Fantasy writers in the East Midlands?

I know a fair few writers in Leicester from my old writing group. Two of them are the new NaNoWriMo MLs who took over after I left. I'm not sure if they still do this, but when I was there we'd meet in Coffee Republic, upstairs on the left, on Granby street at about 2 or 2:30 every week. But it kinda broke up a bit when several of us left after completing our uni courses or in some cases left to go to uni.

I will be in Leciester at the end of the month visiting friends though. If you want I can contact my old writing group friends and see if they're still doing their thing and whether they'd welcome a newcomer. They're a mixed bunch, but they've all got some hint of either fantasy or sci fi somewhere in there from what I recall. Vampires. Space ships. Incredibly long scarves and collections of old Doctor Who books. Seriously. We called that guy the Doctor, because he has a PhD and a scarf Tom Baker could be proud of. Plus the aforementioned collection. He bought about 200 Doctor Who books off Ebay for £150 once.

Now I live in the west midlands though. Good old Shropshire, where all the writers are my mum's age (and in fact she's one of them) and don't write fantasy, in spite of our history and amazingly beautiful landscape and the fricken Wrekin with its iron age peoples defeated by the Romans and its crags worthy of a dragon perch. I love that hill. I got to see my favourite view of it yesterday.

 

Oooh, Lincoln. The University of they're here. I was thinking about that "advert" this morning for some reason. But I have visited Lincoln, in my first year at uni in fact as a field trip to see the Cathedral (amazing! So incredibly huge. Could probably fit my entire town into it) and the castle.

Shropshire is great, though. Shrewsbury with its narrow windy steep streets and old timey shops and its castle and abbey which is nothing like the one you might have seen on Cadfael. Bishops Castle always struck me as a mini Shrewbury in many respects. Ludlow with its frankly brilliant castle, friendly high street, little galleries and cafes. Ironbridge with its... iron bridge and Blists Hill Victorian Town and that weird little hippy place that does woodland walks and apple festivals and had a veggie cafe last time I went. The Wrekin as I mentioned above. Bridgnorth has the exploded remains of a castle leaning at an unnatural angle thanks to Cromwell, and the Cliff Railway, and the Severn Valley Railway with the delicious smell of steam trains, and the ice cream parlour that sells a special ice cream called Catch Me Who Can with honey and something that tastes like biscotti, named after the engine that was built in Bridgnorth. Then there's Highley, stay away from the town but the Engine Shed is a great railway museum, and a modest walk away is Alverley country park which is a really nice place to spend a warm Sunday afternoon, build on what were the slag and spoil heaps from industrial mining beneath the river but now so picturesque.

Yes I'm rather fond of Shropshire. And that's not even half of it. Do visit.

Anyway back on topic. I'll message my Leicester writing friends on facebook later and see what's going on with the writing group, if it still exists.

 

Bridgnorth has one, but it's all people my mum's age and they have a fairly strict system of being able to read things out. I prefer a more casual approach, and one which involves writing at the meeting as well as reading out and giving feedback and chatting about things. Where in Shropshire are you?