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
This year’s big success story was the anthology All Tomorrow’s Futures: Fictions that Disrupt, published by Cybersalon and edited by a team that included Chalk Scribblers Wendy Grossman, Stephen Oram and Eva Pascoe.
Available in hardback, paperback and kindle from Amazon.
Reviewed by Mary Branscombe in Vector.
It contains stories from no less than six Chalk Scribblers members:
Alex Buxton contributed:
- Update Needed
DJ Cockburn contributed:
- Milton Friedman’s Heresy
Wendy Grossman contributed:
- ELIJAH
- Heritage
Stephen Oram contributed:
- Ego Statistical
- See Me
Eva Pascoe contributed:
- Swipe Right
- Journey to Brindisfarne Abbey
Prashant Vaze contributed:
- Daylight Robbery
Other publications by Chalk Scribblers this year were:
Hugh McCormack saw his debut fiction publication:
- The Tome of the Watermelon Harvest appeared in the winter 2024 Dragon Gems anthology.
Stephen Oram found some time to do something other than work on All Tomorrow’s Futures:
- Is the Future of Justice Free, Fair, and Flawless? is an article published in the British Science Fiction Association’s Focus magazine as part of their ‘The Shape of Things to Come’ series.
Reaghan Reilly graduated with an MLitt in creative writing from Glasgow University.
Ana Sun continues her run of success in the world of short fiction:
- The Perpetual Metamorphosis of Primrose Close is a novelette that was published in issue 11 of Parsec.
- Night Fowls was published in World Weaver Press’s Solarpunk Creatures anthology.
- Anatomy of Emotion – The Carving of Chance – Seize the Moon was published in Luna Press’s Utopia of Us anthology.
- A Book of Architecture and Other Music appeared in Air and Nothingness Press’s Fathoms in the Earth anthology.
- This God's Request is Off the Menu appeared in the Inter Librarian Loan (vol. 2) anthology, also by Air and Nothingness.
- A Spell for Stardust was published in New Mythologies in Space, a limited edition newsletter by Flame Tree Press for the 2024 WorldCon in Glasgow and is available online.
Prashant Vaze has had a successful year in both fiction and non-fiction. In addition to his publication in All Tomorrow’s Futures mentioned above, his other 2024 credits were:
- The Food Fighters was published by Anthropocene Magazine as part of their Climate Parables series.
- For the Common Good appeared in the Stories from the Microbial World anthology, published by Habitat Press.
- You Never Give Me Your Money – Funding the Energy Transition in the Global South is a non-fiction article published by the Greenhouse Think Tank.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Chalk Scribblers meet the publisher: Jaded IbisLink visible for attendees
Jaded Ibis is a US-based independent press that publishes fiction and non-fiction of all lengths on the general theme of social justice. Most of the editorial team are authors in their own right, and the speakers will be reading from their own work as well as talking about Jaded Ibis.
The speakers are:
Carmen Peters is the production and marketing manager. Her short fiction has been published in the anthologies and Carmen will be reading from her short story Preservation which was published in Spoon Knife 7: Transitions.
· Carmen’s website: https://www.carmenslibrary.com/
· Carmen on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19849677.Carmen_Peters
· Spoon Knife 7: Transitions at Shopify: https://autonomous-press.myshopify.com/products/spoon-knife-7-transitionsElizabeth Earley is the president of the board of directors. She is the author of the novels Like Wings, Your Hands and Lambda Literary Award finalist A Map of Everything. She will be reading from her forthcoming essay collection, Little Deaths All in a Row: Essays on Sex and Death.
· Elizabeth’s website: https://elearley.com/
· Elizabeth on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7834458.Elizabeth_Earley
· Little Deaths All in a Row is available for preorder: https://bookshop.org/p/books/little-deaths-all-in-a-row-essays-on-sex-and-death-elizabeth-earley/915ae2ced26ffe09Although 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.
Relevant links:
· Jaded Ibis: https://jadedibispress.com/
· Jaded Ibis on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jadedibispress.bsky.social - Chalk Scribblers meet the publisher: NewCon PressLink visible for attendees
Ian Whates founded NewCon Press in 2006 and since then, he’s built it into one of Britain’s leading independent publishers that focuses on the speculative genres.
NewCon’s author list includes luminaries such as Stephen Baxter, Lauren Beukes, Nancy Kress, Ken MacLeod, Paul McAuley, China Miéville, Geoff Ryman, former Chalk Scribblers speakers Nina Allan and EJ Swift and Guardians of the Galaxy creator Dan Abnett. While most of NewCon’s publications are novels, they also call for novellas and shorter works for their anthologies including the annual Best of British Science Fiction series that compiles some of the best stories by UK-based authors every year.
Ian is a prolific author in his own right with ten novels, two novellas and around 80 short stories to his name, as well as having edited around 40 anthologies. He frequently appears in award shortlists including:
- Winner of the British Fantasy Society’s 2019 Karl Edward Wagner Award for ‘important contribution to the genre or the Society’.
- Shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award three times.
- Shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Award three times.
Ian will be sharing the insights he’s gleaned from his life in writing and publishing, as well as answering any and all questions from the audience.
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:
Newcon: http://www.newconpress.co.uk/
