Hello and welcome

Hello readers and welcome to the Phoenix Writers!

Its great that you’ve found us and I’d like to take a moment to say ‘welcome to our blog!’ Yes, I say our blog because this site and its associated pages is populated and maintained by members of the Phoenix Writers. If you’re not sure who we are, then know that we’re a small (through rapidly growing!) group of writers who gather every Saturday morning to swap advice, success stories, feedback and support.

You’ll find plenty of range among our members; urban fiction, high fantasy, comedy, horror, historical drama, women’s fiction, autobiographical, poetry – there’s even a playwright among us!

I joined the group last year after meeting one of the members at Writing East Midlands, annual event, Alt Fiction. She invited me along just to test the waters and I must say that I’ve not once looked back! Since then I’ve been welcomed into the group as another writer with a shared love of words and storytelling. I’ve been nurtured, coached and able to begin learning some of the skills to help me do the same for others. Made all the more pleasant by the fact that I can do so over a cup of fruity tea!

Our regular meetings take the format of a quick meet downstairs in the main eatery at the Phoenix Square, where we ready ourselves with a quick cup of tea at 10:15am. This is a great chance for those of us who don’t meet in the week to do a bit of social catch up before ‘time in.’ By 10:30am we’re heading up to the room put aside just for us and settling in for a quick bout of announcements, news and updates. After that, we begin by reading the results of the mini writing exercise decided the previous week. This is normally just a small piece of writing 100-200 words with a single trigger word or sentence. After that, when we’re all warmed up, we read longer pieces (usually no more than 1,500 words) for a constructive critique from the rest of the group. It is through this exercise that I’ve found a lot of my learning has come about and even my listening ear has greatly improved.

I always come away from the meetings with a real buzz in my head and life in my limbs; longing to get back to my computer so I can keep banging away at the latest WIP.

Open days and full days out are also scattered through the course of the year, though if you fancy just popping in to see what we’re about, then we’re always thrilled to see new faces. J

I’m Leah, by the way, though I don’t write under that name. You’ll find me, instead, writing under the pseudonym Ileandra Young. I’ve been scribbling down stories since I was about 14 years old and now at 27 I’ve spent the last few years working towards doing so for publication. I write high and urban fantasy and have occasionally dipped into comedy and horror. A recurring guilty pleasure is the occasional piece of erotic short fiction, which I’ll probably play with a little more when I need a break from fantasy (though the pair do sometimes get jumbled up in my mind!).

I also blog on a regular basis; a three day posting schedule that covers blogging topics from writing, to my latest WIPs to how many times I saw my stomach move the night before (I’m pregnant you see; first time and giddy as a kite with excitement). It does keep me on my toes and on days when I just can’t get into my WIP, the blog is a nice release and a brilliant change of pace.

This blog, for the Phoenix Writers will update monthly with a post from a different member of the group each month. You’ll get to learn a little about each of us as the months go by and there will also be short profiles as well as a page of links. These links will range from sites of interests to blogs belonging to our members.

I hope what you see encourages you to join us; we really are an harmless bunch and any chance to get to know more writers from across Leicester and beyond will only make the group stronger!

Ciao for now!