What we’re about
Welcome to the Chalk Scribblers.
We’re an international online group, and occasionally a rabble, of writers working on improving our skills. We run two types of activity to help each other achieve that:
Our core activity is our Saturday critique workshop. Once a week, we get together to discuss a story or part of a larger work that one of us has written. We exchange our opinions in a frank but constructive way that helps to develop not only the work being discussed but also the writing skills of the people giving and receiving the critique.
Our speaker events usually happen on Wednesday evenings, although they’re often subject to when the speaker can make it. The format is that we ask people who can tell us something about writing and publishing that we don’t know. Sometimes they’re authors, sometimes they’re publishing professionals, sometimes they’re people with expertise that can come in useful for writers and sometimes they’re our own members whose successes we want to celebrate.
Most of our events are free to join although some of our speaker events have cover charges that go toward our overheads.
Our members cover a broad range of fiction, creative non-fiction and screenwriting. However, we’re not the best group for poetry, songwriting and game writing.
Our activities are based on reciprocity between peers. If you’re looking for something more structured, we suggest the Indie Novella 9-week course which runs three times per year: https://www.indienovella.co.uk/writing-course
The group’s organisational structure is described here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WuhkZbzYRSTnS8URRx0SVKnwbpl0Fw9KZ-Q1uSEC2s0/edit?usp=sharing
If you’d like to see what it’s all about, sign up for an event and jump in.
Follow us on Twitter at @ChalkScribes
Follow us on Bluesky at @chalkscribblers.bsky.social
Publications by Chalk Scribblers in 2023
Angela Kay Austin’s Hey Mom and Pop was published in The Local Voices Project, an anthology of stories by East London-based authors exploring the effect of London on their identity. Published by Indie Novella: https://www.indienovella.co.uk/product-page/the-local-voices-project
DJ Cockburn had three stories published this year:
· Escher’s Siren is a dark flash fiction published by IZ Digital. Available online: https://interzone.digital/eschers-siren/
· Denisovan Harmony is a novelette-length chapbook published by Paper Angel’s speculative science fiction and fantasy imprint, Water Dragon: https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product/denisovan-harmony/
· Fortune of the Téméraire is a short story in Uncanny and Unearthly Tales, an anthology of otherworldly stories published by Grendel Press: https://grendelpress.com/product/uncanny-unearthly-tales/
David Miles’s popular science / medical history book, How Vaccines Work, published by the Little, Brown imprint Piatkus: https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/david-miles-2/how-vaccines-work/9780349428901/
Stephen Oram had two stories and a book-length collection published this year:
· Long Live the Strawberries of Finsbury Park first appeared last year and has been reprinted in the Best of British Science Fiction 2022 anthology, published by Newcon: http://www.newconpress.co.uk/info/book.asp?id=227
· In the Lap of the Synth appeared in Mapping the Posthuman, an anthology themed on posthuman myths of multispecies flourishing. Published by Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Mapping-the-Posthuman/Hamilton-Lau/p/book/9781032334615#
· The book is Stephen’s short story collection, Extracting Humanity and Other Stories, published by Orchid’s Lantern: https://orchidslantern.square.site/product/extracting-humanity-and-other-stories-by-stephen-oram/45?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false
Ana Sun had a particularly good year with her stories and related articles appearing all over the short fiction landscape:
· Her article on the subgenre of solarpunk, Write the Future You Want to Live In, is available online at DreamForge: https://dreamforge.mywebportal.app/dreamforge/stories/show/write-the-future-you-want-to-live-in-ana-sun
· The Scent of Green is in Fighting for the Future: Cyberpunk and Solarpunk Tales, an anthology published by Android Press: https://www.android-press.com/product-page/fighting-for-the-future-cyberpunk-and-solarpunk-tales-paperback
· The City Walks Through Me is in The Dérive, an anthology of stories themed on the title which refers to an unplanned journey through an urban landscape. Published by Air and Nothingness Press: http://aanpress.com/aanorder.html#derive
· Welcome to Your Satchel 3001-Librarian's Specialist Model is in The Librarian Card Catalogue, an anthology in the form of a deck of cards that’s part of Air and Nothingness Press’s ongoing series about a multiverse-spanning librarian and their sarcastic satchel: http://aanpress.com/aanorder.html#tlcc
· Shadow Among the Leaves appears in Solarpunk Magazine’s ‘all-BIPOC’ issue 10: https://solarpunkmagazine.com/shop/solarpunk-magazine-issue-10/
· Soul Noodles in The Bright Mirror is in The Bright Mirror: Women of Global Solarpunk anthology published by Fantastic Fiction: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/v/francesco-verso/bright-mirror.htm
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Chalk Scribblers meet the author: Amina AkhtarLink visible for attendees
Amina Akhtar is a former fashion editor who broke into mystery writing with a novel about fashion editors stalking each other. Since #FashionVictim was published in 2018, Amina has had two more novels published and is now a full time author living in Arizona.
She’ll open with a reading from her latest novel, Almost Surely Dead, and will be answering any and all questions about her novels and her experience of writing and publishing more generally.
Although there is no charge for the session, there is an attendee limit so if you find you can't make it, please remember to change your RSVP so someone else can take your place.
Useful links:
Amina’s website: https://www.aminaakhtar.work/
Amina on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Drrramina
Amina on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/amina.bsky.social
Amina’s books from independent retailers: https://uk.bookshop.org/search?keywords=amina+akhtar
Article in LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2024-01-30/almost-surely-dead-amina-akhtar-mindy-kaling - Chalk Scribblers anthology panel: Dragon Gems 2024Link visible for attendees
The Dragon Gems quarterly anthology series is published by the US-based independent publisher, Water Dragon Publishing, under their short fiction program called Dragon Gems. Our panel will be talking about the winter 2024 edition (https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product/dragon-gems-winter-2024/).
From left to right, our panellists will be:
Hugh McCormack is a Chalk Scribblers member whose debut short fiction publication, The Tome of the Watermelon Harvest, appears in the winter 2024 Dragon Gems anthology.
Steven Radecki is the managing editor of Water Dragon Publishing and also the editor of the Dragon Gems anthologies.
Water Dragon Publishing home page: https://waterdragonpublishing.com/
Water Dragon Publishing on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WaterDragonPub
Steven on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SFWriter13DJ Cockburn (David) will chair the session. He is also an author of speculative short fiction that has been published by Dragon Gems, although not in the anthology we’ll be discussing.
David’s website: https://cockburndj.wordpress.com/
David on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DJ_CockburnRichard Zwicker is a prolific author of short fiction including Sandstorm in the Hourglass, which is published in the winter 2024 Dragon Gems anthology.
Richard’s website: https://rzwicker56.wixsite.com/my-site-1We’ll be hearing readings from Hugh’s and Rich’s stories and we’ll discuss those stories, the process of editing the anthology and anything else about writing and publishing that the audience would like to ask about.
Water Dragon has made all their anthologies available from their Squarespace store in hardcover or paperback (https://water-dragon-publishing.square.site/chalk-scribblers). There are discounted bundles and we’ve been offered a Chalk Scribblers discount on single purchases. Please message David, the event host with the giraffe avatar, for the discount code.
Digital copies are available from the publishers linked from the anthology’s page: https://waterdragonpublishing.com/product/dragon-gems-winter-2024/
Although there is no charge for the session, there is an attendee limit so if you find you can't make it, please remember to change your RSVP so someone else can take your place.
