Some News form Café at The Edge, Brixham

The Cafe@TheEdge is a great example of a Creative Café. It  hosts regular Open Mic evenings and would soon like to start a writing group. Anyone interested in helping them? Contact us if so.

Here are some of their recent events:

June 2011
Student art from Brixham College

July 2011
Open Mic

Felting

Games

August 2011
Open Mic

Pirate Biscuit Challenge –what a fascinating idea – more details please.

Felting

September 2011
Open Mic

Book Club

 Felting

Devon Open Studio

October 2011
Open Mic

Felting

 Music Club

Book Club

Karaoke

Dichroic glass workshop

Activities during Monster Mash

November 2011
Open Mic

Pre-Christmas Craft Fest

 Book Club

Felting

Monster Craft Session to prepare for Xmas Market

December 2011
Open Mic

Craft Tables constantly resupplied during Grotto Felting

January 2012
Open Mic

Regular Weekly Craft Sessions

February 2012
Regular Weekly Craft Sessions

Seeds of The Edge as Art Award Centre

March 2012
Open Mic

Regular Weekly Craft Sessions

Art Awards launches

I think we all have to admit that Café@TheEdge is one proactive Creative Café.  Do go and visit them if you live nearby or take a look at their web site.

Do you know a café that works like this or could be persuaded to do so? Do contact us if so.  

2012 Flash Fiction CaféLit Calendar

We’re looking for pieces of Flash Fiction 250 works max, associated with a month of the year and a drink.  If the work is good we’ll publish it anyway in our on-line magazine. The best piece of flash fiction each month will go into the calendar. Profit from the calendar will be shared 50% between authors/ artists  / editors  and the Creative Café Project.

Please submit Flash Fiction to editor@creativecafeproject.co.uk . Please put name of story, month and drink in the subject line.   

If you are an artist and would like to send a picture for a particular month, we’ll use that as prompt for the Flash Fiction for that month. If we like your picture, you’re guaranteed to be in the calendar. Pictures should be 72 dpi, 250 x 250 or 300 X 300, jpeg format. They may be illustrations or photos.  Send your pictures to admin@creativecafeproject.co.uk

Even if your piece of Flash Fiction is not used for the calendar, it may still be eligible for The Best of CaféLit 2012.

Please send Flash Fiction by the following dates. Keep your eye on the Creative Café Web Site for picture prompts.

January by 29 February

February by 15 March

March by 31 March

April by 15 April

May by 30 April

June by 15 May

July by 31 May

August by 15 June

September by 30 June

October by 15 July

November by 31 July

December by 15 August

The Best of Cafelit 2011 and Supporting the Project

The Best of CaféLit 2011

This is available now. We’re rather pleased about how smart it is and the stories are of course super. They’ve been vetted twice. The second time they were selected after being edited, so they’re of a good standard.      

Supporting the Creative Café project

Half of the profit from CaféLit goes to the Creative Café project. The other half goes to the authors and editors. Now, we’re not expecting to sell millions, but, of course, you never know. 

If you want to help the project anyway there are various things you could do:

·         Buy a copy of CaféLit -the Kindle version is out now, the hard copy will be available form Amazon shortly. Remember, if you’re an author you can buy hard copies at a discount - minimum order five.  Contact us to get a quote.

·         Make a donation via our Chip-in button.

·         Contribute a story to CaféLit

·         If you’re a writer, working as a Writer in Residence with a café on our list or one you know that we don’t know about – but please tell us about it!  

·         If you’re a café visitor, let us know here about other cafés that should be in the project.   
   

The Janus Report for the Creative Café 2011 / 2012

2011 has seen a handful of new cafes come into the project but even more importantly there are another half dozen people out there looking for and managing to identify them. Several writers are getting interested and I’ve spoken to quite a few about setting up as a writer in residence in a café.  The most popular ideas are:

·         Running a creative writing workshop

·         Holding a creative writing clinic

·         Just writing

·         Selling and signing books

Unfortunately we didn’t get the funding we applied for but some of the writers and cafes have found innovative ways around that.   

I’ve actually enjoyed visiting one or two new cafés and chatting to the owners / managers about the project.  

CaféLit is trundling along nicely and bringing in come good stories. I’ve almost finished the copy edit on The Best of 2011 and although I’d read all of the stories before, I certainly enjoyed reading them again.  I think we achieved what we set out to do – provide stories that go with a cuppa in a café. I’m delighted with how well the drinks match the texts.  So thanks go to Debz Hobbs-Wyatt for her excellent editing.   

For 2012 I’m keen to get more cafés, writers and other creative practitioners involved. I’m keen to get CaféLit into the cafés.  I’m toying with story cards and story pamphlets also. I’m hoping to fund this by selling advertising. Also, I’d like to send attractive notices to the cafés alerting customers to the Kindle version of The Best of and to the online versions.  

