can learn more about Dawn on her website here, or follow her on her social media accounts:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DawnKnoxWriter/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SunriseCalls
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sunrisecalls/

 

 

*****

 

Underlying Causations by Barbara Campbell

Pandemic virus – causations

Poor health, diabetes and such like

Socio-economic injustices worldwide

In other words, we the BAME are bottom of the pile

 

Striving to elevate society’s strata

Unacknowledged by the glass ceiling barriers

Standing in the way of our success

 

We Care Workers unselfishly standing on the frontline

Innocently giving up our lives for the cause

No protection from the unseen beast lurking

Ready to take our lives in the thousands

 

I was such a man, faithful and devoted to my family

I was strong but made weak by an underlying condition

Taken too soon by the wretched virus

Who will be taking care of my wife and children?

Now I am gone

 

Innate narratives borne out of past slave mentality

Covert but alive and kicking, in motion

Now permeating through the consciousness of a different generation

Rising out of a heinous crime

Against a Black man, a Black population

Ricochet – rebounding across nations

 

Lest we forget

This punishment did not fit the crime

Unity is our mantra, we are all shouting out loud

Rising up against all the odds.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

 

(C) Barbara Campbell, 2020

 

If you’d like to see your writing appear in the Write On! Showcase, please send your short stories, poetry or novel extracts to pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk. You can read more fiction, poetry, interviews and author advice in the latest issue of Write On! Available here