I’ve started a Chip-in campaign to raise funds to cover the cost of having a logo designed and getting some stationery printed. Gradually, we’ll start producing merchandise that the cafés and their customers can buy.               

Why I’m involved in Creative Cafes

I’m just such a sucker for cafés. It’s almost a default activity. Even though I no longer dare drink coffee other than the one I have first thing with breakfast. I’m tending these days to go for the pot of Earl Grey.  

I almost use a café visit as an artist’s treat or maybe as a reward for having achieved something:  picked up a royalty cheque, completed a project or had a piece of work or a project accepted.  Then, of course, I’m allowed to try the cake as well.  As a celebration.

Yet there is more to it than that.  Being in a café feels to me as if it puts me in contact with my readership. I don’t often write in cafés – I like to write straight on to the computer.  But I do make notes and I enjoy reading other people’s work in cafes.  I often find a café the best place to critique other people’s work.  I like to sit with a pencil in my hand and write straight on to their scripts, even though they stand more chance of being able to read what I say if I do it in Word and use Track Changes.

I still dream of spending an afternoon in café – maybe getting on with my writing, chatting to other people about theirs and collecting stories, maybe even signing and selling a few books.  Over and above that, of course, you can collect characters and ideas in cafés and they are good antidotes to the loneliness that most writers feel.           

Time for Tea, Prestwich

Yet another wonderful find.  Time for Tea was pointed out to me by a colleague who posted a comment on my blog after I’d posted a comment on the VC’s blog at the University of Salford, where I work.  Ah, the joy of social media!

I actually drive past this pretty establishment every day I go to the office. I’ve often thought it looked quite cute.

Yet it is far more than that.

On Friday I arrived early. I’d arranged to meet a friend there. She said “What about a coffee?”  earlier in the week and I’d said “What about helping me to check out this new café?”   

So there I was at ten to three ordering a pot of tea.  And what a pot it was! A proper china one. The amount of tea reminded me of returning form a day of teaching and my late father making a whole pot of his special brew which I would consume before settling down to  some marking and / or lesson prep.  In Time for Tea you get a little jug of milk and a separate pot of hot water.  

Once my friend arrived, we ordered more tea and some of the homemade cake.  It all lived up to expectation. Much nicer than the big chains!

The colleague who’d recommended it said how tranquil it feels. I’d doubted that as it is situated on the busy A56. But she was absolutely right. You feel detached form the big city when you’re in there.  You are back in the world of lace tablecloths and waitresses in black and white.

But how creative is it?

It works. There are books that the lone customer can take down from the shelf and read.  Once a week, a journalist spends a couple of hours there collecting stories for her local newspaper.  So they already had a writer in residence. They also do tea parties for £7.00 a head- minimum number 15, maximum 25. I’ve already decided to hold a “literary salon” there in the New Year.  There will be readings of poetry and short stories and a chance to buy signed copies of books.  There will be sandwiches, cake, tea and coffee, and a glass of wine.

Definitely worth a visit!     

Time for Tea         

Why cafés work for writers

You see it so often, writers sitting in cafés with either a notebook or a lap top in front of them. Many writers confess to regularly writing in cafés. Natalie Goldberg recommends it.   Why and how does it work?

Part of the answer may be that writers finding themselves alone in cafés may well spend the time there writing. Why not? We have to make the most of every opportunity, don’t we?  

Also, a café full of people is a place to find good ideas. People- watching is really important for writers.  

A third, slightly less obvious reason, is that it combats the writer’s sense of isolation.  They are sitting there, out in the world, so they no longer have to worry about what is happening in the world.  That part of their brain is satisfied so the rest of it can concentrate on the writing.  

Cafés do provide a nice atmosphere to work in. There’s the soothing mumble of voices, the smell and the taste of the coffee, the swoosh of the coffee machines and the temptation of the pretty cakes – even if you resist sampling them it’s nice to know they’re there.   

I personally don’t often write in a café but I do revise and I do make notes there. When I attend the SCBWI critique group in Manchester, I get into town early and sit in Druckers with a pile of manuscripts, a pot of Earl Grey and a slice of traditional apple cake and portion of ice cream.  For the Chester group I use the crypt café in the cathedral. It is soothing knowing the world is there.    

I remember having lunch in a little café in the south of France once. There was a writer at the next table, lunching alone, and between mouthfuls jotting down lines of poetry. It seemed he needed the people around him - and the food and drink – in order to be able to write.

Once when I was jotting down a few notes in a café the anxious owner hovered around, asking if everything was all right and whether I needed another coffee.  I’m sure he thought I was writing about his café.

Writers have met and written in cafés for years.  Musing by Moonlight sums this up nicely.